I love sitting down to family dinners. There’s nothing that says love like a home-cooked meal. And I love having people over. It’s a fabulous way to encourage faith. But as much as I love gathering at the table, it doesn’t happen with regularity. Something or other gets in the way ~ and suddenly it’s been a month of Sundays since I made a sit down meal for family and friends.
My friend, Kristin (she’s the cute thang in the aqua top), and I were bemoaning this last September while rooming together at the ReWrite conference in San Diego. She confessed she too, struggled to stay motivated. We realized we probably weren’t the only ones that know the importance of gathering at the table ~ but fail to do it. So after a little brainstorming and prayer, we decided to let the idea simmer and see what we got.
Over the past 3 months ~ we met, prayed, and researched. And we realized something:
We are Sunday Supper girls.
But only in theory, not in practice. But we want to change and bring back the sit down & slow down to our busy lives via a revival of the Sunday Supper. We decided we are going to get intentional about planning a meal once a week and inviting people over.
That’s right. 52 simple meals for Sabbath gatherings. 52 chances to invite people over. 52 opportunities to enjoy good food and have meaningful conversations.
52 Sunday Suppers: One a week, for the next year.
Join us? We’d love to encourage some sit down & slow down suppers in your family’s life. Meet back here every Sunday and we’ll dish. About recipes, conversation starters, fails and successes.
happy sunday!
PS.I already feel nervous having put this out there. Do you have ‘Sunday Supper’ success tips you could share with me??!!
PPS. Be sure to check out Kristin’s blog ~ when you sign up for her newsletter, you get a free cookbook!
Sunday Rest :: simple thanksgiving
I love this. I’ve been doing a lot of studying on Shabbat and we’ve been trying to observe a Christian Shabbat in our house staring on Saturday around 4. We get all of our church things together and all the littles are showered and ready by 4 (that is the goal anyways). I asked everyone to choose their favorite Sunday meal and I try to fit everyone’s in. Both of my grandmothers were deceased when I was born but I am creating what I imagine Sunday supper would have been like at their house and hopefully my children will treasure this and it will be a lifelong tradition.
Fabulous!
Since evening meal was the highlight of my childhood days, I carried this tradition on in our family. I loved sitting down and hearing each member of the family tell about their day – the good, the bad and the ugly! Having a house full of girls…this could be dramatic and hilarious! Now that they are all grown and married, we continue our tradition on Sunday evenings. Oh, how I love having my daughters, their husbands and my sweet grandsons eating from my table! We have a blast and enjoy being together as a family! Even though we are a pastor’s home…not much interupts our Sunday night family night! All of our family is involved in ministry and are constantly giving, so this one night we can be together as a family unit and be refreshed and renewed from each other!
Love this. :)
Since our children were little, we have made it a point to sit down to dinner together MOST nights of the week. Even with high schoolers, we still manage to eat together at least 4 or 5 times a week. Now, it might be at 7:30 at night, but we are all together. We share our highs and our lows for the day and we pray together. Our precious, newly adopted, 5 year old from Uganda will tell anyone that the FAVORITE part of her day is “Eating like a family”. Our children all know that if they are home and a family meal has been prepared then there are no exceptions…they must try two bites of everything served…our table is ALWAYS open to anyone they want to invite…and yes, they MUST help clean up (EVEN the guests)!! Funny thing is, we RARELY have any complaints from any of them (ages 16, 14, I thank my mom for making this a priority in our family!! Looking forward to all the new ideas to add to our old ones! Love you!
What a great idea. Our family does something similar. We call it ‘hospitality night’. We try to do it once a week usually on Monday nights. We made a list of people we would like to have over and get to know better. We are working our way through the list and of course are flexible with whoever God leads us to invite. Our whole family (7 of us) gets involved with cooking and special touches to make our guests’ feel welcome. We love it. It is the highlight of our week.
Oh my gracious. Love this. And I especially love that your whole family does this … gonna work on that one!! ;)
I cook dinner 4-5 nights a week (even with my intense travel schedule). I love it. Often we have some of Abby’s friends over eating with us. I am in on this as well. One tip I have: I use one of these precious May Books (cute monogram) that is a weekly meal planner. http://www.maybooks.com/shop/books
I keep the meal planner and a pen insde in my purse. I pull it out every Thursday or Fridaiy and start planning the next week’s meals. After I’ve determined the meals for the week, I then start my grocery list on the corresponding page. I go to the grocery store 1x a week (Rarely do I ever go back – part of the efficiency in me) for the week’s groceries. I even plan my meals based on weather, spoilage factor in keeping me away from the store more than 1x a week, etc. I go to the grocery store Sunday after church and are prepared for the week’s meals.
I think doing 1 grocery store run a week definitely helps people stay motivated to cooking meals throughout the week. It’s hard to get to the store on a given day for that evening’s meal. Plus, having a $250-$300 grocery store bill all at one time, I find myself motivated to use the groceries so they don’t ruin.
Fun idea. Thanks for sharing.
I.want.to.hug.your.neck!! I so need a weekly meal planner. Thank you for the link!
And I must say, I am SO impressed you cook that much with your travel. Wowsa …
Even more impressed you don’t go back for groceries. Teach me, oh Sensei.
Susie! LOVE family meal time! and Love that you are sharing and encouraging! – I have committed in my head to a weekly “picnic” night – where we all eat outside one night a week – We are in CA again this winter and kids are all excited!! Your recipes are always so yummy! can’t wait to read all about sunday suppers!!
Picnic night is genius. Might try that this Spring.
As I just wrote to Kris – I’m totally IN on this! So much fun, Susie!!!! Excited to benefit from your encouragement, yummy recipes, and family-nurturting wisdom. XOXO HUGS!
Yay! Thanks, Krista! We’re getting started …
So glad to read this! I started doing Sunday suppers a few years back as a way to reconnect as a family, and then the kids left home or got jobs that required them to work on Sunday evenings, and Sunday suppers went by the wayside. This encouraged me to revisit our Sunday suppers for whomever is able to come and to include those outside of our family. Thanks for the reminder of those good times and the encouragement to start again!
Yep. We were really good at it for a while too but same thing. Schedule changes. Since we’re a pastor family, Sunday’s are near impossible so we’re going to move our ‘Sunday Suppers’ to Friday night. Or Saturday. Or whichever day works on a given week.
But once a week, it’ll be a slow down, sit down supper.
How fun! Looking forward to seeing what y’all come up with, Susie. I remember coming to your home many, many years ago and sharing our God stories with other ACFers. It was a sweet time. It sounds like a great revival plan :)
This is so a 246 dinner from those early ACF days, Cat. I love that you remember. :)
Love you!
So excited that you two wonderful ladies are taking this passion for family meal time and sharing it with others. Love it!
Thanks, Jen! We’re excited!! Week one is on the way!