Recap: Nashville Son

The family is getting ready to plant a garden. Kelly and Gil are excited to be planting healthy garden. Gil and Kelly work on where they were going to put the garden. Gil thinks that their valley would be the best place due to where the water rolls down the hill. Kelly reminds her husband that the water comes from the sky and lands everywhere.
Kelly and her supporters to give in to the good attitude and asked Gil to build the playground for the little kids. Kelly reveals that when there is a difference of opinion that the family tries to stop and give the opinion. Kelly feels that there was some hard feelings about the garden. Gil gets ready to plow the land and prepare for the garden when Chad shows up to help the family.
Meanwhile, Lawson heads to Nashville to record a new song that was recently released. Lawson reveals that he took up a hobby a few years ago.  Lawson reveals that some of his songs were about his experience growing up and others.  Lawson reveals that he is nervous about the new song but he has a full time job as landscaping business but he is focusing on his music.
When he first gets to Nashville, Lawson meets with Joyce Martin for practice vocal training. Lawson heads to record his song with Ricky Skaggs. His new song is called problems and is song with Rachel Leftwhich which is Rick's niece.
Lawson heads over to talk to the president of Daywind Records Ed Leonards. After he is done with recording and the meetings, Lawson heads to the house.
Kelly reveals that she and Gil had no musical background and can't read a note. They wanted to have their children to learn music and so they can used it for a ministry.
Lawson, Nathan and Trace are asked who they think will be the next one to be married. Nathan thinks that it will be Lawson or Tori. Lawson adds that the girls like to jump early at leaving the house.
Kelly reveals that courtship is the biggest topic in the family since the kids like tease each other about their future husband or wives.
Lawson reveals that his parents are forcing the kids to get into courtship before they get married or the other way around. They pretty much tell their children to make their own choice and have promise to support, encourage and advise them.

Kelly's blog: How Does Your Garden Grow?

Every project is a BIG project in our house! Cooking meals, doing laundry, planning the schedule, and yes, even planting a garden can seem enormously overwhelming when you’ve got so many opinions weighing in! Who knew that planting a garden with the kids would create such strong feelings? I think somewhere along the way, they forgot the garden is going to produce vegetables and not skittles or chocolate covered candies! Gil reminded us all when he said, “This is a lot of work for food I’m not even sure I like!” We encourage healthy competition, but there’s no room for sore losers in the Bates household! In this particular instance, the kids needed to be reminded that a few moments ago, no one really cared about planting the garden, let alone where it should go! Well, just as any mom would, I stepped in and turned this moment of temporary tension into a learning experience for our family. No one likes to lose; we all love winning, but sometimes we have to ask ourselves at what cost? Have we turned a molehill into a mountain just for the sake of “winning” or getting our own way? We have to remember, that as a family, we’re on the same team and sometimes that means we give up our individual desires for the betterment of the team. When one of us is down, we’re all down! The point is, we should always (and only) be planting seeds of peace, love, joy, and kindness. Gil and I get asked a lot to give tips on parenting, and that’s hard to do, but the best advice we can give about making decisions in any size family is to make sure everyone feels seen, heard, valued and of course, loved. So it was, that I had to concede on where we planted our little garden! As I told my son Warden, “We’ll be the givers this time and maybe next time, we’ll be the takers.” All for the sake of the team…go Team Bates!

Love, Kelly Jo

Zach's blog: All grown up

Growing up, we had a lot of family rules. One of those rules was to behave mannerly in public places, so to help us, my parents coined the term “Train-up” taken from the Proverb “Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart.” When we heard, “Train up,” we knew it meant to line up quietly and orderly. As a new dad, I know that my son Bradley may not always understand the rules Whitney and I establish for him, and I know he’s going to make the occasional mistake, just as I did. My hope though, is that one day Bradley will know that we gave him rules because we loved him and wanted to save him from as much suffering as we possible could, just as my parents did for me and still do for my brothers and sisters. I can look back and see the wisdom of those rules and can be thankful for them in an even greater way now that I am a dad. So far, being a parent has been the most wonderful thing I’ve ever experienced and it has made me appreciate my parents all the more. Dad and Mom, thank you for always loving me, and now for loving Whitney and Bradley so wholeheartedly!

Everyday Life

I had some requests for random shots of our everyday life, so I’ll try to include some in the next few posts. Chad and Erin usually come over to help give haircuts, which is a HUGE help! Here’s some photos of two of those visits!