We are a family of readers.  We love books!  If we’re in town and have a little time to burn, the first thing all four kids want to do is to go to the bookstore.  Ahhhh, that makes their PhD dad and their voracious reader mom pretty darned pleased.

This summer, the local yocal library offered a reading club to children, up to sixth grade.  I signed up all 3 of our youngest ones (the big girl was a bit put out that it didn’t involve her age-group, too – but, that didn’t stop her from reading!) and the two girls began in earnest, reading and creating their lists of read-books.  The son-man adamantly refused to participate — he’d still read, but no way was he going to be a part of the action. 

That is, until one day when his mom took them all to the library and was writing down the girls’ lists on their designated pages — when son-man came up and watched what I was doing … then quickly ran over to the bookshelves (way too young for his age-level) and started depositing books in my lap.

“Add this one, Mom, cause I just read it,” he said.

and this one.  and this one.  and this one.

I finally stopped him and told him that our quest was to check out books at or above his reading level so he could bring them home and read them at home.  So, he stopped.  And then ventured over to the history and social studies area, searching for encyclopedias and such (that are way over MY head) to check out to take home – on topics including everything from dinosaurs to pirates!

I can’t say that the kids read any more than they usually do – but, it was interesting to see how much they truly read.  I’m sure we only wrote down about 1/3 of what they read – because they’d forget to add completed books to their lists.  But, we have definitely planted the reading seed in our youngesters!

This definitely has to be one of those environmental vs. genetics issues that I so often come upon, having four children who sometimes seem that they are from outter space. 

Remember a few weeks ago, my husband went dumpster diving at the local dump, and brought home a (still) broken gate?  Sure, someday, he’ll put it to good use {rolling eyes}.

Yesterday, JD got a bit of heat / sun stroke.  He spent too much time out in the Texas heat, and ended up with a pounding headache, upset stomach and could barely move from his chair.  So, after saving him from the kids and making a library run, then coming home for lunch, we settled down to nap – and to give the dad-person some quiet time to ease his aching head.  When I get up from nap, I leave and come to my office to wake up and consume copious amounts of Mt. Dew, so I can be nice again to my family (and they thank me for it, too).

When I returned home after my wake-up time, I went to my sewing room….and saw this on my cutting table:

At some point, during my nap (I truly sleep like a log), DD#1 got bored, so she went sneaking through the house, looking for something to do.  She went into my sewing room and saw all of the scraps from the flannel quilt I put together over the weekend in my TRASH BAG, and nabbed every one of the little triangles, along with a spool of thread and a needle, and went slinking back through the house to her bedroom.  Then, she patiently sat down and hand-stitched the triangles together into squares, and then into one big quilt block.

Her technique was good, though she didn’t tie off or knot her strings, so that little yellow star piece you see is because there’s a big hole where the squares didn’t quite come together.  And the edges of it are all free and loose because she just cut her thread without thinking about knotting it at the end.

But, that’s criticizing the wrong thing. 

She was ingenious and resourceful, which she MUST get from ME!

Then again, she went dumpster diving, and I am blaming her DAD for that little tidbit of genetics!

(and I’m not a bad mom — I gave her more scraps & fabric & more instructions on what to do next – and I have no doubt that she’ll make the most of what she has started).