The joy of reading

(Okay, so I know it’s overkill on the pictures, but I loved them all and I know at a minimum, my mom will enjoy them!)

One of my favorite things to see is Brad reading with the kids. We’ve made books and reading a priority since the children were babies. Many times, the only thing that would calm our restless toddlers down was a story. Then, they could sit for several minutes, mesmerized by what they saw and heard. The biggest problem was me falling asleep after reading to them for a few minutes. When I could feel my eyes starting to close I’d say, “Okay, now let’s all take a little rest…” Which, of course never worked very well. I was always amazed at the magical effect books had on my little ones.

Spencer is a voracious reader and Sawyer has followed his lead. They love to curl up with a good book and read for hours. When Sawyer was in kindergarten, he and I started having read- a- thons while Spencer was at school. I’m not a night person, so I read with the kids during the day and Brad reads with them at night. I hope they continue the pattern we’ve set and become lifelong readers.

I love picking up a good book and leaving my “reality” for a time to explore other places, people, time periods, ideas, etc. I love to continually be learning. Generally, I gravitate to non-fiction books because I feel there are so many things to learn about that I’ve missed along the way. But, I can also really enjoy a good novel. I got totally wrapped up in the Harry Potter series when Spencer started reading it. He really likes it when I read what he’s reading and always asks where I’m at in the book.

I also love it when we've had a family read aloud book. One of my favorite memories is Brad reading Where the Red Fern Grows to all of us as we cuddled together on the couch in our junkie little apartment in Illinois when we were waiting for our house to be built. That was something pleasant to look forward to every night. The kids loved it too.

Another benefit to reading is that it keeps our lively children quiet. Brad came home one night to find all of us reading separately and said, “Wow, this is great. It feels like we live in a library.” Sometimes the long stretch of quiet is so therapeutic. We both rejoice when another of our children learns to read because we know our home and car rides will be much more peaceful.