Tapped Out

A few months ago we instituted a new segment of our nighttime routine -- the Say One Nice Thing. I borrowed the idea from a friend of mine who lost her son this past spring; at his funeral she talked about how much this particular routine meant to her son and how grateful she was they'd started it.

It works like this: each night, we take turns saying the nighttime family prayer, and afterwards, everyone else has to say one nice thing about the person who prayed. It's been always entertaining, sometimes frustrating, and oftentimes healing.

At the end of a hard day, who doesn't want to know that no matter what, your family loves you?

One of the conditions is that it has to be specific -- no saying "One nice thing about Abby is that she's nice." We all have the chance to reflect on the day and focus on the good in each other.

Spen has two contributions that we've forbidden him from using anymore because he said them so often, and about anyone:

1) One nice thing about [insert name here] is that she/he is good at make-up
2) One nice thing about [insert name here] is that she/he is good at nails

Pretty hilarious when Zach says the prayer.

Sometimes it's frustrating to watch the kids struggle to say something nice about their siblings, but thus far, they've all been able to come up with something. Until tonight.

I said the prayer and everyone said their bit, except for Abby. She cocked her head, squinted her eyes and said, "You know, Mom, we've been doing this for like 5 months, and I think that for you, we've pretty much covered it."