Library Day

Library day is a favorite of mine. All three of my girls get super excited about going to the library, but for one I think it's a serious adrenaline rush. Brita has been begging for the past two days for me to take her there. She could hardly contain herself today when I told her we were finally going. She even changed from her sweats into regular looking clothes before we left and I didn't even tell her to.

I must interject here that I feel pure joy when I see my girls expressing their true selves. They are each so totally different and I really love the different ways each of them choose to show the world who they are. Today, I lined them up outside the library for a photo because I loved the story I read as I looked at each of them.

Once I finally let them go inside, Meg and I headed to the desk to pay my $12 fine (ouch!) while Brita got her stack of fiction real quick then sat down at a table to read while her sisters took their time making their selections. Meg just got to choose four books because she still has one book she's looking for at home that she checked out from the last time. Leah mostly helped Meg check out some books and then she chose three cookbooks - she decided to skip the fiction this time because she has tons of books at home that she's interested in reading.

The highlight for Meg is scanning her own books at the check out. I think that's the real reason she likes to check out lots of books. Looks like someone found a way to sneak in a few more books than she was supposed to! And of course I didn't say anything about it. It's no wonder she never believes any of my threats, even as scary as they sound.

When we got home, we plopped the books in our "library book basket" which though large, apparently isn't large enough.

Then I quickly left to run a couple last-minute Christmas errands. When I came back a couple hours later, I saw that Leah and Meg had stationed themselves in the front entry where they drew pictures from some of the "learn to draw" books they checked out.

And Brita, of course, couldn't even take a break from reading long enough to get a snack or drink her smoothie.

You'll notice that she's almost done with that book. She finished it up about thirty minutes later and immediately delved into its sequel. At the rate she's devouring those books, I think we'll be returning to the library again in not so many days.

I've heard that it's important for children to see their parents read. I get why that would be helpful, but sadly I must admit that my children rarely see me read. I really enjoy reading, but I can't say that it's ever been one of my main hobbies and I don't make it a priority now because if I start reading good books I basically neglect my whole family and all of my responsibilities. It's just not healthy.

So instead of reading books that totally consume me, I dabble in reading more substantial stuff that makes my eyelids feel real heavy real quick - stuff like the "Ensign" and "The Book of Mormon" and a few parenting books here and there. And then I usually just end up napping or going to bed instead.

Even though I haven't been a model of reading myself, I will say that I have always read to my little kids, pretty much every day.

When I came home and saw Brita reading her book and Meg following suit I couldn't have been more thrilled.

While her sisters were reading, Leah was in her creativity-inspired room (I prefer that term to messy), standing on her gymnastics mat, playing around with her electric guitar with our ever faithful Buddy as her audience.

A couple of my kids may take library day a little more seriously than others, and that's fine by me because they're all great kids and I'm the lucky one who gets to be their mom.