This Post is Certified and Guaranteed to be 100% Green-Free!

***ALERT***NEWS UPDATE***BREAKING STORY***ALERT***NEWS UPDATE***

Well, I was planning to keep this blog and all it's snazzy tips and tricks dedicated to Green-ish living, BUT I had a topic request! Yes, by golly folks, a real and genuine topic request based on a practice we've recently implemented in our family. So, here's the story --

Dem Bones:
     Our family consists of myself, my husband, our three kids (ages almost-7, almost-6 and almost-5-months) and my mom.
     As is often the case in families with young kids, communication is not always our strongest suit -- I mostly run amok with the kids, chauffeuring them around to school and their various activities/appointments, my husband works full-time and my mom is mostly-retired, but still works a couple of days each month, volunteers as a docent at our local natural history museum and periodically goes on luncheons with her friends.

The Goal:
     Super Shiny New and Improved lines of communication!

Well, Bang Howdy... But HOW?!:
     My husband is big into TED Talks, and had come across one about Agile Family Programming. The premise set forth in this Talk was opening and establishing paths to better communication through regular and frequent family meetings, where everyone is given a chance to talk and, more importantly, be heard.
     We pull the family together one night each week, gathering around the dinner table to talk about the past week and the coming week. At each meeting, we follow the same basic outline and take a few moments to go over specific bullet points. I call them: "The Good", "The... Not-so-Good", "Goals" and "To-Do's".

The Break Down:
* The Good -- Each person thinks of one good thing from the past week.
* The Not-so-Good -- Now each person now thinks of one bad or "not-so-good" thing from the past week.
* Goals -- This is a personal goal. One thing each person would like to accomplish in the coming week.
* To-Do's -- This is a more general, household to-do item. Something that needs to get done around the house, but can be done by anyone.

That's Nice an' all, but Why's it sooo Important?:
     I'm sure that there is always at least one person in every family who feels like their voice isn't being heard, their wants aren't being met and/or their needs are falling through the cracks. This gets everyone together in one place to hash things out and make sure we're all on the same page. Now, we don't get into anything major like personal grievances or grudges, but this is a great forum for everyone to let the others know how they're feeling, what they feel is important and what they want to see get done around the house.

I Got Hi-igh Hopes:
     The dream here is that, by establishing this means of communication now, we will have continued and, dare I hope, better communication with the kids as they grow older. We're laying the foundation with goals like "I wanna have a playdate with (fill-the-blank)" that I'm hoping will build into a very sound house that can withstand the storms of the dreaded Tween and Teen years to come.

******WE NOW RETURN YOU TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING******