The most important thing to us is family. We love hard. Fight hard. Defend hard. We all live in the same small town and we speak daily either by text, phone calls or FaceTime. Not all of us actually “speak” to every single one of us daily, however, we know we are thought of and loved.
Life is busy. At Christmas time last year, I thought – what in the world do we need that we can’t go and buy? Time. So, I bought two calendars and wrote on the third Sunday of each month – FAMILY DINNER and gave them to my parents and my brother and sister-in-love.
My husband said he wanted them all to be at our house so it truly has been the gift that has been giving the entire year. We look forward to it. May was the only month we haven’t gotten together due to graduations, graduation parties and the end of year school activities. May was crazy!
July’s family dinner was just last weekend. That Saturday, my twelve year old nephew said- “Family dinner is tomorrow?! I’ll be there!”. I love that my teenage nieces and nephew look forward to our time together.
Each Wednesday, we meet up with my parents for a weekly dinner. The rest of our crew attends when they can. Three kids running in three different directions is tough and they can’t always make it weekly. When they do, it is a blessing.
I can’t tell you how many people have said – I admire how your family is a priority to each other. I recently had a friend say that he thinks it is awesome how we dedicate one night a week to dinner with Mom and Dad.
Back to our monthly family dinners ~ I have let each of the kids choose what they want for dinner at least once. They love it. We have had everything from lasagna, spaghetti, grilled BBQ boneless pork ribs. We have built a fire in the pit in the back yard and roasted hot dogs and brats and then played corn hole afterwards.
My sister-in-love (I hate the words in-law) said that this last dinner was her favorite. The simplicity of it – sliders, homegrown McKean’s corn, mac & cheese, watermelon, cucumbers and onion soaked in apple cider vinegar and sea salt; and brownies. She said she loves my gourmet meals too but that this was her favorite.
Take the time to make family a priority. In this day and age, we make everyone else who mean less to us a priority. Family is forever.
I am beyond blessed and I literally thank Jesus every day for blessing my life with these people.
XOXO
~ PGWW
The One Four One 