Family Home Evening: Patriotism

While we were on vacation, we were able to have a Family Home Evening with my in-laws and some of my husband's other siblings and their families.  It is so comforting sharing spiritual experiences with my extended family.  My mother-in-law shared a lesson on patriotism.  We talked a little about the Constitutional Convention and she read a few stories of her ancestors.  We finished it off with reading some funny kids quotes. 


We finished off the evening with a couple of kinds of cookies.  It was a very simple and informal evening where enjoyed being together and celebrating our faith.

Family Home Evening: Tithing

Our Relief Society lesson was about tithing, and the instructor sent us all home with Family Home Evening packets.  Since it was my turn to teach the lesson at home (and I was feeling overwhelmed), that's what I shared.  I read a couple of stories she included in the packet; Tithing and Pizza, and a picture story called Spencer's Potatoes.


The rest of the lesson came from the Gospel Principles manual.  It lists six main purposes the church uses tithing funds.  Our Relief Society instructor quizzed us, since it was so much fun I quizzed the family too.  They figured out all but one. 
 
1. Build, maintain, and operate temples, meetinghouses, and other buildings.  

2.  Provide operating funds for stakes, wards, and other units of the Church. (These units use the funds to carry out the ecclesiastical programs of the Church, which include teaching the gospel and conducting social activities.)

3.  Help the missionary program.

4.  Educate young people in Church schools, seminaries, and institutes.

5.  Print and distribute lesson materials.  

6.  Help in family history and temple work.

Did you get them all before you looked at the answers?

Our activity was Harry Potter Uno.  (Didn't we play that last week?)  One of my kiddos tried a new recipe for our treat - Lemon Slice Cookies.  They were very good.  Definitely a keeper!

Family Night Phantom

Several Mondays ago the Family Night Phantom visited us with a knock on the door, a plate of cookies and this cute poem.  

Family night is here again, time for stories, time for fun!  Here’s a special treat from us to eat together when you’re done.

Next Monday night, it’s your turn to make a treat - not once, but twice.  Then two more families in our Ward will have a snack that’s nice.

Write this message out again, try not to give a clue on who the Family Night Phantom is, the secret safe with you!

The Family Night Phantom

 

We were pretty slow in passing on the fun, but better late than never. We will definitely enjoy more Phantom fun in the future and I thought I'd pass on the fun to you!

Family Home Evening: Service

Apparently I really needed to hear a lesson on service. Our Relief Society lesson was about kindness; which evolved into a lesson on service.  Then one of the kiddos did a lesson on service using the first experience for Good Works in the Personal Progress book.  I love the challenge of recognizing and acknowledging service others give to you for two weeks.  We talked about the times we give service without even realizing it and how much those seemingly little things can mean so much to those being served.  There are other times when we need to be aware of specific ways to serve; instead of asking "What can I do to help?", just offer "I'm bringing dinner tonight".  


We played I Never for our activity.  Everyone started with 10 M&M's.  The first person stated something they had never done, everyone who had done that thing has to eat an M&M.  The goal is to be the last one with M&M's.  Loosing never tasted so sweet!


Speaking of sweet, we had double chocolate cookies for our treat.  Those of us who bore our testimony at church had double treats.

Family Home Evening: Temple Facts

One of the kiddos shared some specifics about the temples in Independence, Kirkland, Far West, Nauvoo and Salt Lake City.  Independence and Far West weren't built, but we have visited the dedicated sites.  It reminded me of - and supplemented - our Temple week we had last summer as part of our Stay at Home Summer Camp.


The rest of the evening was spent playing Harry Potter Uno and eating rainbow sherbert.

Family Home Evening: Faith

One of my children started his Family Home Evening lesson with the question, "What is Faith?"


His sisters piped up with,"Faith is a seed, if planted it will grow." And,"Faith is a feeling within my heart, when I do right I know."


The girls knew that quoting a Primary song wasn't exactly the answer my son was going for, but it was a fun way to start a discussion on what faith is, how it helps us, and why we need it.  I love that my children have fun learning together.   

We played Don't Eat Pete. I just love games that involve eating M&M's!


Our treat was my favorite homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate frosting.  My favorite part of this cake was that one of my girls made it for me.

Family Home Evening: Adam and Eve

One of my younger children taught our lesson about Adam and Eve.  He started with the scripture Genesis 1:26 - 28, then asked what creations are we grateful for?  He shared some facts about Adam and Eve.

• After Adam and Eve received physical bodies, they lived in a beautiful place called the Garden of Eden.
• Adam and Eve were married for eternity by Heavenly Father.
• Fruits and flowers grew easily in the Garden of Eden, and all the animals were tame.
• Adam and Eve did not know the difference between good and bad.
• Adam and Eve could not have children.
• Adam and Eve could eat fruit from every tree except one.
• Adam and Eve ate the fruit from that tree.
• Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden
• The whole world changed; Adam and Eve had to work hard to get food, weeds began to grow and animals became wild.
• Adam and Eve then began to have children.

