For those of you who are frequent readers it will be no surprise that I’ve been struggling with my arms and shoulders the last months. After starting treatments and my life has changed. There are a lot of the things that I used to do that I can’t do anymore. I cannot carry heavy weight, I’m not able to write as much or as often as I would like to and the biggest change of all has been staying home from work.
My job involves sitting at a desk for 7,5 hours of the day something that really ruins my shoulders and arms even more. The pain was excruciating and my doctor wanted me to stay at home while we’re trying to figure out a way to treat this.
But enough about pain and illness. This is not going to be a negative post at all. I want to share a change in my day that I hope to make permanent.
My love of books will be of no surprise, and it would be a lie to say that I don’t wish my son to grow up with the same joy and love for reading as I did. My father read a lot to me when I was younger and I believe that he is the one to thank for my love of literature. Thank you Dad!!
I knew from before I was even pregnant that I wanted to read a lot to my kids. The reality of it all is that often things just doesn’t go as planed. I’ve read to my son since he was a baby, but it hasn’t been consistent. He often got restless and struggled to pay attention to the reading if it got too long.
It was not until when he turned five that reading really became an activity that he really enjoyed and requested. We started with some short books and advanced as we went. Now we read books with less pictures and more complicated stories, and I absolutely love going on these adventures with him.
The most amazing thing happened yesterday. I got up a bit earlier than I usually do when taking him to school because he’d told me he wanted to go a little earlier so that he had more play time with his friends before the bell rings.
He ate his breakfast and I made myself a cup of coffee.
“Would like me to read you a chapter of Dunderly (a Norwegian book we’re reading at the moment) before we go to school?”
The question just rolled out of me and I’m so thrilled that it did!
For every chapter I read he requested one more. It ended up with us reading for a little more than half an hour. After dropping him off at school I though about what a wonderful morning it had been and decided to ask him if he wanted to do it again. When I asked later in the evening he said yes with the most excited grin on his face and the bookworm inside of me danced with joy.
So today we woke up early, had breakfast and read for half an hour once more.
It is such a wonderful way to start of the day. Going on an adventure together with someone you love!
Even though the pain in my arms is awful these mornings of reading has been a positive thing that has come out of it. I hope to make morning read permanent in our lives even if it means getting up even earlier whenever my shoulders/arms are better and I’ll be getting back to working.
Morning read is now one of my absolute favorite times of day!
Christina de Vries 
Sounds idyllic! If only I was organised enough to make this part of my morning routine…