I Learned Something New Today

I learned something new today. That was the required conversation starter in our household for many years. Even the missionaries knew to be prepared when they came to our house (which was usually weekly back in those days). Even the kids' friends were in on the whole thing. For a time, the kids favorite book had an owl on the cover and was just chock full of odd questions and their answers. Ideally, it was supposed to have been something new learned at school that day, but we quickly realized that learning something new did not happen on a regular basis.

I miss those days--those conversations. In our new house, the dining room is kinda tucked off in the corner and easy to avoid. With just three of us left at home, not even I want to sit down too often to a formal dinner. R says he's sick of hearing about politicas because "that's all Dad ever talks about." The older children can verify that is not true. He also talks about history and law--oh, and weather. R doesn't want any of those subjects, either.

I just want to eat as a family. Tonight Dharma and Greg and all the Mongomerys were our company. Tommorrow, who knows. I NEED to build the kitchen table SOON! This is really getting on my nerves. So tomorrow, I'll try again--what did you learn today?? Whereas they kids used to dive into the encyclopedias, now R can just google something, and learn quite a lot.

Dinner conversation is a dying art in the US. I hate cooking a dinner that is done in fifteen minutes. We should be able to linger for at least an hour in conversation. We used to.