Forever Moore
Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Happy Birthday to Me!
Priceless Surprises
After we got home from conference we had two very nice surprises. Kyle and Rylie came over to visit for a couple of hours and I got to snuggle my little angel and have her fall asleep on my chest which is just about my favorite thing, ever! I smooched her to death:). Then, a few days later I got to play with Landon and Chloe because they made a surprise visit to Michelle's family. I was nearly overcome with joy to see half of my grandchildren in the same week! I love these little people so very much. I really wish they lived closer but I love going to visit them and having them visit me. I love my own children so much that it's hard to describe but the love I have for their children is a whole different ballgame:) Ava, Sienna, Talia, Rylie, Landon and Chloe - you are grandma's treasures and I love you with all of my heart:)
General Conference
Twice a year my church holds a general conference that is broadcast out of the conference center in Salt Lake to nearly every country in the world. The leaders of our church give us counsel from the Lord. My brother is the manager of the conference center so he has been getting my family tickets to sit very close to our leaders and we get to hear them and see them right in front of us. I LOVE doing this! The spirit in those meetings is soooo strong and I come away rejuvenated and excited to become a better person. They teach us about being better people, about serving and loving others more than ourselves, about being better spouses and parents and friends and how to better obey God's commandments so we can be happier in this life. I love sitting with my husband and children in that wonderful room. I love a church that is focused on helping us be a happier, more responsible and more useful people. I can't wait until October:)
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Memory Lane
Yesterday I signed my daughter up for her dorm room at BYU. I couldn't believe the rush of memories that came over me as I did this. 38 years ago I did the same thing for myself. She will be living in the same dorms I did. She will be in a different building because they changed things around just a tad in the past 38 years but she will be having the same experiences I did so long ago. That was one of the funnest times of my life and I can't wait for her to make those same memories and many more that will be even better. This definitely softens the blow of her leaving our home. Seeing the pictures of the old rooms on the computer just took me to a different place. She will be in Helaman Halls. How "Mormon" is that? She will eat in the same cafeteria I did (nicely remodeled). She will room with a total stranger who she will grow to love very quickly (I hope) and she will meet tons of boys who believe just how she does and who are looking to get married just like she is. She will go to football games and (hopefully) watch her brother play. She will have the added advantage (HUGE) of being able to meet her brother's friends on the football team and maybe even go out with some of them. That, alone, will make her super popular, ha ha. She actually doesn't really want to be popular at all but I'm sure it will be a little perk. She has so many more advantages than I did and I'm so happy about that. I have a ton of family up there right by the college and she has her brother and his wife right there also. I was the oldest in my family and when I went up there there was no one but me and a million strangers. I missed my younger siblings a lot. I had also left a boyfriend (my husband) at home so I missed him terribly. She is the baby and has no one to miss at home because we will be up there so much she will actually get sick of us. I take a walk every day and I listen to an I "thing" with music on it and the playlist that I randomly picked yesterday had several songs from artists that were just getting popular when I first went to BYU. I was firmly on Memory Lane all day and loved every minute of it.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Home run!
Yesterday I read an article in a magazine called LDS Living that made my heart happy and sad. Happy because these are the very things I have worked on my whole adult life and sad that so many people are struggling with these issues. I was going to make copies and send them to my children but I'm pretty sure that all of my DIL's read this blog so I will just put it out there to all of my LDS friends and anyone else who wants to read it. It is called "Power Parenting in the LDS Home" by Randall A. Wright. He talks about doing a survey of 500 Mormons nationwide and asking them the question, "What mistakes do you feel your parents made when you were growing up in their home?" I was surprised and a little sad that I could have given all 5 of these answers for my home growing up but I was also happy that it proved to me that we don't have to perpetuate what we grew up with. We have the free agency to do things differently than we were taught and make our own decisions separate from our parents. These are the 5 answers given to that question.
#1 Failure to establish a home environment that reflects the gospel.
People said that they were disappointed that their parents lived one life outside of their home and another inside their home. They were sad that there were no pictures of the temple or the Savior in their homes.
We have always tried to be the same people no matter where we are or who we are with and have strongly taught our children this same principle. I came a little later to the pictures of the temple and the Savior all over the house but because of the prompting of my good husband we have them everywhere now.
#2 Failure to be at the crossroads of their children's lives.
