Morning thoughts.

I'm much more of a night owl than a morning person. But after I've gotten over the shock of the alarm clock going off, had some orange juice and checked my email, I actually do like mornings with my kids. The boys usually wake up before me, but they know not to EVER come in my room when I'm sleeping unless it's to SILENTLY climb into bed with me. SILENTLY. They will busy themselves with some quiet activity in the living room like lego building or randomly clicking around on the computer screen until something fun pops up. This morning they continued last night's pre-bedtime activity: designing their own chucks on the converse website. I like their designs, but $45 for shoes? For my kids? Who don't even wear shoes?

At exactly 8:20, I emerge from my room and start issuing orders to get dressed, tell me what they want for breakfast, put socks on (you would think this would be part of getting dressed, but no), get glasses, backpacks, show-and-tell objects, etc. While they're doing all this I'm usually in the kitchen making breakfast (always one of three selections: toast, cheerios or oatmeal) and packing lunches. This morning Eric was eating his oatmeal while I made his sandwich. He informed me that yesterday I put his sandwich in Brigham's lunch. Eric likes a whole sandwich with peanut butter and jam, cut diagonally. Brigham likes a half-sandwich, just peanut butter, FOLDED IN HALF, not cut.

"My lunchbox is tall and black and Brigham's is short and black."

[short pause]

"And I'm the kid without the glasses."

Then I take them to school, come home and have a wrestling match with Marley that sometimes, but not always, ends with one or more clips residing in her hair for up to fifteen minutes. So I take pictures of her to document my efforts.

Then we're ready to face the day!