Budgets are worse than caffeine...

I fell asleep next to my Bear tonight. I love our bedtime routine. I bathe the kids and brush their teeth and hair. Then, it's time to give both of them their cups of milk and snuggle them down into their cozy little beds. I don't know what I'm going to do when they aren't both in the same room anymore. I make sure that the room is spotless and dimly lit...And then I kiss them and sit down to read Bible stories to them until they fall asleep. Princess looks at me until she can't hold her eyes open any longer, and then she snuggles onto her pillow and closes her little eyes. Bear responds with "Uh huh, Mommy," to everything that I say until he finally gets too sleepy. Then I sit there in the peaceful quiet and contemplate the changes that constantly occur in my life. I think that it is the most relaxing time of my whole day. Tonight, I got a little carried away and read two or three stories to myself after Princess went to sleep. Bear leaned up in his bed - with a smile on his face - and pulled my back to reality with a giggly "Mommy!" So I sat on his bed next to him where he could see the pictures and read the story to him. We prayed, and then it wasn't long at all until we were both fast asleep. It was one of those few times in my adult life that I have been as relaxed as I was when I was a child.

You know - that "everything is okay" feeling that children feel without even realizing that they are feeling it? No worries. No stress. That's when money grows on camelia bushes and death only happens to random old people in books and movies. The biggest decisions that you have to make is whether to play "hide and seek" or "red rover"...Reality doesn't scale down your dreams...and war is a card game...

I watched Princess movies yesterday - two of them. You must understand...watching two movies is alot for me. Until a couple of weeks ago, the closest thing to a movie that I had watched was a Veggie Tale DVD. (All right, I did watch the Veggie Tale pirate movie...Great movie. Annoying yankee accent.) I love princess movies. Cinderella made me cheer and clap and cry - without realizing what I was doing until I did it. Princess Diaries 2 made me cheer the mean guy turned caring, sensitive sweet guy on. I kind of thought he needed a hair cut, though. At least he dressed nicely - and he was a gourmet chef. But so was Ratatouille. I didn't really like that movie. Some of the content was a little off color for children. We bought the movie, and I haven't allowed my children to watch it yet.

It all happened so fast...I've never had time to catch my breath... in dreams you're all alone...