A Day in the Life 26: These are the moments I live for

Today was our big shopping day. Rachel decided to join me on the trip to Sam’s Club and Target (Target sells Propel packets which is my husband’s addiction for $1.20 less than the only grocery store around here that carries it!)

In the car on the way there she asked me how segregation came about. Mind you I didn’t teach her about segregation–she had read about Ruby Bridges that morning on her own and wondered about it. This led to a long discussion about how slavery came about, about Great Britain’s Empire, Eugenics and evolution, family history, the fifties, the Ku Klux Klan, the civil war, and eventually into a discussion of the middle ages, Teutonic Knights, and the crusades. She wanted to learn more about the civil war so we added Eugenia Price’s books to our queue of read alouds–after we finish the Enchanted Forest series, The next two Madeline L’Engle books after a Wrinkle in Time–I don’t like Many Waters so we won’t read that one, and Gerald Morris’ Squire Tales which I just recently read and want to share (they have just enough magic with a hefty dose of the middle ages to make a nice transition into historical fiction –my kids like a bit of magic mixed in to make things palatable.) We decided that maybe we need to add another reading time to the day so we can get it all in–with her dyslexia reading for long times isn’t very comfortable for her but she adores listening to books. I had been planning on starting The Lord of the Rings trilogy after my list but we will see if I get a hold of some Eugenia Price as right now I only have one of the series.

It was a great conversation and she asked some very good questions (making me very glad I read a lot.:))

At Sam’s Club she decided that when she is older she needs to grow and make organic food stuffs with no preservatives to sell to people like her who couldn’t eat all that other stuff. With all the time she has spent cooking, building stores, and running businesses in play I wouldn’t be surprised if she managed it. (I guess I should mention that she spent most of the time in Sam’s Club comparing the prices to those at Aldi, “Let’s see if we buy the raw almonds at Aldi they are $3.00 for 8 oz but if we buy the roasted ones here they are 48 onces for $10…..”)

When we finished, got home, and put everything away we settled in to watch a movie. The kids had been asking about my copy of “Much Ado About Nothing” for a while so I watched it with them skipping a few bits that weren’t suitable and teaching them where to skip so they can watch again on their own. They LOVED it. I was amazed at how much they understood and were able to follow–though I did have to explain the bits I skipped so they understood the plot and they were perfectly happy not to sit through what they decided would be the boring bits anyway. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they loved it. First they knew Emma Thomson from “Sense and Sensibility” and Keanu Reaves they recently saw when we rented “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. I also have spent the last few years indoctrinating them into Shakespeare (my husband and I LOVE the comedies and Hamlet–hate the rest of the tragedies). We have read Lamb’s Shakespeare in part and they have listened to it on cd more than a few times. They also love Jane Austen films though I have not read any aloud to them. Anyway, I shouldn’t be surprised but I am thrilled. I love sharing my favorite movies with them and this is one of them. Now if I could just get a hold of my absolute favorite, “Twelfth Night”.

Boy do I love days like this.