🍞 Family Meals Matter!

Today in 5 minutes or less you'll learn:

• Why family meals matter to your kids mental and physical health

• A resource to help you be more intentional with 1:1 time with your kids

• An update on the barn and encouragement to pursue your family vision

One of the things in the barndominium we are most excited about is the 18 foot island. Instead of having a separate dining room table area we decided to build it into the island itself. An 8 foot kitchen table will be able to slide into the designated space allowing us to seat our whole family plus more!

Go ahead and call us crazy, but we did this intentionally in order to allow us to be able to have family meals with the kids while having convenient access to everything in the kitchen near us.

Anyone who has young kiddos or grandkids knows exactly what we’re talking about when we say you have to “run” to the sink, fridge, cabinet, etc every 10 seconds to get them more water or just one more condiment. Consistent and fun family meals have been a challenge for us with five kids all under the age of eight. We want to be more intentional with our family during dinner time and meals together.

Unfortunately, In the past 20 years the frequency of family dinners has declined by 33% nationally. We’re hoping this set up will provide the space for many great conversations and family meals in the years to come.

We believe family dinners are essential to healthy family living, healthy eating, and makes a BIG impact on our children in a positive way.

Here are some other eye popping statistics from an interesting article regarding our food health and family meals.

• Busy family schedules are cutting into family dinners together—46 percent of those surveyed said eating together is difficult to do on a regular basis.

• According to a recent study, Americans now spend a higher percentage of their food budget on restaurants (50.3%) than they do on groceries (49.7%).

• 97 percent of the children’s restaurant meals studied by the Center for Science in the Public Interest did not meet the expert nutrition standards for children’s meals.

• In 1970, Americans spent 26 percent of their food budget on eating out; by 2010, that number had risen to 41 percent. During that time, rates of obesity in the United States more than doubled.

Research also shows that dining together is more important than you might think!

According to The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, kids and teens who share family dinners three or more times per week:

• Are less likely to be overweight

• Are more likely to eat healthy food

• Perform better academically

• Are less likely to engage in risky behaviors (drugs, alcohol, sexual activity)

• Have better relationships with their parents

Also, according to the Journal of Adolescent Health “more frequent family dinners are related to few emotional and behavioral problems, greater emotional well-being, more trusting and helpful behaviors towards others and higher life satisfaction”.

I’m interested to hear back from all of you. How many days a week on average do you eat dinner as a family? All answers are anonymous, and poll results will be shared on next week’s newsletter.

We look forward to enjoying more family meals together on the farm in our barndominium home and most importantly doing our best to be intentional to raise healthy and confident children.

Respond to this email or comment on this post and let us know any great ideas you use to make family meals fun for the whole family!?

This week concrete was poured on the back portion of the barn and the underground plumbing has begun in the Airbnb & farm store space!

We’re excited to finally see some progress on the barn and look forward to bringing this space to life. If you want to follow along more closely check out the Instagram page where Megan shares daily progress on the farm with over 2,700 followers.

Taking on a project like Silver Lake Bison Farm has reminded our family of the importance of patience, adaptability, while also creating a vision for future use.

We sure won’t get it right every time, but we will learn each step of the way. Just like we ask and teach our kiddos - how do you get better at something?? PRACTICE!

In life we should do the same. Keep practicing and keep failing forward! Don’t worry about the judgement of others or be fearful of the unknown. It takes courage to share your dreams with others, and we’re thankful you’re along for the ride with us.

If you have the courage, share your dreams with someone else this week, and take one step forward towards that vision.

1:1 time with our children is extremely impactful on their development and growth. However, if you’re anything like me this is no small task to complete in a consistent manner. Our lives and schedules are constantly jam packed, and being intentional with our calendar and planning is the only way it will happen.

I recently purchased and read The Family Board Meeting by Jim Sheils, and I highly recommend this short and easy read if you’re looking for ways to be more intentional in scheduling 1:1 time with your kids.

This book gives you three simple steps to create lasting connection with your children. It is one thing we can do to dramatically strengthen our family in just a few hours. Join me in being more intentional to connect more deeply with our children and reducing the amount of “screen sucking” and device dependence.

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