Last Day of Family Month

Where did June go?  Ours went to family camp and swimming lessons.  I’m hoping the rest of the summer is a little more…well…lazy.  On the blog here, I scheduled to venture into the land of freezer cooking.  But first I’m going to run a series on frugal beauty treatments.  If you have experience in either subject that you’d like to share, I’d love to carve out a spot for a guest post for you. 

The final thought I’d like to leave you with for family month is the importance of sitting down together as a family for at least one meal every day.  We do it for dinner, but some other family situations (like farmers) may find lunch or breakfast a better choice.  At this meal, eat at a real table without a television.  Try to keep the conversation positive and don’t use it for a time to correct behavior for the day.  Ask each child a question to answer that will help the entire family get to know them better (like what’s your favorite color and why?)  This also might be a great time to read a chapter of an exciting read aloud book together.  We like manner’s books and stories such as Little Fella or The Boxcar Children.

To finish up Family Month  here’s a summary of all the posts we had:

June is Family Month

Building a Routine

Making Parenting Bucket Lists

Getting Children to Sit in Church Re-post

The Listening Game

Daddy Dollars

Personal Devotion Time

Family Devotion Time

Walls of Prayer

Talk Time

Book Review: Couples Who Pray

Practicing Life

Vegetable Chips

Veggie Chips Part 2

Teaching Manners

Family Night

Family Night

I admire LDS Monday night Family Home Evenings.  As a church they set aside that night to plan a speical worship and family activities in their homes.  Whatever you may think of their religious beliefs, when you meet an LDS youth, you can expect them to be modest, clean living, and have a close family bond.  I’ve allowed my evenings to be over committed.  One day Darren and I sat down and found we only had one day at home as a family, Wednesday night.  And that night we really should be at church!  I’m searching for ways to lighten our schedule and dreaming of a weekly family night.

Setting apart one special night a week to play together and learn together is a fantastic way to pass on your values and build a close bond with as a family.  Here are some ideas for things to do on family night:

1.  Learn a new skill such as how to set up a tent, cook a special dish, or do a craft.

2.  Watch a family friendly movie and talk about it together.

3.  Play board games

4.  Have a family olympics with crazy games

5.  Have a water fight

6.  Have a paper airplane contest

7.  Visit a park

8.  Have a bubble gum blowing contest

9.  Plant a flower bed together

10. Visit an elderly person and take a treat to share

There are only a few rules for family night:  Plan an activity that everyone can participate in, then insist that everyone does!  Be sure to end the activity while everyone is still having fun.

Teaching Manners

I only have a few minutes to write this morning, and there’s a lot more that could be said on the subject.  The best way to teach manners is to pretend like I described in the earlier post on practicing life.  But there are some other ways to slip manners instruction into the nooks and crannies.  One fun way is to grab a manners book and read one rule or anecdote at the supper table.  Two that kids enjoy listening to are:
 and

You can click on the images for more information on the books.  When I remember to read a chapter, the kids often beg for one more.  It’s fun to hear about manners when you aren’t being corrected at the time.

Another fun way to review basic manners is in the game, Mind Your Manners.

Christian Book.com has the best price on this one, but if you have a swagbucks giftcard to Amazon, click on the photo to use it on this game.

A fun way to learn to set the table is to make a game mat by tracing around a place, fork, knife, spoon, napkin and glass in the appropriate places on a large sheet of paper.  Then draw the same objects on a spinner.  Each person takes a turn with the spinner adding the items to their mat as they land on it.  If they land on something they already have, they lose that turn.  The winner is the player who completes their place first.

I’ve also seen families use the game mats for placemats at every meal, laminating them for durability.  Then when a young child helps set the table, they have a blueprint for placing things correctly.

Counting Bunnies Too made super cute quilted placemats for this purpose and has instructions on her blog.  If you make one, flip the knife over so the blade is facing the plate.

If sewing isn’t your thing Nick, Jr. has printable placemats to use for this purpose.

Veggie Chips Part 2

I told you I’d let you know how the veggie chips turned out.  Super Yum!  Even the kids liked them. 

Here’s how I did it:  Preheat oven to 300 degrees.  Peel and thinly slice root vegetables.  (I used sweet potatoes, radishes, and beets–what neighbor’s shared from their gardens.)  A mandoline made the slicing really fast and easy.

