Family is where life begins and love never ends.
I love this quote! As I have gotten older, I have come to realize just how true this really is. While I know it may not ring true for many families due to the circumstances many have had to face, it does ring true for mine. It is a shame that it took me 19 years into having a family to figure it out. When we first started out as a family , we were highly engaged in their lives. We made time to connect with our young children. We took trips, attended plays, played games, etc… I think this was mostly because of their age and ours. We were young and they were young. We had so much energy and not alot of commitments. Life was just different and much simpler!
When my oldest graduated from high school and went off to college, I quickly realized just how much I had not done with him or my younger babies. Life had taken a different turn for my family. We had undergone many changes and money was just entirely too tight. Somewhere along the line we became consumed by our careers. Family was important, but not near as important as it should have been. After all, it was our income that was helping us to keep this family together. We were working to keep a roof over our heads and pay the bills. At some point there was just not enough money to do “extra” things and social media really did not exist. If Pinterest and blogging had been around (or my awareness of such), things probably would have been somewhat different. I would have learned that it does not take money to create memories with my family. It simply takes time and effort. I had been so focused on earning an income and making sure that I provided for them that I lost sight of what was really important in life.
Today there are many ways to create those moments with family that will live on for a lifetime. Those genuine moments where laughter and love are found in abundance. I love that the UP network can bring that into your living rooms. They believe that quality entertainment with authentic uplifting stories about family will have a positive impact on people’s hearts and change our world. At UP their mantra is “we get family”. From your crazy uncle to your neighbor that you love like a sister, they get the unique stories; the strengths and the silliness, the tears and triumphs, the laughter and the hard won lessons of family. Celebrate with UP for what makes each story unique and the shared experiences that bring us all together.
As TV’s trusted home for families that is targeting adults, UP promises to tell their stories in a way that is relatable, genuine, positive, but most of all fun and entertaining. One of their most popular original shows is on now and celebrating their 4th season. Bringing Up Bates is a family docu-series that follows the lives of Gil and Kelly Jo Bates, proud parents of 19 children and a growing number of grandchildren. In the new season, change is in the air as a lot of the kids are beginning to forge their own paths outside of the family. From new loves, to new careers and new babies, the Bates are experiencing both the highs and lows of life. While the Bates’ memories have been filmed by a camera crew, they still focus on making each moment with one another count. The Bates family has captured marriage, birth and all the precious quiet family moments of family while letting us all share in the fun. Tune in to meet the whole family each Thursday evening at 9pm EST on UPTv! If you are unsure what channel UP is for your area, click here.
So my question to you is
How do you capture memories?
I have discovered for my family that social media and blogging are ways for me to capture our memories so that they may be shared with the generations to come. I think I started off where most do-scrapbooking. How many of you have done scrapbooking or are still scrapbooking? I found that this was a fun way to capture those moments I was so diligent about photographing. The problem was I did not have enough funds to really scrapbook the way I had wanted to. t hose scrapbooking magazines and scrapbooking gurus really put me to shame! Nevertheless, I did what I could with what I had.
As my life got busier and busier, scrapbooking was put off. I had quite the collection of stickers and cutesy paper, but just did not have the time to sit and scrapbook. We had another child, and well, taking pictures was not as important as it once was. We were busy running from soccer practice to graduate courses at the local university. Of course we were there for the events, we were just so busy that we forgot the camera!
Yearly letters with our Christmas card became the next step in my “moment preserving.” I would sit for hours and pen beautiful letters with pictures to showcase what our family had gone through for a year. It was a sweet reminder of what had passed and what was to come. I had even created a special folder on my computer desktop to preserve these keepsakes, and then came the crash! Computers that failed and viruses that appeared out of nowhere! All those memories lost! Well, not exactly, thankfully I still had paper copies.
Then I was introduced to blogging and scanning pictures. What a novel idea! Now I had the ability to preserve memories like never before. The trick was to remember the camera! I created a blog page just for my family where I literally scanned every single photo I had and journaled about our lives. As a teacher, I was so thankful for the breaks from school and summer. This is when I could dedicate time to this enormous task. My kids were older and had lives of their own. Now it was time to play catch up. Then came the invention of the smart phone! Oh boy! This was just what I needed to document our lives, and if you ever take a look at my personal social media accounts, you will know it is testament to our lives.
Life will always catch up with you though! Before I knew it I had one in college! This is when it really hit me. Once they leave the nest, there is no going back. I realized at that moment that I had been too consumed with life and trying to capture things that I lost out on just plan “being” with my family. Just like in the first episode of Bringing Up Bates 4th season, I realized that families are there for one another. Yes, it is okay to chase after our dreams. but you have to stop to enjoy what you have before you-your family. There will come a day when people will be gone and all you are left with are memories. What memories do I want them to be left with?
I got myself ready for the new season of Bringing Up Bates, I binged and watched the prior episodes. The Bates have such a great collection of moments that count.
Michaella says “Yes” to the Dress!
Welcome to the World – Baby Carson is born
Surprise Gil! – The family throws Gil a 50th Birthday Party
After being reminded of their love for one another and those moments, I have decided that it is about the moments and the legacy that we/they will leave behind.
I want to challenge you to make the best of everyday in your life. To be thankful for the family that you have been blessed with. Do not take a day for granted, because none of us are guaranteed tomorrow. There are many ways that moments in your life can be captured, just remember to take time to ENJOY those moments. Do not let it be about the camera or the pose, let it be about the experience. It will be perfectly fine if Johnny decides to make rabbit ears behind his sister’s back. You are capturing the true spirit of someone. Laughing and accepting that is more important!
Family is where life begins and love never ends! Celebrate your family by creating memories that will last a lifetime! Check out how Bringing Up Bates makes every moment count on UPtv Thursday at 9 PM ET
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post; however, all opinions presented are 100% mine.
