Nothing New Under the Sun

For those of us who dream of the Edwardian era in England with perambulators and personal maids and tea time and all those romantical things, it helps to hear that mothers during that era had at least one struggle in common with the modern day mother. Read on, gentle reader, with your best English accent....


Disobedience
by A. A. Milne

James James
Morrison Morrison
Weatherby George Dupree
Took great
Care of his Mother,
Though he was only three.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he;
"You must never go down to the end of the town,
if you don't go down with me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Put on a golden gown,
James James
Morrison's Mother
Drove to the end of the town.
James James
Morrison's Mother
Said to herself, said she:
"I can get right down to the end of the town and
be back in time for tea."

King John
Put up a notice
"LOST or STOLEN or STRAYED!
JAMES JAMES
MORRISON'S MOTHER
SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN MISLAID.
LAST SEEN
WANDERING VAGUELY:
QUITE OF HER OWN ACCORD,
SHE TRIED TO GET DOWN TO THE END OF THE TOWN -
FORTY SHILLINGS REWARD!"

James James
Morrison Morrison
(Commonly known as Jim)
Told his
Other relations
Not to go blaming him.
James James
Said to his Mother,
"Mother," he said, said he:
"You must never go down to the end of the town
without consulting me."

James James
Morrison's Mother
Hasn't been heard of since.
King John
Said he was sorry,
So did the Queen and Prince.
King John
(Somebody told me)
Said to a man he knew:
"If people go down to the end of the town, well,
what can anyone do?"

(Now then, very softly)

J. J.
M. M.
W. G. Du P.
Took great
C/o his M*****
Though he was only 3.
J. J.
Said to his M*****
"M*****," he said, said he:

"You-must-never-go-down-to-the-end-of-the-town-if-you-don't-go-down-with ME!"

1st Day of 1st Grade

Well, we survived, Joel and I. We survived our first day of First Grade (second go-round for me, obviously). Hhew, hhew, hhew.... It was pretty good. Of all the days to begin school on, I could have chosen better - far better, but hey, life is not going to stop just because school has started. We started off with the Aesop for Children. I was way impressed with Joel's narration. You could tell he was nervous about narrating because he used his pretend baby voice. The more he narrated, the less babyish he talked. After Aesop, Joel did his reading, then we did math. Parables from Nature was next and I was wondering what Joel was thinking of the story all the while. He asked about a zillion questions afterwards and seemed to really like the story. For writing I was anticipating a little resistance, so I asked Joel if he'd like to write out A. A. Milne's Bad Sir Brian Botany for his writing lesson, a little each day. He was SUPER excited, as that is his current favorite poem and has been for several months. So needless to say, the writing lesson today was great and his letters are looking very well. We began reading the Gospel of John for Bible.

So... that was today!

Along with playing at the nursing home, ironing day and group guitar lesson. Doesn't sound like much written down, but it was very much a full day.