Then I tossed the slices in 2 Tablespoons of oil and sprinkled with salt, placing them on a greased cookie sheet.

I baked them for 15 minutes on the middle rack, then flipped them and baked for 15 minutes more.  The pan on the lower rack burned badly.  The pan in the middle did great.  If I was more patient I would have turned off the oven after the second 15 minutes and let them dry in there for a few hours while the oven cooled down.

Vegetable Chips

It’s been awhile since I had a recipe on this blog.  I’ve been doing some experimental cooking since Grant was born.  I bought a flour mill and electric tortilla press in the few weeks after he was born and I’ve been grinding fresh flour and making our own tortillas. Two days ago we made spinach tortillas from this book:

I loved them!  The kids were put off by the green color, but they said they couldn’t taste the spinach.  We filled them with grilled chicken ceasar salad.

Last night we made Kale chips.  They were tasty, but I wish I hadn’t burned some of them.  Today I’d like to try using my mandoline for the first time to make beet and sweet potato chips.   I’ll let you know how that goes.  Here’s a video to show you how to make the kale chips.

Practicing Life

Have you ever thought about how baby animals are born essentially knowing everything they need for survival, while baby humans are completely dependent?  Many babies even lack the skills they need to eat!  As a first time mom, I was shocked how much I needed to teach my child.  How to eat was just the beginning.  Anything I wanted her to do, I had to show her.

Imagine you are hired for a new job.  You are so excited to start work that first day, but are a little confused when there is no job training session.  Your boss puts you in a room, shuts the door and expects you to work.  When he comes back, he is displeased with your performance and shows you everything you’ve done wrong.  Humiliated and frustrated you try again the second half of the day.  You manage to remember to correct some of your earlier mistakes, and make a whole set of new ones.  Day in and day out you go on expected to perform and are punished and humiliated when you fail.  Since you don’t know the expectations ahead of time most of the day you feel like a failure.

I wouldn’t last long at a job like that.  I much prefer to be trained thoroughly in advance so that only minor corrections are needed later.  As I thought about it, I realized I had been treating my children like the boss that didn’t train.  We’d go to the grocery store and the kids would walk in a pack, blocking aisles, hiding in clothes racks, playing tag and getting in people’s way.  It was embarassing and I was frustrated with them.  They weren’t born with essential social skills, but I expected them just to “know” them. 

Finally after an especially bad trip, I took them home and we practiced shopping there.  We learned how to walk in a line and respond to simple commands such as “single file” and “cover down.”  I also talked to them about what might happen if they play tag and break something or knock an old person down.  The children proved that they were pretty smart when it was brought to their attention.   We trained in this fashion pretty frequently for a few weeks and we talked about what I expected all the way to the store.    It was almost fun to take them all out and about and show off their new skills!

Shopping practice worked so well that we practiced other things too, like how to act at a baby shower, a birthday party, a wedding and a funeral.  No more was I embarrassed that my child thought she should help the guest of honor unwrap all the presents!  And my children were relieved too.  It was comforting to them to know what behavior was expected and that they would not be in big trouble when they got home.

Practicing life isn’t hard.  Simply set up a mock situation at home, practice the important behaviors you want them to know (like how to open a gift and say something truthfully nice no matter what it is.)  Then on the way to the actual event, talk about what you practiced so they won’t forget.

Book Review: Couples Who Pray

As part of a preferred blogger with Booksneeze.com, I received a complementary copy of Couples Who Pray: The Most Intimate Act Between a Man and Woman to review here.

I chose this book, because though Darren and I have strong individual prayer lives, and pray nightly with our children, we rarely pray just he and I together.  It is hard for me, because it feels so personal.  I know it’s strange.  How can I have 6 children with someone and still find it hard to pray with he and I alone?  I can’t explain it, but I’m ready to fix it.

