This job of being a full time mom is pretty hectic. There is a lot of running around, picking up, dropping off, talking, listening, soothing, managing, feeding, etc., etc.

So with all that going on what would you think would be the sweetest part of my day?

Would you guess that it’s the first ten minutes of the morning before I wake the kids for school? A time when I can drink a little coffee all by myself and breathe deeply before the stuff hits the fan?

Nah. That’s not it. I am not a morning person and fail to appreciate one single thing before 8 a.m.

Would you guess the moment after I have dropped my youngest off at preschool and I have a whole two hours all to myself?

Nah, that’s not it either. Do you know how much stuff I need to get done in those two hours? Yeah. Me neither, lately.

What about after lunch when my little person trots off to the playroom and busies herself long enough that I can gab on the phone with a friend for ten minutes?

Well. I do love to gab with friends. I really do. But that’s not it either.

How about in the afternoon when school gets out? My kindergartener and her friends fill the house and laugh and talk and play and it makes the whole stay-at-home-parent thing worthwhile.

I have to admit, this is a highpoint of my day, but still not the very sweetest.

How about when my husband gets home and I get my whole family all together around the table for dinner?

Well. Sometimes this is okay, but those of you with small children know how hard it is to get everyone to sit at the table and focus and use some table manners and actually EAT SOMETHING!

No, someday dinner will be nice, but not just yet.

I’ll tell you what the very sweetest part of my day is. Every day, without fail, the very sweetest part of my day as a mom comes when everyone is in their jammies with teeth brushed and we head upstairs to read together.

My two girls and I, we all climb onto the bed and get in under the covers. We really have to squeeze because we are sharing this bed with a zoo-full of stuffed animals.

We are reading chapter books now so we first talk about what was happening in the story last night and sometimes what we think is going to happen next, or how we feel about it.

Then I start reading and we all have our attention focused on the same thing, which is extremely rare around here. Quite frankly, it’s bliss.

There are often questions, sometimes surprising ones. It’s hard to be cognizant of all the things kids don’t know yet, but reading with them brings them out. I feel like this is when I really get to know how they think.

And they know they can keep me going. They know how much I love it and they often coax me into “one more page” again and again. We always stay up just a little bit too late because reading together is SO MUCH FUN!

I love how involved we all are in it. I love working together to pick the next book. I love when we are at the grocery store walking up and down aisles and talking about Ramona or Pippi.

I love the goodwill that comes from sharing a book together. It wipes the slate clean and reminds my girls that no matter what kind of a day we had, I still love being with them.

And that is why the very sweetest part of every day is the bedtime read.