Mud Pie

"But Momma," she says, "my mind is SMALL. And I'm thinking of a LOT of things in a row." Jane raises a shoulder, blinks.

I sigh. "Honey, you STILL have to obey me." Obey. We let that sit for a moment between us.

"I know," she says, shakes her head.

We lock eyes, "MAKE it important to you," I say. "You're not in trouble because you forgot, you're in trouble because you did not MAKE it important to you."

"Oh," she unravels, "now THAT makes a little more sense."







"Sleep with me," Jack shouts. "Momma, SLEEP with me!" Night time and the children rollick into bed. They shout and cavort and carry on.

I lean down onto bottom bunk, "Honey, I sleep with Daddy."

"Sleep with me," he says and pokes out bottom lip.

"Maybe someday you'll marry a woman JUST like me," I say.

He grabs small hands around my neck, "NO," he shouts, "I'm gonna marry YOU, Momma!" He squeezes my neck tight. I smile into his cheek.







"How are you this morning, Little One?" I measure out oatmeal and flax.

"Um," Lulie says, "BIG."

I brew coffee and count children showered and ready for morning mush. Then we sit and eat.

"Jane, how do you like Kindergarten?" I want to know.

"I LOVE it," she scoops oatmeal, balances a sliver of peach on the spoon.

"What do you love about it?"

She swallows, carves another crater in the oatmeal, "Being older," she says.

Older. Everyday. A million miles an hour. Older.








Gratitude:

183. Tons and tons of canned peaches. With cinnamon, brown sugar.

184. Child hands that help me skin peaches before we can.

185. Blanched and frozen beans, bright green.

186. The kitchen clean, counters wipe all down.

187. Tired husband who makes grown-up talk with tired wife.

188. Cinnamon syrup on huckleberry pancakes.

189. Husband who knows how to flip pancakes. Stacks in the oven.

190. How husband captured the black widow spider I spotted next to the front door.

191. The children's WIDE eyes at the spider still jarred up on our counter.

192. The clean floors husband mopped for me while we made conversation.

193. Pine-sol.

194. Red headed baby who looks terrible in pink.

195. Memory pages the children color while we meditate over verses.

196. A festoon of sharp pencils, fresh in every color.