It's A Wonderful Life

What a wonderful day. DH decided that we should go for a hike. We haven’t gone in so long due to DH’s back and then DS’s arm, but today we went out for a beautiful hike.

I’ve been eyeing an area nearby (the Rock House Reservation) and finally we got the chance. The hike was easy, no aggressive terrain and although it took some serious convincing of DD to go, once she was hiking, she was enjoying it. Afterward, we even went to see the birthplace of Lucy Stone and therefore fulfilled part of our homework from the Pen & Parchment to visit the site of an important historical woman. Plus, this visit helped to put our curiosity to bed. Every time we pass through West Brookfield signs would proclaim, “The birthplace of Lucy Stone”, which unfortunately meant nothing to us.

Now I know that Lucy Stone was an abolitionist, a leader in the suffragist movement. She was the first woman to graduate from college in Massachusetts and amazingly that was without the help of payment by her father. Lucy Stone was an amazingly strong, independent woman. They even credit her speaking with bringing Susan B. Anthony to the suffragist movement. She also was the first woman to keep her name after marriage.

After a wonderful picnic at her homestead, we went for a delicious ice cream and then a visit to an incredibly interesting old book store. It was filled to the rafters with books of every shape, size, subject, and age. To a homeschooling mother’s delight, we were there because the libraries were closed and DD wanted to finish reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. She had started reading it the evening before at the Opening night of her play The House of Seven Gables (Nathaniel Hawthorne) and desperately wanted to finish reading it. She had made it to chapter 18 and didn’t want to give it back to the girl she borrowed it from. All and all it is a wonderful day and there are still hours left to enjoy.