But I don’t wanna go to bed. The sun is still up.

Daylight savings time is killer on a toddler’s routine. She gets out of her bed every 10-15 minutes until close to 9:30. Tomorrow morning is going to be awful. I need to wake her at 6:00 AM when her little body still thinks it’s 5:00 AM.

Come morning, I bribe her to get out of bed with the promise of some TV before we leave…as long as she gets a move on.

It’s not time to go to school, Mama. It’s too dark outside.

She’s right. Just last week the sun threatened to burn a hole through your eyes when we pulled from the garage. Leaving home in the dark has a certain kind of eeriness about it…so much more so than coming home in the dark.

Along our way to school, the sky begins to brighten and we can see the trucks hauling their cargo beside us. It’s a new favorite game of ours.

What’s in that truck, Mom?

I think it’s a whole bunch of balloons.

And that one?

It must be macaroni and cheese.

It’s a fun game that began one day when she saw a large salad painted onto the side of a semi as we traveled our familiar route.

Look. God is painting the sky this morning.

When I look at the horizon, my heart stops. She’s right. It’s so beautiful that it could only have been created by God.

I think my Angels are helping him. They like to paint.

These are such wise words from a child who has never really spent a Sunday morning in church. Although we talk about God and she unfortunately is all too familiar with angels, we don’t attend any sort of formal religious services. We pray pretty regularly a simple prayer of Thank you, God, for…and please keep safe… Of course, we talk about our Angel Grandmas–we have all too many of those. Although we are fortunate to have many Grandfathers, we are light on Grandmas as they have all been called to heaven much earlier than anyone could have ever anticipated.

My Angels are good painters. Do you see all that pink, Mama? That’s my favorite color. They know that. They are painting for me.

I’m sure they are, Little One. I’m sure they are.

I am writing for the 2019 March Slice of Life Challenge