Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Photobucket Family Team Building (or Family Worship)

Monday night I asked Mike if I could hijack our evening. It was a golden opportunity with both Mike and Jamin at home.

I read the verse from Eph about "Bearing one another's burdens".

We laid out a blanket. I then began to put symbols of all our family responsibilities for the upcoming year on the blanket (Chapel, military, schooling, co-ops etc). Then, I began to load people on the blanket.
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I tried to lug them around and we all discovered that Mom could NOT carry the load of family responsibilities alone.
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Yes, we all took turns trying. Guess what? None of us could lug the blanket full of responsibilities very far by ourselves.....in fact we could all hear the blanket begin to rip under the strain of our effots. This provided an unintended object lesson. ::snort::

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

When we all got off the blanket and took a little spot of the load, it was easily doable.
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We went on to discuss the upcoming year, challenges we see in the future.... and strengthened our resolve to work as a team.

We needed a "song" so introduced Father Abraham. I was sure the words were "he didn't eat and he didn't sleep" and was gustily singing my version. After a few verses someone remembered the correct words. ::snort::

We ended with a prayer cirlce. The rest of the evening we played games. Jared and Mike played a rousing game of "Acey Deucy". I honestly don't remember who won. The rest of us played, "Pick it Up". The point of this game seems to be to lie about how many cards you put down while others guess if you are lying or not. ::snort::

Yes, we DO have family worship more than once a year. However, lately, it's RARE to have all six children and two adults home at the same time. We look for those chances.

*Note I heard about the blanket thing at a Mom's Night Out when Kristi was speaking about chores and her family. I KNEW that eventually I would use the object lesson and it fit well with what Mike and I wanted to discuss on Monday.

Well, that's Monday. It's a decent hour to go to the gym....so I'll update on Tuesday later.

©2008 D.R.G.
Photobucket Catching UP

Why am I up this early? One of the children had a problem. Enough said. ::snort:: I'm notorious for "being up once I'm up".

Sunday is Ice Cream Day in our home....oops
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Mike deliberately shut the door to all the work that was calling his name on Labor Day. What fun! This has been a particularly "full" work schedule for the past 6 - 9 months. Mike typically works from 7:30 - 9:00 or 10:00 at night. This means the younger ones don't see him for extended lengths of time. The good news is that he should shortly take his last ACSC test and not have to spend so many after hours and weekends at the office studying. LOL

We chose to go geocaching on Monday.
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Stacia shows off her new running shoes
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Jared asks to borrow Arielle's glasses after we'd all spotted the cache - except him. LOL
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This was our last hunt of the day - long grass, rocks, snake heaven.

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We found the general area for two other caches but both were crawling with hunters. I haven't a clue as to what they were hunting but we opted not to share the brush with hunters.

Some of us fixed dinner. Jamin and Mike surprised us with THESE on the van....YES. They've been waiting for "time" to install them.
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Left side
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Right side
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©2008 D.R.G.