Comments on: The Family that Plays Together

By: sarah in the woods

sarah in the woods — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 15:35:35 +0000

Beautiful post. You have such a happy-looking family. .-= sarah in the woods's last blog: St. Patrick's Day Fun AND Our New Chicks =-.

By: Renee

Renee — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 13:27:19 +0000

Brenda, I've been meaning to comment all week and will now add my 2 cents to all the comments here. I love so much of what you said Brenda, "I don’t spend my time driving to multiple extracurricular activities–I would rather be capturing my children’s hearts at home. My time with them is more then most, yet so small compared to the rest of their lives." Couldn't agree more. Sometimes it's reassuring knowing there are other parents building relationship with their children each and every day and not just shuttling them to activities. We make time together a huge priority in our life. We have one day a week hiking, like Jill's family, regardless the weather. My husband wrote about how me make that happen here, One Day a Week. Our evenings are set aside for family inspiration, lead again by Dad. This could be reading out loud together, playing games, or something else that my husband is inspired to do with the children. Our days are spent homeschooling & living together. Making meals, eating meals, running errands, doing crafts, reading aloud - living. But all of it together. Renee's last blog post: This week of Homeschool.

By: Misha

Misha — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:54:59 +0000

Oh Brenda – I love this! I have already been passing this link on all day and just realized I haven’t even commented. Thank you for this. Thank you for living it, believing it’s possible and encouraging us to not let it go.
.-= Misha’s last blog: Sparkling Jewels: Thoughts On Justice, Grieving And Choices In Loss =-.

By: Jill Foley

Jill Foley — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 02:25:43 +0000

Brenda…I love this! I often feel like I’m “bucking the system” because I prefer to spend time at home with my family. We have moved a lot the past 5 years (4 states), and as a result don’t have many close friends where we live, so we depend on each other as a family.

We go on hikes every weekend…rain or shine, snow or sun. It’s amazing family time. We also love music in our house and we spend time giving each other concerts (violin) or singing along with daddy as he plays drums.

Great ideas here…thanks for sharing!
.-= Jill Foley’s last blog: #163 – Haircut =-.

By: Sam

Sam — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:38:24 +0000

Thanks so much for the wonderful post! My husband and I just decided that we are going to homeschool my daughter who starts Kindergarten next year(I also have a 3 yo and 1 yo). I'm looking forward to the time spent together even though at the same time I am overwhelmed with starting. But I want our family to be close and I think homeschooling will bring us even closer. Thanks again! .-= Sam's last blog: Simple Living Giveaways =-.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:12:18 +0000

Nola,
Both my husband and I grew up in broken/remarried homes and a lot of our core beliefs stem from not wanting to repeat the cycle. It’s HARD, but the consistency and the time we have put in has started paying us back ten fold. Take hold of the moments! Take hold of joy. Thanks for commenting.

By: Rana

Rana — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:29:01 +0000

We try to do a lot of the same things that you listed. My husband has a four day 10 hour work week so he gets one day off a week and we try to spend the whole day together. Whether we go out and about or just stay in playing games and reading books. It's been great homeschooling. I love that my kids feel they can come talk to my husband and I about everything. .-= Rana's last blog: First signs of Spring!!! =-.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:54:09 +0000

Catherine,
You said, ” The dance recital, the soccer game, art night at school…whatever the event, we all go and support whichever kid is on display.”

That is exactly why it works! Awesome. I’m so glad that your efforts are paying off, too.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:52:33 +0000

You know I love you Jana!

By: Nola

Nola — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 19:52:48 +0000

This is a great post. The first picture made me smile. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I long to be a close family. Its hard when we had a really rough start to our marriage, I believe because I grew up in a broken home that warped my idea of what family and marriage is all about. Now I have learned and am putting the work in…but wow is it a lot of work! A lot of work but also a lot of reward for that work. Nothing worthwhile seems to come about the easy way. It shows that your family closeness comes from sticking to your beliefs and working hard at daily life together. We’re oddballs too, in the way we do things…but I don’t want that to get in the way. I want to enjoy my family and have that sort of joy that I see here. Even in tough times, I want to have it.