Gifts!

This morning before 7:00 am, I received two wonderful gifts - from my youngest and then my oldest sons. According to Gary Chapman, one of my primary love languages is receiving gifts. Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly materialistic. I also love to give gifts. If I had lots more time, and a bigger budget, you'd all be receiving gifts all the time. I have often said to Steve that if would be really cool if I could follow through on at least 1/2 of my "gifting" ideas. But, I digress....

It's spring break here and I woke up at 5:50 am. Not happy about this, but what's a gal to do? This gal reads. So, I turned on my lamp, grabbed my book (currently Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle) and proceeded to lose myself in learning about food and where it comes from. That's a whole different blog entry because now that I'm reading this book, the ideas are percolating in my mind. So, the point now being thatI was engrossed in the book. Then, I hear a little cry. I ignore it, but it becomes louder and more persistent. My little man was awake and clearly going to cry at his door until someone let him out. I freed him from captivity and brought him in with us - planning to continue with my book. No sooner do we get settled in, than I hear Steve say, "turn out the light and maybe he'll go back to sleep. I did not want to turn out the light. I wanted to read in bed, but good wife and mother that I am (or at least try to be) I complied, while silently grumbling.

Then, the most beautiful and wonderful thing happened. My boy turned and snuggled into me. He put his head on the crook of my arm and pulled my other arm around his little body. This boy is 22 months old and never stops moving while he's awake. He is usually way too busy for snuggling his mom. And, when he wants someone, it's either "Daee! or Loli!" This is what I had dreamed of doing when we had #4 and admit I've felt a bit deprived in this area. But, this morning, this morning when I wanted to read, my boy snuggled. All of sudden, "lights off" and "no book" went from nuisance to gift. My attitude did an about-face and I embraced the moment as I tried to memorize it.

About fifteen minutes later, the oldest comes in with an Alex Rider book. Mind you, it's still before 7:00. This boy never gets up before 8:00 on school days. Last night he and I started reading The Omnivore's Dilemma (yes there's a connection to what I'm reading - and to watching Jaime Oliver's new reality show). As were read about mutated/geneticallyaltered plants Isaac told me it reminded him of a scene in a book where the plants had been mutated to become killer plants. If you are a teacher, you know I was thrilled about the text to text connection! Apparently, he did not forget this in his sleep. The first thing he wanted to do upon waking, was to share a book with me! So, he snuggled into the bed, too, and read aloud to me. My son was sharing his love of books and reading aloud to me! Yes, there's another bibliophile in the house! (In case you are wondering, Alex survived his encounter with the killer plants.)

Within minutes of the last one, I was gifted again! I'm hoping that our love of books (and of action/adventure movies) will be the connection that keeps us talking through the teen-age years that are oh-so-quickly approaching. These moments with my family - this is what makes life so beautiful. So, no, I didn't get to sleep in on the first morning of spring break. However, I chose to receive the gifts offered by my boys. The are gifts all around us, we just have to choose to receive them.