Smylies Forever

^^Tada and Ruby reading before bed. Ah, the love the emanates from this room when these two girls are together... (well, most of the time).

What do you do when you move to a city where you don't know a soul? You get a lot of quality time with your kids! It's a jumble of good, bad, wit's end, head-exploding, have-to-go-to-the-beach-to-stop-the-fighting, learning, appreciating and listening better. 

Good news is, the girls have taken up surfing. Walking out to the beach is now a full-blown circus. Four little ones, three surfboards, a boogie board, two chairs, a few towels, a bag, life jackets, a sand bucket and several shovels. And Tada when she plants her feet and refuses to walk. 

But we get out there and stay 'til bedtime. We get home and Jake rinses and hangs wetsuits, lifejackets, swimsuits and towels. I trudge upstairs and extract sand from four girls' hair. They are spent and lift their dinner forks slowly to their mouths and bad attitudes and stink eyes are prevalent. 

Then, it's up to bed. They sleep in just t-shirts since it's August and there is no air conditioning here. There is sand on their sheets, always, so I spread a blanket across each of their mattresses so I don't have to take their sheets off and shake them every night. 

The calmness that descends on our family at this time is what I live for. Their chests rise and fall and I think back on the day, how it races by until this moment when time stops and all is quiet. I do what my mother always did, wipe the counters, clean the dishes, straighten the chairs, make small talk with Dad. I remember hearing their voices, just like mine and Jake's, laughing quietly together as I went to sleep as a little girl. 

Today's a new day and as I write this, the girls are playing babies in the garage. I glanced in a few minutes ago and they had 8 baby dolls lined up on Jake's work bench and a full plan of activities lined up for them. 

Need to go break up some fights now --

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