What Shift is This?

I have this dream of going to bed on time, getting up at 6 or 7, and having a day that has all the normal parts in the right order. But it doesn't happen very often. I have so many kids, and they are all on varying schedules, and they all need to see me. So I see different kids at different times, and once in a while, I get to be alone. Some of the kids will only talk to me if nobody is making noise or listening, which makes sense, because there is so much going on to interrupt even the most well-formed thoughts. 

So I got into bed before 10, and immediately was being pummeled by the gymnast baby girl (15 months), while the three-year-old girl begged to be read to. Not a bad request. But the little LED light we tried to use was dim, and my dear husband was trying to sleep, and I finally vacated the premises for the downstairs. I dressed the baby, who had been wearing just a diaper, and she and her sister moved to another sister's bedroom to lick her salt lamp. And spit out the bad taste. And repeat. 

But downstairs were more children. Sasha was still awake, in bed, and grumpy; I found Zina untangling her yarn, Gabriel insomniac, Myron conked out... that's good. Herman and I spent a while musing about his paper for school, and I searched around the internet for answers to my burning questions about the real situation around the world. It's a little too much to endure. 

If I'm really lucky, I'll wake up at 4, have no awake kids yet, and also have the energy to clean and cook. Later, I'll fall asleep, but maybe that will be a fortunate case of got-something-actually-done syndrome. 

That brief rest before getting back up fooled me into feeling awake again, and even a little happy.