Safely Gathered in

The day begins with a hot breakfast. Hungry children eat the pancakes as quick as their mother can flip them off the grill. When they are finally full the family gathers for scriptures and prayers before the children venture out for a day of school. When they arrive home they munch warm cookies and quickly bike off to visit neighborhood friends. At days end the weary mother calls out to her children and eventually ends up walking down the lane way to retrieve them. They come home tired and sweaty from their adventures with a group of new friends. As they find their jammies, the mother makes her way out to the chicken coop while the North wind blows and the clouds threaten rain. The chickens ruffle their feathers and make their way to shelter as the skies darken. Inside the coop the chicks are quiet and snuggled together for the night. Some are sleeping in pairs on a comfy straw bed and others are huddled together under the warmth of the heat lamp. She closes the doors up tight and makes sure everyone is tucked in safe from the coming storm. On her way back to the house she rescues the pumpkin seedlings from the greenhouse and brings them in to the warmth of their home. 

The mother comes inside to a happy scene as the children are all snuggled together on the couch watching a movie. Legs and arms are sprawled everywhere as all five try and fit on a single couch piled with blankets. She smiles as she scoops up the toddler and brings him for a bubble bath. They play in the tub while she wipes his face and washes his sticky hands. There is water everywhere, but he is happy.

When a blanket of darkness settles upon them, the oldest girl and her mother venture back out to the chicken coop to lock the runs and keep the pesky fox out of the hen house. They are roosting happily out of doors, shielded by the coop from the chilly North wind. As the last door latches shut the mother hears a sound near the top garden and pauses to listen. The oldest daughter walks through the chicken run and discovers a mamma hen frantically trying to find her way through the fence to safety. As they near the mamma hen, they discover two more huddled together near a fence post, lost and unable to find their way home once darkness came. They circle wide and walk with their hands out to the side, gently shooing them in the direction of the gate. Just as they near the opening, one of the mamma hens slips between the daughter's legs and runs in the other direction. The mother mutters to herself with half a smile, "Stupid chickens" to which the daughter replies, "Actually, they are quite smart if you think about it!" Both the girl and the mother laugh as they run around the field trying to shoo the hens to safety for the night only to have them narrowly escape their efforts at every turn. Eventually the daughter, out of breath and annoyed, pulls her sleeves over her hands, scoops up the mamma hen, and walks her back to her house. The other two eventually make their way around to the other gate and the mother sighs with relief and hurries in to her baby who was left happily playing in his crib under the watch of his big brother.

Now, the extra tired mother returns inside to a baby who is up to his armpits in poop and a toddler building a block tower in his doorway instead of sleeping in his bed. The baby is bathed and kissed a million times over by the mother and doting sister and then nursed to sleep while the mother reads the final chapters of "Heidi" to her little girl. When everyone is finally asleep, and the house is still, the mother smiles at her efforts and feels the peace that comes with everything being safely gathered in.