One of the big things on my heart is to create and experience special moments with my most favourite people- my husband and my 3 sons. It is a privilege to have the opportunity to plan creative and unique experiences that I pray will be etched onto our hearts for years to come.

Bringing us closer together as a unit is a worthwhile pursuit and deeply fulfilling to my mama heart. In a world filled with distractions and an easy inclination toward busyness, I can see already at this early stage of my families journey that it is essential to carve our moments that will strengthen the bonds between the five of us. In this blog post, I wanted to share some fun and faith-filled ways to build special memories with your family.

Document your family journey

I am sure like me, you have thousands and thousands of photos of your family on your phone! I try my best to not just be present in the moment, but to capture it for us to look back on and remember. That moment of remembering is so powerful for me as I lie in my bed at night and look back, and when we sit together to recall a family holiday or adventure that we were on together. Creating a beautiful roundup of your life, year upon year in photobook format is a great way to display and celebrate special memories.

Serving others together

When we do something good for others, we open up our hearts for God to do a work within us. When we invite others to come alongside us to serve, it seems as if there is a tangible knitting of our hearts with theirs. Serving others in any capacity as a family creates hearts that are missional and that have found a bigger purpose. This is an area of my personal life that I haven’t explored much but I want to learn. One way of doing this is through hospitality and opening my home to friends, families and even strangers. Preparing dishes to fill the hearts and bodies can create wonderful bonding experiences and memories, and helps foster community.

Establishing family traditions

When I gave birth to my first son I started thinking of family traditions that were unique to us, practical, special and that could be easily added without much overwhelm. Here are a few things that we do while the children are still very young:   

• Saturday breakfast, evening mealtimes (if daddy is at home)
• Friday games night and chips
• Sunday movie nights
• Morning Bible reading/short devotion
• Regular nature walks          
• We plan a trip either abroad or within the UK once a year.                           

These are a few things that we have started with consistently. They mean a lot to us and I look forward to seeing how it grows over the years!

It’s thinking about legacy. Pondering on and implementing the experiences that etch deep imprints into the hearts of those that we love and even ourselves, so that when we are long gone, the memories and traditions carry on a flame as a reminder of relationship and the privilege God gave us to know, love and celebrate one another.

Acknowledging milestones and celebrating one another

This is an area that is not only a great way to foster a positive and supportive family culture, but also add significant personal meaning to the individual being celebrated. They feel seen, valued and cared for and that’s the aim.