FHE: Dinner and a Movie

Last night for Family Home Evening we took the kiddos out for Chinese food and a movie, "Diary of a Wimpy Kid."  Going out for dinner and going to movies are two of our favorite activities so it was double fun. Dinner was good and the movie was hilarious! It does have a bit of potty humor, but, if you know my family that is funny. The biggest impression that was left with me as I walked out of the theatre wasn't all of the humor or the clever story, it was the very subtle notion of having a diary.

Everyone should have a diary or a journal kids and adults alike. I remember my first diary. It was no bigger than 3x5 and it locked. My Mom started for me when I was an infant. She wrote all kinds of stories about me up until I could write myself. Then when I was 8 I got one for my baptism, I think I was pretty good at writing in it. When I turned 12 I got my last one that I can remember. I mostly only wrote in it when I was piping mad at my parents about this or that, or when friends were being mean and probably a bit about boys...mostly drama ( I was a normal teenager).

Unfortunately, I don't have any of these journals. They were all destroyed in the Tornado. Because of this I am feeling a bit of an urgency to try to remember some of those stories, so that my children and their children will have them.

My Grandma Joan started keeping a faithful journal when she was in her early 50's. When she died she left about 10 really good journals. Being able to look back and read her journals has been such a learning experience for me. She documented her conversion to the church when she was a young navy wife with a few little babies. She documented her testimony not only formally, but every single day as she talked about her prays, faith and blessings. She documented her struggles and her pains, and how the Lord never turned his back on her.

I had an exceptionally hard pregnancy with Hayden. Through out I kept a pretty extensive journal. In it I kept a good record of what happened during his birth, we both almost died. I lost the journal in the tornado, but I was blessed because I can look back in my grandma's journal to the week of the birth and she recorded a whole bunch of things about it. Things that I had forgotten. That is one of those Tender Mercies that the Lord has blessed me with.

So here I am starting over with my Journals. I plan to use this blog, 1: because it can't fly away and 2: it's convenient. Some of the memories I blog may not have any value to strangers or friends, but maybe like the entries from my Grandma's Journal about Hayden's birth, something will mean something to someone in my family when I am long gone. Consider this my first entry. Hopefully I will be diligent in my efforts and my mind will be clear so I can remember the important things. ~E