Saturday, March 7, 2009

Life With Emma

"You two have a lot of fun walking," a senior lady commented to me the other day as Emma and I finished our 2 1/2 mile rhythm walking session at the community center.

It kind of took me by surprise, but she was right. We walk around a big room with a bunch of retired people for 45 minutes to a medley of old songs like "Beautiful Dreamer", "In the Good Old Summertime," and "Buffalo Gals". Emma and I love all these songs. Every 1/4 mile is announced, and then a little bell rings and everybody reverses direction. Emma and I clasp hands and swing our arms. Sometimes she takes off skipping for a while or she dashes out the door and runs around the parking lot and through the front door before rejoining me in the circle. If it's not too crowded she works in a few ballet leaps. And we sing.

As we sat in the lobby to drink some water after the walk, Emma told me how wonderful homeschooling is--for the parents. She explained how they can start out "normal", but grow and change into "homeschool moms" because they are constantly learning new things and looking for good experiences for their children.

"I've been thinking and figuring out a whole lot of things lately," she confided. "And there's a whole lot of things I've thought about and figured out that I haven't even told you yet!"

Oh, my! I'm not sure how to prepare for these revelations.

Later we were doing some shopping, and Emma and I were witnesses to a crime. We didn't know we were at the time, though, and so I paid absolutely no attention. When the crime was discovered, the manager asked us if we could provide a description of the perpetrator. I could not. Emma said that she could, so I agreed for her to be interviewed by the police. I was floored by the detail that she gave: hair color and style, height, weight, clothes and accessories, physical peculiarities. She told everything she knew very slowly and carefully. She took it seriously, and so did I. But the last thing she told the officer sent me howling with laughter into the other room:

"And she had bad grammar," Emma pronounced solemnly.

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