The moon was high in the night sky

by the time we had gotten everyone situated on the trampoline. My sweetheart and I had just retired to our sleeping arrangements on the deck when our youngest duck insisted on cuddling in between us. Soon, everyone was asleep and I lay listening to the creek and crickets and the rustling of the trees. I stared at the stars until my eyelids became too heavy to bear and my thoughts turned to dreams. Not an hour later we awoke to the sound that all parents know too well, the sound that takes you from zero to 100 in approximately one second. We worked in the darkness as if we had rehearsed a thousand times before. I take the child he takes the bedding, thirty minutes later we fall asleep in our own beds to the quiet hum of the washing machine.

So today I am home with this:

but I have Sunday shirts to iron, laundry to wash, a good book to read, Oreos to eat and a husband to take the children to the pool. I will serve her soup and crackers on a flowery serving tray and read her a book or two or 20 and when we are done we will settle into a movie together

and I will enjoy playing nurse because I know these days won't last forever.

happy pioneer day,