Making Your Home a Haven – Week 3 {Family Fun Night}

Join me in making your home a haven for our families. Together we'll make our homes a haven of peace, joy, tranquility, and fun for all who enter. #WomenLivingWell #homemaking #friendship #makingyourhomeahaven

As a little girl, every night my family ate a home cooked dinner around the dinner table. We weren’t allowed to watch television and my mom always took the phone off the hook so there were no distractions.

But on a few special nights, my mom would put a table cloth on the family room floor and she served dinner there. The change of pace, the ability to watch television while we ate, and a family game afterwards — made for much excitement in the eyes of this little girl.

And so the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree in our house.  Our dinner hour is always spent around the dinner table with no television or distractions.  But on a few special nights, I like to put sheets, blankets and pillows on the family room floor and serve dinner there.  The kids love it!

We eat dinner, watch a show or movie and then after dinner, we play a game –or two!  Some of our favorites to play are Trouble, Spoons, Life, Apples to Apples, Monopoly and Clue.

Game night

We played a game of Clue after dinner this past Friday –I won! And there were no tears. Seriously, we’ve come a long way.  I know that playing games can sometimes cause family brawls. Right? Lol!  Competition does not always bring out the best in children…but it’s a great time of character training and loving memories.

Clue

 

Week 3’s Challenge:

Keep your candle burning, the music playing and plan a Family Fun Night.

Have a pillow party in the family room and get out every blanket and pillow in the house and be cozy with the kids or your hubby! Even if you live alone you can do this. Enjoy a cozy evening of hot cider and caramel corn. Bust out some old fashioned games and take the time to savor these moments with your loved ones.

Work on kindness and joy this week.

Kindness and joy are both fruit of the Spirit and character traits that should be evident in a Christian’s life.  Let’s role model it for our children as they learn to walk in the Spirit as well.

Joy comes through our salvation.  It is not dependent on our circumstances. Joy can be hard to display in our homes when there is tension, worry, stress and discontentment.  We must fight for joy.  We must choose joy. Choose to slow down. Choose to smile even on days when everything just seems upside down.  Pause. Pray for peace.  Pray that God gives you a gladness found only in him, despite our circumstances.

Kindness is being friendly, generous and considerate.  One way we can show kindness to our children is through listening…and listening and listening.  Here are some conversation starters we can use this week at the dinner table, to get our children to open up to us:

When making our home a haven, we find that the kitchen is not just for cooking, but connecting, too. Grab these conversation starters to help you connect. #WomenLivingWell #homemaking #conversationstarters #makingyourhomeahaven

Did you know that Romans 2:4 says” it’s the kindness of God that leads to repentance“?  Sometimes we think we need to be strict with our children to get them to obey, but I believe kindness, listening, smiling and playing with our children will soften their hearts towards the love of God and obedience.

**Chime In**

How is the Making Your Home a Haven Challenge going in your house?  Do you have your candle and music going?

What is your favorite thing to do for fun with your family?

What is your favorite board game to play with your family?

Share a special memory with your family, from your childhood.

Walk with the King,

Courtney

 

 

21 Comments

  1. Courtney,
    I love this idea!! One quick question, what are some meal ideas for a “floor meal”? LOL…I can see my family spilling something if I try to do a meat and 2 veggies. Do you guys usually do pizza or something?

    Thanks, Ashley 🙂

    1. Yes – pizza, popcorn and cookies or ice cream are the go to meal for our “floor meals”. I also put their drinks in water bottles to avoid spills 😉

      Courtney

  2. We will be having our special night a little delayed because I’ve been not feeling well, but I do have plans to hopefully implement later this week.

    Thank you again for inspiring and encouraging others to grasp onto making special moments.

  3. A little twist on the conversation starters would be to make a game of it by having them write their answers (or type and print so no recognizes the handwriting), place in a bowl and have an adult draw one out and read it aloud. Everyone has to guess who gave that answer to the question. It would be a great way to see how much you know about your family members. Even Mom and Dad could participate. #1, 6, 7, & 9 wouldn’t work too well, but the others would be great questions for a game.

  4. I haven’t lit my candle. Too many young people too curious in my house. I am looking into those flameless candles, maybe. with the music, OMH (oh my heavens) I found a channel on my cable network that has contemporary Christian music and I find myself singing out loud. But the best part is my 2 yr. old has started humming with me. It is so cute. will be checking with the kids and seeing who is up for card game later after homework of course. I enjoyed this challenge last year and it is a joy again this year. thanks for doing this. It is a true blessing

  5. I have never actually followed through on your Making your home a Haven challenge, but always read along with you. But this year I determined to do it! Lighting my candle and having worship music on does make such a difference, not only in my attitude, but my kids too! My youngest has been singing along, and the other day when I was ready to leave my kitchen and go to another part of the house and went to turn the music off, my 9 year old wanted to continue listening while he was working on something. I love knowing that the kids are getting the words of worship songs in their heads and it just gives a great atmosphere in the home!
    I know they will all love doing a game night, and they are always begging to eat in the family room! Thanks for all the great ideas, you are such an inspiration to me in so many ways!

