4th of July

I didn't go camping, like we had planned, because the Storyteller was afraid he'd miss fireworks if we couldn't find any in our destination county (and we couldn't via the internet).

I had stayed up all night against my will, unable to conquer the insomnia yet again. I had to nap that morning when the parade was happening.

I skipped the Unitarian Universalist & Society of Friends picnic because the weather was too hot for the walk. There are no buses in this city on Sunday.

I can't find a flashlight, so I don't know that I'll be able to read the Declaration of Independence aloud during fireworks like I usually do.

I was sitting there feeling sorry for my poor kids with their lame mom, wishing I'd gotten tougher in response to this morning's exhausted decisions. I could walk two miles in eighty-five degree heat on zero hours of sleep, right? If I wasn't such a wuss, I wouldn't have worried about falling asleep on the sidewalk while the parade plodded past my children, right?

Then my four-year-old handed me a note full of oddly connected, meandering letters that he had clearly written himself. He challenged me to sound it out. Of course, I did so. Sometimes these are his attempts at spelling words he knows well, sometimes words he copied from somewhere, and sometimes garbeldy gook he is writing for the random fun. This note said, "Get busy Get equal ACLU." At once the argument about civil libertarianism versus the American Civil Liberties Union lifted into our conversation and started crackling beautifully against a previous darkness of the children's ignorance. It was a fortuitous unschooling moment that I can only attribute to the hand of Lady Liberty.

I guess she is not so far away from us on any day. My kids' education is based on those of the founding fathers. Our household is steeped in the rebellious ideas that brought forth that declaration. It would have been nice to have a big ol' party with an independence theme, but it's more important to have a little of the spirit of the day in every move we make.

I'll just have to read the Declaration of Independence aloud before we leave for fireworks.