Arts and Crafts

Last summer, knowing Kerry's fondness for visual representations of books she's read and both of our sentimentality for summer reading programs, I made her a beautiful construction paper pirate ship. It said something like "Sail the Seven Seas With Reading!" and there were construction paper doubloons for her to attach for every book she read. I'm pretty sure this piece of art was left, ignored, at our parent's house for several weeks.

Realizing that the best presents are the ones you give yourself, I decided to make my own construction paper motivator for myself this year. The above frog represents the result of ninety minutes of work (don't let anyone tell you that kitchen shears can't be used for arts and crafts projects - they force you to cut more attentively and everyone appreciates the traces of salmonella on your project). Sure, the time could have been better spent reading, but every time I pass by Froggy, with his rejoinder to "Hop into Reading," and see the dead flies of my books clinging to his flaccid tongue, I am reminded of the importance of reading as its own reward (and also beating my sister).