FHE

With Steve's new calling, we end up being involved in family home evening groups.

Organization of the FHE activities is seriously lacking.

The first Monday it was decided to have a "meet the bishopric" activity where we came to the church. By the time we hit Relief Society, they had decided there would be dinner. The activity was fun except that they had forgotten the ketchup and mustard for the hamburgers, so I ran home to get it.

The next activity was ice blocking. The park was hard to find, and no directions had been given. By the time we started, there were about 25 kids, but they had ice blocks for six. I ran to buy more ice, but by the time I returned, half of the group had gone.

The next activity (last night) was to be had at the bishopric's houses. When I got to church on Sunday, I was told we were having FHE at our home and were in charge of a game, a spiritual thought, and treats - YUP basically everything. But they had no flier to give addresses to anyone. The groups (instead of being organized by apartments) were organized by birthdays. Then, to make matters worse, they sent out text messages to various people telling them where to go - but sent them to people not in the ward any longer and sent messages telling people to go to a different house not related to their birthday. Like I said, the organization is sad.

Sundays are wild days for me anyway. I go to Steve's ward for three hours and then attend Relief Society in our ward (as I haven't been released yet). Then I come home at 5:45 and have to get dinner on the table. Sundays are also the night we call the kids. I found time to make treats on Sunday, and woke up Monday morning at 5:30 to start cleaning (as cleaning has NOT been a priority for months). We got home at 5 and continued the cleaning and setup for home evening.


When our group came, several said they received text messages to go elsewhere. By ten after, one person had shown up. Several drove by looking for a bunch of cars and didn't stop as they figured they were at the wrong place. We went outside to flag them down. A whole car of guys who shouldn't have been here (and were looking for THEIR ward FHE) showed up (and soon left) when they realized they had gotten a text message based on where they lived LAST YEAR. We had about seven who stayed. We decided to crash the other counselor's group. It was a good thing we did. They only had four people and one was just leaving as we arrived (a half hour late). Thus, no one ate my treats or saw my clean house. [But who can complain about having a clean house, right? I had considered making cinnamon rolls after work, but was so glad I opted for Scotcher-roos, which were little work and could be given to my students the next day.]

ANYWAY, after a rough beginning, we had so much fun. The kids were hilarious. We played some "minute to win it" games that Ashley Fowles brought. (I had asked her to help me.) We played a get acquainted game where we pulled questions out of the jar and everybody answered. The first question was: "What instruments do you play? What is your favorite kind of music? What is your favorite hymn?" The second question was, "What was your worst date and what advice would you give your daughter about dating?" The answers to the second were hilarious.