Yesterday I took MK to the dentist for a check up. I love our dentist, mostly because my dear friend works there as the office manager. Whenever I take my kids (or myself) to the dentist I get to spend some quality time chatting with Nancy. Yesterday our conversation settled on books…books we’ve read, books we want to read, books we are currently reading. Nancy is deep into a book called “The Happiness Project.” She’s totally fired up about it. She reiterated some of the wisdom she is gaining from her reading. It certainly sounded intriguing.
This is not and exact quote, but she mentioned and idea from the book that has stuck in my mind since hearing it…
“It’s the things that you do everyday, rather than the things that you do just once in awhile, that matter most.”
That statement rings so true to me.
When I think back on my childhood, it’s really the memories of the ordinary, everyday that come back to me. Sure I remember the vacations, birthdays, girl’s camps, holidays, the once-in-awhile things too; but the happiest memories for me come from the simple things that happened on regular, ordinary days.
My boys have been begging me for months to take them to get their own library cards. I finally obliged and we have been making consistent trips there. Jonathan checked out “James and the Giant Peach” and I’ve been reading it to the boys, a little each night before they go to bed. This has been a pleasant exercise for all three of us. I love this time each night, reading with my boys. They snuggle up close, stick their bare feet under my legs and behind my back. The best part…they lay so still as they listen. This is a rare thing people!
I have vivid memories of my dad reading this same book to me when I was about the boy’s age. I received the book as a birthday gift from my neighbor, Denise. Each night dad would sit on my blue bed spread, in my Raggedy Ann and Andy room, and read to me. I’m sure I laid just as still as my boys. The memories of that reading are so clear. I’ve forgotten many stories that I’ve read or heard over the years, but not this one.
Except that my James looked like this…
Illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert
And the boy’s James looks like this….
Illustrations by Lane Smith
And my flying peach looked like this….
And theirs, like this….
But, the story is still beautifully the same. Still just as imaginative and just as delightful.
I’m lamenting the fact that we only have 6 chapters left, but after we finish we’ll move right on to the next Roald Dahl classic, and in my humble opinion the best Roald Dahl of all….
My boys are going to love this one.
*Funny…I mentioned to Nancy that I was reading “James and the Giant Peach” to the boys. She says that her children, mostly all grown and gone now, remember their grandma reading the same book to them when they were young. They each vividly remember the night she read the word nincompoop (it actually appears on page 89) and all of them laughing hysterically at grandma for saying such a word.
It really is the ordinary things we remember.
