The Wright Place: The Family Way...

They'd just finished a rousing rendition of a song on K-LOVE as we were heading down the interstate one morning. "Just like the VonTrapps," I joked with my Man, driver of our vehicle of mirth and joy. Upon hearing my comment, the girls next lit into a loud and discombobulated version of Doe A Dear.

"Ok," said the driver, "get out your books and start reading."

Ahhhh, peace.

"Mommy! Wanna see my new 'best-friends' handshake?”

"Molly, right now Daddy wants you to read a book, get your book out."

"I didn't bring any books."

{Gasps heard through out the van...heads turned...eyes stared...}

"Molly, you are five-years-old now and you need to understand one of our family ways. When you go out of the house, you need to have a book with you. Do you understand? You never know when your brain is going to need something to do, so it's best to have a book..."

{Molly seeking toy approval...}

"EVEN," said Kate, wise from her vast experience testing the bring-a-book rule to its very limits, "if you are never gonna read it, you have to take a book."

{Kate cozying up to the e-readers...wishing)

I sat in the dentist's waiting room earlier that very morning listening to a grandma read book after book to what was likely her 3-year-old granddaughter keeping them both happily occupied until it was the grandmother’s turn to see the dentist.

{Even in the bookstore, they are all drawn to the screens...}

All of a sudden the little book-loving child became a monster in front of me and in front of her deeply embarrassed grandfather who had not a clue about what to do with her...and she knew it. She lay on the floor half crying, half whining, stopping only to lift her head and check with one tearless eye to see if anyone in the small-and-growing-smaller waiting room was watching her show.

{Meg...enjoying the magazine section}

I was watching her with one eye too but over the top of my book which, because of the family way, I had with me even though I'd only expected to be in the waiting room for less than 30 minutes. My book was a lovely buffer between me and The Fit that was continuing less than three feet from me. My book helped distract my brain from all of the thoughts that were coming fast and furious about how that poor grandpa ought to handle the situation...believe me, I had some thoughts, but they were helpful to neither me nor the grandpa nor The Fit. My book was my rescue!

{Molly, still bookless, and Kate}

So, on I read and eventually, my kiddo was finished getting his teeth cleaned and we retreated to the quiet bliss of our car which would soon be full of the rest of our crew ready to to indulge in another of our family ways...taking over a bookstore on my Man's day off...