FHE Leftovers

Two Monday nights a month, Josh is gone to school board meetings. He's been on the school board now for 2 years. Even though he's gone, we still hold Family Home Evenings without him. He misses a lot of good ones, but we are so grateful for his efforts in the school district and we completely support him in his endeavors.

One Monday night in April, I didn't feel like planning an entire FHE and directing it alone. Instead, I told the boys to each pick a game that we could all play. Jonah picked Memory, Micah picked CandyLand, and Ammon picked Blokus. We played them together one at a time. The games were our entire FHE (except the dessert, of course!).

The next morning, after Ammon went to school, the other boys got the same games out again and started playing them and making up their own rules as they went. After I got out of the shower, I found them just like this:
This photo makes me smile. It's a photo that captures life in a single moment of time. A moment that filled me with hope and optimism and love and gratitude. Sometimes I don't know if I'm a good enough mother, if I'm doing justice for the job, if I'm filling the role properly. But seeing them play with the FHE games, well, it was like eating leftovers, when the food is even more delicious the second time around after having time to soak up the flavors. Even if my FHE wasn't the best planned or most prepared or inspirational, we played together, we laughed together, we had fun together, and I felt happiness. When I saw my boys playing together the next morning, I knew that they had felt that good feeling and wanted to carry it over to the day after! That moment in time of seeing my boys play with the "FHE leftovers" definitely gave me a sense of fulfillment in my calling as their mother, and I felt even more joy while they played the second time around!