I encourage all of my kids to write out some summer goals so that at the end of the summer they haven't done "anything!" They all have different things on their lists like having certain friends over, winning medals in swimming, reading a certain number of books, etc. This year we came up with a family goal to have 100 guests in our house. Not all at one time.
Several years ago Richard was very impressed by the Holy Spirit that our home should be open to those we know, thus the dining table that seats 10. I'm a little uptight about the house being clutter free (OK "free" is a stretch) but clean before we have guests. However, I do like to have the kids' friends over and often we like to play games with families we know. So, I've tried to be better about inviting people to come over for any reason.
We are having our friends sign a notebook when they come over. Recently our student pastor and his wife and 3 kids came to eat lunch. They "signed in" and then he lamented that it was probably the last time they could come over this summer since we still had 50 other names to get! That's funny...quite possibly true...but funny!
We're up to about 60 at last count. Sometimes we forget to have our friends sign the book.
It's a great way for my kids (AND ME) to share the blessing of our house and yard and even our kitchen with dishes in the sink.
3 more weeks...it looks like we're going to have to have another party.
2 comments:
Oh how I wish I were there to sign your book and spend some time with you!!!!
I love it that you have people over even if your house isn't perfectly clean! I've been sad over the fact that I've hardly had anyone over this year. I know this sounds pathetic, but I've been so exausted this pregnancy that I haven't had the energy to keep my house clean and that keeps me from inviting people over.
I had a friend invite me and the kids over to play once and she had only cleaned two rooms of her house (and the rest of it looked like mine). It actually put me so at ease with her and made me thankful that someone else's home didn't look like a magazine! :)
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