Books and sleep

Books and sleep: the two things I never seem to get enough of. My ideal has me reading multiple books each week, both to myself and to my kids and getting 8 hours of sleep per night. However, the reality right now amidst the flurry of moving-in, organizing, Amber, and cleaning, involves far too few books, and even less sleep. I have been getting up at 5am for the past two weeks to run before Jeff leaves for work. A friend asked me to train for a marathon with her this summer, and as busy mothers, we've been logging in the miles in the gray hours before our husbands go to work. It's tons of fun to have a daily running buddy again--I haven't had one since college almost ten years ago! Getting up at 5am just makes the afternoon sleepy and an 8 hour night unlikely.

On Thursday morning, I was feeling groggy and slow. After the kids ate, I ate my breakfast while the kids flocked around, sparring loudly, per the usual. In an attempt to quiet them down and gather my wits for the day/read my scriptures, I told Jay to read Amber a story. He picked up the nearest book (Curious George Makes Pizza) and read it with gusto to his little sister. Rose sidled over and snuggled up to listen. I tiptoed over and got out the camera. The reading didn't stop with Curious George and Jay. Next Rose got out her current fave, Green Eggs and Ham, and read it, complete with voices (perky for Sam-I-am and cranky for the other guy). Then Amber selected a Mother Goose book and I sat down to read her some nursery rhymes while Rose happily played with the camera.

It was a short little moment in the big long day, but I'm finding that filling the short in-between minutes with positive happy things like story-reading (instead of games like stab-your-brother-with-the-nearest-Tinker-Toy or see-how-loudly-you-can-make-your-sisters-scream) really makes a difference in the feel of the day as a whole.

On Wednesday, I went in to wake up Amber from her nap (I hate waking her up, but if she sleeps too late in the afternoon, bedtime is no fun). The light from the window was bathing Amber in a gentle glow, and my first thought was "I wish Vermeer could paint this scene for me!" Then I grabbed our trusty ole camera and did my best with my limited photography skills. It was a treat to have Amber stay still enough for me to get pictures of her cute soft face. She was so peaceful and relaxed and deeply asleep that she did not wake up while I walked all around her clicking the camera.

Happiness is a stack of books and a sleeping baby.