There and Back Again

We finished. For the past few months I have been reading an illustrated version of The Hobbit to the kids. This is the second time we have attempted it so there was much rejoicing at our completion. It has been slow going and there have been periods of weeks where we read nothing. At one point I thought we were not going to finish again, but they kept asking me to read it to them. I have learned that it is best to stop reading before they get restless even if they don't want me to - one chapter at a time seemed to work best. Tonight we pushed it a little so we could get to the end and John was completely not interested. Of course he has fallen asleep several times during earlier readings and missed chunks of the story. Also if you haven't read The Hobbit in a long time you may have forgotten that the end really drags. Smaug is killed about 5 chapters from the end and everything after that is sort of boring if you're under 10. We made it though and while I have lost my patience with the audience a couple times I am happy to have shared this with them. It all started 5 years ago when I took Susan camping. We went for a hike and she asked me to tell her a story. Back then I used to make up short stories for the kids off the cuff. This time I wanted to go for a long hike and I didn't want to think too much so I told her the story of Bilbo Baggins. The next year we started in on the story of Frodo. I don't think we ever did finish my oral rendition of The Lord of the Rings, but we still look for elves whenever we go hiking.

I am thinking of sharing this blog with my sister. She and I are close or at least we used to be. I grew up as a military brat and we moved about every four years. To my parents credit we always moved in the summer between school years. When we would move Julie would often be the only person I would know until school started. I sometimes can't believe she and I grew up in the same house because we are so different, but we do understand each other. I remember that on 9/11 Julie was the person I wrote to about how it effected me because I knew she would understand. We've gone years almost without talking sometimes, but she is my sister. I didn't really mean for this to be a sappy entry about how I love my sister, but the thought of sending her the link for this blog crossed my mind. I am sure I will share this with others eventually despite my intentions. I just can't keep a secret even if it is my own.