for Marilyn

You know what I don’t have? A holiday closet. Someday when I’ve got it together, if we’re not in a new house in the country yet like we dream, I’m going to buy some shelves for the attic and just make one of those. I’d like to be able to switch things up based on the season, and as it is – autumn and spring don’t get any face time around here. 

There’s one section of the white shelves in the living room, though, that’s used to being cleared for Christmas and yesterday got all decked out in summer. For Christmas, it’s the nativity shelf, or the Jesus shelf we sometimes say, or Baby Moses we said one year when we were really little and had seen The Prince of Egypt more recently than a nativity.

So what does the summer shelf look like? Library books. Or rather, library books and movies. We went yesterday and stocked up.

 l love summer. I love having the kids around all day. I love that we can all stay up just a little later if we want to (although technically I’m starting work earlier than I did in the school year). And I. Love. The. Library.

Last night I sat down and read all of Drew’s finds, Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Spider, and Diary of a Fly. They were so cute – and kind of gross. A piece of a yarn on the bathroom floor this morning had me totally freaked because it looked like the worms in that book. We also got The Neverending Story DVD, and I’m about to introduce these boys to the mind-boggling wonders of  Back to the Future.

Lest you worry that we only use the library and never purchase new (supporting the arts and all), don’t. Our we-get-to-keep-this-forever movie shelves are overflowing, and I’ve got books stacked every which way. We do love to buy. But there is just something about the library. All those books and movies! Yesterday I picked up a book I know absolutely nothing about. I liked the title and the cover and the fact that some of it will apparently take place in New York City. That’s it. I can take that kind of risk with a library, and I love that.

I know a librarian. She’s a reader of the blog, and I would just like to say on behalf of my entire summer, thank God for you. Libraries rock.