Our President Kimball Pumpkins

I just haven't been able to get myself to work on posting more about our latest California trip. I think I've been overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all, and all the MANY pictures, so for now I'll just show you this one, and then go on to something else instead. ^o^
Our whole family was there this time. Starting at the left: Helena & her husband Doug, I'm holding their daughter Kate, then Betsey, baby Elizabeth (Dau. of Peter and Karen) is next, then Kirsten, and Barbie. Back row is Jim, Karen, Peter, and Barb's husband Kyle. Helena and Barb are both expecting babies before the end of the year, so we'll soon be 14 in all. (Double click on the picture to enlarge it.)

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On June 12 I mentioned that I planted peas on the 5th of June this year, which was really late. Well that reminded me of another time when we got a garden in really late…

For quite a few years I had a letter route for Visiting Teaching. Every month I tried to include a personal note, or other interesting story that would hopefully be uplifting or inspiring in some way. I think that I originally wrote the following story as a Visiting Teaching message. It was dated October, 1999. It was about a special Family Home Evening activity we had one Monday night when the children were small.

Our President Kimball Pumpkins

Aren't we having a gorgeous autumn? It's so lovely and colorful. This time of year makes me think of another year long ago when we had some unique pumpkins for Halloween.

It happened when Spencer W. Kimball was president of the church. I can't tell you what year it was. I only know that President Kimball had been stressing the importance of growing a garden and we didn't have one. It was the end of June and not only had we not planted anything, but our once-lovely garden spot was a sorry sight. The weeds were so thick that our cat could get lost in them, and many of the weeds were taller than some of our children! It truly was a sad situation.

One night for Family Home Evening we set to work to change things. Our five children and I had great fun tramping down the weeds in the garden and covering them with 4 or 5 layers of newspapers. We held them down with a thick dousing of grass clippings which my husband supplied with the lawn mower. By the time we finished, the garden spot looked great. Not a weed was in sight. What a transformation! I began to think this might work after all.

The next day we scraped aside a small section of grass in the center of the garden, cleared it of weeds, and stuck some pumpkin seeds in the ground. It was July 1st--very late to be planting pumpkins, but we felt that planting something was better than nothing, and that we would be blessed for being obedient.

We watched hopefully, as the weeks went by and little pumpkins began to grow. By the last week in October we had several good-sized ones. The only problem was that they were dark green. Undaunted, we decided to pick them and make jack-o-lanterns anyway. What a surprise when we turned them over and discovered that the part of each pumpkin that was touching the ground was bright orange. When we carved them, they ended up looking like little orange pumpkin faces with lots of green hair! They were the most memorable jack-o-lanterns we ever had, and it happened because we wanted to teach our children that it was important to follow the prophet.

Sometimes we gain rewards in unexpected ways when we do something that's right, even if it seems too late, or otherwise doesn't make sense!

Later that fall I read in the back of the Ensign magazine that they wanted to publish an article about different kinds of Family Home Evenings. They asked for contributions, so I sent them a copy of the above story. I received a call several months later saying that it had been selected. It took about two years and several rewrites, but it was published in December 2001. Originally it was to have appeared in October, but got slipped to December. (9/11 might have had something to do with that.) It was part of an article called Family Home Evening, Any Size, Any Situation.

Following is the article with the picture that was in the Dec. 2001 issue. I was delighted with the picture. I did not send them one, but their artist's rendition was about perfect. It was exactly like the pumpkins looked, and almost how Peter looked at that time! The article itself was changed quite a bit. I knew that they would have to shorten it. The editors, however, didn't even want to include President Kimball's name because they felt there were many new people in the church who didn't know him. I really fought them on that one and they finally at least mentioned him. Something ironic is that one month later the Friend magazine had an article about a family planting a President Kimball Garden. Anyway, if you have a December, 2001 Ensign, our part of the article starts on page 42 and it's called Our Pumpkin Patch. (If you double click on the picture it will enlarge, and you can read most of the article as it appeared in the magazine. The first few words were on the previous page.)

Our Pumpkin Patch

Gardening can be a great unifying activity, as President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) and other Church leaders have taught. One of our favorite family home evenings came from working in our garden together. When we started, we never guessed it would bring us so much laughter and become such a treasured memory. We just knew something had to be done, since most of the weeds in our once-lovely garden spot were taller than some of our children! Pulling those huge weeds was too hard, so Mom, Dad, and all five children stomped them down. Then we covered the garden spot with layers of newspaper held in place with a thick dousing of fresh grass clippings. By the time we finished, the garden spot looked great. Because everyone worked well together, the task was accomplished quickly and we weren’t even very tired.

Though it was late in the season, the next day we scraped aside a small section of newspaper and grass from the center of the garden and poked some pumpkin seeds into the ground. Everyone was curious to know if we would have pumpkins before it became too cold.

We watched as little pumpkins began to grow. By the last week in October, we had several good-sized pumpkins. The only problem was that they were still green. Undaunted, we decided to pick them anyway and carve jack-o-lanterns. What a surprise when we turned them over and discovered that they were bright orange on the other side! When we carved them, they looked like little orange pumpkin faces with lots of green hair! They were the funniest looking jack-o-lanterns we had ever seen. This activity brought us not only a few gardening skills, but family unity and joyous memories as well.—Kathey Ahlstrom, Fairborn Ward, Dayton Ohio East Stake

If you would like to read the whole Family Home Evening article click here . It's pretty neat.