The kids spending so much of their time at home this school year has caused me to constantly flee their intensity, questions, and demands to the point where I stopped making genuine daily connections with each of my kids. I spent so much time trying to have a few minutes to myself while constantly being interrupted that lots of days all I did was try to find me-time; the quest never ended. SO all of those mom-worries were in the back of my head while I was reading and pondering various scriptures and conference talks last Monday morning. The thought came "we should have family home evening again." It settled in until I made a plan to have our first FHE in two years that night.
I decided that we would skip the gospel lesson and go straight to the game and song for our FHE. Ideally we'd have a treat too, but baking is my nemesis so we left that out too. I wanted to have time for each of us to share something from our recent personal scripture study, but I acknowledged that we may have to go at this FHE thing slowly, so I didn't build my expectations too high.
When I told the kids we would be having family home evening that night, Amber responded with a blank stare. I realized that two years ago she was barely four and had no memory of FHE. Woah! So I explained that family home evening, or FHE, is a time where we play a game together, sing a song, and say family prayer. We often sing songs, and we have family prayer twice a day, so Amber was kind of unimpressed, even though she is always excited to play a game. She declared that we would play the game she got from church, which was a copied sheet of paper with a game board on it with ways to be like Jesus on a few of the squares. I selected another "real" game to ensure interest and fun, and we were all set.
Track practice ran late, but I was determined to have FHE anyways, so we started without Jeff. Right after dinner, the kids and I played our games. We played 3 games of Stello (a brain-bending color matching tile game). Jeff got home during the last game of Stello and helped Amber finish up. Rose won twice, Amber won once. There was a lot of shouting among the kids, and I had to repeatedly ban Rose from talking like Jar Jar Binks from that awful Star Wars movie.
While Jeff ate dinner, we played the paper boardgame that Amber brought home from church, which had us roll a die and move our game piece along the path. When we landed on a heart, we had to say one way we can do/have done the thing written on the square (remember Jesus, share the gospel, be kind, etc.). It surprised me how into that simple silly little game everyone got! We had a Sweet Family Moment! Everyone carefully watched while the game pieces moved along the path, and we all got to share little bits of how we live the gospel. It was unexpectedly good.
After the games, Amber picked our song: both verses of Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam. Mostly everyone ran wild while I played the piano. They sang the chorus at least. Then the kids brushed their teeth and we had family prayer. Yay for starting up with family home evening again! It felt right and good to be engaged with my kids and doing meaningful activities together.
Playing Stello in the sunshine, before Jeff got home.
They are so INTENSE! Even with this tiny paper board game! We all chose random household tidbits to be the game pieces. I was the peanut, and I won.
In other news, the orchards were blossoming during my run on Monday!
This week was a headphones-on-the-run kind of week. We had lots of wind and wind zaps my interest in being outside, so I used audiobooks and peppy music to get my exercise done.
Sunnyside irrigation with Mt. Adams on the horizon.
1 comment:
You had to repeatedly ban Rose from talking like Jar Jar Binks!!!
I'm still laughing!
And you inspire me with the way you follow inspiration to bless your family.
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