Reading and Sleeping and REading

I'm a hard working artist. I love to read, and read a lot, but don't usually settle down with a book till the end of the day. The kids are in bed, shipping is accomplished, kitchen all tidied up, Max and I are all updated about our days and plans and such...... yawn.... and I really want to, yawn, get back into my book. I settle into my fav chair with new blue blankie... get all cozy with the book, drinking Roobois tea. But by then it's hard to read without getting sleepy sooner than I'd like.

And did I mention that the grown ups in this house, the grown ups who get up at 6:30 every morning to get cute children to school, do not LIKE to go to sleep? We avoid bedtime, we parlay like pirates, we find good excuses: MUST snuggle with the dog on the couch for another 1/2 hour! We get caught up in etsy convos at midnight. We have giggling fits in the kitchen until we cry and fall down and getting up is too much work late at night and we think of more jokes (and I assure you no alcohol is involved with this activity). We can be found holding our toothbrushes in our mouths, like twin kiwi birds, as we read for twenty minutes more.... but we do not go to bed in a timely manner. Yet once we have struggled ourselves into bed, we don't tend to want to get out again.

In an effort to avoid that build up of lack of sleep and the silly idea one can get caught up on the weekend, we have implemented "Go to bed early Wednesday". I highly recommend it. Basically, you get ready for bed right after you've put your kids to bed. Bring your tea and cookies and good book to bed (and your four cats and your dog). You are guaranteed to get in extra reading, extra snuggling and extra sleep in the middle of the week where you need it most. (Do NOT bring a tv into your bedroom, what ever you do.)

Now that you get the basic scene here, I will go on. Reading is important in our family. The adults often share books and talk about books. I have the kids read to themselves or out loud to me for 20 min a day each (most days). They read out loud while I make dinner. Yet, I just realized, they don't see me read for pleasure. Besides the daily comics. How is that a good role model?

I don't read during the day because I'm busy. Busy being a mom, an artist, a business owner, a designer, a friend, a neighbor, a shipping export, a soccer coach assistant, the dog walker, etc. You know. Feel like reading is sitting around, if it's daylight, but the kids should know how great reading is and how important. So I've decided to read occasionally, when they can see me enjoying my book, not just talking about reading. I also started a book club for women in my neighborhood (more on the awesomeness of that later)and our first choice is "The Time Traveler's Wife".

I found two things about reading during the day: it's really fun to read when I'm not tired - thus more difficult to stop reading. And two, adults reading can be odd. Not only do I giggle to myself and go "deaf" for periods of time, last night, the kids were playing chess after dinner. I was sitting at the table with them (not clearing dishes) but ... yes you guessed it... only the very end of the book. Have you read it? So sad and beautiful and brilliant....tears were trickling down my cheeks, dripping onto my place mat. I started sniffling and trying to see through the water to keep reading. Suddenly both kids looked up in concern asking, "mommy are you ok??"
"Oh yes, I'm crying because my book is so good."
"What? Why? What happened?"
I explained and they asked me many questions, and wanted to know all about the book and why it had to go like that, and what did it mean. Then they went back to their chess.

I waited till everyone was in bed, and all was quiet to savor the last five pages of the book. Wow what a story. And sometimes, it's just nice to read when it's quiet. Yawn.