dinnertime

One of my favorite times of the day is dinnertime.  You all know I love to cook and eat, but I also love the time with my family sitting at the table.  We have the best conversations over our evening meal.  I love hearing what the kids are thinking.  I love to listen to their opinions.  I love that they are old enough to have thoughts and views of their own.  Hayden may only be 3 years old, but he loves to talk!

We don't pick a topic to discuss at dinner, but we just talk about our day and the conversation flows from there.  Tonight we were talking about hunting.  We were talking about how to deer hunt and some of the rules of hunting.  We talked about how way back long ago people ate what they killed.  The conversation went from hunting to guns.  Oh my!  Then we talked about gun safety and we warned the kids about guns in general.  We reminded them to leave the room and get an adult if they were ever in a situation where they see a gun.  

A week or so ago we talked about fire and fire safety.  I don't even know how that conversation started but we discussed what to do if we ever had a fire in our house.  We talked about where to go and how to get there.  Layla didn't care too much for the dinner conversation that night.  Since then Hayden has brought up fire again and Layla asked to change the subject.  Bless her heart, but I don't want to shelter the kids.  They need to know everything they can about anything (even scary) so they are prepared and educated.

such a serious face

Another night we talked about hurting classmates feelings and saying hurtful things to people.  Layla was the main focus of this conversation because Hayden is too young to fully understand hurting peoples feelings.  He doesn't have a 'filter' yet.  He just says exactly what is on his mind.

I honestly believe Gary and I are great at communicating with our kids.  They are young and I know there may be an age when they don't come to us as openly as they do now.  Hopefully if we keep talking candidly about anything and everything they will always feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and opinions.  I think back to a time in Gary's and I's marriage.   It was a time when our communication wasn't all that great and we had a few issues.  Obviously we resolved them, but had we been fully communicating we could have avoided all the issues.  I feel the same way about our kids.  We will try as hard as we can to keep the lines of communication open.  I hope dinnertime meals can always be a HUGE part of our day.

Tonight we had the best casserole and it was relatively healthy and I can't wait to share it with you this week.  We introduced the kids to tortellini for the first time tonight.  I think they loved it!