I have some great news…a few months ago many of you helped me raise funds for Libby’s Virtual Canned Food Drive. Well I am so thrilled to report that the drive was an INCREDIBLE success!! Libby’s is making the world’s largest ever one-time donation of canned fruits and vegetables to Feeding America–a donation of 5 MILLION POUNDS of canned foods!!!
This donation comes at a time when data released by the USDA (Nov 09) reports that nearly one in six Americans and one in four children are struggling with hunger–the highest rate reported since the government agency began surveying 15 years ago! This donation could not come at a better time!!
Go HERE to learn more about this great effort. If you are looking for ways to help in your own backyard you can go HERE to visit Feeding America to find a food bank that serves your local community!!
I want to thank everyone that helped me raise funds for this fantastic cause!! Libby’s is thankful as well–they are offering one of my readers a $25 American Express gift card to help you get back to the table and connect with your family!Â
For your chance to win this gift card–tell me what you do to connect with your family at the dinner table? Here at my house we make a point to sit at the table every night TOGETHER!! This gives us a chance to hear about the events of the day and actually talk to each other!! I know as my boys grow our schedule will get more hectic but I am going to try my best to ensure that each night no matter how crazy our schedule may be, we can sit and eat dinner together!!
Ooops…forgot to tell you all when this one ends–I will choose a winner on Friday 3/26 around 11pm via Random.org!
Disclosure–Libby’s provided me with  information and is providing the gift card for my winner. All comments and opinions are my own!
My husband says a prayer, then my three year old daughter says a prayer.
My girls are all teenagers with hectic schedules of their own, but we try to sit down for a dinner together at least a few times a week. I’ve also found that it helps to include them in the meal prep. Something about chopping vegetables or stirring soup seems to loosen their tongues and they tell me more about their day than I hear all week otherwise.
We also try to sit around the table together without tv and just talk.
We eat dinner together in our dining room every night. No TV, no telephone or any distractions. Each person tells one good thing and one bad thing about our day. It is a time for all to connect to one another. We have done this since our kids were in highchairs.
Sitting around the table as well
I have a 4 YEAR OLD & A 20 MONTH OLD SO DINNER IS HECTIC..WE ALL EAT TOGETHER AND i MAKE IT A POINT TO GIVE THEM SOME UNDIVIDED ATTENTION AND ASK THEM TO TELL ME ABOUT THIER DAY.
we pray ,eat dinner and discuss our days activities and events. My youngest (who is autistic) also helps me in the kitchen passing the vegetables and setting the dinner table.
We usually make dinner together. The kids will watch from the barstools or “help.” Eating together isn’t a habit yet but we are getting there!
We eat dinner with the TV off!!
We also try to sit around the table every night, but with the hustle and bustle of life that doesn’t happen everyday. So, we have scheduled family dinners on Sundays with a little of the extended family (Grandma and Paw Paw and G.G.). Also, we gather around the table every friday night for family game night. We will usually play a board game or two (even three or four). As something special, we have each written our name in perminent marker under the table on the side where we usually sit and wrote a little sentiment (or a funny drawing). Family is really important to us and we try to come up with little things to bring us together all the time, we truly believe it is the little things we do that make a BIG impact. Thanks for the opportuniy! Libby’s is Amazing! 🙂
We try to sit down together most nights during the week. Gives me and hubby a chance to catch up to since our schedules are so crazy.
We all sit together and laugh and have a good time. They are 2 and 4 and sometimes ready to just get up and go, but I love this time together!
Thank you!
Maggie M.
They pick what they want for dinner and help me make it, they have to decide together I love this time with them!
Jen A.
We take turns telling about our days and what we each learned. Love to show that we ALL learn something new everyday!
Thanks!
Leroy M.
M-F we sit at the dinner table together. We pray, eat and talk about our day. I want my son to grow up knowing that he’s important to us and keep the value of family precious. On the weekends we are more lax and will watch a movie and eat or go out (not very often, but sometimes splurge on dinner out).
We make dinner together and then actually SIT together and eat. I love these special moments whether it’s just chopping onions or making coffee :)It’s the time spent together that means the most to me.