  6. Around the dinner table each night we have “Best and Worst” where we go around the table and everyone says the best and worst parts of their day… I love the idea of adding those conversation starters into that to keep the conversation going. With having 4 kiddos and teenagers to boot, sometimes getting them to talk and open up is difficult. Thank you for this challenge. I will be lighting my candle today. 🙂 You are a blessing!

  7. Hey Courtney! It’s so funny you put this post up because I was thinking about my family and we have made Sundays our family days. This Sunday we just relaxed, watched some shows, ate apple pie together and then played a card game that we are kind of creating together! Amazing how nice it is to just ENJOY our family! The apple pie we enjoyed was made with my daughter (7) and the neighbor girl and it just that moments I hope they remember! Have a blessed week and thank you for this challenge. I took a picture on my phone of my three gourds and baby pumpkin, that my kids picked when we were at an apple orchard, and three small candles with the apple pie sitting next to it. I have increased the music in our house and it really has blessed my heart and those in our family. Thanks again! 🙂

  8. Sadly, I don’t have any childhood memories of family time but that is what motivates me! My kids love family movie night and I always catch them looking at me to see if I am laughing at the funny parts. Love that twinkle in their eyes! It motivates me to be intentional! We gotta be or time just passes!

  9. When my husband goes out of town for drill weekends the kids and I play a never ending game of Horsopoly. we sit on the floor and eat junk food and play for hours. My husbands civilian work doesnt allow much time off, let alone evenings, so we get lucky if he can join us for a movie and not pass out 5 minutes in. LOL.

  10. Hi, Courtney!

    Our family fun night is going to be a night out this Friday at Chick-Fil-A and a movie at the $1.50 theater that we’ve been waiting to see. We are celebrating getting through my temporary furniture market job that has required changes to our normal routine. My husband and son have been great at stepping in and managing without me so I decided we all get a family fun night out to celebrate the Team Messer effort!! Whoot-whoot!!

    I missed Week 2 of Making Your Home a Haven…I’m excited to be able to jump back in with Week 3!! 🙂

    Walking in His Grace,
    Laurie

  11. Exactly what we did tonight! I know it’s odd to do it on a Monday, but I have teen boys and no better way to say I love you than chicken wings in the crock pot, chips, queso and Monday Night Football! My two littles fell asleep on pillows and were carried to bed. Love your series which echoes my heart and what I’ve been trying to do this month as well in {re}building our family after loss.

  12. Yesterday was our CC community day and I subbed for our Essentials Class. I was exhausted and had forgotten to put dinner in the crockpot. We hauled out the leftovers, popped a frozen pizza in the oven and lounged around munching and watching a favorite TV show. It was divine! We all needed a lazy night:)

  13. Last night I forgot about this challenge. After working 8 hours and coming home to a string of emails to answer regarding our ministry commitments, I ended up exhausted, angry and snapping at my husband. Today (a day off) I woke up remembering that every day is a new start and chance to try again to be kind… Candle is lit and KLOVE radio has been playing all day! Nothing like music and praise to lift the darkness.

  14. As for a childhood memory, the first thing I think of is how my family would have Friday movie nights. We would go out to eat, then rent a family movie and share our favorite candy bars! My sisters and I were so excited and would always look forward to it. We did this during the year after we moved to a new town, before we were old enough for sports, school band, birthday parties and youth group events to take over our weekend schedules. Looking back I can see how my parents made that family time a priority, and I’m thankful for the happy memory!

  15. How is the Making Your Home a Haven Challenge going in your house? I love this challenge and this reminder to make my home a haven for myself and my family.

    Do you have your candle and music going? Yes, always : )

    What is your favorite thing to do for fun with your family? Honest conversations when we’re relaxed and peaceful.

    What is your favorite board game to play with your family? Acey-ducey or Rummy

    Share a special memory with your family, from your childhood. Sitting with my Mom in front of the Christmas tree with only the lights on the tree to brighten the room.

    Blogging through this challenge with you, Courtney at IntentionallyPursuing.com. Here is this week’s post:
    http://www.intentionallypursuing.com/2014/10/spirit-filled-home-week-4/

  16. When I try and talk to my daughter I never know what to say to start a conversation with her that will be more than just question and answer. The list you have here will be of great benefit. I plan on starting with one of them after she gets home from school!

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