FAMILY HOME EVENING

Monday night was always our Family Home Evening event. Because we really wanted to raise a righteous family and one that would be taught the correct principles of life, we held Family Home Evening religiously and without fail. Dad and I truly tried to think about what the family would enjoy, what principle needed to be reinforced or taught, and we were cognizant of their individual likes and interests.

We had various kinds of events and activities on that evening. The first Monday of every month we planned out our month’s schedule. The outline went generally as follows:

First Monday: Formal religious lessons taken from the Family Home Evening Manual or church magazines. We always played a game at the end of the lesson.

Second Monday: Activity night.

Third Monday: Guest Night. Have guests come and they gave a lesson of their choosing.

Fourth Monday: Attend events in the community or make an activity of our own such pitching horse shoes, bowling etc.

We enjoyed many fun times and a variety of different events. Everyone took part and contributed to the Family Home Evening. The children created a round, paper assignment wheel-chart. The turning of the chart, revealed the name of the responsible person for an indicated assignment. Some of the assignments were:

Opening prayer Closing Prayer
Animal Article Lesson
Refreshments Sec. to take minutes

A favorite Activity Night was “Dollar Night.” Each child was given a dollar and then we all piled into the car and Dad drove to Norton’s, a grocery store at the foot of our hill. Once there, we split up and each person bought what they wanted to have for supper. One of the older children took the little ones in tow and he or she gave help to the youngest. It was a beautiful thing to watch the care and love shown to the younger sibling. Tafta and Robert were so cute with their younger brothers.

Dad and I had the privilege of pooling our money and we bought a basic food that would go with any meal. We bought hot dogs & buns, hamburger & buns, Spaghetti-O,s, or tamales and so forth. Our purchase formed the basis for our meal and most anything the children got, would round out the rest of the supper.

Things seemed to work out well. However, no negative comment was ever allowed from anyone about the choices decided upon. The purchases were wide and varied: olives, ice cream, cookies, potato chips, candy bars, and so on. One of the funniest items we ever had was purchased by Jerome Yazzie, our Laminate son. Jerome bought a dollar’s worth of bubble gum. I thought that an unusual choice, but, the other children were very delighted.

It must be noted that in “that day and age”, a dollar would purchase much more than it does today. It was interesting to me that the meals always worked out and it was exciting to see the menu. I never heard anyone ever complain about what we had to eat.

One year our son Wesley was on the Provo High School Wrestling Team. I asked his high school wrestling coach, Joe Martinez to come and give the lesson for our Family Home Evening. Mr. Martinez was very gracious and totally willing to assume the responsibility. Coach Martinez was glad we asked him to come. Wesley was surprised that Mom would do that, but very pleased. It was great to have Mr. Martinez come and participate in our Family Home Evening.

I had the house really clean and in order, at least the part that could be seen, was all in order. Coach Martinez, Mrs. Martinez and their teen age daughter and a young son came. Mr. Martinez did a very good job in his presentation. The small children were well behaved and all was above reproach.

I made one of our favorite deserts, home-made Banana Cream Pie. It tasted wonderful, seconds were asked for and the compliments were many and generous. Wesley was pleased and proud of the event and a worthwhile remembrance was made in our family.

Family Nights were, generally, very successful and the children were usually on good behavior. The older children were so loving and caring to the young ones. One of the favorite games was Button, Button, Whose Got the Button? They also liked the “I Spy” game.

It was interesting to see the variety of refreshments the designated person made for the Family: pop corn, apples dipped in Carmel, pudding, ice cream, suckers, and much more. One evening Kerry made home-made oatmeal cookies and that was a big hit. Family Home Evening was a good event in our lives.