FHE #19

Family Council

Opening Song: “A Happy Family” Children’s songbook pg 198

Opening Prayer: Jeremy

Scripture: Abraham 5:3 “And the Gods concluded upon the seventh time, because that on the seventh time they would rest from all their works which they (the Gods) counseled among themselves to form; and sanctified it. And thus were their decisions at the time that they counseled among themselves to form the heavens and the earth.”

Lesson: We as a family need to start having regular family councils. So we discussed with the kids that a family council is when we get together, and make plans (meals, vacations….), and talk about problems, and discuss schedules (making sure everything is on the calendar), and maybe a time to discuss the budget.

A Family council has three parts

Part 1: Mommy & Daddy

  • Talk about our commitments/schedule for the week
  • Discuss each member of the household
  • Discuss extended family commitments
  • Discuss anything else that comes up that we need to discuss between ourselves

Part 2: All family members

  • 1 by 1 each family member mentions their commitments for the week and all will be recorded on the calendar. Next week return and report.
  • Anyone may bring up a problem that they have observed, BUT they MUST also have a possible solution.
  • Everyone must say something nice about everyone else (and NO you can’t skip anybody).

Part 3: Father & Mother interviews (with each child individually)

  • Start with a compliment
  • Ask what is going on in their life. Problems? Challenges? Triumphs?
  • Share information with the child. The point of the interviews is to work on your relationship with each child as an individual, and to help each child learn to trust you with their problems. We want our kids to feel like they can talk to us, and this is a perfect setting to establish a relationship like that.

SO as a family we decided that Saturday morning we would have our first family council, and we’ll see how it goes. 😉

Closing Song: “Families can be Together Forever” Children’s songbook pg 188

Closing Prayer: Kyle

FHE Treat: Rootbeer floats

We have grass!

Well after living here for 4 1/2 years we finally have grass in the backyard. I am so excited! Laurel and Roine and their family came out on Thursday to help us level the ground and get some of the sod laid. The kids had fun playing with each other, and us adults worked in the backyard. After awhile I went in the house to rest and ended up making dinner and watching the kids the rest of the time they were over. But Kyle, Laurel and Roine got about 7 rows laid which was so awesome. The next morning when we woke up and opened the blinds I was so happy to see some grass. But when Ethan saw the grass, he was shocked that there was grass in the backyard. I guess he was so busy playing video games with the cousins that he was oblivious to the fact that the grass was being moved to the backyard and spread out. 😛

Friday, Kyle and I worked on laying some more sod, but it was slow going. Kyle’s ankles REALLY don’t like walking around a lot or on uneven ground (like the backyard and grass) and he was in pain from working so much in the backyard. But we would do a few wheelbarrow loads of sod, then go in the house for a popsicle and we would play a level of our video game then get back out there and get back to work. In the afternoon one of our neighbors showed up and offered to help, and that made things go a lot faster. We had sod laid all the way to the back of the area that we are putting grass before dinner time!

The kids just LOVE having grass. I know they shouldn’t be running around on it yet, but I let them go in their little wading pool on the new lawn yesterday since I figured we could just dump the water out onto the lawn when we were done working. That way we watered a portion of the lawn, and the kids got to rinse off which was badly needed after working in the dirt. 😉 We still have a bit of finishing touches to do with the sod before it’s finished, but it’s mostly laid which is so exciting.

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The last day of school 2009

Well we have made it through the very first year of school. Ethan has had a great time in kindergarten, and is excited to be a first grader in the fall. Tyra thinks that she gets to start kindergarten next week. And I am wondering where the time has gone. School has never flown by so fast. I always remember the school year lasting forever, and here it is and Ethan’s done with his very first year. I can hardly believe it.

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Here is Ethan with his teacher, Mrs Davis. He really enjoyed having her for a teacher, so he had a good school year. 😉

Dinah’s in a booster seat.

Well we upgraded Dinah from the high chair to the booster seat yesterday. Jeremy has been out of the booster seat for awhile, and Dinah REALLY wanted to sit in a big person chair yesterday. But she couldn’t reach her food, so I whipped out the booster seat. She loves coming to the table for meals now, and she’s just so cute. She’s growing up so fast! We couldn’t talk Jeremy out of ‘his’ chair (which happens to be the chair designated for the booster seat) so we temporarilly set the booster on another chair (I will feel better when it’s on a sturdier chair). And he was mad today when I scooted his chair to the side of the table, since the booster seat needs to be on the end of the table because it can’t be pushed under the sides. But he’ll get used to the new arrangements. 😉

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