Weekly: Hold a Family Night

We made an agreement with my folks to have a Family Night/Family Home Evening every once in a while (they don’t hold it much as empty nesters) and last night was our first night to do so.

Dinner was reheated leftovers of some pozole I shared with them, with fresh vegetable fixings they provided (although I brought some key limes that needed to be used up).

My wife provided the lesson, which was on faith and tithing. She used her laptop, OOo Presentation (like PowerPoint), and a connection to their TV set. It went well.

Wife led a discussion about showing love by actions, and then we helped my daughter work on some letters to her Nana and Pop, and her great-grandparents.

...we still need to get Family Night/FHE up to speed!

We are currently having a little bit of difficultly sufficiently streamlining the lessons so my daughter does not become bored.

We are using the LDS manual Preach My Gospel as a basis for our FHE lessons. It is used by LDS missionaries for proselytizing purposes, but as it covers fundamental principles and ordinances of the LDS faith, it was recommended to us by our bishop.

It is much more current than the Family Home Evening Manual, which by comparison is now over 20 years old. We may still draw on it for reference, but right now, “Preach My Gospel” seems to lend itself very well to digital slide presentations.

We had the missionaries assigned to our ward over for dinner last Friday and we had an opportunity to show them how we were doing this. When we last met with them previously, they were sharing with us how they use this manual.

...was about home storage, and not just the stereotypical Mormon food storage ;)

We got some help with shelving and such and we were discussing our plans to implement it, as well as food storage and general foodstuffs we wished to have, meals, etc.

It was a pretty involved discussion. I didn’t do so well in getting my daughter involved, but we will do better next week.

We missed last Monday and probably the Monday before that.

But… at least we are more conscientious of discussing and doing things as a family.

Tonight, we are going to review our meal plans, and draw up a grocery list. We had a family council yesterday to decide those meal plans.

I asked the Mrs. to draw things up by Powerpoint presentations again. That has always worked well for my daughter since she then can read them. We usually patch up to the TV so everyone can see.

We haven’t been as good as we have been before. We recommitted yesterday to a more traditional and complete FHE, with a lesson and at least one song. We won’t have “refreshments” per se because breakfast food for dinner is the treat :) In fact, we said we would make that arrangement for the meal provided we did that complete FHE :)

We are part of a local board gaming group, and so we do have the option to meet with them at a local ice cream shop—and make that a part of Family Night.

This is the only time we can bring our kids, especially as one of the members brings games my daughter can play.

We showed up late last Monday so we didn’t get to play, but Cimmy kept things interesting with her interactive storytelling, and we had a nice meal. It’s a small business, so the staff knows us :)

was the subject of last Monday’s FHE.

Time for a new goal :)