Someone asked me last week what I liked to read. 

I couldn't come up with an answer. 
Everything that I read the last 6 months or so of my life was like a big blur.
No books were coming to mind. 
and yet I knew that i had spent hours and hours and hours of my recent past reading.
I didn't actually come across like someone who was well read. 

at all. 

But I am well read. 

 I promise. 

And someday I promise I'll make a booklist.

This week is Read Across America week at school.  I am not sure exactly what that means, except that it is Dr. Seuss' birthday and we celebrate by reading all day on March 2nd.  I can't think of a better day for a teacher.  (okay, I can think of a better day it is called day one of summer vacation)

But really, a day dedicated to reading sounds pretty amazing to me.  Heaven.

I credit my mom for instilling in me the love of reading and my dad for financing it. 
It all began as a child when I fell in love with Little House on the Prairie and a short little picture book called Miss Rumphius that I won when I was 6 years old for reading the most pages in my age category at the American Fork Library. 

My brother and I used to ride our bikes to the library (with a bracelet on my right hand wrist so i could remember to stay on the right side of the road while riding my bike).  Some of you may think: "what, your mom sent a 6 and 7 year old to the library by themselves!  neglect!" Quite the contrary.  My mom taught me to love reading and to be independent adn to make good decisions and to spend my time doing something meaningful.  She also bought me night light after night light so that I could read when I went to bed.  She made me a bonnet to wear so I could be just like Laura Ingalls Wilder.  She told me I looked cute with geeky glasses as an 8 yr old. She read with me and to me and listened as I shared with excitement all the things I was reading.  As I got older she would read books before me and would take a black marker to cross out any "bad language" that she didn't want me to see.  She would buy book after book after book. . . . . and I would read all of them. Now I buy the books and she borrows them. 

My dad would read to us too.  All of the kids piled on the couch with my dad before bedtime listening to the Chronicles of Narnia or The Boxcar Children or The Whipping Boy. 


Reading was just part of the routine.  Pajamas, reading, brushing teeth, prayers and bedtime. 

And it is still is.  I sometimes wish I could quit my job and just read all day (is there a way to get paid for that).  Then I remember that my job is about reading.  Modeling reading, loving reading and teaching reading.

Reading, no matter what it is I'm reading, makes me happy. 

And watching others learn and love to read is even more meaningful. 

Maybe someday I'll teach my own children to read.

until then,

Thanks mom and dad. 

I owe you big time. 

Dr. Seuss really knew what he was talking about.