Ode to the Mother's in my life

What else could I be talking about today besides Mothers? But I have had more than my fair share of amazing Mothers in my life. My own Mom (of course), Grandmas, aunts, sisters, and Sister-in-laws: Here's to all of you!

My Mom and Dad playing around with us on Long Beach WA

Ward Christmas party 2014; it was 'whoville" themed so I couldn't resist the urge to wear a bow tie, cause "bow ties are cool"

My Mom staying up late with a naughty Tiegan. Bragging time! Whenever we are together, my Mom always volunteers to stay up late with my kids when I need it, takes them in the mornings so I can sleep in, and more often than not, if my kids are being fussy in the night, she is right there to do what she can to help. My Mom is awesome!

Who doesn't love this amazing woman known to me as Grandma, She is down right amazing!

My Mom has an adventurous spirit and joined us for the "ash kicker 5k" spring 2014

And I can't forget Daniel's Mom, Carmen. We love her sooo much! We never get to spend enough time with her and she has always, ALWAYS been so good to us!

Again, I love my Grandma sooooooo much! She is such an inspiration! I love you Grandma! Grandma gave me and Daniel the loan we needed to buy our first car. We were poorer than dirt and paying out thousands of dollars for our schooling, so she gave us the deal of the century and we were able to get a car that took us from WA to KS and then some! Thank you Grandma!

Aunt Hez, Aunt Danny and Grandma. Wow! Such beautiful women and I have been blessed enough to have these Pillars of faith be there throughout my childhood! Aunt Danny has always had something warm and home made ready for me to eat, whether it  was after traipsing through the woods or traveling all day, she has always welcomed me in with a hug and a hot meal, I love you Aunt Danny! Aunt Heather always has something she is doing for others- ALWAYS. Cutting wood for someone so they can be warm for the winter, taking in someone else's kid so they can have a place to stay, or wrapping gifts for my Mom cause that's where my Dad has me send all of her gifts ;) Aunt Heather is a true testimony for me about serving others- I love you Aunt Hez!

Here are three Bowman women near and dear to my heart; Aunt Lula, Grandma Bowman, and Carmen. Daniel and I have always been welcomed in by these women, even at obscenely early hours, Thank you guys, I love you so much!

Aunt Hez building a bridge for Grandma. What you don't see in the picture is that nearly everyone else quit working already and where playing games.

Here's Aunt Tammy (lower left corner) another stalwart woman of faith that has always been there

Sister-in-law Kathleen (red shirt) Her attention to her children puts mine to shame; She is constantly giving something up for the sake of her children, I love you Kathleen!

here's another picture of Grandma Bowman with one of the sets of great grandchildren. Wilma has always kept her home open to us, We love spending time with her and never get enough of it, I love you Wilma!

More of my Mom and her adventurous spirit; Snowmobiling with my Dad- I love you Mom!

Carmen always makes grandkid time a priority. This is Carmen and Jada playing instruments at the kids science center in Topeka. Ok, more bragging: When Jada was a newborn, she was a beastly little thing with a horrendous scream for a cry. Carmen would take Jada and play a variety of instruments, entertaining her long enough for me to take a nice shower and maybe take a nap! Thank you Carmen- I love you!

Daniel, James, Jada, and Jessica; Jessica is so good about getting at Jada and Tiegan's level to play with them and she takes interest in what they're saying. Not to mention she can handle James and Daniel at their goofiest ;) I love you Jessica

Here's another of Aunt Tammy; My girls love to spend time at Aunt Tammy's playing with Emily and seeing the cows and chickens. This picture is from New Year's Day 2015. Daniel and Uncle Kelly share a birthday and this was the activity they decided they wanted to do. My ice skating skills are pathetic to while I was trying to keep my feet underneath me, Tammy took over teaching Jada how to ice skate (she did better than me) and that has definitely become a high-light in Jada's life-thanks Aunt Tammy, I love you!

Here's my Mom enjoying an aquarium with Jada, my kids love their Grandma to bits!

And my last picture of the evening is of my Sister, Chelsea making sure that my children don't kill themselves in the hot tub, while I sat high and dry on the deck, refusing to get in ;) Chelsea has always been so great with any kids but especially mine, they love their Aunt Chelsea B. I love you Chels!

There are so many more of you that I need to mention, but can't find the pictures of you right now (they are lost somewhere on my computer- I suspect Gabe is the one that hid them) But here's a quick shout out to you all and I promise I'll find those pics and give you the credit you deserve! Aunt Kass, I never get to see you enough! Remember the time I got to go to school with you? I loved it! I felt so grown-up as a 4th graded :) Aunt Colleen, you are such a pillar of faith and I doubt I've ever told you what an example are to me! Aunt Moneta, you are always so happy and have let Daniel and I pop in to see you when ever we are in AZ, which is not often enough. I'm always so impressed at the loving relationship you have with your daughters and daughter-in-laws! Aunt Julie, your tea parties are some of the highlights of my childhood! I am a first-hand witness of all the hard work you put into each and every one of those parties! Aunt Jill, my closest neighbor all of my childhood, you were also my YW leader and I treasure the one-on-one talks that we got to have, and the time you caught all of us younger girl cousin's skinny dipping in your pool, well thanks for handling that so well ;) hahaha good times! Aunt Merline, you are always busy doing something, like feeding the ENTIRE Lanier Family! But instead of choosing something easy like hot dogs, you made a family favorite- Navajo Tacos! I think everybody can agree those are way better than hot dogs! Lynnette Bowman- from the first time we met, you and I have always been able to get right into conversations about... what ever! You are so good about keeping us up to date on the going-ons in your family. Sabrina Bowman, thank you for housing Daniel and I on our very, very long road trips from KS to WA and visa-versa. And of course my sister Jaci- for 6+ years you have been my go to babysitter and my girls LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!

