Day 343

Alexa is quite active in our house. She is often fought over and/or used as a reward. She is actually not a she at all. For those unaware, Alexa is a speaker device that plays music upon request. She is utilized pretty much all the time. Besides this tool, we also have a few other mobile speakers that connect to our phones and provide entertainment options throughout the farm. If the kids are enjoying bath time, she will play their favorite songs and also be used as a timer to keep the kids moving along with their nightly routines. If I am doing dishes or taking a shower, I usually am blasting some hard rock or metal. If my wife is preparing or preserving food, Alexa is spitting out some of her favorite podcasts. Alexa does travel to the barn as well. She occasionally plays music for the chickens while I work on various projects.

It hasn't always been that way. When I first wanted music while I worked in the barn, I used my antique six disc changer. Eventually it bit the dust and I went musicless for a period of time. With music being so motivating, I couldn’t let that last for long. While I did use my phone a bit, volume was limited and battery was quickly drained so I opted to use the online speaker my lovely wife gifted to me. Let’s just hope the chickens enjoy loud guitars and drums.

Having Alexa is great, but it can be contentious at times. The kids often bicker over who gets to select what song. For  a while, the bickering was limited to the two girls but once Arden’s speech matured enough to where he could be intelligible, he quickly joined the fray. At my school, I told our speech therapist that a possible assessment to see if kids were eligible for speech therapy might be to have them talk to Alexa and she if she understands. While initially being a joke, it might actually work. He hasn't quite figured out how to responsibly take turns so once he feels the need to hear a song, he’s yelling at Alexa.

Very loudly.