And Now It’s Time to Go to Bed
When our children were small, I often sang to them before they went to bed. Along with classic children’s songs were two that changed from day to day. One of these I learned when I first started going to the church nursery with our oldest child John when he was very tiny. You simply sing, “God loves so and so. The Bible tells me so.” Our “God loves . . .” songs would go on and on: “God loves John. The Bible tells me so. God loves Mommy. The Bible tells me so. God loves Daddy. The Bible tells me so. . .” and on and on through the grandparents and other relatives and friends. From day to day, I changed the order that I sang the names and the names that I included. When our precious Avery joined our family for sixteen brief months before going to Heaven, I sang it to him, and I sometimes sing it to our other grandchildren, too.
The other changing song that I sang to our children was one I made up. I simply sang a summary of their day. My mother-in-law taught second grade and told me one time that it was a very good thing to do for children. I have no idea where I got the idea. I just started doing it. The first words were always: “This morning we got up . . .” Then it went on with words like: “And we had breakfast with Daddy and then he went to work and then we played with toys and then we had some lunch . . .” and so on. It always ended with the words: “And now it’s time to go to bed.”
As I write this late, late on Monday night, Ray and I have had a full day, the kind of day that would have been great for our “This morning we got up . . .” song. Let me sing it for you:
This morning we got up and we went to see the sunrise
Over the pretty Atlantic Ocean
And I found a really cool seashell
And a bird was standing by the water
And we went to see the Lost Colony of Roanoke
And we drove to the Town of Manteo
And we saw their pretty new lighthouse
And we went to a sandwich shop
And while we waited for our food
I went out to the deck to take pictures
And I saw a group of three at a table
And the one on the left was a man
And the one on the right was a woman
And the one in the middle was a poodle!
And she was sitting on the bench
And she was as tall as her folks
And the lady had her arm around her
And the lady fed her with a fork
And I could hardly stop staring
And I wish I could show you my picture
But I’m afraid that wouldn’t be fair
And then we drove over four hours
And we saw some cotton a-growin’
And we unloaded lots of books
And we Skyped with our grandson Henry
And with his daddy, our son John
And we met with really nice people
And we spoke to them about homeschooling
Without their a-bein’ afraid
And then we visited a while
And then some of those nice people
Helped us to reload the van
And then we drove another hour
And then a half hour more
And I chatted with my mom and our daughters
And with my son-in-law Nate some, too
And then our first room had a problem
The commode just would not flush
And then we went to another room
And then I wrote this blog
And now it’s time to go to bed!
From the rising of the sun to its setting
The name of the Lord is to be praised.
Psalm 113:3
Delightful!!
Sounds like a busy day! Your pictures are pretty!
I always sang to my girls before bed every night too. “Jesus Loves Me” and “You Are My Sunshine” were part of the daily bedtime ritual, as well as some of my favorite hymns like “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Near to the Heart of God.” I miss those sweet days! Thanks for sharing your trip with us … it’s almost like being there with you. 🙂
This was so fun to read!! Wish I’d thought of doing this when mine were tiny. I can still do it with my littlest. What tune do you use? Loved to hear about your day like this….almost like a list and I love lists.