I am exhausted

Seriously feel like I have been ran over by a huge bus, then flattened by the train that was behind it and then just for good measure I feel like I have been pummeled by a mixer - you know the kind that have the two spinning things?  It has been a very, very hard week and a half.  For a number of reasons, but the topping on the cake?  My kids have gotten a bad head cold.  The kind of head cold that they wake up every thirty minutes crying all.night.long.  The kind of head cold where one of them gets it, starts to finally feel better and then wham the next one gets it.  And family is in town, family that we don't see very often, and tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I have not slept more than an hour at a time for a while.  I am wiped out.  I want to crawl into bed and sleep for a week and drink huge vats of coffee while curled up on the sofa in front of the fire place.  Except we do not have a fire place and caffeine has been bugging me lately so I have to limit how much I can have and the day must go on even if I am fresh out of the umpf needed to get the day done.  But in spite of the exhaustion and the dirty dishes piled up, the laundry that needs to be folded and the worksheets I need to look over and hand back for corrections, there have been some beautiful moments tucked into the last few days...  

1) rocking my youngest, she is still small enough to be rocked, in a quite living room at three in the morning and hear her say "sing it again, Momma?"  (Away in a Manger)

2) laying down next to my kids when they are sick and have them curl into me and feel them completely relax.

3)  hanging up window clings today in between me reading aloud and seeing their delighted eyes sparkle. 

4)  lighting the cinnamon candle and having it make everything smell so very yummy

5)  reading a good book and becoming so lost in it that I forget I am not actually there

6)  reading the story Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott that we have read every year since my oldest was five years old.

7)  knowing if we get to go tomorrow there may be a very yummy green bean casserole on the table

8)  sipping my cup of hot coffee, microwaving it after it sat too long, forgetting it and then finding it later when I go to pop the kids some popcorn :)

9)  remembering Thanksgiving pasts and hoping for Thanksgiving futures and realizing each moment is precious