We have 2 young children and we still try to eat together every night. We have our 3 year old say prayers and we ask him about his day and we eat our food. Our little one is still learning to eat (17 months), but we include her in the conversations as well. 🙂
~Julie
We also eat dinner at the table most days of the week as my 3-year-old son eats more of his dinner when he’s not being distracted by the TV. Every now and again we’ll eat in front of the TV with pizza as a treat, though. 🙂
We try to sit down everynight together and eat dinner as a family. Our daughter is only 5 months old so she isn’t really eating with us but we put her in her highchair so she can listen to us talking and be part of the dinner experience:-)
we have a nightly question, one that can’t be answered with a simple yes or no.
Me and my boyfriend try to cook together atleast twice a week, he picks a main dish and so do I. We cook enough for both of us and try a little of each others dish. Its a great way for us to spend time together and try out new recipes we both have found. Whats great is, we always have left overs for lunch the next day!
We sit at the table everynight. We discuss the days events, good and bad, and my husband always asks the kids what they learned in homeschool that day 🙂
We eat together as much as possible. Every Sunday after church, my in-laws have us over for lunch. On hectic weekdays, even if we don’t actually eat together, we are at least playing outside together at some point in the evening.
Dinner to me is the most wonderful time to get the whole family together! The 3-year-old twins are involved in the preparation of the meal for that night. Mixing and stirring..scooting up their own little seats to help mama. The 7-month old watches from her bouncy seat and when daddy gets home, we all have our “own” seats at the table. We make sure the TV is off and we take turns saying the blessing so that the kids get their own opportunity to say it as well. I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
My kids are still young (4 yrs and 17-months), so most nights getting everyone at the table for 5 minutes without screaming or crying is a rip-roaring success! We plan to continue having our evening meal all together as a family every night possible, until the hatchlings leave our nest!
I love foodnetwork and I love good food, so I try many new recipes. My family always looks forward to them and we eat together at the table. I also cook themed dinners for different occasions. My kids love them so much that once when I said we were going to eat out, they all insisted that I make the dinner instead.
We ate at the kitchen table every evening and take turns talking about our days. No TV allowed!
Getting every family member a task to do while preparing dinner, and sitting at the table together.
We eat together and share our day.
On Friday, we have cocktail hour where the kids tell us all about their week and I serve “juice” cocktails and appetizers…
We eat around the table each night. No one is allowed to watch TV. No one talks on the phone. It is a wonderful time. My favorite time of the day.
We eat dinner together every night and on Fridays we have a ‘carpet picnic’ where I lay out a whole bunch of different foods that we all share and just talk. The kids think it is fantastic.
I grew up in a family, where the tv was always on at dinner time. Now, we are a tv free dinner time family, and it really helps with the dinner conversation.
We always cook and eat dinner together
We sit and talk about our days without the tv
The kids and I do a picnic–we eat on a blanket in the living room to catch up with one another
We all sit down together without TV and we share the important events from our day.
We cook dinner together and talk about our day while our little ones color at the table
We talk about our day and plan what we are going to do for the rest of the night
We have dinner every night at the table, and eat out once a week, usually Fri. or Sat. We typically have the TV on, but we’re all adults so it’s on the news, and we discuss current events of the day.
It is just my DH and I for now. We alwatys have dinner together and of course spend all the weekened together!
Thank you
I always have the kids sit at dinner each night and tell me something they learned that day
Right now, my family is able to sit down 5 days a week for a family breakfast. We usually have dinner together as well, but our breakfasts are my favorite. It is the perfect way to start my day!
We make it a point to ask specific questions to our child. We learn alot from her 😉
We make it a point to have dinner together each night and also we make it a point to laugh at a least one funny thing during the course of dinner. This all helps to maintain closeness.
We eat at the table, no TV!
My husband, 3 daughters and I also eat dinner together every night. My girls get their homework done before my husband gets home from work, so the rest of the evening is family time! We talk about our day – highs and lows, and even the 3-year old raises her hand for a turn to speak.
We sit together every night. My kids are both under three so they sit as long as they can.
I have two little boys and a husband who LOVE when I make a meal from scratch. The way to a man’s heart really is through his stomach. My hubby also loves that my smart shopping is easy on his wallet, thanks to this site! Sitting down to eat together is a must.
We don’t have kids yet, so it’s just me and my hubby. My husband always says a prayer before we eat, and we talk about our day.
I wish I could say we all eat at the table together like I did growing up because I feel like that is VERY important for kids to have that stable moment in their day where both parents are there and everyone can talk together… But it doesn’t happen today. I keep trying and trying to get it to happen… I know I just need to try harder. Hopefully it will happen soon. My husband never had that, so he’d rather sit on the couch in front of the tv and eat and I am just tired of being a nag all the time.
