Friday, November 20, 2009

Shav Celebrated...

...his four-month birthday* by relaxing in his daddy's arms this evening while, per Jeff's special request for his family night, I played my guitar and we sang songs of worship as a family. It's been a while--a long while--since we've done that; and I'm so glad that Jeff asked us to do it tonight because I had forgotten how refreshing and fun it is. After all, what's better than singing "When the Spirit of the Lord moves in my heart, I will dance like David danced..." and watching your own David dance around the living room? What's better than being asked by your firstborn, "Did David really dance naked?"...and then when Jeff replied that no, he was probably wearing something, hearing two of your sons talking about how they should dance in their underwear. What's better than ending with the classic hymn "On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is stinky sand"? (Yes, that mixed-up line is still floating around our house.)
Shav, meanwhile, just hung out with his daddy, peaceful and contented. I wonder if he already knows how loved he is.

I wonder if he'll ever know that.

*More about Shav at four months tomorrow, I hope, including more pictures I took of him during our little photo shoot two days ago. If the crik don't rise, and if the boys git edjicated, and if the deviled eggs and Shank cake for the potluck on Sunday git made, and if the washin' gits washed, and if the sky don't fall--yeehaw, I'll do the post!

3 comments:

Sally said...

That sounds so peaceful and wonderful! I didn't know you played guitar.

Sometime I want to hear more about your family nights, how they work, how often they come around, how do you know whose family night it is, etc. Or, have I just missed the blog post with all that information? I wonder if it's something we should incorporate over here (if I ever got my act together enough!).

Davene said...

Sally,

I've written here and there about our family nights; but I'd be glad to give a synopsis here!

We typically do family nights every other Friday night (although we're flexible with that, depending on what else is going on in life). We take turns honoring one member of the family...so one time, it's Jeff's family night...the next time, it's mine...then Josiah's...then David's. We don't officially have family nights for Tobin or Shav yet, but we will someday. :) Josiah and David look forward to their own family night very much and will occasionally ask me how many more weeks until it's their turn. I write it on our calendar so that they can see when it's coming and so that it's "official" and other stuff doesn't always come along and displace our family nights. It's important enough to be protected!

On our family nights, the person who's being honored gets to choose the menu and the activity, eat from the "Celebrate" plate, and listen as the rest of us share special things about that person that we are especially grateful for. I write those things down in a journal so that we'll be able to go back and remember the kind things that were shared in the past.

Our current guideline is that if Josiah or David choose to go out for supper on that night, then the activity needs to be something at home. Or if they want to eat at home, we can go out and do something that costs money for the activity. Basically, we try to reduce the cost by allowing one extra money item per family night. We haven't always done it that way in the past, but that's where we're at now with it. Even though the boys would love to go out to eat AND do bowling AND go to Kline's for ice cream or something like that, they understand our guidelines so they don't fuss about it.

You know, Sally, there are so many areas in which I feel like a failure as a mom. But in this area, I feel so grateful for this happy tradition which we've been able to establish. I think as the boys grow, they will cherish these memories (I know I will!), and our special focused times together as a family will grow in depth and be part of the glue that holds us together. I hope so anyway... :)

I know other families do family nights in various ways, but this is what works for us!

Thanks for asking. :)

Sally said...

Thanks for taking time to explain that. It sounds really neat. Especially for teaching siblings to focus on positive things about each other. I think I want us to establish something like that at some point. I'm not sure if Paul and Hannah are quite old enough to pick out special things for a family night, but soon we would be able to have those.