Family Home Evening
Each Monday, my parents and little (not so little anymore) brother and grandparents get together to have Family Home Evening together. The first Monday we were there we were fortunate to get to join in the fun! My Grandma Joyce prepared a true/false game and we had scripture references that helped us decide the answer! Abby really got into it! She listened so intently and tried to answer almost every question! It really helped to look deeper into some things that I hadn't thought about for a while. I think it brought in some great conversations about church doctrine!
I think I most enjoyed it though because we got to spend time with my Grandparents and Parents! A few years ago, although it seems like yesterday, my Grandpa had a stroke. He actually came out of it fairly well, but as time goes by, I can see his physical body ailing. He isn't the same anymore. He sleeps a lot now and is very soft spoken. I think Grandpa has always had a more gentle voice, but he is now very soft spoken when he speaks. Aging is such a difficult concept for me to accept. To me, my Grandparents will always be young and full of energy. As much as I can see the physical changes happening, I guess I don't like to admit that at some point they will leave us to rejoin our Heavenly Father. I was beyond blessed to grow up having both sets of Grandparents right there. In my younger years I was just a bike ride down the dirt road, a left turn and a little more ways up the "paved" road to Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Bill! When we moved into town, we were only four blocks away from Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Don. I never knew what it was like taking family vacations to see them because I was so blessed to have them right there all the time.
I had many, many sleepovers with Grandma Joyce and Grandpa Bill! When I was little I hit my nose really hard singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes during primary and snored really loud after that. My Grandpa Bill also snored, so often Grandma would go sleep in another room to escape the snoring duo!! We were a pretty great snoring duet! My Grandma taught my sister and I to sew (although I now wish I would have continued learning...I enjoy it a lot more now) and I remember Jeopardy showing on the T.V. all the time! I'll be honest, I didn't really like the show as a child but I don't mind it as much now as an adult. It brings back fun memories of sewing with my Grandma!
I have so many fond memories of time with them. My siblings and I loved playing in the ditches by their yard and we played in the yard when they would flood it! We learned to ride without training wheels on a black bike they owned. It had a black banana seat and I think my Grandma could have worn the soles of her shoes out grabbing the back of the bike and going up and down the paved road as we learned to ride! They had a tree in their front yard that we loved to climb and did on many occasions playing hide and seek.
One of my favorite things though was every summer picking strawberries, raspberries and snapping peas! They had rows of strawberries and raspberries and we loved taking our buckets and picking them! They had enough that we made it back with plenty in the buckets and plenty in our bellies! My Grandma would pick peas and we would come over and help her snap them. We sat there by here or at the counter as she did other things in the kitchen and we had one bucket full of peas and the other that we put the snapped peas into. I will never forget it!
They almost always came to my clogging performances! I had the biggest support system of my amazing parents and grandparents growing up. My Grandma is an amazing quilter...not an exaggeration. She and her sister JoAnn can quilt like nobodies business. Anyways, when we would do fundraisers for traveling to Disneyland and other places, she would donate a quilt to auction off! I remember sitting in grocery stores with the quilt behind me selling raffle tickets. People were so amazed! It was my best fundraiser. I felt so proud telling people that MY Grandma made it!
A fun tradition that has carried on to my children is their bubble gum machine! They have had that since I was itty bitty. They have a peanut container filled with pennies. When we would go there to play (which was a lot when we were little) we would run and grab a penny to get a piece of gum. My children now can't wait to go visit so they can get a penny to go get gum!
So many special memories! There are so many more I could add to this...another time I will. For now, a great FHE can be added to the memories bank!
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