Who would have thought that such a cute little hedgehog could bring so much drama to the Lowry house.
KateLynn got this adorable little hedgehog planter for her birthday in December. She lovingly painted it, glued the bow in place on top of the head (on top for females, under the chin for males), and she carefully planted the seeds in the dirt. Everyday she watched and waited for those precious, little seeds to sprout and grow. Truly, her dedication to her little garden has been inspiring. Every day she would check it’s progress and give me a full report. After weeks of carefully tending to her grass garden, the seeds sprouted and grew.
Seeing that she could successfully grow something in her little hedgehog’s dirt back she decided to branch out and expand her little grass garden by gently planting a bean a midst the thriving grass stems. She informed Mya of the addition to the hedgehog garden, expecting Mya’s joy to be just as full as hers, as Mya had shared in each and every garden joy thus far. Mya, much to Katie’s surprise, however, was mortified that KateLynn had planted a bean. For hours, Mya wailed, cried, and begged KateLynn to remove the bean. Mya knew a bean would mean trouble for the little garden and for her as well. Mya informed us all, that while we were sleeping the bean would sprout, shoot upwards to the sky, and enable giants to climb down into her room at night. And of course, a giant in the house would mean certain destruction.
KateLynn, unconvinced of the beans great potential to introduce a giant into the Lowry home, nonetheless, relented because of all the weeping and wailing on Mya’s part, and “unplanted” the bean, opting instead, to replant the bean in secret, a few days later.
Thanks for joining me as I document 1000 moments that have brought me joy as a wife and mother.
170. I love KateLynn’s art work. She is always at the table creating something. I taught her how to use the hot glue gun a couple of months ago, and that has opened up a whole new world to her, that and googlie eyes.
171. Tabetha helped the little girls make a chain so they could keep track of how many days until KateLynn’s birthday, Tabetha’s birthday, and Christmas day. They take a link off every day and count the ones left over and over and over.
172. Tabetha got her braces off, Yah! 173. And, she let me take her picture, TWICE, in one day!
174. Mya loves to play with our nativity sets. We have 4 different ones and she is always playing with one.
175. Logan showing Camdon the Christmas lights. He sure loves having a little brother.
176. I love this picture of them looking at the lights with their legs under the tree.
Check out this short video of Stephanie Nielson speaking at the Utah first lady’s ball where she shares her love and passion for motherhood. She is such an inspiration to me, because she finds so much joy and satisfaction in being a mother.
I’m back to posting my 1000 moments of joy. 1000 Moments of Joy is a personal project to document 1000 moments in my life that have brought me joy. For me, it’s about taking the time to recognize and acknowledge all the blessings I have in my life and to focus on the joy in my life instead of the negative. I’m so excited to be continuing on. (To see my previous moments click here) Hopefully, I will be posting my weekly moments each Monday. It was fun for me to think over my week about what had brought me joy, and to take the time to write them down. It brought a smile to my face as I thought of each of my children and the cute things they had said and little things they had done for each other. I was watching and noticing, and my heart was taking pictures all week-long even if my camera wasn’t.
I decided to start where I left off on my last blog instead of starting over, so that brings us to:
162. Mya wasn’t feeling well one day and was laying on the couch. KateLynn pulled up a chair next to her, held her hand and sang her a primary song.
163. KateLynn pretending to heat a snuggle buddy up for herself, and then giving it to Hannah as a surprise. (At our house a snuggle buddy is a rice bag that we heat in the microwave and use it to keep us warm at night or to cuddle when we are sick.)
164. Shawn made his super-duper scrambled eggs for us for dinner.
165. Shawn making KateLynn her own over-easy egg for dinner when she said she didn’t like scrambled eggs. (Usually, it’s “you get what you get” at this house.)
166. Seeing how excited the kids are for Christmas, and helping Mya write a letter to Santa.
167. One day last week, I wasn’t feeling well and was laying down. Logan got me a glass of water and a pillow, and offered to get me a blanket, and he came to me several times and asked me if I needed anything else.
168. We were on our way to town on Friday, and I had the radio turned to the 24hr. Christmas music station. We were almost to the store when Hannah said that Mya was crying. I hadn’t heard any arguing or fighting going on, and I couldn’t think of anything that had happened since we had gotten in the car that would hurt her feelings or make her cry. I asked her why she was sad and what was wrong. She said, “I’m not crying because I’m sad. I’m crying because I’m happy Jesus was born.” Oh, Holy Night was playing on the radio and she said that it was such a pretty song it made her cry. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.
I think I’ll start with an update on last week’s storm. In my last post,I mentioned the storm we had been having and how terrible the wind was. That night we had wind gusts up to 55 miles per/hour, that knocked down trees and shut power down to over 13,000 people in the Fairbanks area. (You can read about it here) They ended up closing the schools Wednesday through Friday, because of the icy roads and the widespread loss of power, and we learned today that there are still people in our area without power 4 days later. Thankfully, we never lost power, but it sure makes you evaluate what you would need if the power did go out. Fortunately, we have a wood burning stove and would be able to cook and stay warm. Without electricity our big issue would be water. We have a well that runs on an electric pump. Things to think about.
Yesterday, we resumed our normal activities. Hannah and KateLynn are taking gymnastics this year and really love it. I signed them up for a Saturday class, because I don’t like to be running around during the week too much. We need to be home so we can really focus on school. Well, Friday night they were up late and so they were having a hard time Saturday morning getting going and finding all of their clothes. I was doing carpool duty on my own that morning while Shawn was removing a tree that had fallen on a church member’s house. My duties that day included gymnastics and then Jarom’s hockey game directly after gymnastics. I decided to take the calm approach that morning, figuring that being a few minutes late to gymnastics with calm children and a calm mother was better than being on time with a crazy mother, and grouchy children. Well, I was wrong. I got to gymnastics and found out that if you are more than 10 minutes late to class you can’t participate. You must come back another day and do a makeup class. Well, do you think the kids and I were calm after that. I was annoyed that I had driven all the way into town,on the terrible roads, and would now have to turn around and drive back to town an hour and a half later to take Jarom to his hockey game, because I had nowhere to sit and wait all that time. And, of course, the girls were disappointed and crying that they couldn’t do their class that they had been looking forward to all week.
On a good note, Jarom’s team won their hockey game, and after 5 games are still undefeated. Way to go Jarom!
Saturday night, I took my 3rd trip to town that day and took 7 young men and young women (3 were mine) to hear an apostle of the Lord speak. He gave some wonderful counsel to the youth. I will post more about what he said in an upcoming post.
And now what you have all been waiting for: Pictures of that cute baby! Hannah took these last Sunday while I was eating my Sunday dinner. I thought she did a great job. Maybe I’ll hire her out to take pictures for me. Should I feel good or bad that her pictures are as good as mine?
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.
Who would have thought that such a cute little hedgehog could bring so much drama to the Lowry house.
