Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Nature Adventure

Though having been a member of the church for more than half my life, I had never seen a "regular" Family Home Evening prior to having one of my own. I don't think I've honestly seen too many period to be quite frank...because of this, it's something I really struggle with doing for my own family.

***For my non-LDS readers, Family Home Evening is a program endorsed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It's "scheduled" to be Monday nights (no church meetings or events take place on this night, most temples are closed, etc); however, we as parents, can modify that to meet our needs. The purpose of this dedicated night is to spend time together strengthening our testimonies AND our family. For more information on Family Home Evening (you don't HAVE to be LDS to do it), please click here.***

So anyway, my sister T is REALLY good at FHE...me not so much. And, I seem paralyzed if I don't have a program, a perfectly planned lesson (thankfully I get those emailed to me each week from LDS Living), refreshments, and the like...I'm not good at "winging" FHE at all. This is one area I'm striving to improve on because it seriously needs work.

So last week, I get this impromptu idea to combine two of the things we like doing most (taking walks and scrapbooking) and attempt to "wing" FHE, but the weather didn't cooperate. We were going to go on a Nature Adventure...sounds so much better than walking around the park doesn't it? Anyway...

The point of the walk was for the kids to collect 10 things that remind them of things they are thankful to Heavenly Father for giving them...they collected a bunch stuff, will pick their ten favorites and then we'll put them in an album for them to cherish. This week we only accomplished getting the walk done...I'll post pictures of their albums when they're done but I have to brag about the amazing children I have....

While at the park, I picked up a fairly straight stick and asked "does this remind you of anything you're thankful for?" Mini2 promptly said "yes Mommy it's the Iron Rod" and Mini3 chimes in "that's the word of God." And then of course we had to sing the song...the iron rod is the word of God, tis strong and bright and true....something like that anyway.

Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

Someone lost their shoe at the park...judging by the size that someone was pretty little. The kids asked could I photograph it because a shoe wouldn't fit in their books but they were thankful Heavenly Father allowed shoes to be created.

They are thankful for ponds that attract ducks because ducks are fun to feed and "please Mommy can we come back with bread next time in case there are ducks here again?"

This was my choice...I'm thankful for nature because it's beautiful.

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