YOOOOOUUUUUU HOOOOOOOOOOO

Where is everyone today???? Don't know if you do this where you are but here in our ward we have a family home evening the first Monday of every month for what we call the Empty Nesters. All the retires or anyone who's kids are grown and gone and also the singles are welcome to come. We take turns at members homes and have a pot luck and a brief family home evening lesson. It is lots of fun and we sometimes even pick a theme for the food. Since the first Monday this month was a holiday we had FHE this past monday. What a wonderful evening to just hang out with other members. Gives us a chance to visit and become closer. Just thought I would share that tidbit with you Have a great evening everyone Alfie

When I lived in Oregon we did the empty nesters.....I chased my then "husband to be" at everyone of them!!! haha.....caught him too.....haha...now we are divorced, but it wasn't all bad. We also did a potluck after sacrament meeting for the stake of singles....we'd meet about 3:30 or 4:00 for a potluck and have a guest speaker or sometimes just visit alot. It was fun, included all the kids, sometimes non members....I liked those alot. They were called Break the Fast meetings......

What a good idea. Our ward doesn't do anything like that. I still have small children at home and I was just put in charge of a Family Home Evening group where each of us create an entire Family Home Evening lesson and duplicate it as many times as there are people in our group (usually between 5-9 people) then we meet on a designated day and swap out our lessons. We each go home with a bunch of already made Family Home Evening Lessons. Thanks for Sharing Alfie. It's good to socialize and once again like most LDS social gatherings it's centered around food. Melody

Melody, I used to be in an FHE group and I have a ton of kits.....my kids are too old for them now, but I could try to find them and get some ideas to you. Our kits had to include the original, without being colored so we could recreate it if we wanted in the future.....(what copyright laws????) One kit I really liked was an 8x10 inch photo of Christ, and across the top layers of colored cellophane was stapled on but folded back behind the photo....and you told of a kid who kept making poor choices, and with each choice you bring one more layer of the cellephane over the photo.....at first you can still see Christ through it, but after 4 to 5 layers it gets pretty hazy, and soon you just can't see Christ at all. As the child repents, the layers are flipped back behind the photo and Christ comes back into view. It's very simple, but very visual. We used that one often in our stories and the kids liked it. And I don't believe this is a copyrighted issue....haha It's a cool enough visual to use for adults too....just change the story to fit the crowd...... So if you can write a nice story to go with that idea, there's a kit for you. We had pretty strict rules for our kits, because some women would spend alot of money and time laminating and coloring things, and other women would have their 3 year olds color stuff and it was a mess. So we tightened up the rules so stuff was high quality. I couldn't afford lamination much, but found clear contact paper worked well for small pieces. It was hard to enforce the rules as it would hurt feelings, I was glad that wasn't my position in the group. I think I did snacks.....haha I'll see if I can find them and if they are any good, I'll glean what I can for you. They've been in storage forever.......about 8 years..... What age group are you doing them for? Ours were primary ages...... Have a great day, Tracey

I really like your idea of the picture of Christ and the colored cellophane on the back. What a great visual aid. I also use clear contact paper. It doesn't come out as professional as laminating but it's a lot cheaper. I have children ranging in age from 3 years old to 21 years old. My oldest children are out of the home. Right now I plan Family Home Evening for a 3 year old and a 5 year old. My calling in our ward right now is in the Valiant Primary where this year we are studying the Book of Mormon. I have learned to create a Family Home Evening lesson from one of the Primary lessons. I've used the "Armour of God" complete. The primary lesson is great because it comes complete with visual aids (I don't have to create them - ya hoo). There is also a lesson that I'll use on "Faith". The primary book has visual aids of a seed, fertilizer, sun, water etc. etc. Why re-invent the wheel. I just use the parts that are appropriate for the younger children. Thanks for your ideas. Melody

Wow, that's a great idea. I think I'll suggest that at our next meeting. I'm here, I've just been busy, busy, busy. Yoga this morning. It was fun. I think I'll keep it up, as long as it's when the kids are sleeping. I'm going to try Tia Chi next week. Well, my kids are with their grandma so I need to take advantange of some alone time and clean. Ah, a clean house. . . nothing better! Except for losing weight!