"a book family"

A couple of weekends ago, our snowbird neighbors had a garage sale. We walked over to peruse their artifacts. Stepping into their garage was like being transported back in time to the Nixon era (not that I am old enough to remember that, but Andy is :). I discovered a set of beautifully illustrated, somewhat "antique", children's classics. I found there was a large box of children's books along with the classics. I asked Mrs. Dollen how much she would take for all of the children's books. I am certain the bargain I received was in direct relation to the charm of my children. Flannery was chatting away with Mrs. Dollen about how much we love to read. She said "we are just a book family". Music to my ears! She even said it proudly. What little bookworms we are raising, for good or ill. What the girls don't realize yet is that we are a book family because of their daddy. Their mommy has been too tired to read diligently since February 27, 2002. The girls see their daddy reading and writing for a living. What a gift he gives them without realizing it. Now they are giving that gift to Ruby. She will sit down with a book like she's trying to figure out what the attraction is for her sisters.

Since we are a "book family", you can imagine the girls utter delight when our friend Cindy Lucas gave us 10 bins of books she had collected from various sources. Cindy is a former homeschooler so she understands the constant need for new reading material. Andy brought the bins in and crammed them on the back porch. I didn't see the girls for 2 days. They sat out on the back porch in 90 degree heat gorging themselves on words. Even Ruby spent a lot of time out there with them. Of course, she busied herself removing things from the boxes. Percy-Kate lost a little sleep over the disturbing illustration on the cover of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She asked why he looked so mean. Try explaining a mood disorder to a 5 year old in the middle of the night...

Finally, by Tuesday, I had sorted all the books and school materials. The back porch only has a couple of bins remaining. Still, today, Flannery was rummaging around, trying to find something she had not already read.