And of course to all the cousins, and cousins, and MORE COUSINS! Wow there are so many of you! Your faith, your trials and your stories of motherhood keep me sane :) Thank you! I love you guys!

And to all my Friends out there! Keep sharing your stories, they too keep me sane :) You are all such examples to me, from those of you who home school to those of you work/ go to school while still playing the roll of 'mommy'- wow ladies! To those of you who take your kids hiking, biking, road tripping, to those of you who craft, and read, a (my personal favorite) nerd out with your kids, Thank you. all. I love you guys!

Scripture thought

Hello Folks! Long time no write- again. Good heavens I am bad at this blogging/journal stuff. Any way, on to today's post:

Do you ever read something and the whole time you're just like "wow! oooooo! uh-huh!" that was me this morning. Let me go back a bit.

I have been trying really, REALLY hard to revamp my personal scripture study. Emphasis on the study part. Casually reading a scripture here and there is what I've always considered my "personal scripture study", but I'm finding out it's not what I need. What I feel the need for is more in depth, eye-opening and heart rendering scripture study. My last 7 callings have all been Primary callings, but don't get me wrong, I enjoy it all and I'm now getting the hang of teaching Primary, it's taken 7 years though ;) So while I'm really beginning to hit my stride in Primary teaching styles, I lack the adult level discussions on gospel topics. Ergo the "in depth, eye-opening and heart rendering scripture study". So I'm posting this to help deepen that depth, Make sense?

Ok, back to the present. Today I was reading Luke 12. let me just say "WOW!" Lots of purple (today's marker color of choice)

As a reminder, in Luke 12, Christ is on a roll with his teaching, which also means he is making no efforts to hide His disgust with the presiding authorities of the time. So He begins by saying "Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." Ouch. Way to sugar coat it, right? Ok let's focus on the  word "leaven" the reference at the bottom of page in the LDS King James version tells us to go to the topical guide, but I gotta admit, I usually find the TG a bit overwhelming, On to the Bible dictionary! "Anything in cooking that produces fermentation...(pg 723)" alright, pretty well known, but look at the bottom of the paragraph, we are referred to Matt 13:33 where a leaven is compared to "the inward growth and influence of the church upon the earth." So basically, Christ is calling the Pharisees a terrible influence over the people of God. He then tells His disciples that anything done in secret will be known to all. Does that frighten anyone else? Not just the good things we do in secret, but EVERYTHING!

I'm going to skip my next several marks and go to verses 29-32 and paraphrase "Neither be ye doubtful of mind...your Father knoweth ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the things of the kingdom of God; and all these shall be added unto you... it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This fits so well with what's going on in our lives right now it's astounding! We are house hunting and it's so hard! How do you find that one house that meets all of your "needs"?! Size, Location to school and work, plus get it all on budget? What if you get stuck with a house that will be a money pit? How on earth are you suppose to know how you and your family AND guest will function in said house?! But these scripture say clear as day "your Father knoweth ye have need of these things" phew... what a relief, right? My Heavenly Father knows exactly what I need, even if when I try to explain what my "needs" are I find myself babbling like an idiot. But that's not the only info Christ gives in these scriptures, we are told exactly what we need to do, "seek ye the Kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." This fits so well into the FHE (family home evening) lesson I've been trying to get across to my children (and myself) to put God first and then all the little things in life will fit in so well.

We colored rice and put spoonfuls into a jar as we named all the good things in life we like to do (go to the beach, visit grandparents, play games with daddy, eat ice cream- you get the idea) then I had rocks I labeled with gospel principles (pray, read scriptures, go to church etc.- Primary answers) that we tried to fit in after we did our "rice activities". But we showed the girls that if we do all the "rice activities" the big "rocks of the Gospel" don't fit in the jar. Then we reversed it, "rocks of the gospel" then "rice activities" and found out when we put the gospel first, everything fits. So Luke 12:31 just reemphasized this for me.

Are you with me still? Ok, onto verse 34: "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Self explanatory, right? Hahaha is anyone else thinking this would be the cutest quote to hang in a pirate themed room?! Yup, I want one. Ok, treasure, the Lord, my Savior, my family, but then I have to ask myself, is there anything that I treasure that is less than stellar? hmmm.....

Ok, verse 37: "blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find WATCHING...." Do any of  you remember a time when your Mom or Dad give you a task to complete before they return and you decided to put it off until the last second? Only for them to come back sooner than expected and you're just lounging about? And of course you get busted for being a lazy-good-for-nothing-twit. Yeah, we shouldn't do that with the Lord. It WILL NOT work out as well as it did with your parents....

Verse 40: "Be ye therefore ready also: for the son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." So remember your parents coming home before you're done with your job(s)? Again, you shouldn't do that with the Lord... which leads into the next verse; 43 "Blessed is the servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so DOING". see the difference between 37 and 43? Ok, now imagine you're a parent (a real stretch for some of you I know) and you come home after whatever event and you had given chore assignments out to your children. the first thing you see is the little ones in the window watching and waiting for your return (heart melting, right?) then you walk in to see the older children still working hard to complete their given task. (more heart melting feelings) What a difference it would be to come home and see nothings been done and every one's being lazy?! See the relation between the scriptures and our lives?

And the last one I'll cover today (I promise) verse 48: "For unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required." So let me leave these thoughts: Yes, count your blessing, they are many! For the Lord is great and "it is [His] good pleasure to give you His kingdom (Luke 12:32)" But remember you are not done after you receive the blessings. Blessings are a tool given to you so that you can better serve in the kingdom of God.