Mindful Monday: Is Acutally Tuesday: But We Try Anyway

No time to write yesterday. Sister-Bug was up early and during her naps I am sewing her a dress to wear to her Faery-God-Parent's wedding this weekend. It would have gone well, except that I put the sleeves on wrong and had to rip and re-do. Bummer. But now the bodice is done and I just have to do the skirt and zipper. She is going to be so darn cute!

But on to our Mindful Mon(Tues)Day!

The boychick at about 18-months...in his pile.

I'm tackling a big one this week - one that is not strictly me. Actually, it mostly involves Brother-Bug and his bookish habits. He likes to keep stacks of books near by him at all times and (being a 4-year old) is not the greatest at putting those books away. I've been trying for what feels like aeons no to get him to pick up his books. Put one away, take one down. Pick them up before meals. And so on. But still, we end up with books all over the floor. This is a problem for me, especially when we injure library books.

Yesterday, in preparation for this post, I talked to him about Mindful Monday and what it means and how he can participate this week. I formed a plan with him about keeping the books picked up. Here's how it goes:

Keeping the Library Books Picked Up

Who: Brother-Bug and me
What: Keeping library books off the floor and couch.
Why: Because books on the floor is a pet-peeve. Because I love and respect books and want to keep them nice. Because we keeping tearing/bending/injuring library books and I hate having to carry them, shoulders slumped in shame, to the repairs desk. Because learning to clean up is really important.
How: I've worked on this one a lot already, and haven't found anything that inspires Brother-Bug. So we are trying a stick and carrot method this week.

*I will remind him several times throughout the day to check his library books and make sure they are all on the library shelf. He gets 2 "nice askings" and one "firm telling".

*If he doesn't pick them up, or fusses at me, I pick them up. All errant library books go in the returns stack. There is no chance to get them out.

*If he gets to Friday (library day) and most of his books are in the return stack he doesn't get to check out any new books this week.

*However, if he does pick them up himself - on his own initiative or when reminded once - throughout the day, he will earn some computer time and fifty cents toward his current spending goal.

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Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. But we can't keep destroying library books. And if it works, we can move on to all the other books we own that seem to spend a lot of time as wall-to-wall carpeting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Raising a Reader of Books

Brother-Bug has always been a reader. From the time of infancy, before he could point, he would spot a favorite book and shriek at it, waving his fat arms until I capitulated and read it to him...over and over and over.

Sister-Bug has taken a little longer to come to the conclusion that books are more than a teething delicacy. But now she is full swing, bring me book after book and requesting that I drop everything and read. If I don't do so, she whacks me in the leg with her book and howls. So I frequently drop everything and read. The same very dull board books. Over and over and over.

If you are a parent you know the ones. Anything with baby faces. Anything with trucks (that was the boy) or kitties (that is the girls passion). Over and over and over.


Luckily there are some really great ones that I do read happily many, many times.

I Kissed the Baby (Mary Murphy) & The Way I Feel (Janan Cain) come to mind. The wonderful many books by Sandra Boynton are also fun on repeat.

But mostly I remind myself over and over and over that reading these books is teaching my kids that books are wonderful. That it is so important to read - more important than doing the dishes sometimes! I want them to love books and have them around througout their lives. I want reading and literacy to be a staple in their lives. So I read these mind-numbing baby face books. Over and Over and Over.

Because here is the goal:

On The Shelf

The major event of the weekend - the one that took three days to clean up from - was unpacking the majority of our books and getting them on the shelves.

There is still more to do - still many more books to unpack - but we are all happier in our living room. It feels like ours in ways that furniture and laundry piles just can't replicate.

We love books. We read all the time. Recently the one-year old has figured out the magic of bringing a board book to me to be read infinite times. ((Banana, Spoon, Cracker... add nausea)). It's gratifying to my Mama-Heart to know she will be adding to these shelves. Our shelves reflect classes we have taken, writing we have done, interests we have pursued, dreams followed or let go. So many books are old friends.

Bookshelves are a reflection of life and soul. I'm so glad we have books (and lots of them) in every room.

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*While I was contemplating this post I ran across this awesome bookshelf with a reading cave built in! How I would love to put that in our house somewhere, someday, when we have room for it!