A Fall Morning

I wake to someone patting my face, chanting "Mumee!  Mumee!  Mumee!" into the dark.  I open my eyes a fraction and see him crack a smile, joyful that I seemed to have come around.  Although I went to bed last night with on companion, I wake to 4 - which explains the crick in my neck.   Husband's shapeless form to my left, 1 daughter's head heavy on my stomach, another with freezing feet pressed to my thigh, and then of course this little person pat pat patting my face and urging me up and out.  "Go down?  Go down?"  he gestures toward the door, stairs.  Its then that I am aware of how cold it truly is out there - outside of our snuggly warm nest with down and wool and 5 bodies snuggled together.  October 31st - and I had hoped to make it to November first without heat.  Well, maybe we still could.

I take the girls into their room, slip their shivering bodies into sweaters and jeans and extra socks, and head on downstairs, Jo-boy still in his jammies, cuddled to my chest.  It is colder down here.  I grab an extra blanket and tuck the kids in on the couch.  They shiver and I start the coffee pot.

Outside there are more leaves on the ground than on any tree.  The wind blows and little tornadoes of leaves twist and twirl their way down the street.  Today I will need to dig out coats and mittens, and take stock of the snow pant situation.  For as anyone from Michigan knows, a sunny fall day can very quickly turn to a winter wonderland, and I want to be ready.

Coffee ready, I pour it into my sunshine yellow cup and lace my fingers around its waist, warming my hands.  Now to the couch where the littles pounce and try to be the one to sit on my lap.  I manage two, with the third patted by a spare hand.  Its here that, after sufficient kissing and hugging and loving, I reach for this book, the one I've had since I was an awkward 8 year old.

And here in this space, kids like ducks in a row on the couch, here is where we ground ourselves, set our feet on the path for the day and pray that we don't stray.  Here is where we speak our hopes and fears and dearest desires and know that we are heard.

Its just one of our ordinary days, yet I feel the need to write it all down, remember this time, this space, these moments.  We only get to live them once.