Silence is Golden

Just a quick post before I head off to bed -- early tonight -- I feel like I've been working the night shift lately, but more on that later! I just had to share about my dear friend Kim (friends about 18 years, I think! Amazing since we are SO young still!). Anyway, Kim and her husband Michael were blessed with triplets -- if I ever feel exhausted from chasing after my kids, I think about them... The triplets started Pre-K this past week and Kim sent out a cute note and pictures of them going off to school (how adorable is that picture?). I sent her a note back and asked her whatever was she going to do with her time while they were in school? Kim replied, "Girlfriend: 1) Workout, 2) Shop, 3) Straighten out my "piles" and 4) Listen to silence!"

I can completely relate to the joy of having a chance to catch my breath and listen to -- well, NOTHING! My own thoughts in my head... I love my girls with all my heart but every once in a while (several times a week?) I feel like I want to turn the volume down on everyone in my house! Tonight, after dinner and before bedtime, I was sitting on the couch feeling quite tired and ready to go to bed myself. My 7-year-old had dressed herself in last Halloween's Tinkerbell costume and was flitting about the living room singing made-up song after made-up song. Pretty melodies, bizarre lyrics... Something about visiting her cousin Gail (doesn't have one) to play a game of charades and she was rhyming Gail with all sorts of words like bail and jail... No idea where this stuff comes from. Anyway, she was competing (volume-wise) with her 2-year-old sister who was watching "My Friends Tigger & Pooh" and it was an episode about Rabbit trying to sleep and being kept awake by a woodpecker pecking on his home (a tree). So while the tv was on, and her sister was tapping around dancing and singing, my little one is loudly giving me a play-by-play of the episode. Let me recap for you, "Pecker, and pecker, and Rabbit, and Lumpy, and so Pecker, and Lumpy and Pecker" and on and on...

Sometimes it seems neverending -- today all four of us went to the dentist (littlest one just went along for the ride) and while I was sitting in the chair, with the tv on in front of me (our dentist is hi-tech -- flat screen tv's on every chair, which is great for distracting my daughter while her teeth are being cleaned) tuned to the Disney channel, as my littlest one is in her stroller behind me, and her older sister is in a little chair next to her. So, I've got the sound of the tv, the sound of whatever the hygienist is doing to my teeth, the little girlie calling, "Mommy, guess what?" and the older girlie talking a bluestreak to the hygienist who is not doing a very convincing job of making interested polite listening noises. Today really was a louder day than usual in our house... Maybe it has something to do with the phases of the moon, or the tides or something.

I love to hear my girls laughing, I love to hear my girls playing nicely together or singing a song. Tonight at bedtime they were trying to do their prayers before my husband and I got into the room and I could hear my sweet baby say in her sweet baby voice, "Our Father" which sounded like it had a "v" instead of a "th" -- those sounds are all so sweet to me. Even so, there is something so peaceful about this time of the day when everyone is tucked into bed and the whole house is quiet. But tonight, instead of staying up to enjoy the silence -- I'm off to get some sleep myself!

What is your most peaceful time of day?