Loved....

This summer has been an incredible time of the sisters bonding with one another and me being able to spend quality time with each of my girls.  We have taken advantage of a lot of "teachable moments" as well as planned some fun lessons too!   This week, we have been learning about the state of New York, the Statue of Liberty, and Orphan Trains too.

Unfortunately though, I have also been dragging quite a bit this week.  I have not been nearly as ambitious in my plans because I have pulled at least one muscle in my lower back and it has been hurting quite a bit.   I have come to the sad realization that my "baby" Anna is not so little anymore and her requests of "I hold you" have been causing quite a bit of strain on my back.  It has shown in my walking crooked and being really sore!

All this to say, I have not been as energetic this week but the girls have been really understanding and super awesome for me! And as a reward for them being so good, I planned a fun outing to take the girls to the Rio for a show called Mad Science today.  But before we scooted out the door this morning, I wanted to make sure Jillian got her reading/phonics done, that we read one of our library books together, and we had a little journal writing time too.  And when you have a lot on your to-do list, it seems like the time flies by far too quickly.

So it ended up I was in a super big hurry to get all of us out the door by 10:00 AM and I left the house in a bit of disarray. When we got home from the show (and lunch with friends too) this afternoon, I told Faith and Anna (Jillian was on a special date with Aunt Michelle this afternoon) that I wanted them to help me clean up a little before quiet time.

But of course, Anna was no help at all, she was a typical, distracted 2 year old and kept undoing everything I was cleaning up!  Not only that, she found some toothpaste in the bathroom and left her mark all over the sink.  She squirted the toothpaste all over!

After cleaning the bathroom quickly, I looked at Anna with a little exasperation and said to her,  "It is time for your nap."  She looked at me and exclaimed, "I poopee!"

I thought to myself, "Oh Dear, I am thankful that she can tell me these things now, because I can not smell anything (my allergies have been bad this summer)."

So, I took her to go get her diaper changed, feeling a little tired, when Anna did the sweetest thing.  She started to sing, "Jesus loves me".

 It was the absolute sweetest sound I could have heard in that moment.  Earlier this week, while I was having some cuddle book time with just Anna, I sang that song and taught her some of the sign language.  This was the first time she has sung the song back to me all by myself. It blessed my heart that Anna knows that she is loved, very loved by Jesus!  I hope she knows that she is very loved by me too!