Sunny FHE

Our Family Home Evenings seem to be more like lessons in culinary arts. Tonight's lesson was about following Jesus.  The more we understand the stories of Jesus and follow His example the brighter our light will shine, the more people will notice your "glowing countenance" and will want to know more about the Gospel. We made sun cookies to reinforce the importance of making our light shine brighter.  We talked of 8 different stories of Jesus' life and then had our "cooking lesson".

When asked to re-teach the FHE lesson to Eric (he had to work late) T-Man said, "Jesus calmed the waves and we made sun cookies because it's raining."  Well, at least some of the lesson was understood :)

I Licked the 10 Commandments!

I know the phone will be ringing off the hook when the church curriculum department hears about the outstanding Family Home Evening we had last night.  They will be desperate for me to write an entire book of family home evening lessons for the entire church :)

For a previous FHE, we read the story  "Alma the Younger Apologizes" and then played a game called "Hard Hearts, Soft Hearts".  You read a statement and decide if the action is something that a person with a hard heart (represented by the rocks) would do (such as stealing) or a soft heart (the cotton balls) would do (helping a friend).  Once you make your decision, you then place the corresponding object into a bucket and when all the statements are gone, you count out which has more.  You either get a "good job, you had a soft heart" or a "Oh, we better try harder to change our heart!" consolation prize.  Last night's version consisted of pouring the rocks out onto the floor (repeatedly) and then tossing the cotton balls up in the air to see where they would land (or how many would land on the dog).  The "apologizing" came in the form of saying sorry when an errant rock hit someone.  Gospel topic learned:  Patience (on mommy's end)

Next we read a favorite book:

and discussed the need for rules at home, school, church, in life, etc.   Little Man kept referring to them as Moses' 10 Footballs (a reference to a church video, 'Scripture Bugs').  We then created our own family game of football rules:

Our Family Rules

1.  Help make our home a temple:

    *Pick up our toys

    *Do our chores

    *LOVE one another

2.  Treat others with kindness - The Golden Rule.

3.  We listen to each other and speak with an inside voice.

4.  Follow directions when asked the first time.

5.  We hug and kiss, not hit.

Agreed upon and signed on the 4th day of January 2010

When then chose a clip art picture to put on the page (T-Man chose one of Nephi with the Brass Plates and a sword), printed these up on the computer, we all signed them, and then we each proceeded to break at least one by the next morning.

At this point, I was craving / was desperate for  / demanded suggested that we now move to the "Treat" portion of FHE.  This is what T-Man offered:  Foam puzzle piece "hot dog buns" and cotton ball "hot dogs".

 

SUPER cute idea, but ... umm ... DELICIOUS??

This is what I had in mind:

 

Graham Cracker Stone Tablets with the 10 Commandments written in cream cheese frosting. 

(A tried-&-true dessert from my childhood days)

Can I get an Amen to that treat??

 

He proceeded to lick the frosting off of the "Stone Tablets" to which he then squealed, "I LICKED THE 10 COMMANDMENTS!"  Gospel Principle learned:  The jury is still out on this one.  Any ideas?