In order to work together as a team in our family we need to know how we all fit together and how to encourage one another. So how to do you encourage the others in your household? One important part of knowing how to encourage others is to know what makes them tick, what brings joy to each of you.
How can you know what brings joy to the individuals in your family?
Make a Favorite Things List.
The exercise is simple.
Mom and Dad – Write down 15 things that cost money and 15 things which are free that you enjoy. Some of them could be small and some you may need to plan and save for (like a vacation or hiring a farm hand).
For kids, it may be difficult to think of 30 things and to separate what is free and what costs money. We had our kids write down 10 things that make them happy.
Don’t hide these lists. Put them somewhere easy for the family to see. As parents we need to make sure everyone experiences at least on thing from their list each week. Encourage the kids to encourage each other by helping a sibling to have one of their favorite things. Is it hard to think of something nice to do for your sibling? Look at their list.
This weekend our Favorite Things Lists have been helping my husband and I to work through our expectations and roles here on the farm. He even blogged about it on his blog, Chism Heritage Farm. (Check it out, it’s a great article)
Knowing what it is that brings each other joy gives us a greater appreciation for our spouse’s wants.
My husband loves the hard work, he enjoys planning out the pastures and moving fences. His perfect day would be to work with the cows then spend most of his time cutting and stacking firewood. Me, while I do enjoy working along side my husband I don’t enjoy the make-my-back-hurt farm work.
Our Favorite Things Lists helped us to reallocate some of the duties here on the farm and helps Chris to see the importance of just going on a walk together and me to see the importance of stacking that firewood together as a family.
This past weekend we were also purposeful about playing a board game together and spending some time playing video games. Both of which is on our children’s lists.
Get to know your kids and your spouse better with a Favorite Things List.
Handful of Acorns 
I appreciate this post because it is intentional, and it teaches concrete ways to understand and encourage others.
I find it helps to write things down. Priorities seem to be met more often when I have written it downl
Thanks for posting this – as Chris knows, I didn’t exactly get quite the right idea about the list the way he explained it, though I got there eventually. I think it’s a great idea, and hope to get everyone here to participate. We go through dry busy spells of just getting through all the stuff in a day, for days and days, and if we don’t make room for a few fun moments we burn out. Been there.
Hard work with out time to refresh is just drudgery. That is not the way I want my kids to view our life here on the farm.
Cold coffee???even with chocolate, I dunno…
I let the morning coffee get cold, mix it in the blender with a frozen banana, some heavy cream, a few ice cubes and generous squeeze of chocolate syrup. Yum!
OK, that’s cold coffee I could enjoy! My mum used to always drink cold coffee, but it was the bottom half of whatever cup she’d started hours ago. I never understood why she did that till I got to be a mum myself :).