This vacation is especially sweet. My Teachers Union passed a contract that avoided a strike that would have began the day we returned to school. So, I will take my $300 a year pay increase, exhale and move forward thanking God that a compromise was reached.
I will spend countless hours at the library sitting under a tree on a toad stool reading aloud to James and Toby. Reading aloud to my boys is the greatest gift I can give them. A gift my mother gave to me.
This seems to be a favorite of James the past few weeks. If you have not read this, I encourage you to take the time to read it, there are many lessons we talk about even when the book is not around. I've started reading aloud to him at the dinner table. He's been a hot mess the past two weeks and when hunger strilkes this Beaver, the last thing he wants to do is eat. Scream, cry, argue- yes. Reading aloud distracts him from the negative attention he is receiving. It's also a bribe- a bite of food gets the page turned and our adventure continues. 
Toby loves turning pages, pointing to pictures, climbing up and down off my lap, piling book after book after book within arms reach. Lane Smith, Patricia Polaco, Kevin Henkes...our list of favorites goes on and on. We have bins of books in our home. I have stacks, the boys each have shelves. The one thing missing is Matt. He never liked to read, struggled with reading in elementary school and never found the love that I was able to experience. I have boys. I am a teacher, and I know the affects of what happens as the boys get older and their father doesn't share this joy. So I will fill their bookshelves with books and continue to introduce to them characters from my past and new characters we will meet together on that toad stool under the tree in the library. The more books they have access to, the greater their chances will be to further their education- 3.2 years according to statistics.
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