Babies don't keep

The good days in my house make the bad ones seem so trivial. Today, all 5 kids are in a great mood. Lucas is being a polite, little gentleman to his sisters. The girls are using their manners, saying please and thank you. The big kids were incredibly obedient while Baby Girl received her weekly, in home physical therapy this morning. We ate at a lunch table abounding with laughter.

Elizabeth told me she likes it when I call her "My love" and then she proceeded to write the following spelling words without any help from her teacher (that would be me): top, six, red, my, and & cat.

Today, I feel like the best Mom in the world. My sink is full of dishes, my laundry room has exploded into the hallway once more and my kitchen is a wreck but my kids and I have had an awesome day. One full of smiles and laughter, giggles, hugs and kisses.

It reminds me of this poem by Ruth Hamilton:

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Ruth is right, babies surely don't keep. See....

And to think. This little baby wrote out six spelling words all by herself today. Crap, where did I put those kleenex?

(Just to clarify, the above photo is of Elizabeth, all of 2 days old. Babies don't keep, not one bit.)