Make a point to him that it is important to you at least ONE night a week. Surely that will be more important than watching one Tv show. Maybe he will get to like it and do more often. You can do it!
Our 1 year old sits in his high chair by the window looking at the birds and my husband and I eat at the table next to him.
We eat together!
My son is in his first year at college but each Sunday he drives home and the whole family sits at the dining table for a big home cooked meal. I look forward to it every week!
well i have a 3 1/2 year old girl and a 1 1/2 year old girl, there is not much adult talk at the table, but we do sit down together every night. we always did when i was growing up, and i want to keep it that way with my family.
We too make it a point to all have dinner together at the table. No tv or other distractions. Just conversation!
We eat together as a family every night!
I always make a meal each night that is organic if possible. We then all sit together, including our new baby, and discuss our events of the day.
We don’t eat the the table everynight but I need to do better at this. Our kids a little right now but I want us to do this more often and make it a routine.
Go to the park and have picnics!
My kids are little. We ask them to first tell us one thing that was not so good that happened that day and then we ask them to tell us a good thing. It’s interesting to hear what they come up with.
We try to make sure we eat together with the tv off so we can talk about our day.
We try our best to eat at the table every night. We talk about our days, or about what is on our minds. You never know what is going to be discussed. 🙂
Mom and Dad are in their 70’s and I get to spend dinner with them almost every night because mom has a form of dementia. I appreciate that I can still be with them so I consider myself very fortunate. The best of both worlds–kid and grandkids who visit often and parents who still put up with my shenanigans. You would think I would grow out of it! 🙂
We have an 1828 Webster’s Dictionary and my husband searchs for words no longer in common use and then tells them to us. This is absolutely halararious! We also have a vocabulary of obscure words that only our family knows and uses and this is a bond anytime. Yes I know this is nerdy!
We eat every meal possible together (my husband and I with three kids ages 8, 4, 2)….no TV, music, or phones allowed!
We also eat together every night. The stats are amazing on how many kids who do NOT do drugs eat dinner together every night with their families. It is extremely important!
We eat together almost every single night, and have family or friends over at least once a week. In addition, we have lots of games that we sit around and play with our 4 year old. Not to mention reading before bed each night. Its hard to find the time, but a half hour here, 45 there… it all adds up.
We have a devotion each night after we finish dinner. Some times it is just reading from a devotion book but sometimes we plan fun activities that have a Biblical or moral lesson behind them! For example, we gave all the kids a small tube of toothpaste (free from Dentist’s office) and a plate and told them to squeeze as much out as they could. Then we asked them to see if they could figure out a way to put it back in. (You can’t, of course!) Then we explained those are our words and once you say words you can’t take them back even if they hurt someone you love! We are trying to build character in our kids b/c so many people these days don’t have any!
We love to hear our nieces share their stories of their day! The littlest takes food from everyone’s plate and then asks for more.
We sit down together as a family everyday for lunch as our big meal. My husband works nights so this is a great time for us to connect as a family.
We eat dinner together!
When my two older kids are not texting, they are pretty chatty! The dinnertime conversation-no electronics or books-is usually never boring and always needs a referee! They are getting older and in three short (i think i might cry) years the biggest will be off to college, so I take in every minute and enjoy it-laughing, crying or otherwise!
We go around the table and everyone says what the best/worst part of their day has been.
we don’t get to have dinner together every night, but we try get together at least a few times a week and tv is not allowed to be on, so we can all talk and share.
We eat together.
We cook together!
We eat together everynight at the table. No TV or anything. We talk to eachother.
We pray and then eat!
We sit together too! We turn the tv off and enjoy the company of each other.
My husband works late into the evening many nights, so on the nights he IS home, I make things as special as possible…nice meal, candles, CLOTH napkins, best dinnerware, etc. Oh! Also…we have a little “Thank you Jesus” song that we hold hands and sing together with our toddler. 🙂 I don’t remember how this got started, but we made it up when he was really little, and it has become a very special little song to us. 🙂
Everyone eats at the table at our house. It is always hubby and I and whoever pops in to join us. Due to all the great savings we always know how blessed we are!
We sit at the table that I grew up having dinner with my family – we always talk about something positive that happened during the day, something we are looking forward to about tomorrow or something that made us smile. We always say the blessing before we eat and thank God for our meal and our day.
