Dinnertime can be the climax of a family's day. As the kids help put away toys, as older kids finish up homework and help mom (or dad) make dinner, there is anticipation for that special hour. Everyone looks forward to coming together. Here are some ideas to make that time special:
* Take the time to prepare real wholesome food that isn't a pre-prepared fast-food (although there are days when boxed mac-n-cheese is the difference between eating together or not) and involve your kids in the cooking.
* Light a candle, use the china (save paper plates for company), set the table properly (take advantage of the time to teach etiquette!).
* Play a game during dinner (we loved Settlers of Catan and would just put the game board in the middle of the table).
* Bring a current event article to the table or ask everyone to find a fun fact to share to spur conversation.
* Bad Manners Night - this is when all rules are eliminated. The idea is to demonstrate why you need rules! (Warning - this almost always descends to a food fight - yeah, we've done it and it's a blast!)
* Crazy Hat Night - everyone wears a funny hat to dinner.
* Guest Night - the dinner table is a great time to do hospitality. Invite interesting people from your church and community. One of the many people we had over for dinner was a 70 year old woman who had led expeditions to the South Pole. She shared such fascinating stories with us but also expressed amazement that our kids were even interested (we had read many stories of penquins, and the race to the South Pole, etc. and learned a little about Antarctica before we had her over so the kids pumped her with questions.)
* Saying grace before partaking teaches the children gratefulness, patience, and opens the door to further discussion on God.
* Initiate teamwork by insisting the family work together to help with clean up afterwards!
And now for a peek at what I'm doing for the Refashioner's Challenge...
The Challenge is to make something from old jeans. So I decided to make a jacket. This is the pattern I will use:
And here are the jeans.
As it turned out, I needed 3 more pairs. So 5 jeans altogether! The 2 above I bought for $5 at the thrift store, but I used 3 old ones laying around the house (2 had been used for painting and one was outgrown).
So here is a sneak peek as to what it will look like. It's still a work in progress. I have until the end of September to submit it for the contest.
In the meantime, I had fun playing around with the waistband of the biggest pair. I cut it off and made a belt for myself!
I glued a daisy lace (cut off from a refashioned gown - see here). And then I sewed a vintage metal button on each daisy.
I just added snaps so it would fit around my waist.
And here it is!
Blessings!
No comments:
Post a Comment