They were sad that their parents weren't there when they got home from school or when they came home at night after a date or an evening with friends.
This is a biggy for me. I very strongly believe that "quality time comes with quantity time". We can never anticipate when a special moment will develop between us and our children so we should try to be there as much as possible for them so we won't miss the "quality time". I have tried to be at every game or performance my children have ever participated in and I delight in being there when they get home from school to hear about their day. Because of this they don't mind my "interrogations" of their activities. If we don't know what they are doing how can we guide them through the minefield of life?
#3 Allowing children to associate too closely with friends who do not share their same standards.
They were sad that they got into more trouble than they should have because they got caught up in the wrong crowd.
All of our children have friends that are not of our faith and we love them dearly. We encouraged them to spend time at our house so we could get to know them and they could get to know our standards and beliefs. The author encourages parents to keep their pantry stocked and open and this is something that we found out early in our children's lives. If you feed them, they will come.
#4 Failure to express love and give appropriate physical affection to family members.
All people crave love and affection and if they don't get it at home they will seek for it elsewhere.
This is a perfect example of being able to break out of the mold you were raised in. I came from a home where we had very little physical affection and where "I love you's" were few and far between. We knew our parents loved us but that was not the way they showed it. I needed more of that kind of thing so I started right away hugging and touching my children and telling them, repeatedly, every day,how much I loved them. They grew up with it and are now all very affectionate with each other and with us. Some of the girls they married were not used to that kind of affection but they too are now jumping on the bandwagon and we are, literally, one big happy family.
#5 Allowing children to steady date during the teen years.
Believe it or not, even though kids think they want to do this while they are young, they quickly realize the negative effects when they get just a little bit older. They wish their parents would have helped them through that part of their life just a little more instead of encouraging early relationships and thinking they were "cute".
Physical attraction is very real and not cute at all when it gets out of hand as it will inevitably do if left unchecked. My husband and I were high school sweethearts and we wouldn't wish that on our worst enemies. It was very hard living the standards we were taught when we had adult bodies and adolescent control. We had almost no intervention from our parents so we had to govern ourselves and it wasn't fun at all. We learned from that and did our utmost to help each of our children navigate the waters of high school attractions.
The author finishes the article by encouraging all families to develop a Family Mission Statement. Can you see why I loved this article so much? I could have written it! These are all things I feel very strongly about and hope that all people can trust me when I say that taking care of these things along with a few others like having Family Home Evening every week, reading scriptures and praying every day and attending the temple and church as much as possible will give you a celestial family here on earth. I have one! I know they work! For any new readers who aren't familiar with our family mission statement, I will put it out there again. We have encouraged our children to write their own or to go ahead and use ours as it probably reflects what they believe in since they were raised with it. They all have it memorized and we recite it, together, every single week at Family Home Evening.
Our family mission statement:
\
To follow the teachings of Jesus Christ\
To love and support each other
To have patience and respect for each other
To use our time and talents to bless the lives of others
To use good manners, be good sports and build each other up
To have each one take responsibility for making our house a clean, comfortable and heavenly place for all who enter it
It is our ultimate goal to live together, forever, in the presence of the Lord
Forever Moore
#1 Failure to establish a home environment that reflects the gospel.
People said that they were disappointed that their parents lived one life outside of their home and another inside their home. They were sad that there were no pictures of the temple or the Savior in their homes.
We have always tried to be the same people no matter where we are or who we are with and have strongly taught our children this same principle. I came a little later to the pictures of the temple and the Savior all over the house but because of the prompting of my good husband we have them everywhere now.
#2 Failure to be at the crossroads of their children's lives.
They were sad that their parents weren't there when they got home from school or when they came home at night after a date or an evening with friends.
This is a biggy for me. I very strongly believe that "quality time comes with quantity time". We can never anticipate when a special moment will develop between us and our children so we should try to be there as much as possible for them so we won't miss the "quality time". I have tried to be at every game or performance my children have ever participated in and I delight in being there when they get home from school to hear about their day. Because of this they don't mind my "interrogations" of their activities. If we don't know what they are doing how can we guide them through the minefield of life?
#3 Allowing children to associate too closely with friends who do not share their same standards.
They were sad that they got into more trouble than they should have because they got caught up in the wrong crowd.
