FHE Recap

Last Sunday our Bishops wife gave a great talk about Family Home Evening which we try to have every Monday night. Anyway, she said that she had kept a record of the Family Home Evenings they had when her kids where little and this idea struck me as a good idea. Mostly I think it's a good idea because then I have proof for my kids that yes I tried to teach them. I might also give me even more motivation to get it done every Monday because I want to write about it each week. Anyway, here goes. There are weeks that life is crazy and I seem to forget, but in general I try to throw something together each week and hope it sticks somewhere in my kids brains. This should also document how imperfect it really is too- but I try right. So here are the last two weeks.
November 23, 2009
Lately I've been really focused on service. Ever since I heard President Monson speak about service last conference I've been realizing how important it is to serve other people. I really want my kids to know this, so we go around the dinner table at night and ask what they did each day for someone else. Thanks to Shawn because he tends to remember to ask as I'm rushing around trying to get kids to take bites. Anyway, so last Monday we had a great opportunity to serve. Shawn signed us up to clean our ward building. It was a great service opportunity for all of us to see that the building doesn't get clean magically and that we should have more respect for it. Three other families where there. Our family was in charge of vacuuming and cleaning the glass doors. Claire and Will really helped out and I'm proud of them for all of the work. Now if I could just get them to help that much at home. Afterwards we went and got ice cream. Vivi was even good that night and fell asleep to the sound of the vacuum. All in all it seemed to be a productive family night, and maybe the kids learned a little bit of the importance of service. Of course repetition is key with all of us right.

November 30, 2009
Last night I thought we should focus on Jesus since it is the Christmas season. I was totally mortified when I asked whose birthday we remember at Christmas and Will said "Mine" :) Anyway we focused on Jesus. I had the kids go on a scavenger hunt around the house and find different scripture passages that reveal the characteristics of Jesus and all he has done for us. We looked up things like he is the creator of the world, he is our example, he is the son of God, he was resurrected, he atoned for our sins..... and the list goes on and on. The kids liked the hunt and even listened to the scriptures- for the most part. Will was jumping on Shawn's back most of the night- but I'm sure something got in- Anyway now they know how much Jesus has done for us. At the end I gave them each a heart and said the best thing we can do to show Jesus how thankful we are for him is to do nice things for each other. I told them this week we wanted them to show their thanks to Jesus by doing something nice for someone in our family, and leave the heart where we do the service so we remember we are thinking of Jesus while we serve each other. Then we ended and dismissed for brownie time and the hearts where forgotten on the floor in the living room. They are still forgotten this morning. We'll see if anything will happen with the hearts. Oh well, as long as they at least know that it's Jesus we all celebrate and not Will on Christmas.