perfect hour of the day.

Nights can be a chaotic, crazy time.  Hopefully, before dinner, the house was straightened up and we've had a pretty calm dinner discussing the best and the worst of the day.   Then it's time to get into pjs, brush teeth, have a scripture story, song, and prayer.  I love all of this time.  So much of the evening ends up being a time to get things done.  So by the time the time everyone is in their pjs and we've had our devotional time we're all feeling a little more calm.

About that time we start reading...and it feels...magical.

Right now we're reading "The Giver" by Lois Lowry.  If you've not read this book, it's amazing.  The thing about reading outloud to the kids when everyone is settled into their beds is the opportunity we get to talk about all kinds of things.  Books bring up topics that you may not think to talk about in normal every day life.  I also love that it gives us a chance to go into more depth about things we have talked about before.

This book is about a community that believes it's achieved the perfect society.  In order to arrive at this perfection they've had to make sure everything is the same, no differences, only 'sameness'.  What that means is completely surprising.

Every time the kids find out about something that is missing from this 'perfect' community they are shocked to find that such a simple joy or pain doesn't exist for them.  It has given us all a new appreciation for seemingly little, wonderful things around us...sunshine, red apples, beautiful fabric, snow, eyes, the wonder of being a teenager, family, and love.

All of my kids get nestled into their beds and I sit and read.  Occassionally all of their heads will pop up at the same time to say, "No way!" Other times, everyone will be very quiet, feeling every word that I read, holding on to every emotion that a character is feeling.  I love how invested they get into the characters.  Often they will come up to me in the middle of the day and wonder what is going to happen next and say that they can't wait to read again tonight to find out what is going to happen. There have been times when they will bring me the book in the middle of the day and say, "Please read right now.  We have to know what happens to Jonas..."

There are nights that we end up reading really late because every time I say, "And we'll stop there for tonight."  The kids all say in unison, "No!  One more chapter."

Other nights, we'll get to the end of reading and a couple of the kids will have dozed off taking the characters in the book with them as they drift into dreamland.

It's my favorite hour or so of the day.  Faces intent, perplexed, joyous, excited, worried...and then quiet...sweet quiet in the place between awakeness and sleeping.

Once the book is over, as most of you know who follow my blog, I get to lay in the peaceful dark and talk to each of my kids individually.  I listen to their day, their little secrets, their moments that they've saved out from the day until now to share...it's a peaceful, wonderful bliss.

And the perfect way to end any day.

sweet. LIFE.