How to Have a Weekly Family Meeting

 On our anniversary trip last August Josh announced the best gift he could’ve given me. He'd signed us up for a program called Homeroom through an organization called Family Teams! We’d attended a conference they put on the previous October in Cincinnati and to be honest, he wasn’t totally bought in to the material they presented which was disappointing as I’d been gobbling up their podcasts and Instagram posts for months. But I’d resigned myself to being glad that through the conference we’d had great conversations about the type of family we wanted to have and that at least it had given us the opportunity to have those conversations. Then I kind of moved on, listened to podcasts I thought were interesting but tried to not pressure Josh to follow something he didn’t fully want to pursue. I was pretty shocked when he told me he’d signed us up.

Since August we’ve been more intentional than ever before with our marriage. We try to have a meeting every Sunday evening to catch up on the past week and plan for the week ahead. I will admit that with a new baby it can be really hard to make time to sit down and plan but honestly the weeks that we don’t make it happen are usually really hard. Having a time when Josh and I can intentionally communicate about our expectations for the week makes things go much more smoothly. I wanted to share with you all what a Lowe Family Meeting looks like and encourage you to give it a try no matter what stage your family is in!

1. Family Plan Calendar - The first thing we do each week is fill in our Family Plan calendar for the week. Josh bought me this calendar for Christmas and it is an awesome tool since it covers so many things for our household. We talk through our expectations for each day of the week and fill in the calendar as we go. This has been so helpful as we navigate parenthood for the first time, it helps me to manage my expectations for when Josh will be home and available to give me a break in the evenings. I also love talking about what we’re thankful for and discussing what we want to be praying about as a family.
2. Budget Chat - One of the negative things that I identified in our 2020 review was that due to the busyness of my work schedule I really didn’t pay attention at all to our budget or financial situation. Josh definitely picked up the slack in that area but we agreed that it probably wasn’t good for us to be one sided in that area. Having this time set aside each week allows us to talk through how we’re doing following our budget and discuss what to do with any unexpected income (hello stimulus checks). 
3. Miscellaneous Topics - After our budget chat we have a chance to discuss anything else that may need to be addressed. Sometimes we dream about the future during this time and other times we do our taxes, it truly is a random part of the meeting. Sometimes we bust out in song (well, Josh does, my singing is a little more planned).
4. Bible Reading/Homeroom - Last but not least Josh will read aloud a part of Scripture we’ve been reading separately in our quiet times and we’ll discuss it with one another. Recently we’ve just been reading one Psalm a week, nothing too complicated. We just read the same Psalm each day throughout the week and then talk about it together. We learned pretty early on that Josh and I have different approaches to our time in God’s word so it’s best if we do something simple that we can share together. During this time we also go through our Homeroom study which is what led us to do a family meeting each week. Homeroom has made a huge impact on our marriage and really helps us implement some practical and simple tools to manage our home more effectively. They also have a bunch of parenting studies that we’re excited to do as Brooklyn gets older. 

Practically we have an hour and a half set aside on our calendars and we try to spend that time together each week. But obviously life happens and sometimes our family meeting is short and we don’t have time to go through all of these items and sometimes we spend a few hours together. There are also times when we can’t make it happen at all and we have to wait till the next week. I think the trick though is to start small and make an attempt. You can improve from there but starting small is better than not starting at all. 

Let me know in the comments, do you have a family meeting? If not, what’s stopping you? Feel free to leave any questions below and I’ll do my best to answer!

Unfortunately Homeroom materials are no longer available to share but I hear they have something new coming soon so check out their website. You can also access their free content on Instagram @familyteams - this is not sponsored, we truly have just been so encouraged by their resources!

Brooklyn Grace // February 11, 2021

 

All Photos by BH photo & design

Our sweet baby girl, Brooklyn Grace, was born at 3:11 in the afternoon on February 11th. She’s a tall skinny gal, 7 lbs 7 oz at birth and 21 inches long. She is now 5 weeks old and is starting to chunk up but she’s still just a teeny girl with long arms and legs. As of right now it seems like she takes after Daddy’s coloring with his dark hair and a similar skin tone. We thought she was really tan when she was born which was comical to us because we’re both pretty pale. It turned out she had a little bit of jaundice (thankfully not serious enough to lay under a lamp) but now that it has improved she’s much more pale like Mom and Dad. Brooklyn’s eyes belong to her mama though, I’ve got a few pictures of me as a baby that look pretty similar to her (follow me on Instagram to see, I’ll save them to my Baby B highlight @livelaughlowe). 

