Family Night

Thursday night is usually family night at the Koskamp home. We have been having some great times over the last few months and I have really appreciated Dan and his leading our family. We never know what is going to happen on family night until Dan gets home. Then he announces the evenings activities. The responses have been quite interesting. Sometimes, Dan lets me know ahead of time about what is going to happen. There have been a few times when I've prayed all day cause I am afraid the girls are going to roll their eyes and groan. Funny, those are probably the best times we have had. I was shocked the evening Dan announced that we were going to clean the house together and Hannah got totally excited. She couldn't believe that I thought she would hate the idea. Bethany, one the other hand gave us a look that said, "I hope you're kidding." One never knows do they? Following is a sampling of some of the things we have done over the past two to three months.
Here we celebrated Bethany's 18th birthday.
A few weeks back, out of the blue, Bethany
wondered where all of the play-doh was.
Well, it dried up about six years ago.
I mean, my youngest child is 13! So Hannah got
Bethany some play-doh and after we ate and
opened presents we had a good time playing
with play-doh as Dan read through devotions.














Boy did this bring back memories. When the kids
were little it seems like someone always wanted
mommy to make a birds nest with little eggs in
it. Well, Bethany took it a step further. After all,
she is 18 you know. She made the mommy feeding
her little babies. Aah! How sweet.

Valentines Day was on a church night this
year so we celebrated a day early. We ordered
our traditional heart shaped pizza from Papa
M's. After supper Dan had a little project for
us. We were given 1 piece of paper and told
that we were to cut it in a way that we could
fit our entire body through it. Not only did
Bethany do it well, she was fantastic.
All 4 of us fit through it and Jordan would have
fit too had he been here.

And here is the wonderful cleaning night!!
Hannah did both showers and let me tell you
that is not a fun job at our house because it only
happens once in awhile. I admit, cleaning
showers isn't my favorite household chore.
In fact, Dan usually does it. I wonder if that's
why he came up with this great idea. And it
was a great idea. Four people cleaning for one
and a half hours is like Robin cleaning for
6 hours. We got so much done. Dan and Hannah
had the best time because Bethany and I agreed
that if they work on a separate floor of the house
that they could crank their music as loud as
they wanted. The house was shakin!

This family night was a great memory. We wanted
to thank the Schultz family for their friendship and
support in being willing to finish raising our kids in
the event that both Dan and I would be unable
to do so. Hannah was thrilled when they said yes
and we were sure that for awhile there she was
actually praying that Dan and I would kick off
so she could go and live with Amanda. Anyway,
we got a little something for each of them. Eric was
overjoyed to get the tub of butter he had always
wanted. We had heard that whenever the Schultz's
got a new tub of butter that Eric would kindly ask
the family if they would avoid ruining the little twist
in the middle of the butter. You know how pretty it is
before anyone digs into it. When we heard that no
one in the Schultz family would accommodate his wish
we were appalled. How hard is it to get your butter
from the outside edges of the tub? One of Eric's brothers
was so cruel that he would intentionally dig right into the
middle of the butter after opening a new tub. Poor Eric was
so angry that he stabbed his brother multiple times with
a fork. We felt this had to stop and that Eric was unduly
aggravated. We so enjoyed the challenge that we have
thought of trying it again. We all grew in our love for Eric
as we carefully protected that pretty little swirl. Would
you look at the joy on his face as he opened the lid
to his butter. That was a family night we will never
forget.




















One time we decided to work on a puzzle.
Bethany has probably put over 10x1000 piece
puzzles together since December. One day we
got one out and it sort of became her new hobby.
One family night Dan and her had a race putting
some pretty hard puzzles together. Bethany blew
him away. She is amazing. She tells me that I am silly
for saying so but I can point to the puzzle picture and
say, "find this piece" and she will dig through a ton of
pieces and in about 30 seconds find it. She just sees
details I would not see if my life depended upon it.
Below, she is wearing her "thinking" earrings. I am
going to be in big trouble for this one but I couldn't
resist.
















See Dan's face. It is his "I'm trying to look happy
face but I'm really not because I just got beat
real bad." Be encourage honey. At least you
finished.





















The past two weeks we have listened to a missionary
speak on the computer. Dan told us to come to the
living room with something that we can do while we
listen. Dan had heard this man speak live in a class
that he is taking at church and wanted us to hear him
too. Bethany enjoys drawing while she listens.


















Hannah did some light homework and then
pretended she was asleep. But she was listening.
She told us that she liked this missionary better
then the one that she heard a few months ago
when her dad actually took her to his class with him.



















I hope that wasn't too big of a sampling. As you
can see, spending time with my family is something
that totally excites me. There are times when we
have really busy weeks and we have things we need
to get done so instead of forsaking family night
we do them together: like getting groceries
or shopping for some special item that one of the
girls needs for school or an upcoming activity. Once
we went to the fabric store. Occasionally, we have
a fire in the back yard and roast marshmallows,
lie in the hammock, and just talk. Sometimes we enjoy
a visit to Barnes & Noble. We have a root beer or a hot
chocolate and talk about the latest book we have read
and how it has influenced our lives. Then we get to go
and look at books. It's fun wandering around that place.
Making time to have a family night isn't something
that we have done perfectly throughout the years.
But we keep plugging away. We believe that eating
meals together, doing devotions together, having regular
dates with your spouse and having regular family
time together are some of the things that have been
worth fighting for and worth working at. It doesn't have
to cost a lot and most times it costs us nothing. And even
when the kids roll their eyes we smile on the inside
because we know they love it. One of the first things
the girls ask when they get home from school on
Thursday's is "what are we doing for family night?"
It is such a good feeling to know that they love and
value spending time with their family. We are
really looking forward to Jordan coming home for
the summer in two weeks. He has already said
that he would like to talk with his sisters about a
study that he wants to lead us through this summer.
So you can relax Dan. It looks like you may have a few
months off!!
If you have some favorite things that you do with
your family we would love to hear about them.
Dear Jesus, Thank you that you have given me
a wonderful family. I love them so much. Thanks
for a great husband and dad who causes our time
together to have purpose and meaning. Thanks for
children who enjoy spending time with their parents
and siblings. Thank you that we have grown in
understanding of one another and in love for one
another. Thank you that we are learning how to care
for one another more deeply. Thanks you for your
faithfulness to us. Thank you for smiling upon us.
Thank you for seeing us through the blood of Christ,
overlooking our imperfections and covering us
with your constant protection. You are an everloving
God. You are a perfect God and yet you love imperfect
people like us. You bless imperfect parents like us.
You bless imperfect children like ours. Wow! How can
I say thanks? Hear my heart God. Please, cause me
to lay down more of myself for You. Amen!