I have been thinking so much lately about this:

What is different about how Dave and I parent our younger kids compared to our deliberation with our older kids? Do we really teach our younger kids like we have taught our older kids? Sure, we’re with them more, and there’s not as much hoopla going on (although the last couple weeks I feel like there is…life is speeding up again here in the desert and I want to be so careful about what I let back in!). Do we hone in and teach the whys of life? Do we stop long enough to think about how we’re doing or are we just running to keep up?

In the midst of my pondering, (I’m still doing my morning meditation to help give me time to think, which I am still trying to figure out but I think it’s helping…), I felt this desire for a couple weeks to ride bikes to the temple as a family. Yes, seemingly not related to that above thought, but maybe that nudge was because I want my children to feel the beauty of that place that we may not be sharing with them like we did their older siblings. (We had a little saying with our older kids that “when you allow your children to touch the temple, it will touch them” and we would actually touch the walls of every temple we could…do these last girls even remember that?) Maybe I wanted myself to feel the beauty of that place a little better.

Or maybe I wanted to lasso these two last little girls of mine into an adventure. Because it’s so easy to go into the corners of our own “things” sometimes at home.

I think it was probably all of the above, but I had a pretty persistent little nudging.

I had to pose this idea very carefully, (Saturdays are busy), but somehow I got everyone on board (still somewhat grumpy as we began), but OH I loved that bike ride through that beautiful slanty late-afternoon sun.

To inch a little closer and closer to that place as we rode:

The light was incredible at the temple and I felt so much love for this little family of mine. We had a special prayer for this girl in our ward who is suffering from temporary (hopefully!) paralyzation of her legs (talked about that back HERE).

Got every configuration picture we could, except the whole family, which was silly looking back:

…and then headed on home, filled up with togetherness and temple beauty.

Through the golden hour, our shadows stretching out long and deep.

And followed the full moon home.

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2 Comments

  1. I am feeling this post! My youngest of 4 graduates next month and lately I’ve been thinking about all the things we’ve stopped doing. I think a part of it is feeling like I’ve already done this, gone over this multiple times…he got it too right? ha!
    Such a strange moment in life right now, in which we’re almost empty nesters and yet including boyfriends/girlfriends were often a group of 7 for dinner.:)

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