October 4, 2017

I woke up multiple times in the night thinking about the Allreds.  Last night Joni mentioned that they were taking a family day today.  They were hoping to go to the zoo.  My heart just ached for them.  And over and over I had the thought to send some money to Joni for the zoo.  I can only imagine the financial burden that will fall on their family in the coming days and months.  So as soon as I figured it was reasonable to send a text, I sent one to Joni.  I told her to let her kids pick out a fun souvenir at the zoo.  I told her to go out to a fun dinner.  I told her to have a beautiful, wonderful day, and to not worry one bit about the cost.

I was so happy when they reported later that that's exactly what they did.  Joni said that the weather was so beautiful.  The leaves are changing and they just wandered around the zoo, holding hands and enjoying being a family.  My heart just swells with love for them.

I took my little boys on a little outing to get things around our house ready for October.  We bought flowers and pumpkins and had our own beautiful day.  Owen insisted that we make our house super spooky!  I was going for a warm and cozy fall feel.  Let's just say we compromised.  :)  I bought the small version of the life-sized skeleton he wanted.  Ha!

My awesome helpers!

We had so much fun picking out all of our pumpkins!!

My two kids... ;)

For cub scouts, Austin took a trip to the temple.  I had to laugh when his leader sent this picture out to all the parents.  Yep, that's my Austin in the middle.  He's an awesome kiddo.  He had lots of fun.

In my scripture reading, I got to the verse in Fourth Nephi where it says that they were married and given in marriage, and life just kept going on.  It was amazing because I was just talking to mom about that very verse!!  Life is so amazing.  Even when the earth feels like it is shattering, normal things keep happening.  Hopeful things keep happening.  Heartbroken families hold hands and walk around the zoo.  We can still have a perfect brightness of hope even among a sea of trials.

I was listening to a talk that Clint told us all about.  It is called, 'What is this Thing Called Death?'  It was a talk at a BYU Education Week.  But one part stuck with me.  He said, "God gave us a fear of death, so that we would cling to life in order to accomplish our purposes here."  I've often thought how comforting it would be if we could all just have a teensy glimpse of life after death.  Maybe it would calm our hearts and take away our sadness a bit if we could see how wonderful it really is.  And then I hear this talk.  I've never thought of it that way.  What could it be like if it's so wonderful that it must be kept from us or we would all give up on life just to get there?  That thought alone is comforting.  The future is so bright.  It's as bright as our faith.  And the future includes our life after this life.

So I put my cheerful mums out on my porch.  I lined up my pumpkins.  I opened wide my windows.  This life is just too short to waste a single moment.