Samantha's Spot

I'm finding it difficult to find the right words today.  Most of my emotions and insights have been like an infectious disease lately.  I'm afraid if I share anymore of them, I will only spread it further.  All I can say is that I feel change coming.  It's coming on like dew from a slow-forming morning fog.  It's coming on like that of cooler weather in the fall.  But fall is predictable, and the outcomes of change are not.

I recently had an experience that left  me with a wondering sadness.  As an adult, it's easier to look back in the past and understand things in hindsight.  I think as children we often take for granted things that not everyone has or experiences that not everyone has had.  I had an awesome mother and an awesome father.  They both instilled in me a hunger for education and learning.  More specifically, my mother always fostered a love of reading.  As I became an adult, we often read similar books or shared books.  I, in Texas, would call my mother in Alabama and talk for hours about different books we read and what books we should read next.  Last week, I spent some time with some young children in their classroom.  I became awkwardly aware that many of these children didn't have a lot of experience with books or reading.  Now, I asked myself, "Am I expecting too much?"  I think that because of my childhood and schooling I just...

The day started off normal, or as normal as a day can be in my household.  I couldn't believe it! My alarm had gone off - one - before my kids had waken up, and two- in itself didn't wake my kids up.  I slowly untangled myself from the blankets and my eleven month old son simultaneously.  All the while, I was just holding my breath and trying not to make any disruptive movements.  As I reached the edge of the bed, I told myself that I had done it.  I had managed not to wake anyone up and was going to be able to take a shower all by myself before anybody was the wiser.  Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement, and just then my daughter, Ava, rolled over suddenly.  "Mommy, what are you doing?" she said.  In a similar fashion and almost on cue, my son, John, sat straight up and looked sincerely distressed.  I stayed as still as possible, hoping among hopes that they would magically go back to sleep.  No such luck.  My son began ince...