Since this little old bloggie is really just for myself (and my journal is almost abandoned) I need to remember some stuff.
Our new night time tradition is telling stories. Here's the nite time breakdown. Its always getting adjusted and readjusted....
Get pjs on,
read some books,
say family prayer,
brush teeth,
go to the bathroom,
get in beds,
say prayers individually with each kid
and sing them their own song
and then tell a group story.
(Sheesh is anyone tired yet)
The story at the end developed after we needed a better tactic to get them to get sleepy in their beds and hopefully stay there. Cause after the song, they were just wired sometimes or sneaking out every 5 minutes.
Months and months of made up stories are hard to pull off... This mom only has so big of a brain. How many different princess/monster/castle/treasure/animal/wizard/troll/grant wish stories can you think up before you run out of ideas? I have been describing detailed princess dresses with accessories and colors and swords for too long. We tired of goldilocks/three little pigs/red riding hood/boy who cried wolf (although very effective) etc. Oh wait, I also forgot about Book of Mormon and Bible stories. Sometimes I have internal competitions with myself to see if I can tell a better rendition than the time before or between Jason and I who can add more drama to the well beaten to death goldilocks tale. We have changed up the animals, assigned character's voices, added modern details, increased voice inflection....are you getting me yet? I mean how many times can you do something over and over before they are just boring. Plus, if its got a story arc, you can't really play with the time and sometimes I need a good ole 5 minute story :).
Sooooo, one day I felt like I should start telling TRUE stories. I mean TRUE FAMILY STORIES. Bingo. Endless material (if I can remember it). Short or long (cause they don't know the story) and I already know the ending. Sometimes I have to add some drama to the situation, but this is our new thing. Here is what we've covered so far...
How Jason got the scar on his eyebrow....
How Jason got the scar on his elbow (bbq)
When my dad was in the war...
How we met and our first date...
Our second date...
When Jason got his mission call..
Jason's last scout activity as a kid and only 50 mile hike where he got a boil...
My baptism...
How Jason got lost in the woods behind his house while exploring...
When Jason got lost at Kmart...
My scar on my knee and went to Disneyland in a wheelchair...
When I moved to Alabama...
Playing soccer on a boys team...
When I barfed up spaghetti at a soccer team (which I later used for material in a ASL class in college, nothing speaks visual like signing barfed up spaghetti after a soccer ball hits you in the gut)...
My 27th birthday....
My 13th birthday (on Friday the 13th)....
When I dared Lindsey to ride her bike down steep hill with training wheels and got stitches...
Those are all I can remember at this point. We trade off days. Tonite was mine (since Jason is not home)
So I need some more ideas....? G rated of course.
Now that I'm typing I just thought of how I rolled off my bed in college and broke my knee...have to add that one to the list. How Jason cracked the windshield with his head when his dad was being funny and slammed on the brakes.
But more importantly I feel like these are stories that matter to us. I want my kids to know all these family stories and they love hearing them. Not to mention that I have learned some stuff out hearing Jason's perspective (and injuries). Plus they can be as short or as long as I need them to be....Win win.
7 comments:
I can't imagine... that is a long routine with four kids. Sheesh. I remember my dad telling "little boy stories". Real life stories about when he was little. I keep wanting Adam to tell those to Tyler. It's such a good memory and you never get tired of hearing about your parents adventures when they were younger.
wow, i am in your same predicament! chase loves (and demands) stories. really, the nightime routine over here is getting pretty ridiculous. and its funny how hard it is to make up a story. i get a good start, but somewhere in the middle i just run blank and the story just falls apart. i did a lot of stories just retelling movies. and i have done a good amount of real life - chase being born, mia being born, mommy meeting daddy. but i like your ideas of even more stories and from childhood, and book of mormon stories! man, never thought of that.
how about, when you were driving to seminary and ran over the curb so bad that your car wouldn't start? i think that one is a classic. i think bungee jumping would be a good one. that is all i could think of for right now. you can tell leaving alabama to go to byu and tell about your roomates there. you can tell leaving utah and moving to california with no jobs. i think the kids would like to hear stories about them when they were younger. seems like when you are a kid, every story is 1000X better when it has the kids names in it. yeah you could just adjust stories that you have heard like family stories / movies / etc and make them more kid friendly and use the kids names instead of the family members or it could be stories about your friends, or just movies and have the characters be the kids names. or you could just tell cool stories you have heard in church or tell like friends love romance stories you have heard.
Real stories about people you know are always more interesting than fairy tales. Retell stories that maybe your parents or grandparents told. They would be great sources for new material. I always like to hear stories told in General Conference talks. I think that's why President Monson has always been one of my favorite speakers. He always has a story to share. If you run out of family material, you could look back at his talks for some great stories.
I didn't know you dared Lindsey to go down that hill....
You could tell about our dog Popcorn being sprayed by a skunk, how your principal pulled out your wrong tooth, how Courtney caught the baseball with her nose, how you were Gertie in Oklahoma, or ran for offices. zoo camp, dinner at Sea World....
Question for Jason: WHICH time getting lost in the woods? Shoot, we would wander for days out there! (I wonder if this is the one where we had to say a prayer cause we had NO idea where we were...I've used that to teach Sharing Time before!)
How about your prom date when he drove into the restaurant? With you Brooke, the possibilities are endless. How about the time Luke broke that thing on Olvera Street and I totally got mad they were going to make you pay, etc. How about when you had Luke and you left me a message on my answering machine sobbing (happily of course). "I had him", " I had him" "come see me" and when I came you had more make up on than Ru Paul. Such great memories. Such a good idea. We do that too with the girls, but they just want to know when we got hurt.
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