The best family home evening ever

This weekend, Jay and Rose really wanted to wash our car. It was pretty dirty—in the year and a half since we got it I think it’s been officially washed once. Rain is nature’s cleanser, right? But really, our van needed a real wash; Jay had a point. Well we never got around to washing it over the weekend, so on the way home from church yesterday we had a family brainstorming session: I said “we can go to the car wash place for part of family home evening!” Jeff said “and we can go to Dairy Queen and have ice cream after!” and Jay said “and we can talk about spirit things in the car!” Way to go, Jay. You win. :)

  

So tonight was the night. We cleaned up the toys and had dinner done by 6pm. Somehow by the end of dinner, Amber was wearing a crown.

I was actually feeling quite exhausted after a long day with a cranky teething baby and a demanding four year old, but I really wanted to be happy and enjoy our plans. So I took a little break right before dinner, locked myself in the bathroom with the fan on loud and just SAT on the counter in the semi-quiet. Nobody was touching me or asking me things or crying for me. I gave myself five minutes of alone time to decompress, stare at the wall, and think calm thoughts. I said a little prayer for help and patience. Then I gathered the last shreds of my energy and faced the everything again. That did the trick. I managed to let go of my cranky tired blah-ness and goof off with the best of them, out on the town with my family.

Just over a mile from our house there is a coin-operated do it yourself car wash stand. Right next to it is a Dairy Queen. On the short drive over there, we forgot to “talk about spirit things”—oops! When we got there, the first booth we tried ate 3 quarters. The next booth was working, so we took turns plunking quarters into the slot. Jeff manned the hose and got to work. When I suggested this activity for FHE, I didn’t realize that the rest of us would just be watching him wash the car, but oh well! While Amber snoozed in her carseat, Jay and Rose had a grand time frolicking in the old parking lot and dodging the spray floating off of the van.

 

Six quarters only gave us 4minutes and 30 seconds of wash time—not nearly enough to get through the rinse, soap, scrub, and final rinsing of a big ole van. It didn’t help that every time we turned the dial to switch cycles (like from soapy water to rinsing water) it coughed and sputtered and took its jolly little time to start spraying again. It was kind of a junky car wash! The sign said we had to add more quarters before the 4 minutes ended so we were running all over the place gathering coins! Ha ha, I rummaged more quarters out of my wallet for one extra cycle of four minutes. Then Jay, Rose, and I had to dash to the Laundromat next door to get a few more quarters from the quarter machine there. Eighteen quarters later, we finally had a shiny clean vehicle (in spite of our less than shiny surroundings).

We clambered back into the van, drove 20 feet across the parking lot, and went into Dairy Queen, where a sign on the door informed us that the free small ice cream cones were all gone. We didn’t know they were serving free small ice cream cones for the 75th birthday of DQ! Oh well! It was funny to find out about the free ice cream after it was all gone, like a mean joke or something: “Hey! We had free ice cream but it’s gone now.” Ha ha ha.

Nothing says quality family time like overpriced fast food ice cream! We sat in the dingy little dining area and froze our tongues. While Jay was eating his ice cream, he said “this is the best family home evening ever!” I love how a dingy car wash and mediocre ice cream felt so special to him. I guess it doesn’t matter what we DO, as long as we’re doing it together. How’s that for a cheesy line?  Who cares! We love family time!

We took a family selfie (much to Jeff’s resigned chagrin, ha ha—never roll your eyes at the the family historian, I say) and drove the 4 minutes back home. On the way, we did remember to sing a song together but did not manage to “talk about spirit things” probably because the kids were too wired from the sugar. They each barely ate the top off of their sundaes, but boy were they rambunctious! It’s amazing how loud just two kids can be. Jeff and I looked at each other through the bedlam in the van, and then joined in the ruckus. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. We sang, squealed, and wiggled our way home.