the nap

We had been running on low fumes for a few weeks, between the jobs and kids' activities, and the homework, and the regular chores, and holidays, and sweet baby Jesus the clutter.  And so one night during bedtime, I found myself staring down two huge hampers of dried, clean laundry in the girls' room.  He put the boys to bed, and while I folded laundry, the girls chatted themselves into sleep.

A little while later, he snuck out of the boys' room and stood at the doorway to the girls' room while I sat in front of an almost empty second basket of clothes surrounded by piles and piles of cleaned laundry.

'How's it going in here?' he asked groggily, clearly having just woken himself up after putting the boys to bed.
'Slowly, I'm so tired, babe."
"I know, me too.  I have to do the garbage yet."

and he was standing there in his comfy sweatpants and hoodie
with that face I've been looking at and loving since I was a teenager
and I was so very sleepy

so I patted the floor in this little open space among the laundry piles and asked, "come lay with me?"
"if I lay down I'm not getting up for awhile."
"yeah, this is definitely a nap that I'm proposing."

and then he smiled
and I smiled back

And while the sound machine crickets chirped, surrounded in little piles of folded sparkles and pinkish purple frills, we wound our arms together, laid down, and closed our eyes.

We woke up about three hours later, disorientated, a little sore in the neck, and with full knowledge that the garbage still needed taken out and the dishwasher needed run and all those pinkish purple frills need put into the correct drawers.

We untangled, and he stood and helped me up from the floor, and we did a little mini team huddle - complete with 'okay break!- and got to our respective before.bed jobs with a renewed sense of energy - spurred from our three hour nap and the comfort that comes from a conspiratorial escape from duties.

and so the moral of this story is..

my sweet darlings,
be with the one who can help you up from the floor
but who will also lie down beside you sometimes too.
love,
your mumma.