Life's little annoyances: Family members who squeeze the toothpaste in the middle (have you ever heard of anyone annoyed by the tube being squeezed from the end?); finding the toilet paper hung the wrong way; constantly stubbing your pinky toe; stepping on legos; kids with messy faces; tripping over random shoes left in the middle of the floor...I could go on and on.
Now, I'm not admitting to any of these, though I may have been heard mumbling about one or two.
Just the other day I as I was waking up and dropping my feet onto the floor in an attempt to stand my self upright, when I stepped on a book and slipped just a little off balance. It was a kids book lying open (instead of using a bookmark) on the floor for the next time the reader was in the room. Possibly Wesley. When he doesn't have a particular book to be engrossed with, he rereads books and leaves them in each room so he always has something to read, wherever he may be. Accept in the bathroom. That's another kids issue, to which Wesley remarks, "That's just gross!" because she leaves the books on the floor (Oops! did I just say, "she?"). My little gripe to books in the bathroom is the books left on the back of the toilet and I can't put the seat all the way up. Silly, huh. (It's amazing how, as a newlywed, I had so many annoyances just in the bathroom alone!)
So, as I bent down to pick up yet another book to save it from the misery of being stepped on (my elementary school librarian told us all about a books' feelings) I had this thought: be thankful it's not a bunch of video games they can't get enough of. Yeah. My kids could be involved with much worse. But they love to read. So much so that Christopher has started a scrapbook devoted to the many books we have read as a family. They also love to read to paper, okay, mainly the comics, and magazines, catalogs, comic books... really anything. All the time.Wesley got a DSlite one year for Christmas, and the next year Calvin got one, but they read way more than they play their three or four games. And we love to play family games and go for walks. So there are plenty of other activities to keep them busy. But in between times, you can always find a book in their hands. In the car on our way to different places, even if it's only a five minute drive, they are upset if we don't allow them the bring a book - which is mainly because they leave them on the floor of the car or in nooks and crannies and the books end up being overdue with fines to pay or stepped on causing them to cry out in anguish.
Any way, it's been two days and so far I haven't huffed about a book lying on the floor. My kids could be into Yugio [sp?] cards, Barbies (have you ever stepped on one of those little shoes? and I despise naked Barbies lying around the house - ack). For now I will keep in mind that my kids are filling their brains with adventure, history, humor and experience which will stay with them for a long time.
