Love at Home

Last week we had our first Family Home Evening of the new year. Ryan and I decided to kick off a new year by introducing a family theme. We chose "Love at Home" so that we can focus on less hitting, more patience, and more service/kindness within our family.

I used my new scrapbook software to create a little "poster":

The scripture on it says, "Let us love one another; for love is of God." Instead of picking a new random scripture each week for FHE, we are going to keep this one all month long and recite it together so everyone can memorize it. (Can you tell I serve in the Primary and get some of my ideas from what I see in there every week? :)) Then in February we will pick a new scripture about love at home and memorize it all month long. The poster hangs on our pantry door to remind us of our family theme.

I wanted this lesson to last longer than just 1 FHE -- I want us to remember to really work on love and kindness. So I bought these cute heart place mats (thanks, Target) to use every night at dinner. In the middle of this picture you can see a jar with warm fuzzies inside. We started with 1 warm fuzzy per family member. Then when we find someone showing love, kindness, happiness, or obedience, we get to put a warm fuzzy in the jar. If someone is unkind or disobedient, they lose a warm fuzzy. Nathan, Benjamin, and Joshua are really excited to go to Pirate Island (like Chuck E Cheese) when we fill up the jar! So far this has worked pretty well for reverence in Sacrament meeting -- I've been giving them 2 warm fuzzies each if they are good!