We pray together
We spend Tuesday night as a family, and go to Chick fil a in our home town. They are very family friendly, and have crafts, games, and stuff for you to do as a family. They even have Daddy Daughter date every so often, so My husband gets to have one on one time with my daughter.
We sit down to dinner together every night. We also go to church every Sunday and after head over to my FIL’s to see my-inlaws and my SIL and her family. We do this every Sunday. A great tradition I hope my kids will continue when I’m a grandmother.
We turn the TV off and eat dinner together as a family.
With a 2 year old and a new baby that is sometimes a hard thing to do, but I feel it is important to eat together and discuss the day.
We sit down every night for dinner and discuss our day over the dinner table. One of the discussion starters we use to help our 3 year old become involved in the conversation is to tell each other our favorite part of the day.
My little girl has now begun to understand how to have conversations with people. Now she is often the first to begin by asking my husband how his day was. Did he have any excitement in his day? What was his favorite part?
She is learning to be a good listener as well as she asks follow up questions.
It is a part of our day that we all cherish and look forward too. (I know that growing up in a family of 6 we did this every night as well and it meant so much to me as a child.)
On days when Daddy is away on business he calls at the end of his day to check in on us and we put on the speaker phone and have this sort of discussion on the phone. It helps us all feel connected even when we are far away from each other.
We talk about our day!
We all have a big snuggle fest after dinner and homework to talk about our day and wind down before bedtime. Makes for a sweet time for all of us to share our day and share our plans for the rest of the week.
With only three of us , we do eat at the table each night. We start off with Dad saying the blessing then my son goes over his day and how school went. He is in kindergarden so everything is exciting. We talk about stuff we want to do or accomplish the next day.
We eat together every night. I love having everyone together in one place with no distractions.
We make it a point to turn off the television and sit down together as a family to eat each night. There are four members of our family and each member has to come up with one question for the others to answer. The person who comes up with the question gets to choose the order the others answer. The children like that part the best because you know they like to be “in charge”. Sometimes the questions are silly and sometimes they are serious. But they always keep us talking to one another and are laying a foundation for open communication for the rest of our lives.
We sit at the table together every night.
I wish we could eat together ever night, but crazy schedules don’t always allow that. Instead, we make sure to have breakfast together, even if it’s just cold cereal.
We eat dinner together as a family at least 5 nights a week and we go to my parent’s home for dinner once a week. It really keeps us connected and it’s the highlight of my kids week to go to their grandparents house.
My son is only a year and a half, so it’s easy and hard at the same time for us. We were never a couple to sit at the table to eat. I don’t thing either one of us was brought up that way. We are trying to make an effort to do that with him though. I think it is very good for families to spend that time together.
We eat together at the table every night & my 4 yr old blesses our food.
We eat together as a family around the table a couple of times a week and follow the meal with Scripture reading, more conversation, and prayer.
We eat together each night. On Thursdays during dinner we plan the nexts week of menus.
I try to sit at the table with my two boys as often as possible. My family always ate at the table when I was growing up. Nowadays, our lives seem so hectic, it can become a chore. I am going to re-focus on making it a habit again.
Our kids take turns saying grace before we eat and we keep distractions to a minimum with no TV or phone calls taken during family dinners.
I really wish my husband was with us every night to sit down together and enjoy each others company. However, when we do, we sit at our little round kitchen table, say a prayer, and share a meal. My kids have yet to learn how not to leave the table during dinner. But they are really willing to help with setting the table, getting silverware and dishes and cleaning up afterwards.
We use GEMS — Geniune Encounter Moments….where we give our full attention to our boys and fully engage and appreciate whatever is going on.
I don’t have any children, but my husband and seem to have the best chats just before we go to sleep.
With our family’s busy schedules, it can sometimes be difficult for all of us to sit down and eat dinner together at the same time. However, we make it a point to all have dinner together on Sundays, Mondays, and Wednesdays. Also, after dinner clean-up is a group effort!
Thanks!
We also eat dinner together, it helps to unwind too.
My wife and I always have dinner together. While she finishes the meal up (i can’t cook), I set the table. Then we sit down together and have to say one nice thing about each other before we can eat.
After dinner, we clear the table, my husband gets out a book we’re reading as a family, and my children draw pictures as he reads to them. It’s a great time bonding over family dinner.
We like to talk about our day over dinner. It is a time to listen and share.
janetfaye (at) gmail (dot) com