A friend of mine recently told me about a family she knew who played the Rose, Thorn, Bud game every night at dinner. I loved the idea and immediately implemented it for dinner time with our kids—except we call it more literally, "Favorite, Least Favorite, Tomorrow". The idea is that during dinnertime, we go around the table and everyone tells their favorite part of the day, their least favorite part, and what we're looking forward to tomorrow. It often helps us hear more about what Ruby did at school, encourages us to share what we did at work with the kids, and Coco ends up having the same three answers every single day (since she's only 2).

My favorite thing about this daily exercise is that it gives us a moment to reflect upon the day, get caught up on what everyone did at school, home, or at work, and mostly, it has given my kids (mostly Ruby cause she's old enough to process it) a chance to think about both the good and bad parts of a day. And how to look forward to a different and better day tomorrow. It's also given my husband and I a way to tell the kids about not only the best parts—but also the worst—parts of our day. It's made us think how explain to kids why something didn't go great that day and how you still got through it.

If you've never tried it before, I encourage you to. It's so simple, but it makes you stop and reflect even if for only a few minutes. Especially on a day like today when lots of things are changing and you may be unsure of what's next, it helps to make you hopeful towards the potential that every tomorrow holds.

{Photo by Oh Joy}