Soul aid

The past few months have been full of things which have caused my heart to ache. So when a niece asked if she could come for a visit I was glad to see her arrive. My favorite little girls came for one night of her stay. It is always a heart healer for me to spend time with children. They are so genuine.

Julia and Meredith are missing their big sister this week. She is off at camp. So last night when they came over we decided it would be "Camp Nené." They have both called me Nené for all of their lives. "J" sounds are hard for little mouths and this just worked out easier for them in the beginning. Truthfully, they probably didn't think of calling me anything else as they just copied what their older sister had done.

Last night we did silly dances, watched Donald Duck, ate pizza and made cinnamon rolls for in the morning. The girls love doing a massage train so that was our last activity before bed. We all sit in a row and massage the back of the person in front of you. You switch places from time to time and then everyone ends up with a good massage. While we were doing the train we also had our "thankful time" and "what am I going to do this week to make the world a better place" time. Each of the girls was thankful their sister got to go to camp even though they were missing her. Their choices to make the world a better place included picking up litter, being nice to people, listening to mommy and daddy and putting away toys.

After we had finished we all gathered on my niece's airbed to say our goodnight prayers. The girls love to lay down and stretch out with all of us joining hands in the center to form a cross. I love praying with little ones. They just open up and pour out whatever is troubling them, what they are grateful for, and what they want. I love that these girls know that they can pray together and feel comfortable doing so. I pray they continue this even as adults. I too am so grateful for the chance to refresh my soul by spending time with little ones who love me. I am truly blessed.

Tired but thankful,

jené

P.S. You'd be tired too if you had two little whirling dervishes in your bed.