Family Meetings by Rob

For the last few weeks, The Grafrath family has been holding meetings on Sunday night to discuss our feelings about the prior week, to plan for what's coming in the next week, and to read a chapter from "The 7 Habits of Happy Kids" together.  I feel like it's the start of a very good tradition.  Some people might think that it sounds cheesy, uncomfortable, or unrealistic.  If you have built a positive family dynamic and good relationships with your kids then it's really a very natural and exciting thing to do.  One of the things on the agenda is for everybody to pick the best and worst parts of their week.  Here they are:

Zoë
Best:  Got an A+ on reading & writing test, so now she's going into the 4th grade
Worst:  When the power went out in the school house it was a little scary.

Jude
Best:  Getting the new bunk beds, they're so cool!
Worst:  Having to stop playing Lego Land, because it had been so much fun and she didn't want to stop.

Scout
Best:  Being back home again after going to Chanti's house (not that she didn't like it at Chanti's house)
Worst:  When she had a crayon up her nose, because mommy was worried (yes, that happened)

Briar
Best:  Taking a bath with Scout and Jude at Chanti's house.
Worst:  Getting a swat for chewing on her shirt collar.

Gabrielle
Best:  The excitement of grading Zoë and Jude's reading and writing tests, and that they had done so well.
Worst:  When Claire's office flooded, because she felt sorry for Clair having to clean it up and lose out on appointments and experience all the stress of the day.

Rob
Best:  Playing Lego Town with the kids.  It was like being a kid again.
Worst:  The week was too busy, between swimming lessons and doubling-up on karate and going to the store and dealing with incidents at work.  It just felt like there was so much time lost and no time to do what I wanted to do, and I was running around all week.

We also do things like act out "what to do" and "what not to do" scenarios.  Today's 7 Habits topic was "think win/win" so the scenarios that the kids made up were things like sharing toys or putting on a puppet show.  I think they get the concept.

Education:

• Programming, finished writing a stop watch program for Gabrielle to use in school.
• Gabrielle and I finished reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" today.  We could go on for hours discussing the good points and bad points of the book.  Overall it was a good experience and we have grown from the lessons it taught.  Let's just say that habits 1, 2, 3, and 7 were spot-on and habits 4, 5, and 6 had some issues.

Diet and Exercise:

• I did a home workout for about 45 minutes while Gabrielle read to me.
• I enjoyed some less-than-healthy food today but I believe I did it in moderation and I have no regrets.