All of our children have friends that are not of our faith and we love them dearly. We encouraged them to spend time at our house so we could get to know them and they could get to know our standards and beliefs. The author encourages parents to keep their pantry stocked and open and this is something that we found out early in our children's lives. If you feed them, they will come.
#4 Failure to express love and give appropriate physical affection to family members.
All people crave love and affection and if they don't get it at home they will seek for it elsewhere.
This is a perfect example of being able to break out of the mold you were raised in. I came from a home where we had very little physical affection and where "I love you's" were few and far between. We knew our parents loved us but that was not the way they showed it. I needed more of that kind of thing so I started right away hugging and touching my children and telling them, repeatedly, every day,how much I loved them. They grew up with it and are now all very affectionate with each other and with us. Some of the girls they married were not used to that kind of affection but they too are now jumping on the bandwagon and we are, literally, one big happy family.
#5 Allowing children to steady date during the teen years.
Believe it or not, even though kids think they want to do this while they are young, they quickly realize the negative effects when they get just a little bit older. They wish their parents would have helped them through that part of their life just a little more instead of encouraging early relationships and thinking they were "cute".
Physical attraction is very real and not cute at all when it gets out of hand as it will inevitably do if left unchecked. My husband and I were high school sweethearts and we wouldn't wish that on our worst enemies. It was very hard living the standards we were taught when we had adult bodies and adolescent control. We had almost no intervention from our parents so we had to govern ourselves and it wasn't fun at all. We learned from that and did our utmost to help each of our children navigate the waters of high school attractions.
The author finishes the article by encouraging all families to develop a Family Mission Statement. Can you see why I loved this article so much? I could have written it! These are all things I feel very strongly about and hope that all people can trust me when I say that taking care of these things along with a few others like having Family Home Evening every week, reading scriptures and praying every day and attending the temple and church as much as possible will give you a celestial family here on earth. I have one! I know they work! For any new readers who aren't familiar with our family mission statement, I will put it out there again. We have encouraged our children to write their own or to go ahead and use ours as it probably reflects what they believe in since they were raised with it. They all have it memorized and we recite it, together, every single week at Family Home Evening.
Our family mission statement:
\
To follow the teachings of Jesus Christ\
To love and support each other
To have patience and respect for each other
To use our time and talents to bless the lives of others
To use good manners, be good sports and build each other up
To have each one take responsibility for making our house a clean, comfortable and heavenly place for all who enter it
It is our ultimate goal to live together, forever, in the presence of the Lord
Forever Moore
So Bummed
This last week's episodes of some of the shows I watch on T.V. crossed over some lines and I am so bummed. I hate it when the T.V. industry ruins perfectly fascinating storylines and scenery with garbage. I love the premise of "Reign" because I absolutely love that era in time and the sets and costumes are absolutely breathtaking for me. Also, the historical aspect is fascinating but even though some of the things they are introducing probably really did happen in those days, I don't need to see them in graphic detail on my T.V. screen. I have a brain. I can figure out what they are inferring without it being splattered all over in living color. I'm sad because my family has shrunken down to two kids who are very involved in their own lives so that I have a lot of time on my hands and, at night, T.V. is a really fun outlet but now my favorite shows are going down the toilet so I am left searching for new avenues of entertainment. I read lots of books during the day and work out and clean house and do errands and service so I am only looking for T.V. shows at night. I hate that the adversary seems to be winning.
Friday, March 21, 2014
Not a Fan:(
It seems like the new trend these days is to undermine true love. I'm not a fan. It kind of started with the Twilight series. Jacob butted in and made things complicated. Now, it seems like all of the shows I like are following suit. Elena can't decide between her true love, Stefan, and his evil brother, Damon on Vampire Diaries. Arrow is playing around with sisters and that really fries my fanny. Queen Mary keeps letting Bash get in the way of her love for Francis on Reign and don't even get me started about Ragnar's betrayal of his feisty soul mate with that gorgeous princess on Vikings. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily believe that in real life there is only one person that any other person can love because I know of people who have remarried and are blissfully happy with someone other than their first choice. I'm just saying that I don't like it happening AT THE SAME TIME! I like my entertainment spicy and interesting but I like knowing that, in the end, true love will prevail and these shows are messing with that! There are some things that are just sacred and true love in entertainment is one of them. "AS ...YOU ...WISH......".
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