Quick item of business: Congratulations to Kendra in Sanford, MI! You won the Katie Orse journal. If you email her [ katie@katieorse.com ] she’ll hook you up.
—–
Did you realize that yesterday, Monday 9/27, was Family Day? I love that there is a holiday for the most important unit in society — the family.
And speaking of families — you may know that our family has personally been using e-Mealz as a resource for our everyday meal-planning. So are many of you. (Thanks again for that recommendation.) I so appreciate their philosophy to simplify meal preparation so that families are more likely to sit down around the table … as a family … every day … and eat a lovely meal as we connect as a family.
Family, family, family, family, family … Notice a theme here? ; )
Anyway, e-Mealz has turned this Family Day into a week-long celebration. They have created this “Family Week” to encourage everyone to make the effort to have dinner at home as a regular evening ritual and focus attention on what makes your family special.
When you head over to their site you can read more about how they’re celebrating all week. I noticed they just launched their new blog too.
In honor of this special occasion, and in appreciation for the support they feel from you specifically (my readers) — they are offering 15% off E-mealz for first time users. It was already such a good deal! That special code is beckyh and it is valid through October 15.
In the meantime, let’s give one family the opportunity to receive a 3-month membership entirely FREE, shall we? Please share just one ritual/tradition/topic of conversation that is typical at your dinner table. We’ll randomly select a winner and announce tomorrow.
We always start with prayer and then we ask “what is the best thing that happened to you today?” A lot of times the best thing is sitting down together and having dinner. That’s a good thing because that means they love being with their family. I have a great family and look forward to when we are all together. I have 2 colllege kids and 2 high school kids so having the whole family together doesn’t happen as often as I would like. But who ever is home then we sit down together and eat. Thanks for the giveaway.
With our work schedules we rarely have the opportunity to sit down as a family. To make up for this we try to cook as a family or at least the kids and I or dad and the kids so when the other parent sits down for the meal, even though we are not all together, we’ve all had a part. It’s are own little way of mealtime as a “family”
We have dinner as a family every night. We go around the table and say one tough thing that happend in our day and one positive thing that happend. It helps me as a parent to know what is going on in my kids day and they know that they can talk about anything.
Maricela Caulder
Fountain Valley CA
We hold what my daughter has deemed Family counsel where everyone shares their day and something they are thankful for. while we enjoy dinner at the table together. I always enjoy hearing what blessing each person has discovers especially when they’ve had a hard day.
We (inconsistently) play “HIGH” -”LOW” where we each share the best and worst thing about our day. It usually brings out something we didn’t already know and starts a great conversation.
We play “Mad, Sad, Glad” frequently at the dinner table-each of us says one thing that made us mad, one that made us sad, and one that made us glad. It is a great way for the kids to open up about their day and we always hear things I don’t think they would have said otherwise! I like that sometimes their “sad” is that they missed me!
I love having dinner together with my family! it is the only time when we are all sitting at the table together and we always talk about our days! it is so cool to hear my sons 7 and 4 talk about what they did and all their little friends. love e-mealz and we are huge fans of them at home! thanks again!
Growing up our parents used the dinner table to teach me and my 4 siblings important life lessons. My parents designated the chair next to my Mom as the official “Servant’s Heart” chair. We rotated chairs every meal and the child who sat in this particular chair would have to have a servants heart and a gracious attitute. As with most busy dinner tables, Mom’s are often up and down getting various things for the table. My parents finally decided this would be a great opportunity for a life lesson! If someone needed ice, more napkins, or something not on the table, the child sitting in the “Servant’s Heart” chair would retrieve it for the others at the table. My parents said all children should learn to have a servants heart and what better place to get the practice than the busy family dinner table!
We like to use Table Topics or conversation starters around our table. We each take turns picking out a card and answering the question. If it’s a question that we can all answer we do. It helps sometimes to have these conversation starters and we learn more about each other and our thoughts on things.