The Family Dinner and Winner of the Butterfly June Giveaway

Let's start with the winner of this gorgeous butterfly necklace from Butterfly June.  Danielle B-K will receive the Purple Hairstreak Butterfly necklace, as shown below!

Are you a family that dines together on a regular basis, or do you come and go at different times for soccer, ball, dance, art lessons, and everything else that is squeezed into your schedule?  I am happy to say that we have always eaten dinner together - sure, there is the odd day it doesn't work, but it's rare.  DH is home around 5:30 which allows us time to eat together before heading out to various activities.  On the days we have to leave before he gets home, the kids and I eat together and leave him a plate.  It works well for us.

If you're a family who has a hard time sitting down together for dinner, I highly recommend this book:




The Family Dinner: Great Ways to Connect with Your Kids, One Meal at a Time is packed full (literally!) of great ideas on how to get your family to the table, what to feed them, quotes from famous people about family dinners, how to get your kids involved, and it even gives you suggestions on what to talk about, dinner-friendly games to play, fun centerpieces, and interviews with various chefs. 

I'd go out on a limb and say that I think we'd all agree that our lives are more busy than ever before,  kids are more distant, and food is is more convenient than nourishing for many families (look at obesity rates in North America alone).  Getting families back to the table for one meal a day helps to strengthen the family bond, promotes healthy relationships, and is the perfect opportunity to teach our kids about food for nourishment and health.

I read cookbooks like novels and this is the best family dinner book I have found in a long, long time.  Even though we are a family who eats together the vast majority of the time, I'm still finding a lot of terrific advice in this book.

I do want to share a excerpt from the book (page 15) that I think is so powerful.  It really, really shocked me (in a good way!):

"Be home for dinner by six" is a command that comes not from home but from the top brass of the U.S. Army.  In this case, Fort Hood, America's largest military base.  The policy, initially issued by Lieutenant General Rick Lynch to all soldiers stationed there, acknowledges the importance of family dinner.  "It does more than make everyone happy," Lynch says.  "It creates a more resilient soldier, one less likely to abuse drugs or alcohol, injure himself in a traffic accident, or fall to suicide."  Since the policy was instituted in February 2009, Fort Hood has seen a noticeable reduction in traffic accidents and suicides.  And it's an order service members and their families really look forward to following.



Photo Credit



I will leave you with one thought:  If grown men and women are benefiting so much from having dinner with the spouse and children, how much do you think your kids would benefit from having dinner with their mom and dad?

Do you have family dinners?  Tell us about them!