I've missed you. It has been way too long, hasn't it? I am sure those of you who are on my Facebook page can understand why I have been too busy to write. For those of you who were not aware, my dad passed away after a valiant 8 year battle with Cancer just two weeks away from my due date. We nervously made the trek to my hometown for his funeral and made it back home with baby still in the belly. Jakin Lewis was born shortly after on October 26 and well, life has been pretty hectic since. My mom came shortly after and was blessed to have such four wonderful distractions. We loved having her around. I really never tire of that woman. I again, struggled with breastfeeding and am finally starting to feel emotionally and physically better since the birth. He is a great baby but it seems to take about 3 months to really figure out who they are what works for them. I don't know what I would do without my husband home. He drops off and picks up kids from school and is available if I need to sleep in or take a shower. These passed few months have been difficult, painful, wonderful and exciting all in one and I am glad to be back.
My reason for writing today is share the blessings of a weekly family movie night. When Munch entered the world of full time school, it became apparent to me that we have less time to influence him. As he is meeting more friends from all different backgrounds, we are also learning how our family rules and values are different, christian or not, from other families. We have been using the phrase, "Yes, their family may do that but ours does not." During the time this was coming to our attention, I read a great article about creating family identity. The idea of a family game or movie night was one of the suggestions and from there we made it our thing. Now instead of just saying, "Our family doesn't do that." We get to say, "Our family does this!"
This introduces...
7 Reasons Why
We Love
Family Movie Night:
1. We are getting the boys into the habit of carving out time for each other and looking forward to it. Right now it is really about the movie and the popcorn but as time goes on I am confident the boys will appreciate their parents' commitment to the night.
2. It helps me to limit their screen time. When they ask to watch movies throughout the week, I have something to point them to. "No, we don't need to watch a movie, we can maybe watch that one on Friday night." It works.
3. Watching movie with the kids allows us to screen the shows that they are watching and have conversations about them. I had made the decision based on a review of the The Lego Movie, that they boys would not be seeing it. It was mainly for our preschooler. This last week, Ryan said he read another review and thought we could give it a try. This way we could address any undesirable behaviour that we were concerned with. Well, surprise to me, I loved it! If we didn't have this movie night, those boys may have missed out on a really fun movie (that totally inspired them with their Lego!)
4. It is something to look forward to. When it's Wednesday and we all feel in a rut, we can look forward to our fun night of a movie and snacks. We can all do this together.
5. Snuggles. When there's five people to snuggle with and life gets busy, sometimes people get missed. This is a time where I can give catch-up cuddles.
6. Popcorn! I love the snacks....but also... it helps when the kids are always asking for snacks throughout the week. I can point them to Friday, where there will be a fun snack night!
7. We are creating family identity. "Our family has movie night." Maybe one night it will be a games night. When our boys are nine, we will have movie night. When they are sixteen, we will have a family night. It is our family's thing-we look forward to it, we enjoy it and we are proud to be in this family and doing this special thing together.
Does your family have some traditions or activities that help create your unique identity? Share them here and inspire other families.
It's good to be back.