The book is written by husband and wife team, Squire Rushnell and Louise Duart, both on their second marriage and determined to remedy the mistakes that made their first marriages fail.  The text of the book is 164 pages with an additional appendixes of questionnaires taking the book to 200 pages.  It includes 3 sections:  Major benefits of Couples Praying Together; Taking the 40 Day Prayer Challenge; and Factors During Your Forty Days.  Inside these 3 sections are 10 chapters:  1.  Naked Truth:  Marriage’s Most Intimate Act 2.  Prayer and Communication 3.  The 40 Day Prayer Challenge 4.  How do you do it? 5.  The remarkable power of prayer 6.  The Devil is the real enemy of your marriage 7.  Forgiveness Power 8.  Prayer and Money 9.  Six steps to a happy marriage and 10.  Outcomes

I’ve been impressed with what I’ve read so far.  It’s  full of encouraging stories of what has happened to couples who accepted the 40 day prayer challenge.  Many of the couples are celebrities, such as Denzel Washington, and it was refreshing to read about their faith. The stories are engaging to read and motivate me to push through the uncomfortable feelings to strengthen my marriage and family.

I like that there is a companion web page to the book to help you track and journal what happens when you pray.  There is a before and after questionnaire that shows the contrast in your relationship after 40 days of prayer which can be filled out in the back of the book or online.

I recommend taking turns reading a page of the book aloud with your spouse, right before your prayer time together.  Praying with my husband is getting easier, but if I skip one day, it’s easy to skip another and another until I’ve blown it. We are gearing up to start our 40 days again.

I’m Back!

I just pulled into town today after taking my children to reunion.  Reunion is a week long family camp where we spend many hours in worship, classes, and recreation with our church family.  I didn’t want to tell the whole world that I would be gone and didn’t get my posts written ahead of leaving–sorry about the gap!  We had such a lovely time and can’t wait to go back again next year.

Regular posts will resume Monday.

Talk Time

Thursday I promised to tell you a simple secret that I believe prevented my brother and I from rebelling as teenagers.

From the time when I was about six my father would have talk time.  After prayers when we were tucked safely in bed, he would come and sit beside me in the dark and talk and listen.  And then move to my brother’s room and do the same.

Sometimes we would talk about what I did during the day, or he would tell me a story from his childhood.  It didn’t really matter what we talked about, just that we talked.  There was 1 rule:  I had to keep my head on the pillow.  No propping up on elbows to visit better.  This was not only a time to build relationships, but to relax and encourage sleep.

Also, I don’t remember ever being chastised during this time (except for reminding me to keep my head on the pillow.)  It was a time that I looked forward to at night.

These things made me content with in my family’s rules as a teenager:

1.  I had a voice and was heard.

2.  I had a close relationship with my parents because we talked.

3.  When I asked for advice, my dad would always reply, “What do you think you should do?”  And after we discussed all the options, he would reply, “Whatever you decide, I know you’ll make the right choice.” And he left me to that choice and the consequences.

4.  My parents had very high values, but not strict rules.  They didn’t require that I dressed vastly different from my peers as long as I was modest.  They told me as a child that I could date when I was 16 and when we learned about courtship when I was 15, they left that decision up to me. 

5.  I felt that they respected my individuality and tried to deal fairly.  If I felt a decision they made was unfair, I could appeal to them to reconsider.  They would hear me out and though it may not change their decision, I felt my views were fairly considered.

I didn’t need to rebel, because I had relationship and acceptance at home with people who valued my intellect and opinions.  And part of that relationship was founded in talk time.

Walls of Prayer

I read this story before I was married and afterwards I decided to always have family prayer in the evening, even if we didn’t have time for a formal devotion.  It is taken from the third book of True Restoration Testimonies, compiled by Clara Thomas, pg 82.

“In Oklahoma one of our pastors was stricken with a severe illness.  He had a long period of recovery, allowing him time to pray diligently for his congregation.  One night he was given  dream.  In the dream he was taken by one of Gods messengers into every home in his branch.

“He saw that Stan was not allowed to enter the truly dedicated homes.  A beautiful wall of prayer was standing firmly around every home which had regular family worship.  Each day of family worship added another stone of strength to the wall of prayer which Satan could not penetrate.

“In the homes where family worship was observed only occasionally, Satan could creep in with sin and sorrow.  And in the homes where there was no family worship, Satan freely came and went as his evil heart desired.

“This made the pastor realize the importance and great need for constant daily prayer, scripture study, and daily worship in our homes.”