This past week

This past week we have had some fun adventures and enlightenments. 

1.  AJP was featured in the school newsletter showing off his “All About Me” poster.  The children in the first grade did posters to celebrate culture week at the school.  He came up with the idea himself and only had gentle guiding by me.  One day, we were talking about it on the walk home from school.  I asked him what his idea was and he said, “I want to make a big American flag in the background.”  We talked more about it and he decided to use stars to tell about himself.  He was especially excited to use a picture of him in the snow for the portrait portion.

2.  This past week also marked Earth Day.  AJP has been especially aware of it since his school had a “Green Week” a few weeks ago.  On Earth Day, he made sure that we all wore colors of the earth.  He wore green and beige.  I wore black and brown.  BLP wore blue and white.  JTP wore varying shades of blue.  AJP ran around the house the whole day notifying us that is was indeed Earth Day.  An interesting thing related to this happened during his school’s “Green Week”.  His class was asked to write a letter to the Earth.  AJP wrote, “Dear Earth, I love you.  Why are you so ugly from all the trash? Love, AJP”.  Insightful, he is.

3.  I have been reading my grandparents life histories lately.  I found them very interesting.  The most interesting part is how much I relate to my grandfather.  My grandmother was so much more of a presence.  I was around her more, heard more of her stories and talked with her more so reading her history was not surprising.  However, my grandfather was often distant and never seemed to “visit much”.  I was surprised as I read my grandfather’s words, how much I saw of myself there.  I would often say, “Wow that is interesting that he recorded that.  I would have recorded something similar.”   I was also inspired by the magic of the mundane in his writing.  He would recount a trip he took and at the end note the mileage.  Somehow that little step demonstrated more of his personality than anything else he wrote.  He was a careful and detail oriented man.  He was reserved but often spoke about civic duties he had.  I never realized he was so involved in his community.  He served on civic and business boards which were community oriented.  He has inspired me to write about my life up to this point.  I think he would like that.