it was midnight. i had just barely laid my head down on my fluffy white pillow when wes asked me what food he could bring tomorrow. i roll over and say, "what food?" and then he reminds me he needs some canned food to bring to the ernst and young golf tournament tomorrow morning. i get up and raid the pantry, but find relatively little canned things i would eat so i don't feel good about giving to others. i head down to the food storage supply a little creeped out because the basement at night always creeps me out. i walk over to the shelves of food and my foot gets wet. why are the pieces of carpet by my food storage wet? turns out my food storage water supply has slowly been leaking and seeping into our basement floor. i bring wes down and we start hauling the leaking water outside. We unload the food storage shelves so we can move them and pull up the pieces of carpet that are soaking wet. We set up a fan to air out the wet floor for the rest of the night. the whole time we are doing this i am watching wes and thinking it is kind of fun to do some good old fashioned work with him and watch him sweat a little. and then i think to myself, "if i hadn't bought this supply of water we wouldn't be doing this and i could be asleep in my bed." and then i thought, "what kind of a person regrets buying food storage?" answer: a very tired lame one. i got into bed at about one and fifteen minutes later halle was in bed with me too.
wes and i were watching the tv series "lost" in our basement the other night. it was getting pretty late, but we are addicted so we keep going. during a break between shows i asked him if he would go get me a drink of water. he, of course, said yes and left to get me one. and then i thought to myself "it is really nice that i have someone i can ask to go get me a drink of water."
halle has picked up on something i say. the first time she said it i was shocked and sad. when she is excited or upset she says, "oh my gosh!" i have said that for a long time and thought nothing of it, but hearing it come from her sweet mouth it sounds horrible. and the worst part is she got it from me. i felt bad telling her not to say it because i say it, so we are going to learn by example. halle and i are transitioning out of our "oh my gosh!" phases and starting to use "oh my goodness!" sounds so much better.
halle had a sleepover at grandma bell's last night. the day she left i told her she was going to sleep at grandma's house. she said, "i can't sleep at grandma's. i miss mommy so much." cute right? cute, except i taught her to say she would miss me so much when she doesn't really know what that means. she is actually going to have the time of her life eating junk food and getting spoiled. isn't that what happens when you sleep at grandma's house? anyways, i taught her that she would miss me and it seemed to stick because she told me she would. you think i am emotionally stunting her growth? you'll be wishing you had done the same thing when your kids move off to college and mine can't leave their mommy.
it is 8:22 and halle is not here. she didn't wake me up in the middle of the night to go get her. she didn't toss and turn in my bed all night. she didn't wake me up at 7:00 and she didn't say "mommy, get up out of this bed." i am not mixing up some chocolate milk and cereal for the little one like i do every single morning. i feel like there is something i am supposed to be doing, but i can't think of what it is.
and the point of all this is i have someone who takes care of me and i have someone to take care of.
it is a beautiful thing.
the family is a divine institution, perfectly set up, so we can fulfill our human potential and tap into the purest of pure Godly instincts that we all come to this earth with, and that is love.