After (5 minute prompt)

After 3/4/14

The sun rises. Breakfast, dressed, hugs and kisses. Older kids out the door.

Brooke and William and I are on our own.  I am the entertainment for the day.

Exercise, clean up, shower.  Read books, run errands or go to music class or the library.

We keep busy. Then lunch and quiet time and naps. If Brooke naps, she is much happier.

She usually doesn’t nap.

Then a project or we bake or we clean.

Older kids come home.  Chaos ensues.  “Drop your school stuff in the right place. Put away your boots.”

Snacks and homework.  Reading lego books and sounding out words.

Attempt to make dinner while helping with homework, holding William and refereeing fights.

Wish for spring or summer so the kids can play outside.

Blake comes home and rescues me.

Eat dinner and try to teach manners.  Talk about our best part of the day.

Clean up. Showers. Reading. Sometimes tv show.

Bedtime routine. Teeth, potty, book, chatting. 

The day is full of chaos and sometimes quiet moments.  Fighting and laughing and arguing and hitting.

My role is to be their mom. To be their everything. To be their safe place. Their crying shoulder.

After they are asleep and it is quiet and still, I peek in on them.

William in the opposite end of the bed we put him in because he was chatting with Spencer.

Bum in air.

Spencer sprawled out, half uncovered. Peaceful boy face.

Hailey wrapped in her cheetah blanket. Wrapped like a butterfly in a cocoon.

Brooke on her back. The quietest she is during the day.  Gripping her stuffed and overloved frog.

After the crazy day comes the remembering of what my position is.

After the storm comes the peace and knowing that I can do this again tomorrow.