A Proposal

I just put Linden to bed.  She was asking a mix of existential and scientific questions, as she often does at bedtime.  "What would happen if the world was spinning really fast, like good morning! Good night!  Good morning!" 

I came downstairs and transferred the 4th of the laundry loads that the Winemaker started today into the dryer, just so I could say I helped.  He and Oak were spinning tops on the kitchen floor, counting out the seconds the tops spun depending on their spinning technique.  I was thinking about our first IEP meeting tomorrow morning, which is at 8:00, a half hour before school starts, but twenty minutes after the kids usually catch the bus.  I pictured myself saying, "I have a proposal--let's take the kids to the bus stop, then go get a cup of good coffee on our way to the meeting."  Then, because we have such a predictable sense of humor, I was imagining me first saying, "I have a proposal...will you marry me?  I love you more than I ever could have imagined, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you." 

Then I paused, hands deep in the dryer, and thought--well THAT'S all true.  Lately I've been lazy,  and he's been crabby with the kids, and we've both been sick and spending far too much time on our respective computers....and I love him to pieces.   It was so swooningly romantic those dozen years ago, when we were in that crazy hormonal stage of love.  Now it's more about getting behind on laundry and taking kids to Tae Kwon Do and running out of TP and asking him to be sure to pick up my dad's ashes at the post office because I keep forgetting to on my way home from work--but the love is even more central to my life.  I want to spend the rest of my life with him. I love him more than I could ever have imagined.