I love to read a book, uninterpreted for hours.
As I am a mother of two very involved kids, married to a person who has adult ADD, and live in the real world, that rarely happens, unless I am on a plane. Then only if I am not traveling with my younger sister who apparently has not realized I am really and truly ignoring her.
Sometimes when I go on vacation, like I did last week, I get two hours in a stretch to lie in the sun and read. Or on someone's sofa.
Sometimes when I go on vacation, like I did last week, I get two hours in a stretch to lie in the sun and read. Or on someone's sofa.
However, I am not perpetually on vacation, so I read at night.
I try to get into bed by 10 pm and read for an hour.
This does not always happen, as I get caught up in various tasks or Pinterest.
I try to get into bed by 10 pm and read for an hour.
This does not always happen, as I get caught up in various tasks or Pinterest.
However, I do read EVERY SINGLE night before I go to sleep. I cannot fall asleep without reading.
My brain has been trained to read and wind down, and cannot do it on it's own. If I am without a book, I have read catalogs in a pinch, just to go to sleep. Catalogs, my friends,are very boring, but they do the trick. I really doesn't matter when I am truly tired what I read. When I am not tired, I have a harder time without a good book. Reading calms me down and is apparently what watching television is to a lot of people. Almost a drug.
When my kids were toddlers, a fellow reader told me to keep a book in my car. That way, if my kids fell asleep on the way somewhere and were still asleep when I arrived, I could sit in my car and read while they napped. I did that for a few years, as naps were very important for my personal sanity. Reading felt like a treat then.
Now that I have older kids, I feel like all I do is run. Run to workout, run to work, run to get groceries, take them to school, pick them up from school, to get shoes, clothes, the list goes on.
My reading has taken a back seat.
And yet, I still read two books a week on average and I am content with that right now.
In my retirement, I will read. I will sit somewhere warm and sunny and read for hours. My husband will be annoyed and off lifting heavy objects. But reading will be the thing that keeps me young and mentally agile. My brain needs to read and I will continue to always need to do it.
When my kids were toddlers, a fellow reader told me to keep a book in my car. That way, if my kids fell asleep on the way somewhere and were still asleep when I arrived, I could sit in my car and read while they napped. I did that for a few years, as naps were very important for my personal sanity. Reading felt like a treat then.
Now that I have older kids, I feel like all I do is run. Run to workout, run to work, run to get groceries, take them to school, pick them up from school, to get shoes, clothes, the list goes on.
My reading has taken a back seat.
And yet, I still read two books a week on average and I am content with that right now.
In my retirement, I will read. I will sit somewhere warm and sunny and read for hours. My husband will be annoyed and off lifting heavy objects. But reading will be the thing that keeps me young and mentally agile. My brain needs to read and I will continue to always need to do it.
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