Last week, the girls and I abandoned ship - leaving Dada home alone so that our hardwood floors could be refinished. (I think there's an HGTV-style before-and-after blog post in that project... stay tuned.)
Our outpost for the week was my hometown, Bethany, Ill., population 1,322. Here's a photo snapped at the center of Main Street. Water towers are calling cards in sweet small towns like mine.
We had a wonderful trip - got to see my niece's show choir performance, took Great Grandpa for pancakes, met up with old friends, and visited Marrowbone Public Library.
If you tallied all of the hours I logged in this library building (below) as a child, it would probably add up to several calendar years.
So it was beyond precious to see my girls in this room...
Hitting these stacks...
I always love seeing what books my girls pick out. Here's the assortment they selected during our trip. The wonderful librarians at the Marrowbone Public Library (Lisa and Lesa) told us about a fun reading they recently did highlighting the rhyme parallels between silly parody book Goodnight Goon and classic Goodnight Moon. Such a fun idea, ladies!
As for mom? Well, she had to wander over to the stack of Nancy Drew books. I read EVERY SINGLE ONE of these one summer.
A new book that jumped out at me while I was there was Strictly No Elephants by Lisa Mantchev, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo. It was prototypical Anitra fare: Beautiful intriguing cover. Nostalgic color scheme. Love at first sight.
Then when I discovered it's theme of inclusion? While I was reading it with Elsa?? STOP IT. New favorite. I want in this clubhouse! Skunks and all.
Before we headed out, we slipped into the back room, to see if we could find my dad in the flippable high school composites. And as luck (God) would have it, the composites were already open to my dad's class.
Look at that handsome devil...
I get a little choked up when looking back through these pics. When you're a kid - logging countless hours and days somewhere... ANYWHERE - it never occurs to you that your future children might one day walk those same streets, sit in those same chairs, breathe that same air.
What a blessed trip. (Thank you, Zannie, for suggesting it!)