Tonight was not a special night, not more than any other week. Jessi and Jess went off to watch The Bachelorette, leaving the kiddos with me and Bucky. I was drinking leftover tasting drinks (hard pumpkin spice latte and hard vanilla cider), and the kids decided it was a fine night to scoot up and down the sidewalk, constantly going from Bucky's garage to my driveway, where we'd set up some blankets where the kids could lay down and look at the stars.
And I felt for one moment this monumental sense of how great it is. That a normal night could be me and my brother with each of our piles of kids just riding up and down the street, playing, laughing, occasionally shrieking. My new neighbor came by, talked for a little bit with us, and it was fun and small and funny. I was just this side of tipsy, taking it all in, reining in my kids as they haphazardly did haphazardly things with their cousins.
It's my greatest wish that my kids can learn to be happy, and take these incredible blessings for granted, thinking that nothing could be more natural than living two doors down from your family.
<3
