one by one

We were here.

All. Five. Of. Us. Together. At 4am.  One by one the children found refuge, escaping their bad dreams, loneliness, and cold silent rooms.  Stumbling into the warm, safe envelope of familiarity, they each carved out a small space for themselves in our bed.  Their buns at my back, elbows in my tummy, soft feathery hair tickling my nose, whispers and whimpers- we slept (sort of.) 

All occupants are gone now (minus Sophie who makes her home here most of the day) each off to their own day's direction.  Work, school, play dates.  Alone, I paced the house looking for a place to start cleaning up (overwhelmed by the choices :) Down the hall and past the bedroom I walked, seeing the bed. I was drawn towards it with the fresh memory of how my day began.  Pulling the covers back in effort to make it, I stopped.  There was still warmth under the sheets from the squishy little bodies that snuggled there just hours ago. I smiled and left it unmade- counting the hours until we could all be there together again.

Then I went off to sew and bake and read and watch the movie that blockbuster sent me in the mail over 3 weeks ago do the dishes.