Want to be five again?

I'm really happy with my grown up life, but this place was so cool that for a couple minutes I wanted to be five again.  It is the "storyville" at a local library.  And can you believe, it is "free"?  It has a store, house, forest, bus, construction zone, post office, and theater.  All with costumes and props.  So much detail.  The house had a window box with flowers that grew when you turned the crank.  Play money in the cash registers, a play washing machine with laundry in the house.  Every detail you could imagine to make it realistic.  It wasn't too crowded and the parents were engaged with their children, not just on their phones ignoring them.  My only complaint is that you have to be five or under to play.  I understand why they do that, but the imagination isn't quite at the point to really appreciate the place.  A six, seven or eight year old (heck, I'm not going to lie, I probably would have wanted to play here at age twelve) could really enjoy acting out the different roles in a place like this. 

James and Libby LOVED it.  We'll definitely go back again. 

But a part of me can't help wondering, if we create it all so real for them, do they have to imagine at all?

Kind of like a quote from that Anne-girl (of Green Gables).  Something to the effect that gold gilded sunbursts and marble halls would be lovely, "but there's more scope for the imagination without them."

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Old things

I spent the day up at my parent's house yesterday.  I found some real treasures there while I was rooting around.  I found a scrapbook that my parents made together when they were dating.  It was awesome.  It includes their handwritten separate accounts of many of their first dates and college experiences.  It's full of nicknames they used to use for each other like "meathead" or "dingbat" or "cin cin".  It's full of receipts, cards, and brochures.  Like one from Hershey Park when admission was $3.50.  They loved to watch Archie, and they liked to get pizza.  And one year they crashed my dad's parents New Years party because my Dad's friends couldn't get dates and their party fell through.  My mom danced the polka with my pap-pap. Lots of great stuff in there. 

I also found a book of bible stories given to my Papa on his fourth birthday in 1933.  It has beautiful illustrations.  A real treasure.

I also found this pic of my grandparents.  They are on a railroad track and he has some sort of handgun in his hand.  They were just being playful.  Posing for a silly picture.  But somehow seeing them in their youth makes me feel like I can know them better.  Sorry I don't have more pics, I didn't have my camera with me.  But next time I will because I'm going to explore my great grandmother's trunk full of telegrams, pictures, and newspapers from WW2.

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Imagination

James is downstairs talking while I clean.  I hear the name of several transformers.  I go down to take a peak.  He has his Starscream action figure, but for the other characters he has substituted shampoo bottles and the picture of megatron on the DVD from the library.  I watch for a few minutes, thinking it is the coolest thing I've seen in a long time.  I remember for a couple minutes some of my own childhood games, and old friends...marker people, shrinking valley,a game wawa and I called "imagination" that we played with her music boxes.  I feel grateful and happy.

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NPR

I love listening to NPR. I just like to learn about all sorts of different things. I often hear something and think, "I need to tell Jer about that..." but then forget about it by the time he's home or I'm off work. Here are two tidbits I learned recently.

Yesterday: There are two different species of tree frog that look identical. The only difference between them is their number of chromosomes. A female of either of these species can detect a difference between the croaks of the male frogs and is only attracted to the croaks of the frogs whose chromosome count matches her own.

Today: The secret service will control every aspect of the president's trip abroad. Even at dinner at Buckingham Palace, the president will get a plate that looks identical to queen Elizabeth's plate, but the food will be purchased and prepared by secret service chefs. Interesting. I wonder if other Heads-of-State do the same thing when dining at the White House.

How we roll

Here we are on our morning jog.  Two miles with two kids is a workout:-)   I look ridiculous with the two of them sharing that stroller seat, but it doesn't matter.  I got a good workout and that's the whole point. I just want to be healthy.  It kind of reminds me of swimming with tights on, and four layers of bathing suits, something I never realized I missed.  It was work, but it kept you going just imagining how you were going to fly once you took them off.

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Put me in coach!

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stuff

This is a random collection of a post.  We are engrossed in the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  They are written about her life on the American frontier, and are filled with adventure and hardship.  We read together every night.  Her American life was very different from mine.  I've been thinking a lot lately about liking where and when I live.  About being engaged in my surroundings and reaching out to those around me.

Another thing I've been thinking about is hording.  (This may seem unrelated, but wait, there is a connection.). There is a bit of hording in my family as there is somewhere in the families of almost all my friends.  A friend and I had a discussion about this and she thought it came from having a scarcity mentality in a world of overabundance.  I thought she put that well.  It is relatively easy to get stuff now.  Judging from the wildfire-like spread of self-storage units near us, our possessions have grown faster than the sizes of our homes. 

There is a passage in Little House where Ma puts the one decoration (a porcelain doll) on the mantle.  Or when they have to leave the home Pa just labored to build, and the garden they just finished planting to head off for a new land just dreaming about the taste of the vegetables and imagining the rabbits having a feast on them.  Or selling the cow they couldn't take, and knowing that meant no milk or butter.  (Especially hard for me to imagine).  That was a time of scarcity. 

But what is scarce for us now?; If we have this biological need to stockpile, what is in short demand now?  In Little House they have tons of passages exploring the plants and animals of the earth, sitting out under wide starry skies, listening to their father play the fiddle and sing.  Those things are probably rare now.  Not that I'm going to take up the fiddle, but it's given me something to think about. 

 

Also a few pics from Easter.

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