Making time

Homemade blueberry and raspberry corn muffins. A friend of mine let me flip through one of her favorite recipe books a while back. I found a few irresistible ones that I had to try, these muffins being a couple of them. We then made copies and I placed them on top of the pile of recipes I had ripped out of magazines, printed off the internet, and scribbled down at family get-togethers. There they sat for months. I don't know why I continue to rack my brain each day of something new to put on the dinner table. This stack of recipes just continues to collect dust. In a moment of desperation I cracked open the book that held all of the loose recipes I had been collecting for literally years. I spent the entire morning dusting off many of them and put myself to work. The amount of food I made that morning was surely more than even my family could consume in a day, but that wasn't the point. This is something I had wanted to do for a long time now and somehow with life moving all around me, I hadn't made time. Time should be made for those dozens of good books that friends have lent me over the years. Time should be made for me to sit down and paint my daughters fingernails and toenails. Time should be made for one more bedtime song for the children. Time should be made for a soak in the tub with nothing but the best bath oils and scented candles. And time should be made for blueberry and raspberry corn muffins.

The magic in reading a book

A couple of years back I was visiting my parents in Utah for a couple weeks. One particular day the kids had reached a point of 'out of control' that even I had rarely seen. Out of the corner of my eye I saw my Grandmother sit down and open a children's book. She began to read out loud. This may not seem like much to anyone, but you might find it interesting that she cannot see much of anything anymore. Grandma Maynard has lived with my parents for over 18 years now. You can find her in the basement apartment under a poorly painted sign that reads "Over the threshold and down the stairs to Grandmother's house we go..." As Grandma read aloud making up the very best story she could conceive of, one by one the children stopped what they were doing and sat down next to her listening as she went on about a certain elephant's adventures. The kids were engaged and taken away from any wrestlessness they were feeling moments before. Later on that day I asked my Grandmother where she learned that trick and why hadn't she shared it with me before. She said in all of the years of being a Mother and Grandmother there was nothing more irresistable and magical to children than opening a book.