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Our Family’s Favorite Games

December 5, 2013 by Laura 31 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

It happened again tonight when Justus (our 13 year old) was eating his potato soup. I started giggling for no reason. This happens to me occasionally when my family is around the table playing games. Tonight, we had to head out the door after dinner, so we were finishing our game and eating at the same time. Justus took a bite of soup, and it was outrageously funny. Except that it really wasn’t, even a little bit.

I admit it. I was getting loopy. We had been playing Settlers of Catan, the Cities and Knights version for way too long. We started it last night after church, took a turn at breakfast this morning, played a few more rounds after lunch, and by dinner, my brain was fried. The game is awesome, but it takes some thinking skills. And we had been playing in and around our regular day of school and work and life. Thus, the potato soup eating hilarity.

Ah, but this is what memories are made of. As our boys get older and are now able to gather around the table for “big kid games” we take advantage of every spare moment we have to spend time playing together. Their schedules are busy, so we have to be intentional to make it happen. Here are some of our favorite games:

Settlers of Catan, especially the Cities and Knights version

ticket to ride

Ticket to Ride

bohnanza

Bohnanza

Apples to Apples and Apples to Apples Junior

Manhattan

Uno Attack

 

Sequence

Farkle

 

Pass the Pigs

Disney Scene It

blink

Blink

headbandz

Headbandz

Don’t tell, but here’s the new one we’re getting this year for Christmas.

Now tell me about the games you and your family love to play!  (And do you ever get loopy after playing games just a little bit too long?!)

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The Game of “Blink” – and Why I Now Have To Play My Hardest

December 18, 2012 by Laura 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Our baby turns eight on Thursday.

I’d be in denial about that if I would allow myself to be. But what good would that do? Therefore, I have found myself practicing saying to people, “He’s almost eight” – just so I could wrap my brain around it and recognize it as truth.

Today, his “old age” dawned on me quite clearly. Yep, Malachi is growing up.

He and I love to play the card game “Blink” together. Since he began playing this game, at about age five, I’ve had to adapt it a little bit. 

blink

It’s a game of speed – whoever works through their pile of cards first, wins. If I wouldn’t have adapted it, I would have won hands down every single time and the game would have ceased to be fun for either of us. Why? Is it because I’m such an amazing “Blink” player? No, because my adult brain could process faster and my hands could move faster than his.

Therefore, I would always give myself several extra cards (on the sly) so that the game would be more fair. With my stack of cards slightly taller, we could then play an even match – sometimes he would win, sometimes I would win. I didn’t have to slow down or try to “let him win” every once in a while. My taller stack solved the problem and made the games fun for both of us.

Until today.

It was after he won three games in a row that I suddenly realized that my taller stack of cards was now giving me a disadvantage. He would buzz through his pile, slap down his last card with a big grin and yell, “Done!” And there I would sit, with about seven cards remaining in my pile – pretty much the exact amount of extra cards I have been giving to myself for years.

You would think I would have figured this out before he beat me three times in a row…

So from now on, I will be dividing the cards evenly, and hoping that maybe, just maybe, I will still be able to win a few games when we play together.

If not, maybe I should consider make his card pile just a little taller.

I’m kidding. I may be competitive, but I’m not a cheater. 

I may, however, try to throw out a distraction every once in a while when I see his pile getting low. “Look! Larry Boy and Bob the Tomato are watching you from the window!”

Okay fine, I won’t do that either.

All this to say, I highly recommend the game of Blink as a great socking stuffer for your “big kids” this Christmas. I’d say kids can generally play this beginning at age five – but even my teenager enjoys it, as do I. Even when I don’t win. ;)

If you want, I can send Malachi over to teach you how to play. But watch out. The kid is fast. 

P.S. Hmm. I just noticed that there is  Blink – Bible Edition. That’s kinda fun.

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It Happens in a Blink

December 15, 2010 by Laura 18 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but will share some commission.

Some of you have asked me to share more about what led us to our decision for Matt to resign from his job to work at home with our family. You’d like to know more about what we’re planning to do and what our “new life” will look like.

I can’t share much yet about what our new life will look like as it hasn’t actually started yet. Incidentally, it will start on Thursday the 16th at precisely 3:01 pm, at which time you WILL hear me shouting and banging on pots and pans in celebration. 

We’re setting goals and making plans and praying. Once we settle into January, I’ll be able to share more with you about what we’re doing with our time and how the new plan is working with our family.

What I can share though is a little more about what led us to this decision. I mentioned previously that Matt didn’t want to have regrets about how he spent the time God’s given him on earth. Our boys are growing quickly…and they need the guidance of their daddy. Our marriage is strong and we’d like to keep it that way. We have ministry ideas that we’d like to explore.  Matt’s current job situation hasn’t allowed us to do for our family what we feel called to do.

Ultimately, we had to ask ourselves the questions:  What are we doing for the Kingdom? Is our life in balance with what God wants us to be doing for Him?

We did some evaluating and knew something needed to give. (Later I’ll share a formula we came up with to evaluate the balance of each important area of our lives.)  We asked God to show us how to create a more balanced life, while still providing for our family.

The following song, Blink, by Revive pretty much sums up our thoughts. I’d really like you to listen and read the words as it plays because it’s quite convicting. 

It happens in a blink…what are you doing with your life?

For the record, we are definitely not advocating that everyone should turn in their two weeks notice tomorrow. That family you love so much does need to eat and have shoes. :)  We are just sharing what we’ve felt called to do for our family. We had a financial plan in place before making this leap and have spent many months praying about this decision. We simply want to encourage each person to examine how they spend their time and feel like we should all ask ourselves:  Am I making the most of every moment God’s given me?

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