Us Chicks...

So, I don't know about the rest of you, but we have a little nighttime getting ready for bed routine with the hoolies that Kev and I always do together - a tag team event of sorts. When it's time for all the little boys to hit the hay, he & I will together, help them into their p.j.'s, help them brush their teeth, get their beds and music all organized, pick up their toys from the day, give them their last sips of water, etc. etc. etc. You know the drill.

Often, in the midst of this ritual - me, Mrs. Easily Distracted - will run off to do that last minute thing "super fast" that I just remembered needed to get done, and I will leave poor Kevy hanging.

Usually, it goes down something like this:
Me: "Oh! Kevy!!! (Said with much excitement and urgency) I forgot to shut the girls in their roost, and it's getting dark. I'm just going to run out and do that really quickly before a fox gets them."
Kevy: "Quickly...Yeah right."
Me: "No. Seriously. It'll take like 30 seconds." (And off I fly like the wind).

My intentions are always good. Sometimes, it does "take like 30 seconds." Other times, he has to go on an Amy hunt. And if I were to be completely honest, maybe even most times he has to go on an Amy hunt. Ahem. Take last night for instance. The plan was just to shut the girls in their roost. But, we got chatting about the day, and well... you know...time ticks away. We were having a lovely conversation, and a couple of them didn't want to go to bed, and then they were telling me the lovliest of stories...and well, 30 seconds sort of turned into ten minutes. It happens to the best of us. I'm working on it.

597. Nighttime chicky routines (Please pardon the baby talk).
598. Patient, understanding hubby (You can hear his "HELLO???" in the background)
599. Who doesn't easily anger or get irritated
600. And who loves my chickies as much as I do.

(Okay, scratch #600. It's a lie).
Moving right along....
********

Yesterday deserves a whole blog post of its own, really.
It deserves a whole page of blessings recorded.
I love days like yesterday. They are food for the soul:

580. Super early in the a.m. playdate call to old college friend. She says yes.
581. 6 kids playing happily
582. 2 Mamas on the porch, 3 hrs., (mostly) uninterrupted conversation
583. Heavy & silly, simplicity & depth, gut exploding laughter & serious life stuff
584. Years of history - still meshing lives
585. Mutual encouragement, challenge, & inspiration
586. More treasures! - Taddy eggs, larvae, a butterfly, & 2 more newts
587. She, farther down life's road - wisdom & grace to give
588. 3 little girls, graciously rock it out in a boy's world for a day
589. All go to bed with heart's full & spirit's happy - God's gift of FRIENDSHIP!

Oh man. It's the simple pleasures that give such beauty in the rest of life's mundane. A mid-week break from the normalcy of our typical days - where two busy Mamas with six kids between us agreed to put a hold on all that needed, and should've gotten done in our day. Instead of doing, we chose to stop for a few hours and just "be."

We let our kids run free and we re-connected. Two women, two wives, two Mamas - for just a couple of hours - stopped the race. We put our blurring, whirling lives on hold, we sat, we listened, and we saw each's other's hearts.

"It is our very presence in each other's lives that makes US the gift. It is by the very function of our being, not our doing, that we are the beloved of God. And so we become the love of God, blessing those He loves." - One Thousand Gifts