Lots of good fun that is funny!

The sun did not shine.
It was too wet to play.
So we sat in the house
All that cold, cold wet day.

    - The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Obviously Dr. Seuss had never met my children because they insisted that we drive thirty-eight miles to the book store.  Of course I obliged because the book store is possibly my favorite place to go on a dark and rainy day - or any day at all really. 

Abigail read book after book for an entire hour.  She taught herself to read and now there is no stopping this child.

David re-read every single Dr. Seuss book.

And Ezra discovered The Hobbit  (Lord of the Rings can't be far behind!)

Oh, and I got to read the first half of this ridiculously funny and touching book.  On the way home we stopped at our favorite Chinese place for dinner.  It was a great day!

Actually this was the first time since I've become a mom that I was able to sit and read, what I wanted to read, at the book store.  This brought back many memories for me because for the first seven years of our marriage greg was in school and we lived on very little money.  We cooked all our meals at home, went only to matinee movies, and spent many days (and evenings) reading at the book store.  At the time we were living in Atlanta and there was a great book store nearby where we consumed many a hot chocolate, read more books than I can count, and watched great bands perform for free on Saturday nights.  We did not have a care in the world because although we lived in a tiny apartment, drove old cars that our parents had helped us buy a decade earlier, and had no money to speak of we never worried because we knew that we were working towards our goals.  We knew we were lucky because we had each other, and because we were able to find happiness in the "little things."  

However, we were not aware that what we actually had was the gift of time.   When we were done with work or school we had the time to hang out in the kitchen and cook healthy meals, the time to cuddle on the couch with good books, the time to actually go see a movie in the movie theater.  Two months before greg got the job that paid well (at least well enough to pay off all our student loans)  Ezra was born and our priorities became geared toward finding a home in which to raise a family, buying a minivan in which to drive our family around, singing infinite lullabies, and reading children's books in silly voices.  Years passed, we added two more amazing kiddos to our family, and hundreds more trips to the bookstore were made.  But in all those trips, over all those years, I was never able to read a book of my choosing.  I adore children's books and didn't really mind seeking out and reading old favorites as well as all the great new books that are out there for children. 

But every now and then, greg and I would look at each other and smile and reminisce about how it used to be when we could sit there for hours, warm drink in hand, reading grown-up books.  Well people, yesterday, for the first time in ten years, I was able to sit and read a 'grown up' book for an entire hour!  with almost no interruption!  in the book store! coffee in hand!

But reading my book was by no means the best part.  The best part is that my three children -- those same children that I had spent all those hours reading to, and chasing after, in the book store for the past ten years -- were sitting right there by my side intently reading their own books!  Now that was the best part!

"I know it is wet
And the sun is not sunny.
But we can have
Lots of good fun that is funny!"

    - The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Comments

[Lisa Q]

what a great story! How wonderful that you and your husband's love of reading has come full circle. I'm sure that coffee and that book were heavenly!

[theresa/t does wool]

I think I can recite that entire Cat in the Hat from memory...nothing better than a book store...;)

[Heather]

Those moments, where your realize that your time may be coming back to you, those are the best. I love raising children, but the moments that I can "steal" away some me time is bliss.

We have been reading the Hobbit to our little ones (outloud). We have to skip some parts, but the magic and the imagination is sensational.

[Jane]

I've been placing the Hobbit around the house for my oldest. Still hasn't picked it up. Soon I hope.

[Mens Nike Shox Sale]

Do you agree that travel must one day revert to being a luxury

[juicy couture bags outlet]

I arrived having never actually seen a Gocco machine let alone used one, so the learning curve has been steep, but thankfully it's an easy device to pick-up fairly quickly. For my initiation evening I watched Craig demonstrate the process of exposing a screen, inking and then printing, and had a quick dabble with a test print to familiarise myself with the tools + technique.