FHE for Dummies

It used to be that Dave and I could get away with doing just the "activity" part for Family Home Evening, like a family bike ride, a walk, reading books, etc. Not the case anymore. Fortunately(?) for us, Ashley is inheritantly a do-gooder and has taken it upon herself to make sure we have a "real" FHE (her words not mine). It all started when the kids went to a Primary activity and made these cute FHE charts. I put them in the pantry thinking yeah, we'll have to use those...but figured they would never see the light of day. Silly me. After that both the girls were insistent that we start using them.

So last night we had our first official FHE, with everyone in the family getting assignments as per the chart. Addie said the prayer (sort of) and Natalie chose the song. We attempted to sing "I am a Child of God" and I'm pretty sure our voices removed the spirit instead of inviting it. It was pretty ugly. I couldn't even look Dave in the eye because I knew we would start laughing since Dave and I are best described as "musically inept". In fact, once on his mission he and his companion were singing in sacrament and an old guy told them afterwards "I admire your effort, but you boys have terrible singing voices". Rude! Sadly, I would probably be given the same feedback if I ever chose to actually sing in public and not just mouth the words. I sing in my car with my kids, but they are trapped and have no choice but to listen.

Ashley had the lesson and chose to do it on the Word of Wisdom and she did a great job! She had written it out and even had us answer questions along the way. It was pretty cute. At the end of her lesson she had actually written out "now it's Dad's turn to do the activity" and read it right from the page. Too funny. Dave had printed off "Mormon Bingo" (apparently he took his assignment very seriously) and we used Cheerios for markers. That wasn't so smart with Addie around...ever time she got a few spots covered she would say she didn't want to play anymore so she could eat the Cheerios. She did that a few times until we just gave her her own bowl. After that she was done playing. We decided to call out "Amen" instead of Bingo and it was hilarious. Every time one off the girls said it we all laughed. I got the treat assignment which consisted of walking to the freezer to get the ice cream. Awesome. I hope I get to do the treat every week.

So, the whole thing was over in about 20 minutes but the girls had fun planning it. I guess now we can't get by just "phoning in" our FHE nights. Bummer. That's what we get for letting the girls go to church I guess :) Now if they start insisting on fasting or attending Stake Conference we are going to have to draw the line!