An Evening of Blessings

Today was a long, busy day. Drew went elk hunting with a friend for two days and so the girls and I tried to stay busy while he was gone. We got up, played, went on a good run, played some more, and then decided to help take Melissa to the airport. So, we went to Great-Grandpa's for lunch and went up to the airport and back (through some bad traffic) just in time to eat dinner at Grandma's, run a few errands and get Abbie to the pool for the first day of swim lessons. After swim class we came home exhausted and the girls ate a quick snack and then I was all ready to get them in jammies, brush teeth, and go to bed.

But, Abbie, after her snack, went straight to the living room and got down the little temple we made and have been using for FHEs and said, "Okay Mom, time for family night!" and started waving her arm and singing 'I'm a Child of God.'

It was so sweet. I don't know how she even knew it was Monday night. Drew was gone so I was just going to plan our family night for another evening but she and Lauren were so excited about it that we did it tonight anyway. Abigail practically put on the whole thing- she led the music, said the prayers, and picked out the card from the temple activity for the lesson. I was just so struck that, even in our semi-chaotic lives, we seem to be doing something right and she is picking up on our efforts to have a good pattern of righteousness at home. What a blessing she is and what a blessing to me it was for her to take the initiative to have our family night before rushing off to bed.

After the girls were in bed, I received another blessing- Drew came home a day early! He totally startled me, because, despite my hopeful thinking that he might come home early, I had convinced myself that we wouldn't be able to and just was doing my evening chores when I saw a silhouette at the door window. I was so glad to have him back and to surprise us and it really put the icing on the cake for the evening.