Our Morning Prayer

Lord God, Please give
Daddy a wise heart,
Mommy a patient heart,
Annie an obedient heart,
and Betta a joyful heart.
Amen.

The husband and I just finished reading Fr. Thomas Dubay's A Prayer Primer for our Teams of our Lady. In trying to make sure prayer is part of our daily life, I was trying to say morning prayer from the Office of the Hours. The girls must have had some innate sense that Mommy was trying to do something really important, and they would always get upset, fight, or cry. I knew I wanted to pray, I knew I needed to pray. I also had to make it something the girls would enjoy, so we made our own prayer.

I stumbled upon this prayer almost by accident. I was trying to get Annie to off the stairwell so I could put the baby gate up to keep Betta from climbing the stairs (yes, she is old enough to climb the stairs but not yet old enough to climb back down!). I realized I was grumpy and growing impatient.

I said to Annie, "Let's ask God to give Annie an obedient heart and give Mommy a patient heart?"

Annie immediately hopped off the stairs and said, "Here you go. Heart, Mama" and pretended to hand me a heart. I thought this kind of prayer could work on a daily basis. We've only been saying it for a couple days, but she seems to like it, and I certainly enjoy the grace and blessings of being able to pray .

When Daddy's Away The Girls Will Play

The Husband is away on another business trip. He left yesterday afternoon. Annie had a hard time settling to sleep with him gone and seemed at loose ends when she woke up. It seemed that a crucial fixture of her sleeping and waking routines was missing. Daddy was away at work.

We'd gotten too complacent with routine. We were allowing the man to keep us down! I decided a wild crazy week of baby party was in order. I scooped up the girls and took them to the supermarket for juice, milk, cookies,jarred food, diapers, and hot dogs. Freshly stocked for a wild week without the old man keeping us down we walked to Starbucks. I got coffee, prayed Morning Prayer, and Annie stood by my table pointing out various things.


Other plans for the week include a NINO meeting, playing with the cousins, a trip to Burke Lake Park, and maybe some other fun baby-friend time.