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What songs do you sing to your little heathens for bedtime?

I thought it would be fun to discuss what songs we sing for bedtime. Why? And possibly share lyrics.

My littlest heathen loves it when I sing Mother Earth and Father Time from Charlotte's Web. I love singing it because of it's message. The appreciation of being a part of this short life in this amazing universe is so important to me now. While I was trying to cling on to the remainder of my deist/pantheist beliefs , whatever they were supposed to be, I started singing it. I always thought it a beautiful song, but as I got into the habit of singing it every night the words began to sink in. It reminded me that I need to enjoy every moment while I can. bc life is so very short. Something that's so simple, yet it's easily forgotten.

The Lyrics:

How very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life’s eternal rhyme
How very special are we
To have on our family tree
Mother Earth and Father Time
He turns the seasons around
And so she changes her gown
But they always look in their prime
They go on dancing their dance
Of every lasting romance
Mother Earth and Father Time
The summer larks return to sing
Oh what a gift they give
Then autumn days grow short and cold
Oh what a joy to live
How very special are we
For just a moment to be
Part of life’s eternal rhyme
How very special are we
To have on our family tree
Mother Earth and Father Time

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 26, 2010 at 3:29pm

Thanx I'll have to look for those.

Permalink Reply by Ann on June 23, 2010 at 12:23pm

I used to sing Brahms's Lullaby, Smile and some swingy Estonian songs to my kids when they were small. As soon as they learned to speak, they told me not to. :-/

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 23, 2010 at 11:15pm

Don't feel bad my oldest did the same thing to me. :-)

Permalink Reply by Leilani on June 23, 2010 at 9:36pm

I sing "Take Me Home Country Roads" by John Denver, "Cailin" by Unwritten Law (I have two little girls)

"Annie's Song" by John Denver

You fill up my senses
Like a night in the forest
Like the mountains in Spring time
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You feel up my senses
Come fill me again

Come let me love you
Let me give my life to you
Let me drown in your laughter
let me die in your arms
Let me lay down beside you
Let me always be with you
Come let me love you
Come love me again

You fill up my senses
Like a night in the forest
Like the mountains in Spring time
Like a walk in the rain
Like a storm in the desert
Like a sleepy blue ocean
You fill up my senses
Come fill me again.

I love it because it covers a lot of the different aspects of nature and love.

"Not Perfect" by Tim Minchin

This is my Earth
And I live in it
It’s one third dirt
And two thirds water
And it rotates and revolves through space
At rather an impressive pace
And never even messes up my hair
And here’s the really weird thing
The force created by its spin
Is the force that stops the chaos flooding in

This is my Earth
And it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine
It’s not perfect

This is my country
And I live in it
It’s pretty big
And nice to walk on And the bloke who runs my country
Has built a demagoguery
And taught us to be fearful and boring
And the weirdest thing is that he is
Conservative of politics
But really rather radical of eyebrow

This is my country
And it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine
It’s not perfect

This is my house
And I live in it
It’s made of cracks
And photographs
We rent it off a guy who bought it from a guy
Who bought it from a guy
Whose granddad left it to him
And the weirdest thing is that this house
Has locks to keep the baddies out
But they’re mostly used to lock ourselves in

This is my house
And it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine
It’s not perfect
But it's mine

This is my body
And I live in it
It’s 31
And 6 months old
It’s changed a lot since it was new
It’s done stuff it wasn’t built to do
I often try to fill it up with wine
And the weirdest thing about it is
I spend so much time hating it
But it never says a bad word about me

This is my body
And it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine
It’s not perfect

This is my brain
And I live in it
It’s made of love
And bad song lyrics
It’s tucked away behind my eyes
Where all my screwed up thoughts can hide
Cause god forbid I hurt somebody
And the weirdest thing about a mind
Is that every answer that you find
Is the basis of a brand new cliché

This is my brain
And it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine
It’s not perfect
I’m not quite sure I’ve worked out how to work it
It’s not perfect
But it’s mine

LOVE Tim Minchin

I used to be Mormon, so I sing some Sunday School primary songs but take out god if I need to... like "Popcorn popping on the apricot tree" or "I am like a star shining brightly" or "I know Heavenly Father Loves Me" (I change that to Mother Nature...)

I love to sing to my little girls. They love to sing with me until they fall asleep.

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 23, 2010 at 11:58pm

Never heard Tim Minchin b4. caught some things on Utube pretty funny thanks for mentioning him but I don't think I'll be singing many of his songs around my youngin's any time soon. :-)

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 24, 2010 at 4:03pm

Thanks for sharing. Your right I was just listening to it my little one sitting in my lap curled up and nearly dozed off. I got a few giggles and teared up a little. Excellent song but the idea of drinking wine outside during Christmas is such an odd concept.

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 25, 2010 at 7:40am

Well it was an Aussie who said it not me. ;-) I always assumed beer would be the drink of choice, I know it's mine. I'm from the Midwest US and our Christmases almost always require a heavy winter coat. And there have been plenty that the thought of being outside longer than it takes to get to and from the car was all we could consider. Granted it's not as bad as say the Arctic or Antarctica. But unless global warming really does a number on our winters (they actually seem to be getting worse. A lot more bitter cold & less snow.) BBQ's and such are not what the typical Midwesterner would consider Christmas/Winter holiday activity. :-)
Do you guys get snow anywhere down there? I'm not really certain of your topography or climate. So other than Ayers Rock my mental image of Australia is flat lands some rolling hills and mostly desert. Along the coasts is a bit greener but that's about all I know.

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 25, 2010 at 1:18pm

Yeah, it's kind of like someone living 15 time zones away. When you call them you have to think about it not only being another time of day but it can be a different day all together. But the flip-flopped seasons is on a much grander scale.
This age of transport and communications certainly puts things in a different perspective.

Permalink Reply by Leilani on June 25, 2010 at 10:11am

I was born and raised in Southern California and Christmas Day was often spent outside in the sun playing with our new toys.

But now that I live in Indiana, I can totally understand what you mean.

The first time I heard the song, I sobbed. My husband thinks I am crazy, but nothing makes me cry like the thought of my children growing up. I am tearing up just thinking about it. GOO! :)

Permalink Reply by Noh Name on June 25, 2010 at 12:35pm

Family is huge for me, on top of the idea of my babies growing up. Beautiful song either way I look at it.

Permalink Reply by Leilani on June 24, 2010 at 11:05am

The only two I sing to my girls are "Not Perfect" and "White Wine in the Sun" (Christmas song). The rest of his work is quite graphic... I LOVE his beat poem "Storm".

Permalink Reply by Leilani on June 24, 2010 at 1:09pm

lol... no one warned me about The Pope Song... so I pushed play with my 2 yr old and 4 yr old in the room with me... I spent the rest of the day trying to get them to stop singing "F*ck the motherf*cker"... luckily when my husband got home, he understood that I didn't teach them that on purpose ;) (Even though I don't think he really cared either way.) That is a catchy song.

I wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons growing up. My two girls love The Simpsons, Family Guy and Futurama. I've even caught my husband watching South Park with them. They still prefer Max and Ruby, Ni Hao Kai Lan and Team Umi Zoomi, but they have actually learned more curse words from me than TV.

There is a video on youtube with Tim Minchin singing "Hallelujah" that melts me. The girl he sings it with has a great voice, but is a tad diva-ish. But it's still awesome. I haven't learned the words well enough to sing it at bedtime... you gotta love songs steeped so deep in mythology. ;)