We have four kids.

Four lively, spunky, wild kids. And a boisterous dog. (Can’t forget her.)

Our days are filled with noise and lots of it. It stretches from sun up to sun down, fills up the house and leaks out the windows and doors.  It follows us wherever we go; there is no place in our home where we are immune to it.  Well, no place outside of Dad’s noise canceling head phones, but the man has to work because SOMEONE has to put food on the table.  The noise is in the basement, at the table and in the bathroom.

It really does have a life of it’s own, this noise.  Or should I say, Noise.

But, even with Noise as a constant presence in the house, THIS is our normal.

Normally, someone somewhere is with a book.  Amidst the Noise and chaos and mess, someone is reading. And normally, I let them be.  But when I headed to bed at midnight last night and saw a glow coming from the kid’s room, I had to ask for the book.

In that moment- for reals- I asked myself, “Is this normal?” Then, just as quick, I knew that whatever the answer may be, it didn’t matter to me.

This is our normal and I like it.