Thankful

This is definitely my favorite time of day. It's 9:30pm- my boys are in bed, the TV is set to MY channel (not cartoons, a Pixar movie or some sports program) and everything is cleaned up and ready for tomorrow to begin.
This is the only time in my day that there are no children pulling at the hem of my shirt and nothing needs to be picked up, folded, cooked, diapered, wiped, fed or entertained. It's just me, my husband and our quiet house.

Ace is still at work on this particular night, but today I'm okay with that. I'm enjoying the silence. It's been a pretty normal week overall. Lots of kids. Lots of messes. Lots of blogging and worrying about blogging and procrastinating from blogging. I've spent the last few days kind of floundering about trying to come up with things to say here, but I feel like finally I'm comfortable and okay to just say what I'm thinking.

Tonight, I'm thinking that I'm grateful. The month of November always seems to get people thinking about what they're thankful for and personally I'm thankful for a lot. Despite the chaos of my day to day, my life is one that I love. I have my days that I get into self-pity mode. I have my days that I feel like I fail at everything.
I also have days like today that remind me of exactly why I love my job and my husband and my kids so much. Nothing really spectacular happened or anything, I just had a lot of those little moments today where things just feel so happy and easy and right.
When I left this morning to go to my "mini-Physical" I mentioned yesterday, I left Ace with all of the kids. Only a husband like Ace would take on such a task without complaint. As I was headed out the door, Ace said "Bye Babe, I love you!" and was followed by two other little voices- "I love you Mom!" (Zack) and "I Love you Andra!" (My nephew Mason). The other two aren't old enough to talk yet, but they both looked up as if to say the same thing.

THAT. RIGHT THERE. That is why I do what I do. That is why I put up with the messes and the squabbles and the whining and the pooooooooop. Because at the end of the day, that man and those little people and their parents and so forth.... they all love me and I love them and they are grateful for what I do. I can't imagine anything better than that.