Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Libraries

I love libraries! I could spend hours in one. Wait. I have spent hours in not one but many! When I was younger, my best friend, Sherry, and I used to walk from her house to the library where I would check out the Beverly Cleary books for the hundredth time. Then we would walk to Mister M and get a Sprite in a glass bottle, drink it, and return the bottle for a nickel. (Remember those days?) I spent long summer hours reading Little House in the Big Woods at the tiny library in the town near where my grandparents lived. When I was in high school I could drive to the library in the next city and they were open on Sunday! College gave me the huge 24-hour library at Texas A&M-whoop! When I started working in Alvin, the police department was next door to the library. The first thing I did when I moved back to my hometown was renew my old library card (which I still have!) and we got library cards the first week we moved to our present home! It has become a rite of passage that when each of our children turned 5 they got to go to the library and sign their names on the backs of their new cards. We have also mourned the temporary closing of our church library to make room for a new elevator. I love libraries! So, today was our library day because the children have already finished the summer reading program and were going to receive their trophies. We all checked out our armfuls of books, carried our prizes from the summer reading program and loaded into the car. (usually I have a rolling cart that we wheel in and load up with books but we used only bags today!) Then I experienced one of my favorite things: The sound, if you could call it that, of my children devouring their books in the back seat. I love looking in my rear-view mirror and only seeing the tops of their heads! They are totally quiet for the entire ride home! I find myself enjoying the peace and sneaking a peak into my mirror to watch. Then I thank God for what He has allowed me to do everyday! I am a Happy Mom At Home!!

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