Lest I Forget

This afternoon, while I was running an errand, I entrusted my husband with the task of re-reading "Leaf Man" to the kids and to then go on a leaf hunt so that we could make our own leaf creations. I caught up with them while they were out. I must admit that at first I just wanted to herd everyone home because, well because we hadn't done much schooling and I started to feel the pressure to get more done. But I had to tell myself to stop and let them explore and play and just deal with the fact that I was very chilled. I still have that little nagging voice telling me "you aren't doing enough", and I am trying to quash that voice and just celebrate whatever we accomplish. It is not an easy thing to do when the rest of the world is telling you just the opposite.

One of the first poems Jack studied this year is "The Children's Hour" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We came to the following stanza: They almost devour me with kisses, Their arms about me entwine, Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen In his Mouse Tower on the Rhine. We had to look up this reference because we live close to Bingen and well, a Mouse Tower just sounds interesting. After reading about it, we knew we wanted to go see it for ourselves. Imagine our surprise to discover that it is only a few hundred yards away from the museum where we learned about St. Hildegard of Bingen last year! The weather was cold and windy and we could not access the castle or the tower from where we were. We will have to revisit this site again when the weather is more agreeable. We actually started our day in Mainz, which is about 25 minutes away from Bingen. We went to the Gutenberg Museum. We paid the entrance fee, and the clerk told us that there was a live demonstration ...