We talked about their lives after they left the Garden of Eden and how it was all a necessary part of the Plan of Salvation.  I'm grateful for the time my children put into their part of Family Home Evening. Not only is it nice to not have all the responsibility myself; it is also reassuring that they are learning and striving.


Our activity was a modified version of Phase 10.  The kiddo in charge chose the order of the phases we played.  I still lost.


The agony of defeat was lessened by the Frozen Lemon Pie we enjoyed for our treat!

Family Home Evening: Mother's Day

We're modifying Family Home Evening this week and celebrating time with our family.  Wait, didn't we just do that recently?  That's right Easter was only two weeks ago.  The big difference is this week, my hubby and kiddos are doing the cooking and cleaning!


To make sure today isn't all about being lazy and getting pampered, I'd like to share my appreciation to my mom.  She taught me to be independent, thrifty and hard working - although I'm sure she wondered if she was doing a very good job with the hard working lessons when I repeatedly forgot to do my chores.  I really hated bringing in firewood.


Most of all, my mom played games with me.  She took me with her when she hung out with her friends and I enjoyed being with her as much as with friends my own age.  She was and still is my favorite person to hang with at the mall.


In addition to my mom, I'm grateful for my step-mom and my mother in law.  They both taught me with a different perspective and helped shape me into a better person.  They have both fed me, served me and loved me.  


I'd love all of you to share something awesome about your mom.  If you don't do here, record it somewhere!

Family Home Evening: Mother's Day Prep

Our lesson was a review of our Love One Another chart from Easter Week.  I love to see all the acts of service that happen in our house!

For our activity, we made Mother's Day cards and gifts. 


The treat was homemade ice cream.  It was a simple recipe from a friend that turned out so good!  Thanks Jill!

Family Home Evening: Easter

Family Home Evening on Easter Sunday is a little less structured; OK a lot less structured.  We have dinner with extended family and enjoy the blessings of being together.


We did start off the day with something spiritual over our traditional Easter Breakfast.  We read John 20 and discussed what Christ might say to us if he visited us.  As with Thomas, I guess he would be gentle and reproving.  I know I have many shortcomings; hence the pursuit in excellence.  My motivation to keep trying is the Lord's gentleness and unwavering love.  


I pray that you will have an Easter filled with love and gentleness.

Family Home Evening: Palm Sunday

Today's lesson will be about Palm Sunday.  I can't believe this is our third year of centering our Easter celebrations on the Savior's life, especially his last week on the earth.  When my sister-in-law gave us the "25 Days of Christmas" book, it was so easy making that part of our Christmas celebration.  While I've found a book and a few article about doing the same for our Easter celebration, none of them has been the perfect fit.  So I'm still tinkering and improving our celebration.


Like last year, we will read Luke 19:29-44.  We will review "Palms for the Lord" and the symbolism of palm branches.  And we will start our annual "Love One Another" poster.  Not surprisingly, "Love One Another" will be one of our songs too.


New for this year is our story.  We will read "The Ultimate Outcast" from Max Lucado's book Just Like Jesus.


Our activity was paper folding caterpillars.

Family Home Evening: The Welfare Program

As we heard in General Conference, the Welfare Program is now 75 years old.  In it's honor, we had a lesson on Church Welfare.  We talked about how the official program started in 1936, welfare has always been a part of the church.  The official program led to Deseret Industries, church farms and canneries, and most recently Helping Hands.  One source was the talk "Principles and Programs" by Glenn L. Pace.  The adults shared their experiences with the various parts of the Welfare Program.


We played Apples to Apples Jr. for our activity again.  What can I say?  It's a family favorite.


Our treat was Oven Smores. They were super easy!  There are several versions on the internet, but we simplified them.  We lined a cookie sheet with foil, placed the appropriate number of graham cracker squares on top.  Then placed two Hershey squares of chocolate and a large marshmallow on top of the graham crackers.  Broil for few minutes until the marshmallow is golden.  Take out of the oven and place the graham cracker lid on top of your gooey goodness.

Family Home Evening: Articles of Faith

In our Family Home Evening lesson, we discussed the story behind the Articles of Faith.  I found an Ensign article from 1979 that has an even more detailed account.  I had only learned about the Wentworth Letter, but I appreciate the earlier history of the Articles of Faith.  We all shared our favorite; mine is the 10th.  To help us review and memorize the Articles of Faith, we played a matching game where we match the Article of Faith to the key word.  When someone makes a match, they read or recite the Article.


We played Apples to Apples Jr for our activity and enjoyed Peanut Butter Cookies for a treat.

Family Home Evening: Prayer

So the downside of letting the kiddos choose and plan their own lessons, is they sometimes get a little repetitive.  Even though we had a lesson on prayer just a couple of weeks ago, we learned about prayer again.  There were a ton of scriptures.  We read a scripture and learned something about prayer from it.

