What Matters Most

Recently I visited my son and his family in northern California and happened to be there on Family Night.  I was pleasantly (O.K. immensely) surprised and pleased to see that they have patterned their format after our family.  What brought me to instant tears though was when they all started reciting our family mission statement, even my 5 year old granddaughter!  The joy I felt just burst within me to know that what we cherished and taught our children will be carried down to the next generation. We have always offered our mission statement to anyone who wanted to use it because even though it is specific to our family, our family is pretty universal so it could fit anybody's family.  When they adopted it word for word it just made my heart sing.  At least one other son and his wife use this same mission statement and it makes me very happy but hearing the next generation say it, almost by heart, just did something to me.  Then, just the other day we were Facetiming another son and his family and his son started singing the songs from his Primary program and the words really hit me, "Gethsemane, Jesus loves me so He went willingly to Gethsemane".  What powerful words for a 4 year old child to know and sing!  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the most important thing in my life and I am confident that my children and their wonderful wives feel the same way and are passing it down through the generations.  Nothing brings me greater joy!  Forever Moore

Holiday Decorations?

Is there an actual date written down anywhere that specifies when it is socially permissible to put up your holiday decorations?  I think not.  And if there is then I take great joy in completely ignoring whatever date that is.  Some families are just not that into decorations and will put up a Christmas tree on Christmas Eve and take it down on December 26th and call it good.  They may also skip "Fall" and "Easter" or spring decorations altogether.  Completely their prerogative.  Nobody should let anyone tell them when they can decorate their houses for the holidays.  My family LOVES holiday decorations so we decided to put them up when we feel like it, which is much earlier than anyone we know.  I have taken quite a bit of ribbing for having my fall decorations up right on September 1st, which actually, where I live, starts our summer and we have the hottest time of the year.  Fall leaves and pumpkins in 100 degree weather?  What's wrong with that?  And I have taken even more jabs about starting my Christmas decorations the day after Halloween.  Yes, Halloween, not Thanksgiving, Halloween.  The past few years we have been fully decorated for Christmas long before Thanksgiving and the only thing that looks like Thanksgiving is the kitchen table decorations which come right off directly after dinner.  Christmas can never be too long in our house.  Also, I tend to slightly overdo the Christmas decorations so it takes a fair (ridiculous) amount of time to put them up so I don't really want to just turn around and take them down again.  If people want to scoff at seeing my house fully Christmastized by the first week in November, let 'em!  We will snuggle up in front of our tree and enjoy our lights for weeks and weeks if we want to.  We do live in America, after all.  FREEDOM of choice! So, friends, don't get bullied into decorating when everyone else does.  You just go ahead and do it whenever your little heart desires.  You have my permission and if anyone gives you grief just send them to me because I can just about guarantee that I am bigger than them, whoever they are.  You're welcome and Merry Christmas:)

Calling All Moore Girls

I know I am a little biased but I have the cutest DIL's around.  All of my sons married beautiful girls.  Not only are they very sweet but they are actually beautiful!  They also have a very cute blog that is being woefully underused.  I know that all of these girls are smart, creative and hilarious and I want to see more posts of all kinds on their blog.  They have some recipes up that I have used and loved but I know they have stories and crafts and experiences that they can share that would benefit and entertain many.  Come on, girls!  Write those posts!  I don't know how to paste stuff so I'll just type the name of their blog.  It's addalittlemoore.blogspot.com. 

Rising From the Ashes

O.K.  That title is a little dramatic but that's exactly what it feels like.  My world, as I've known and loved it for the past 32 years, has burned down and now I need to start rebuilding a new world.  It took me a long time to write this but I feel like if I get it down on paper(?) I might feel better.  A few weeks ago my youngest child went off to college and my job ended.  I had hoped, prayed, wished, trained and anticipated this job for my whole life.  When I got it I enjoyed it far more than I could have ever anticipated.  As a matter of fact, I am now wondering if it's possible to love something too much since retiring from this job has caused me more pain than I could have ever imagined.  Once my daughter was gone it slapped me right in the face how much of my life revolved around training, teaching and loving my children.  I have never worked outside of the home since having my children and have never had a desire to and still don't.  I  spent the time when they were in school volunteering at their schools and in the community and serving in my church.  Now that no one is coming in the door at 3:00 every day to tell me about their day, I realize how long the days are and now my nights run into days and my weekdays into weekends and nothing distinguishes anything from anything else.  My schedule used to include housecleaning (no one here to dirty it now), grocery shopping (used to be a part time job but now no one to eat the food), sporting events (we drive or fly to Utah for every BYU home football game) but used to be up to 10 games a week.  I used to love to make or buy things for my house but now no one sees them so why bother?  So many things have changed since that last child left.  I spent the first few weeks crying every day and wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life.  My best friend and I used to dream about all the fun things we could do after our children were gone like work in the temple, travel, talk, talk and talk some more but she graduated early and moved on to much bigger and better things and I miss her all the time.  Luckily I have my wonderful husband to spend time with and I enjoy that but he doesn't quite understand my situation since his hasn't really changed that much.  He still has his job and church calling and his days are pretty much the same as they were before even though I know he misses the kids a lot too.  I am super proud of the job we've done with our children and very happy that they get to now know the joy and love of raising their own families.  I wouldn't take that from them for the world.  I'm just jealous and sad that I am done and don't get to keep doing the greatest "job" in the world.  There are so many things I can fill my life with like more temple work, more callings, more service, more education and I will eventually start doing those things but right now I am trying to ease out of the mourning period that was incredibly painful.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel and I can see it, faintly.  I'm eternally grateful that I got to have the opportunity to make so many memories with and be sealed for time and all eternity to Pat, Brandon, Kyle, Tanner, Logan, Jensen, Hunter and Savannah.  We are Forever Moore.