Thankful Thursday

This November I am making an effort to put feet to our thankfulness by creating acts of gratitude for our family to participate in. Really this is something I want to make a more regular part of our life, not just something that we think of seasonally. After all, thankfulness and gratitude are qualities I want to model and grow in my children as well as see continue to grow in my own life. Let me share what we have been doing this week to show those around us that we are thankful for them.

I started by giving my boys a project. I asked them each to pick one person outside of our household that they were most thankful for. I talked abut how it is important to show thankfulness to the people inside of our house but that we practice that on a regular basis so I wanted them to think outside of that to someone they may not take the opportunity to thank as often. Once they decided on a person, I gave them supplies to make a card and encouraged them to write out (or dictate to me what to write out) words of thankfulness. Jordan chose his teacher and Isaiah chose one of his grandma's. Nathan chose not to participate and while understandably disappointing, we honored his choice and encouraged him to think of his own way to show his thankfulness to someone. We will continue to model these actions and pray that they speak to his heart and inspire him to do the same in a way that makes sense to him.

The act of thankfulness we chose as a family was actually repaying a family that had blessed us numerous times when we had the twins. We had been talking about ways to bless them in return and I strongly felt God leading us to specifically follow through on a date with dinner. We ordered pizza for our family and their's (thank you Papa John's for 50% off every time the Seahawks win which made it possible to feed two families for the price of one!) and when we called to tell them we would be bringing it by they shared that it was an answered prayer as the mom of the family had hurt her back the night before and could use help with dinner. It also happened that her injury fell on pizza night and they ended up missing out on it so the kids were extra excited by our delivery. Doesn't God work in such fun ways?

There are more fun things in the works already so you'll have to come back next week to see what we have been up to. And not that this necessarily needs to be said, but I hope my heart for these posts is clear. It isn't about bragging about what my family has done but instead is meant as an encouragement and a resource for ideas that might get your family involved in acts of thankfulness. If you are already ahead of me and have some great ideas you are willing to share, I would love to hear what you've been up to. It's the best part of writing this....getting to share what I do and hopefully learn a little bit about what you do too. Don't be shy!

Frugal Family Night

We love family nights in this house. With 3 kids 5 and under we are limited to what we can do but we still like to take special opportunities to just bond with our kids over something fun that we can all enjoy. Most often family nights involve board games or movies, picnic dinner or take out, and sometimes staying up a little later then usual. It doesn't always involve spending money but it is nice to include special treats from time to time. This can add up if done regularly so I always try to keep my eye out for deals that revolve around what we like to do.

Today I spotted a great deal on pizza (we love to indulge about once a month and sprawl out in front of a movie together:) at Papa John's - now through August 12th you can use promo code SUMMER50 to receive 50% off anything at regular menu price. That goes towards your entire order! Whether you want one pizza or 10, bread sticks or pop, you can get it all at half price as long as it isn't already on special. Pretty great deal!

We have a decent kid's movie selection and also a Netflix account so that is where most of our movies pull from. But there is always Redbox (lots of promo codes can be found online) and sometimes we hit the $5 bin at Walmart to stock up on some different movies. We did that this week and so tonight's feature is Flushed Away.

Speaking of Redbox, make sure you go under your account and sign-up to receive email and/or text alerts for deals. Each month you will receive a code for a free rental and occasionally you will receive extra deals. If you haven't reserved online before, you get a free rental after your first reservation. Today we go a promo code to try out Madagascar 3 the video game for free. Our kids are young enough that they don't ever get to play the video game systems alone and it is just something we do as a family at this point so whenever we get a chance, the kids see it as quite a treat. I am sure this game will be lots of fun for us all (thanks Redbox)!

 That is tonight's Frugal Family Night plans. What does your family like to do together? What ways do you cut cost when entertaining your brood? Love to hear your thoughts!