Gooooooooaaaaaals

It's Monday again. Preppin my FHE for tonight (read brownies are in the oven).

It is one of our family goals for 2011 not to miss one home evening the whole year.

The first week of January we talked about goals and setting good habits during our lesson. The next day at breakfast Anabelle said, "I think I will start the habit of cleaning my room." If I knew how to do a cartwheel without getting a rugburn on my forehead, I would have. Then she said, "Nah, nevermind. I'll break my habit of wasting bananas first".

I made a chart with a box for every Monday of the year. It has room to plan the evening and to check off when we have accomplished it. (I'm happy to make you one exactly like mine-Maisey can drool all over it, Lila can color thru the boxes, and Anabelle will smear Peanut Butter on it. Just pay shipping & handling). I have found that I like having somewhere to write possible ideas throughout the week as different needs in the family arise. For instance, I had a lesson already planned for tonight but it is getting pushed back until next week on account of recent attacks launched on Lila. Today Anabelle is not allowed to play with either sister all day because she has mistreated them. She has spent the day alone. It is killing her. And me. I hate when I have to carry out punishment and see the drama unfold. Hopefully tonight she will realize how special it is to have a family and see the importance of treating them well. It's the weirdest thing, so totally unlike her to do this.

Our other goal is to read the scriptures every night as a family before we pray. I wasn't sure how much Anabelle would pick up, but the other day she surprised me when I was trying to remember where we left off...."No, we read that, we read that, we read about Ismael's daughters becoming wives and Nephi's brothers hitting him with the rod...". She is not too small for the scriptures. She gets it. She likes it. She wants to understand them. Wait a minute, is that where she got the idea to start hitting her sister....maybe she was unclear about the take home message of that chapter? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm....

To coincide with our reading, last week we talked about Lehi's vision. We drew a picture with all the things he saw and explained what they meant. While trying to explain the mist and the river, I asked her if she knew who satan is. She said no. As I explained it to her, a look of absolute horror took over her face, and her entire body really, to think that such a being existed. She went on a tirade about not following Satan. As she did so, I jotted it all down, as I happened to be working on our Iron Rod artwork. Classic.



Click to enlarge the drawing. Then pretend to yell what is written in the bubble in Anabelle's horrified voice. My favorite part was "ARE YOU"?!, which she asked each of us in turn. We all promised her that we would obey. Lila's an inspiration to us all, she is afterall, very good on sharing.

How thankful am I for the counsel to have Family Home Evening every week? Well, at the risk of sounding like I'm from Provo, seriously so thankful.

Like I'd miss a chance to hear Lila sing "Jesus wants me for a sunbean".