Season of Summer and Books

Each season brings new promise, farewells, and hellos. My summer has surely been a change from spring, and I welcome it all. Since I never really had me time in the spring, winter, or fall either, I don't think much about devoting my day 100% to my little guy. It is a tremendous pleasure.

When the school year comes around again, I will be there from 8-12. Not 7:30 to 4. Yes, my salary is gravely affected, but my life will be tremendously enriched. I am so happy to greet this new routine, though I am NOT rushing through the one my son and I have now.

As far as me time goes for this mama, I have almost made it through two books this summer. That's NOTHING to so many people, yet for me, it's pretty darn good. I'm a slow reader anyway, and with a toddler, you just never know when you'll want to pick it up.

I have found myself quietly slipping into a nap (even 15 minutes) after reading during his nap time. It's pretty nice, actually. And though I wish I could plow through more books, I also enjoy napping when he does, catching up on my favorite shows, and blogging.


I have enjoyed Heart of the Matter this summer, and Vision in White.
I dearly love Emily Giffin, and I love the feel of paperbacks. Not the tiny mass market ones, but the bigger ones. No other type of books feels better in my hands. So even though this one was out LAST summer, I waited for the paperback. I had plenty other books to read, anyway!

When I was about 8 weeks pregnant, my mother-in-law took me to her river house in Hardy, AR. She bought me food that would not turn my stomach, fed me well, and bought me silly, mindless books and magazines to read. It was for me to relax, and hubby to stay home to pack our house, since we were a week away from buying our first place.


Vision in White was the book she bought, and I didn't read it then because I was in the middle of another one, but I wanted so much to read it. I read all the bride fiction that looked decent when I was engaged, and this looked like plain, simple fun. Nora Roberts likes to write four books in a series, maybe three, and this was a "Bride Quartet" book. This was two years ago, and now all the books are out. I am just finishing up this one, and it's simple, plain, joyful fun.

My next book won't be the second in the Bride Quartet, as I rarely go back to back with the same author.

I AM still reading The Happiness Project book but am going slowly, since I can. And summer has turned things upside down, but hey, even that makes me happy. I needed a little shaking up at the end of May...time for a relaxing routine. Looks like the prescription that worked was mommy/toddler time and reading.

Happiness indeed.

PLAY!

I just bought this book, a mere $6.40 from Amazon, at Gretchen Rubin's recommendation.

In the blog post, she gives a brief summary of what the author has to say. As an early childhood professional, I know very well that nothing is more important than play. Play is a child's work. It fosters tremendous social and emotional growth, problem-solving skills, motor skill growth, and countless other benefits. Playing together is just as important as playing solo.

Play never stops being important, we just start to call it something different. Obviously, board games for adults or children are forms of play, but isn't anything recreational really play? I enjoy running, so that's a form of play for me. I am lucky to be an early childhood professional, so the child inside me gets her fill of kid-like play, and that makes the adult me happy, too.

I feel a little like I might be doing a thesis. Hubby is working on his Master's thesis, which will be completed for graduation in May. As I have watched him do this, I've noticed how one discovery leads to the need for a new book, and I feel like the deeper I get into it, the more I want to read. Especially if the extra research costs under seven dollars.

One of my favorite quotations:
"Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
-Bertrand Russell

More on that quote here.