Making Dinner Special
I have an embarrassing confession to make. For years, while Dan & the children sat at the table to eat dinner, I would sit in the other room and watch television.
It's a bit humbling to admit that I had this bad habit. In my heart I really wanted to change. I wanted to make new habits with my family so I've worked hard at changing this. I still have to fight down the temptation to do this, especially when I've had a rough day. But I've come a long way.
Now, that I've thoroughly shocked you all and you'll never read my blog again :-), let me tell you some of the things I've done to make meal time special over the past few years.
♥ I set the table with my best china. I don't save it for special occasions. I try to make each dinner a celebration of our family.
♥ I use cloth napkins. I have a number of sets of them so I while we use paper napkins for breakfast and lunch, it's cloth ones for dinner.
♥ I pull out the fancy wine glasses. We don't drink alcohol but I do have a set of wine glasses. They seem to add to fit the festive atmosphere.
♥ I put all the food in serving dishes on the table. I try not to serve straight from the pots. Now, there is nothing wrong with doing this, but I really want to make dinner a special memory for my family.
♥ Candles - I try to light candles to make the meal special. Of course, now that it's getting dark early it works much nicer.
♥ Family devotions. At the end of each meal, we do a short devotional as a family. Right now we are using, The Daily Bread. The passages are short, yet meaningful.
We've come a long way as a family. I'm not perfect and make many mistakes. I found like any bad habit, it takes about 30-60 days of consistently doing it to form a new habit.
I'm coming back to edit this and say that I find if I set the table at some point in the afternoon, it helps tremendously. If I wait until the last minute, then I find it more difficult to want to do it.
After a few years of practicing a new habit, I've worked on making dinner time a special time for our family.
You are definitely an inspiration Terri! I've just been throwing dinner on the table lately. Maybe I'll try this once a week and go from there :)
ReplyDeleteDinner as a family is kind of special I think. Though I can equally understand your need to 'flop out' at the end of a day.
ReplyDeleteI feel that today too many children eat meals on their knees in front of the TV, and that can't help their social skills.
Your table looks lovely.
What an inspiring idea. I am going to try lighting a few candles on the dinner table, we already use cloth napkins, and use the best china, my only china actually. My daughter is winding down with band and soccer now so we should be able to eat more meals together as a family.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the inspiration!
Sandy
You are right- I never would have thought of you watching TV while your family ate. You have come a long way since then and you should be proud. Your table looks lovely and so fallish. I will confess though that although we all eat together, we do have the TV on and watch it as we eat. It's the local news so we do have conversation too!
ReplyDeleteGod bless, Kathy in Illinois
Exciting confession and great turn around. A willing heart seems to be the first step in most of these changes... :O)
ReplyDeleteFound you through Elaine's blog.
Lovely fall table setting Terri! When we use to have cable tv, it seem to always be on around dinner time, I find that we have better conversations now that it is gone!:)
ReplyDeleteBlessings!
~Nadine
Terri, You are awesome. I bet you ate dinner away from the family just to have some time for yourself. Maybe now that you are not working you don't feel the need to be alone as much. Trying to break your bad habit is an inspiration to me. (I have lots of bad habits that I try to keep a secret. I know it take lots of work to break them and I am weak.)
ReplyDeleteHave a good dinner tonight! Debbi