I just LOVE the New Year! It’s a great time to reflect and make new goals. One of our family goals is to eat dinner together every night without electronics. It has been such a blessing. Our kids (who actually don’t have their own devices themselves) love dinner time. The TV is off and only my phone is used to figure out my son’s insulin. Then it is put away before someone spills something on it! We usually ask our kids their favorite part of the day. I love how they have gotten better about listening to each other or even asking us parents what we loved that day. If we have more time we might ask who they served or what they failed at. These dinner discussions have been so dear to me. Now before you imagine our children always on their best I should mention that sometimes they want to be excused to ….read, play Legoes, or just not be around us. But we tell them dinner time isn’t just about eating. It’s about family time.
So if you are striving to make this a goal I would encourage you to give it a try. And don’t worry if your kids fight you on it. Or if you can only have family dinner twice a week. Just keep at it. And I promise you will see blessings come from your efforts.
So to help me with my goal of removing the 4:00 stress of what to make, I have found that planning my dinner menu a month at a time really helps me. Especially when we have some crazy weeks happening. I’ve been doing this for over two years now and it really helps our family save money, increase family time, and save time as I try to reuse leftovers from the night before. And I love hearing from my readers that it is helping them as well. And if you scan these meals and need more ideas just check out our Dinner Meals blog tag. And be sure to subscribe to keep getting new dinner ideas. We love trying new recipes.
- Chicken Tacos with Guacamole
- Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
- Leftovers
- Lemon Chicken
- Mac and Cheese/Date Night
- Chicken Fajita Wedge Salad
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Omelettes
- Meaty Pasta Sauce
- BLT’s with Avocado
- Potato Soup
- Thai Chicken Chopped Salad
- Stir Fry (using leftover chicken)
- Grilled Cheese with Tomato and Basil
- Skinny Veggie Crockpot Lasagna
- Chicken Le Mein
- Pesto Pasta with Chicken
- Hamburgers and Baked Potato Fries
- Taco Soup
- Chicken Pesto Sandwiches (using leftover chicken)
- Buttermilk Chicken and Mashed Potatoes
- Buttermilk Chicken Wraps
- Herb Rubbed Pork
- Taco Salad
- Black Bean Soup with Rolls
- Baked Potatoes (I make extra to fry up for Breakfast Burritos)
- Breakfast Burritos
- Chinese New Year Dinner: Sweet and Sour Chicken and Egg Rolls
- Chicken Tostadas
- BBQ Chicken Salad
- Calzones (because my daughter is always asking for them)
In addition to planning out our monthly menu I also love to plan out our family nights for the month. Our family loves to hold a family home evening every Monday night. (You can learn about it here) We sing, teach a short lesson, and have a treat. The treat is probably the most important part. It’s a great way to increase leadership skills in our family and help us connect. My kids LOVE this family tradition! And as we are consistent I can see their faith growing, something that is especially dear to my heart.
January 2nd- Work on Family Mission Statement (Sharing more about this later)
9th– Family Goals and Testimony Meeting. I want to try something new this year. I want to give my kids a chance to share what they believe in a smaller family setting. Just a couple of minutes. And it will be perfect after we make family goals. I’m hoping for more peace in the home, more hikes, and saving for a family trip.
16th– Scripture Story: Abraham’s Sacrifice. Once a month we love to act out scriptures from the Old Testament. My 6 year old wants to do this every family night. We usually broadcast it on Facebook live if you want to check it out.
23rd– Conference Talk “Come, Follow Me”… By Robert D. Hales
30th– Family Service Project. (Hoping we can do Feed Our Starving Children)
Thanks for letting us share what our family is working on. Because it’s the New Year I wanted to share some ideas on what we can do as families to strengthen our family bonds.
- Read Scriptures as a Family. Whatever your faith, we can build family unity and increase love at home when we read scriptures together. I share 6 ways to improve Family Scripture Study in this post. This has really helped my family. Give it a try. It’s not about being perfect at it, but heading in the right direction.
- Smile. I love Christmas time and the overall happiness that feels the air. Let’s try to keep love in our lives by smiling and being kind to others. I know it’s a small thing, but it makes a big difference. It helps me and I know my kids would be happier if they can learn this now.
- Having Family Dinner. I know I already talked about this one, but it’s such a great goal.
- Daily Gratitude. If we can find something good each day. Or if we can strive to see The Lord’s hand in our lives we will be so much happier. And bonus points if we write it down. This might be a great thing to do at dinner or after we read our scriptures. I want to start doing this every night as a family so my kids can also learn to see tender mercies.
Wishing your family a very Happy New Year!!! Does your family have a family goal? Share it below in the comments!