• Psalm 5:3, 12 - Pray for guidance
•  Psalms 105:4 - Pray for strength
• Jeremiah 29:13 - Pray with all your heart
• Mathew 7:11 - Prayers are answered "yes", "no", or "wait"
• Mark 11:25 - Pray to forgive others
• 1 Thessalonians 5:17-23 - Pray without ceasing
• James 1:5-6 - Pray for wisdom and courage
• James 5:16 - Pray for others
• 3 Nephi 13:5-8 - Pray in secret
• 3 Nephi 13:15 - Pray to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ
• 3 Nephi 18:15-18 - Pray to avoid temptation
• 3 Nephi 18:20 - Pray with faith to receive blessings
• 3 Nephi 18:21 - Pray with the family
• Moroni 6:5 - Pray and fast for the welfare of others
• Moroni 10:4-5 - Pray for truth
• Moroni 10:7 -Pray to know that God lives
• D&C 59:7 - Pray to give thanks
• D&C 88:63 - Pray to stay close to your Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ
• D&C 112:10 - Pray with humility

There was also a crossword puzzle, but we worked on that while we enjoyed our brownies during treat.


Our activity was a fun new game called Don't Eat Pete.  Of coarse my kiddos would like it, they got to eat chocolate chips!

Family Home Evening: Peace

Our lesson came from Elder Malm's Conference talk, "Rest Unto Your Souls".  This was a selfish lesson, because I needed peace in my heart.  Fortunately, we all had a good discussion about finding peace after learning, following Christ and being instruments in his hands.  Like most good things, achieving peace requires work and dedication because temptations are more likely to pop up than peace and contentment.  We choose to seek peace and put ourselves in places where we can find it.


We played a unique version of Pay Day where some of the bills were optional.  Where the game said, "High School dance - buy a $40 dress", we could choose to wear one we already have or buy a less expensive one.  We were encouraged to pay tithing and stay out of debt.  At the end our "winner" was based on righteous living and  we discussed what makes a successful life.


We enjoyed fudge for our treat.

Family Home Evening: Prayer

We started our lesson on prayer with a  couple of quotes from a couple of Prophets.

"The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries - we place our order and hang up.  We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another."  Gordon B. Hinkley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinkley

"If prayer is only a spasmodic cry at the time of crisis, then it is utterly selfish, and we come to think of God as a repairman or a service agency to help us only in our emergencies.  We should remember the Most High day and night - always- not only at times when all other assistance has failed and we desperately need help."  Howard W. Hunder, The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter

I found these great quotes on page 95 of Preach My Gospel.  Next we went over the scale on the same page to evaluate our prayers.  It was a brief lesson with a challenge to look carefully at our prayers and see our strong points and those areas we could work to improve.  Chocolate on my Cranium shared similar ideas, but more in depth.


Our activity was a riveting game of Chutes and Ladders.  We even had time for a second round.  We shook things up and went up the slides and down the ladders.  Who says you can't be a little rebellious on a Sunday?


We finished up with Browned Butter Cookies for our treat.  My children like them so much they are willing to bake them so I don't have to, but I had to ask them not to make them too often or I will never make any progress on my weight loss goals!

Family Home Evening: Fasting

We started our lesson on fasting by discussing how when we sacrifice our physical needs, our spirits become more humble, teachable and open to the Lord's spirit.  It shows Heavenly Father that we are willing to be obedient and serve him, even when it's hard or uncomfortable.  We discussed how we should fast; focusing on a purpose and beginning and ending with prayer.  Our family was challenged to complete experience six from integrity of the Young Women Personal Progress.


We played Harry Potter Uno for our activity, which made me laugh since the child who was in charge of the activity asked everyone if they preferred to play "Would You Rather" or Phase 10.


Our treat was Peanut Butter Biscotti and hot cocoa.

Family Home Evening: Recognizing Accomplishments

We had a rather unique Family Home Evening Lesson this week.  We started off looking at family photos of the last year and recognizing our individual accomplishments and those we made as a family.  We talked, and reminisced, and laughed.  We were given a journal challenge to record those accomplishments in our journals.


Our activity was a little unique also; it was a game one of my kiddos made earlier in the week, called Mouse Trap.  We enjoyed Muddy Buddies for a treat.

Family Home Evening: the Creation

For our lesson we read most of Moses 2, learning about the creation.  We picked out and drew a picture to represent what the Lord did each day. We discussed that a "day" doesn't necessarily mean 24 hours in this case, it is six periods. I believe that when we understand all the Lord knows, we will see how the laws of science fit into the gospel.  


For our activity we played one of our favorite games, What If.


Our treat was a big hit, Browned Butter Cookies.  The cookies were delicious on their own, but with the frosting - beyond words!  And I had an excuse to try my cookie press again, with success this time.

Family Home Evening: Stipling Warriors

The Stripling Warriors is one of my favorite scripture stories, mostly because of the kudos given to moms for teaching their children.  This lesson had a sting to it, since the kiddo teaching the lesson pointed out that they thought the Stripling Warriors moms were better moms than I am.  Another case of the truth hurts, I laughed it off by agreeing because my children often aren't as obedient as the Stripling Warriors.  We discussed how they followed their mother's words with exactness and that is why they were blessed.  We also noted that be blessed doesn't mean we won't face trails.  All of the Stripling Warriors were blessed because of their great faith, but they were all injured.


For our activity we made Valentines for our neighbors, and we enjoyed Red Cake for a treat.