Our lives lately have swirled into a little black hole where our normal lives don’t exist. It’s extremely frustrating when this happens, because we become accustomed to this new black hole.

I woke up today and said to myself – I AM SNAPPING OUT OF IT! I am going to get back into my housekeeping schedule, my work schedule, and Sunday I’m going to church. Well, since tonight was Monday I decided the first step in getting back to normal is to do {Family Home Evening}

Something we haven’t done in a while, and something that is much needed not only in our home, but everyone’s home. Please click on the link that the words Family Home Evening gave to read about it, or under my topics click on FHE.

Tonight’s Family Home Evening, since being the first in while, I made it extremely simple… and fun. I made {Rich Dark Chocolate Fudge Sauce} in my adorable {Wildtree Fondue Set} and we sat around the table dipping strawberries and took turns saying…. “so and so (somebody sitting at the table) makes me happy when….” and then we say what makes us happy.

Some of Jayden’s responses: “Ella makes me happy when she makes a big mess.” “Ella makes me happy when she screams” I’m starting to think he didn’t get it LOL… but he had some good ones in there too like, “Mama makes me happy when she hugs me.”

We had laughs, the chocolate dipped strawberries were delicious and there’s another Family Home Evening memory that will stick with my kids in their hearts. Another Family Home Evening that will keep us as a family strong.

My goal from here on out is to make sure that I do Family Home Evening every, single Monday – no matter how hectic the day has been. This is something my family needs, even if it’s 10 minutes of sharing a few laughs, without the TV and a delicious treat.

I have not been very consistent on Family Home Evening, but I’ve decided that this family REALLY needs it!! So, I’ve prepared my lesson and I think it’s one that I need the most. Our lesson is Trying to be like Jesus. If you want to learn more about Family Home Evening and how it can strengthen your family SEE HERE.

We will be reading THIS STORY out of The Friend and then we’ll throw some scenarios out there and take turns deciding whether the reaction is being like Jesus or not. We’ll also play a fun little game where we make a story. We’ll each add on two sentences and form a fun story that we’ll write down and treasure forever…. it might even pop up on Garibay Soup.

Our music will be I’m Trying to Be like Jesus from the Children’s Primary Book. We have a CD with the song on it, so we’ll just play it and sing along. I’ve printed out the lyrics and we’ll try to learn them together as a family tonight.

If you have any ideas to add to our Family Home Evening vault please leave me a comment and let me know!! And I hope that you will join along with the Garibay Family tonight as we make this family STRONG!

Remember the days when families used to sit together as a family for dinner. Talk about their days and bring laughter into their lives. Our society has cut this out of their lives and it’s sad. It’s sad that families are so busy that they don’t stop to appreciate what God has given them. A beautiful family that should be providing each other with unconditional love.

Bringing families close and together is a very important thing to the Mormon church, as it is to most religions. We implement something into our homes that strengthens our families and all it takes is one night a week.

It’s called Family Home Evening. Monday nights, the majority of the members of the church are gathered together in their homes strengthening the bonds that God has given us with our families. It’s a date and time that’s a guarantee in each of our homes that we will be together as a family, without media, without stresses, just us, God and the ones we love.

The way Family Home Evening is typically organized is as follows:

Opening Prayer
Sing a church song together
Quick lesson on any of these topics
Family Activity
Special Treat
Closing Song
Closing Prayer

You don’t have to be a member of the Mormon church to practice this. You don’t have to even give lessons or sing songs. Just having a set day a week to do some family activity together will do amazing things. Even if it’s just playing a board game and eating some ice cream afterwards.

Today is Monday, which means “Family Home Evening Time” We are going to be giving a lesson on Honesty. Our family activity will be planning what decorations we’re going to do for Papa Norm’s new studio at a nearby Retirement community. He should be arriving on the 1st and I already have the keys. So, we’re going to have it decorated when he walk in, so it feels like home. Tonight we’ll have Jayden draw some pictures and we’ll plan out what we will need to go over and decorate – then next Monday night our activity will be doing the actual decorations. Our special treat will be Cookies N’ Cream Pie…. mmmmmm I definitely can’t wait for that!

I hope that I get some of you out there to join in with me. I’ll try to update every Monday with what he have planned. If you have ideas for great lesson ideas or activities, or even a yummy treat recipe you’d like to share please leave a comment and share it. Remember, you don’t have to be Mormon to have a Family Home Evening. It’s the perfect opportunity to have your entire family together to talk about any family topics that need to be discussed also 🙂