Last week, I was asked to share a short post for ScriptureLight on Instagram, and I thought I would share it here as well. The Topic I was asked to write about was a short lesson on parenting I had learned from the scriptures or what I wish I would have known when I first became a mother. What a great reminder writing this was for me.
I wish I would have realized sooner that the scriptures really are the ultimate parenting manual. One experience that taught me this was at a time when our children seemed to be constantly arguing, and nothing I had tried seemed to be working. One day as I was praying and wondering what to do, I was led to 4 Nephi 1:15: “And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people,” and to Alma 31: 5: ” And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just–yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword or anything else, which had happened unto them–therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God.” I had my answer. The most important thing I could do was to teach my children to love God. Their behavior would be changed more by learning the gospel and loving their Savior than anything else I could try or teach them. I’m so thankful for the scriptures, and for the peace and knowledge they bring to my life.
Camdon turned 3 yesterday, and we celebrated at my sister Tricia’s house in Washington state. Shawn, Tabetha, and Grammy were on face time with us so they got to watch Camdon open his presents, and they even got to help sing Happy Birthday to him and watch him blow out his candles.
Some fun facts about Camdon are:
He can identify and name every piece of heavy equipment
He loves his family so much
He is very polite and always says, “Thank you Mom” after dinner
He loves his nursery class
He doesn’t like to share his toys
He loves to sing and his favorite song is “Shut-up and Dance with me”
He thinks he can’t go to sleep at night unless he watches a bit of Netflix first
He loves babies and wants to have a baby at his house
He likes to go for drives in the car
His favorite food is pizza
Loves that he has the same first name as daddy
Here are some of my favorite pictures of him of this handsome boy who is growing up so ridiculously fast.
It took us ten days, approximately 45 stops, and 2800 miles to get to Bear Lake, Idaho, our first official stop and our first stop visiting family. Let me just say that we are so happy to be done with that part of the trip. Driving through Canada for 6 days, spending 10-12 hours in the car everyday, was long and tedious. It felt like we were going to be in Canada FOREVER. After 6 days in Canada, though, we finally made it back to the U.S., and after another three days driving through Montana and Idaho we made it to Bear Lake. I think it is safe to say that the hardest part of our trip is behind us now, as Shawn will be driving home with us in October, so I don’t have to go it alone again.
We have been gone from home for 20 days now, and traveled 3300 miles. Thankfully we aren’t traveling much now. We are enjoying long, relaxing summer days filled with family, picnics and going to the beach. The summer weather has been splendid, and a balm to my winter weary soul. I can even tell I have a little color to my skin now. Yay, for vitamin D!
I’ve been lamenting, a bit, this spring that my running/walking partner (I run, he walks) a.k.a my wonderful husband, has kind of lost interest in running/walking, and has been too busy working on my vehicle getting it ready to go for the trip, to run/walk with me. As I was pondering and bemoaning this problem the other day, I realized that Hannah Banana has been dying to do the Color Run. She had wanted to do it last year, but for some reason we missed it, and it has been on her mind ever since. This spring she started insisting we sign up so we wouldn’t miss it again, and once I had committed to running it with her, she has been pushing me to go running with her so she can train. Hannah is very persistent when she wants something, and when I say very I mean very, Very, VERY, andI realized that I had the perfect new running partner right in front of me and I hadn’t even realized it.
Saturday was the Color Run, and it just so happened that it was also my birthday. What a way to celebrate another year of life. Hannah and I had so much fun together. It was the perfect mother/daughter date, and it was something that I think we will always remember. We didn’t do a lot of training, but we did some and we ran the race in 41 minutes. We weren’t the fastest, but we weren’t the slowest either.
Hannah is already insisting that we continue our running through the summer, and I’m so happy that I have such a fun, energetic, and persistent new running partner.
“…no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
I’ll be honest, I am super excited andscared to death at the thought of going on our grand adventure. I keep telling myself there are a million reasons this is a bad idea and we shouldn’t go. “What if the suburban breaks down.” What if it costs more than I thought it was going to ?” What if I can’t back up the trailer?” “What if we have an accident?” “What if I get lost.” “What if this isn’t the best use of our money.” “What if it’s a giant mistake?” “What if……..
But then, there is also a little spark in me that says, “What if?” “What if it does work out?” “What if you do have the time of your lives?” “What if you make memories that will last forever?” “What if it isn’t what you expect it will be, but that’s okay. It will be what it should be?” “What if there are hard things, but you learn from them and you are better for it?” “What if you can dream big and make it come true?” “What if you can do hard things?” “What if you can have an epic adventure.?” I’m trying really hard to listen to that little spark.
Knowing that Tabetha was going away to college at the end of summer and that this would be our last chance to take a family picture before she left, I desperately wanted to get out and get a great family picture. I tried all summer, but with Tabetha and Jarom each holding down summer jobs and Logan playing football it was nearly impossible to get everyone’s schedules to match up to make it happen. The stars eventually aligned in my favor, however, and I was finally able to get everyone together for a few photos the day before Tabetha left for school. Talk about waiting until the last minute.
For the pictures, I set the camera up on a tripod and then set the timer on the camera and ran back and forth from the camera to the family, camera to family. I seriously need to get a remote.
I love how they turned out. The top one is my absolute favorite and I want to print it out really large and hang it in my entry way above my door.
Hey, look me up on Instagram. My user name is KimberlyMLowry. I’ve been posting there a lot more lately. It’s so easy, which is why my blog has been so neglected for a while.
Welcome to my blog. My name's Kimberly. I moved to Alaska from Utah, when I married my wonderful husband, and I've been in Alaska for 14 years now. Little did I know, when I got here, what an eventful life it would be. Surviving the "Last Frontier" while raising and home schooling 7 kids is an everyday adventure.
