One Chapter a Night

It was my favorite time of night.
When mom would call out to the rest of the family...or we would go up and beg her. "Is it time to read yet?"
Then we would all pile together either into the parent's bedroom or in the living room.
We'd all stare anxiously at Mom.
Watching as she pulled out the book.
Opened it to where we left off.
And would begin to read.

Almost every night we would do this.
A single chapter would be read...unless we could convince mom to continue on for another chapter.
What did we read you might ask?
Tennis Shoes among the Nephites by Chris Heimerdinger.
We read up to book 9 or 10 of this series. 
Chapter by Chapter. Night by night.
It was entertaining.
It was fun.
And it brought our whole family together.
Plus we learned about the gospel in an interesting way.

One chapter at a time we grew closer together.
Anxiously waiting to hear if Jim would survive his journey.
If Gid would come back to us alive.
If the Hawkins family would once again reunite.
It was an hour of anticipation for the family.
And we would often be disappointed if Mom was too sick to read.
Or if we had to stop mid chapter because it was too long.
Or super excited we'd get if the chapter was short enough
That we could read another one. :) lol those were the nights.
How fondly I remember them. ^^
And it reminds me that spending time together as a family
Doesn't need to be as planned out event with prayers and thoughts.
But just a moment where we could relax from the stress of the day.
And be in each other's company. :)

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream


We were on a fieldtrip. Basically going on a nature hike.
And our tourguide- the cafeteria cook from Arthur was...less then ecstatic.
Why? Well...I was in Mr. Ratburns class along with the other Arthur characters. (I was D.W.)
And Mr. Ratburn's style of teaching was more...educational then other teachers.
Where we'd learn college level terms and kind had forgotten the 'fun' part of hiking.
We just saw things in the 'medical' terms basically.
And the tourguide..she wanted to make it fun for us.
So that when we saw a caterpillar we didn't go calling it by its fancy prehistoric name.
But we just called it a caterpillar.
As we hiked along we encountered a nice little tourist shop place. It seemed like a mall.
There was a place to buy food like a gas station and other little shops. I hadn't really wanted to buy anything before we finished our journey. So instead I went searching for the restroom.
I found it pretty quickly in a..medieval castle like corridor. From the flickering torches I saw the sign that said men. and one that said Momen. I went into that one. And found....a weird bathroom.
With public toilets right in front of the door in plain sight.
And smaller cubicles with weird sinks in them.
-I eventually realized that they were more for men then women.
I was seriously confused...because I was sure I'd gone in the girls bathroom, not the guys.
So I went to leave...when Binky Barnes walked in.
I didn't want to see him see me in the wrong bathroom so I dashed to the back of the corridor
And laid down in a stall. (it was only about knee high) Hoping he wouldn't come down and see me.
Unfortunately. I was rather noisy with splashing about and accidentally clanging into something.
-i say splashing because it seemed like the bathroom was rather...wet....like their draining system wasn't working well for the sinks leaving tap water everywhere.
Soo...Binky knew someone was there.
And of course...he went to investigate.
He found me.
But to my surprise he didn't tease me for going into the wrong bathroom.
Instead he led me out of the bathroom to find the right one for me.


I never ended up using the bathroom, but we did figure out that their was a third room for women further down the corridor...place so that it felt like it was...a disgrace? Like Women weren't welcome to use the facilities in this place.
Binky ended up taking me to dinner...but it was awkward...
There was actually a thing where the people there didn't like women.
They'd ignore me.
I had to wear a veil type of idea...so that they didn't have to look at me.
And they were really unwilling to let a foreign girl sit at the table and eat food.


I have no idea why
but the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away
And I became myself again.


-S.N.D