Usually, we try and get a library card at the towns we are staying at for an extended amount of time. It has never been a problem for us. For some reason, this particular area in Texas requires you to have an address within the county to lease books. I called surrounding libraries and they too had the same policy. Trying not to get upset I told them we have been traveling around the country for 3 years now and have never had a library with this kind of requirement. They continued to tell me unless I had a bill or lease agreement stating I lived within the county they could not lease to us. So, I got to thinking and remembered we did sign somewhat of a "long-term agreement" at our RV park. I quickly drove to the park and asked if they could copy that agreement write the address somewhere on the paper and brought it back. The library then accepted this as proof, and we got our cards!
Seems silly to make such a big deal about something most people don't even take advantage of. Our weekly trips to the library will hopefully become memories our children reminisce about which brings joyous feelings. It is equivalent to my childhood when on Fridays, after school, we would go as a family to blockbuster and pick out movies for our weekend. We'd run and see what was in the new releases, and you better remember to rewind the VHS tapes to avoid that extra charge. Something our children will never experience. This weekly trip at the time didn't seem important, but weeknights would be spent as a family watching movies. Most were politically incorrect or maybe something we shouldn't have watched at our age. But look at us now, slightly dysfunctional but still can hold a sense of dark humor. We have no idea if libraries will be around in the future. Maybe the girls will be raising children of their own and tell stories of how they used to borrow books from a building that held thousands of books of any genre and that you had to return them, just as Tyler and I tell them our stories of our blockbuster evenings. By the way, the whole returning of the books thing still confuses the girls, every time they fuss about the whole idea " but we have to bring them back?"
Trips to the library give them more than just memories of going and picking out books; but the books they read give them a glimpse into something greater as well. I finally came to an agreement with RaeLynn about her obsession with historical/biographical books. For every Who HQ book she reads, she is required to read a book of another genre. Last week was her first time reading something other than her favorite Who series, she enjoyed the book so much we went back for the second book of this series. The first one was about the brother and sister rescuing baby skunks...what could go wrong? She loved it so much. This week she is reading "Who was Stan Lee" and we have all enjoyed hearing all the tidbits of information she retains about each iconic person. I picked up the first little house on the prairie book and now am on to the second one "Farmers Boy, " about Laura Ingalls Wilder's husbands' life. I'm sure I read these in elementary, but I do not recall, and the series is continuously in top 20 books to read.
Marlie has been reading a series of short stories about Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa. She usually devours them before we even get home from our trip to the library. She also picked up a book about Ranger, who is a golden retriever that time travels and has different adventures, the first book is about the Oregon Trail. Alice usually picks out a seek and find book since she is not reading quite yet, though we've had some breakthrough this week in her school with phonics. I have also been renting Beatrix Potter's books about all the sweet woodland animals for her. I thoroughly enjoy seeing the illustrations since I have a cross-stitched blanket my grandmother hand-made me when I was a baby with all the Beatrix Potter animals. Fun side note: I REALLY wanted to name Alice, Beatrix but Tyler wasn't having it.
We also checked out a book that discussed the Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in honor of his birthday. RaeLynn asked who he was and so this was a perfect opportunity to discuss such a sensitive topic. They also got to watch his " I have a dream" speech, and after they wrote a short paragraph on what their dream would be to make America better. RaeLynn created a plan to keep people from littering, which entailed spreading the knowledge of the effects trash has on our Earth as well as weekly community service from all citizens to pick up litter for one hour. Marlei felt that if everyone knew God it would make our country greater, which of course made us happy parents to hear those words. I'm not going to lie; they did NOT willingly write these papers and it took an incredible amount of encouragement and guidance. Alice refused to participate even though I gave her the option to simply color a picture of what would make America great. I did not pick their "dreams", but I did help them brainstorm and give them ideas on how to make these things possible. This is a skill we haven't hit on much in school, but I am hoping to start doing daily brainstorming/short story activities to help build strong comprehension skills.
I hope everyone is continuing to accomplish their new year's resolutions and are enjoying this new year of 2022! I'm super proud of myself as I have been striving to become more balanced with my daily routine. I've actually posted several Sundays in a row!!! Look at that consistency guys!!! The main achievement I have not quite conquered yet is waking up early. Though I wake up one minute before my alarm every morning I tend to quickly dismiss it and either lay there awake trying to convince myself I don't have to pee or I roll over and go back to sleep. Either way, it's the thought that counts right? I hope you all have accomplished some tiny little victory today. If not, try and think of something you'd like to change and start working on it! Self-improvement is such a gratifying "quest" in life. Elon Musk didn't get where he is today by simply being comfortable with getting older every day without contributing anything to life.