Bedtime

Bedtime is not the easiest time of day.  It's not the getting them in bed part, but the keeping them in bed part that we struggle with.  Because the 3 oldest girls share a room, they are constantly bothering each other and coming out of their room to tattle.  One wants all the lights off so she can sleep, one wants them on so she can read...and the battle continues.  Even if the rare occasion occurs that they are all reading nicely in their beds, at least one of them is coming out to ask Paul or me to lay with them...again.

Some nights, when this has been going on for an hour or so, I split them up so that just maybe they will leave each other alone and go to sleep...one in my bed, one on the floor in the school room, and the other in her own bed.  Then I threaten that if they come down one more time....

A couple nights, we've found Madeline, who is never quite as sleepy if she naps in the afternoon, asleep in some random spots.

Despite our struggles with getting the girls to sleep, one night after the girls were separated, I walked in the room to find Rose praying a rosary.  This was monumental because usually she is the one fighting us when we ask her to pray (because it is something that Mom and Dad want her to do).

Her good influence encouraged Ava to do the same...so sweet.  Maybe, just maybe, some of the things we are trying to teach them is actually sinking in!

Then another night, I went up to check on the girls, and saw this...

They had each made an altar with a statue, a rosary, and some sort of religious book..."because I want to be a sister when I grow up," Rose told me.  She knows just how to melt my heart! :)