We’ve had it easy these first five weeks of parenthood. She loves to sleep and cuddle but doesn’t mind if that’s done in someone’s arms, her swing or her crib. She doesn’t quite like the bassinet at night but she’s starting to get used to nighttime and only wakes us up once during the night and once in the early morning hours. Most of the time we still have to wake her up to eat during the day so she just loves to have a cozy sleep. Just this last week she’s become more animated, giving us tiny little smiles and a random coo. Right now she’s snoring in a baby wrap as I type. We’re so thankful for her precious life and that we get to watch her grow. God is so good to us. 

Our friend Brittany took photos of her a few weeks ago and I’ve posted a few of my favorites for your enjoyment. I’m sure I’ll have more to write on our sweet Miss B over the next year as her mama. If you have any parenting tips, hacks, or memories feel free to comment below!

2021 Goals

Photo by BH photo & design 

Happy New Year friends! It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything on this blog. In fact, it’s been just over 3 years!!

2020 was quite the year of life changes for everyone but 2021 is going to be another year of change for my family. We’re expecting our first baby in just two short weeks so I want to do a better job of documenting this season of my life. Since August, Josh and I have been trying to be more intentional about creating rhythms that will help us to grow into a strong family. One of those that we started this year was a weekend Family Summit. This time it was just the two of us but we hope that even as our family grows in number and age we’ll be able to make this a yearly tradition. 

This year we followed a guide from Abraham’s Wallet which led us through four stages of reviewing, dreaming, planning and consecrating. A couple weeks ago we had a “staycation” for our Family Summit, next year we may decide to get away. We had a lot of fun just enjoying restaurants in our town and having a relaxing weekend together. On Friday we spent the evening reviewing 2020, we talked about what was good and bad spiritually, relationally, physically, intellectually, and financially. 

In our review we determined that through a “bad year” God redeemed the time to let us grow closer to each other, our family, and make new friends. He grew us closer to His image through the love of our small group and the truth of His word. He carried us through the pain of loss and blessed us with great joy awaiting our little girl’s arrival. The Lord was faithful even when we weren’t - protecting our health and finances in a year where both could have been lost. 2020 was a journey for sure.

On Saturday we got to dream! The rule was that we weren’t allowed to tear each other down in any dreams but instead to simply listen. We went through the same five capitals: spiritual, relational, physical, intellectual, and financial. We dreamed through each, considering what we should stop, start and keep doing. At the end we summarized a vision for 2021: To start a deep relationship with our daughter while still having a relationship with our small group. And for us to grow in oneness through all things.

It’s a pretty simple idea for the next year mainly because we know our lives are going to be wrapped around a sweet new baby, we don’t want to commit to too many new things. 

Sunday was the day of planning. Through our review we identified things that didn’t go well, and in the dreaming phase we envisioned ways to make those things better. I’ve listed some of our family goals and most of my personal goals for the year. The guide led us to create a weekly and yearly calendar to make space for these goals to be attainable. I hope this list may give you some ideas for your family or just for yourself. Leave me a comment below, what are your goals for 2021?

Spiritual 

• Meet weekly with our small group

• Read God’s Word daily

Relational 

• Continue our weekly family meeting

• Plan a trip with my parents

• One lunch date with a friend each month

• Host a game night with friends each month

Physical 

• Make a weekly meal plan

• Go on a weekly family walk

• Walk Ella (our dog) twice a week

• Workout 3 times a week (this may look different in postpartum)

Intellectual 

• Read 4 books

• Work on a creative project each month

Financial 

• Weekly and monthly budget review together

• Track grocery expenses while shopping to stay on budget

• Establish a 3 to 6 month emergency fund

• Set up a more intentional retirement account

• Start a blessing fund for our daughter

• Begin to pay off our house at a faster pace