A mother’s arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.

Today I came home to flowers by my door. I thought of a couple people they could be from; sure enough they were from Ralph. It’s a lovely boquet and tomorrow I’m going to put it in the sunshine, right when you walk in my front door.

Cosleeping. One of the most wonderful experiences in my life is sharing our nights as a family. Recently, Nels has been reading his father to sleep – making his way through every volume of the Children’s First Encyclopedia set (gifted my children by their great-aunt). When the two of them sleep this way it’s the most wonderful thing; I’ll peek in at one AM or so and Ralph is fast asleep, Nels reading aloud softly and petting his father. These nights I get the reciprocal love and affection from Phoenix; usually staying up and watching something funny and giggling together, finally turning off the screen and holding one another and talking about how much we love the other. Last night I ended up staying up later than everyone else and at two AM I started crying over something and my daughter surfaced a bit while sleeping and pet me and said, “It’s okay, Mama… it’s going to be okay.”

I would not have missed our nighttimes together, just like our daytimes together, for the world.

Today was a good day.