I will admit I am a little, some days a lot, nervous about what is going on in the world. To name just a few, we have had horrible earthquakes in China, flooding in the mid-west, fires in California and now the hurricane in Texas. Our hearts go out to all those affected. We can only imagine what they are going through and will yet go through. I am also a bit concerned over the financial downturn. I think everyone has been affected by it. How could you not, especially if you own a car or anything that takes gas for that matter? We live in unceratin times.
Anyway, I have decided that since I can't fix any of these issues, I can help by driving less and sending support to those in need, but I truly can't make them better, so I have decided I just need to make my own home better. We have always had a night set apart for family home evening (Monday), but I have tried really hard lately to make them better and more impactful (is that even a word?) on my children. This last week we focused on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I know everyone has things they do on Sunday with their families, but I felt ours were lacking and we needed a bit of help to make it a special day for our family. After Church, we usually go do our own things, but I wanted us to be together more, doing enriching activities. So anyway Monday I bought vanilla ice cream and all the toppings you could think of, plus I pulled out a few of the other condiments that my kids like, like ketchup, mayo, lemon juice etc. I went one by one letting them pick there toppings. After they were done I asked if they wanted their favorite condiment on it too like ketchup. I told Kenzie she eats it on everything why not try in on a Sundae. She said, "Its not good on a Sundae." We went around to each child like this. After they had made their Sundae. We talked to them about how their are a lot of things that are good, but not good to do on Sunday, just like mayo on a sundae might not be so good. I wanted them to see that Sunday needs to be our day as a family to be together, without interruptions from the world. We needed one day to be us. To rest, refocus, regroup, show love and appreciation. My kids put together a list of things they wanted to do on Sundays that would be good for our family. Some suggested reading, others goal setting, another doing letters to far off cousins or family, a walk etc. I think it went well. Here are the pictures of our evening.
*****Also, if you have suggestions that you do as families to unite, strengthen and well, frankly help everyone get along, please suggest. As you can see our list is short.
After the ice cream, we went outside and played. Jay had bought some water barrels for storage and we are giving some to our family and neighbors too. But until they are delivered, we had a great time playing with them. The kids loved stacking them and then they would play "human bowling". They loved knocking the barrels down. Kenzie set us up a relay race. We had two teams...boys vs girls (Austin was the ref) and we had to walk on a barrel (okay I pushed mine), hop over one, run around them and run back to tag our team member. The boys won. I was the reason the girl team lost.
Alex is amazing on the barrels.He didn't even have to practice or struggle with figuring out how to walk on them. He just hopped on and took off. Alex can walk on the barrels around our yard, hop from barrel to barrel and can be facing one way and then flip to face the other way. I don't get how he does it. The rest of us, spend more time trying to figure out how even to stand on them without falling off immediately.
Anyway, I have decided that since I can't fix any of these issues, I can help by driving less and sending support to those in need, but I truly can't make them better, so I have decided I just need to make my own home better. We have always had a night set apart for family home evening (Monday), but I have tried really hard lately to make them better and more impactful (is that even a word?) on my children. This last week we focused on keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I know everyone has things they do on Sunday with their families, but I felt ours were lacking and we needed a bit of help to make it a special day for our family. After Church, we usually go do our own things, but I wanted us to be together more, doing enriching activities. So anyway Monday I bought vanilla ice cream and all the toppings you could think of, plus I pulled out a few of the other condiments that my kids like, like ketchup, mayo, lemon juice etc. I went one by one letting them pick there toppings. After they were done I asked if they wanted their favorite condiment on it too like ketchup. I told Kenzie she eats it on everything why not try in on a Sundae. She said, "Its not good on a Sundae." We went around to each child like this. After they had made their Sundae. We talked to them about how their are a lot of things that are good, but not good to do on Sunday, just like mayo on a sundae might not be so good. I wanted them to see that Sunday needs to be our day as a family to be together, without interruptions from the world. We needed one day to be us. To rest, refocus, regroup, show love and appreciation. My kids put together a list of things they wanted to do on Sundays that would be good for our family. Some suggested reading, others goal setting, another doing letters to far off cousins or family, a walk etc. I think it went well. Here are the pictures of our evening.
*****Also, if you have suggestions that you do as families to unite, strengthen and well, frankly help everyone get along, please suggest. As you can see our list is short.
After the ice cream, we went outside and played. Jay had bought some water barrels for storage and we are giving some to our family and neighbors too. But until they are delivered, we had a great time playing with them. The kids loved stacking them and then they would play "human bowling". They loved knocking the barrels down. Kenzie set us up a relay race. We had two teams...boys vs girls (Austin was the ref) and we had to walk on a barrel (okay I pushed mine), hop over one, run around them and run back to tag our team member. The boys won. I was the reason the girl team lost.
Alex is amazing on the barrels.He didn't even have to practice or struggle with figuring out how to walk on them. He just hopped on and took off. Alex can walk on the barrels around our yard, hop from barrel to barrel and can be facing one way and then flip to face the other way. I don't get how he does it. The rest of us, spend more time trying to figure out how even to stand on them without falling off immediately.
Comments
When are you coming for grapes? The birds are feasting!
Tiffany
Here's the bad news: we need to have a FHE on FILLING THE BARRELS! Our still sit EMPTY in the garage. It's now on the agenda, NEXT Monday night: fill the barrels (and I should also check on the water in our 72 hour kits...and maybe the food, too). Okay, new plan, next FHE is EAT what is in the 72 hour kits, replace what we eat and fill things up with water!
Kim