I heard a comment the other day whilst we were visiting the dentist that made me smile. My eldest daughter has a plate and was there for her regular checkup. The younger two children were with me in the waiting room playing happily with a bunch of mismatched toys that the dentist had in a box. The random dinosaurs, army men and astronauts with missing limbs combined with the ill-fitting lego pieces didn’t seem to deter them from the imaginary world they then created in the waiting room.

The dentist appeared with Rebecca to explain the next steps, only to be interrupted by my littlest daughter asking the dentist if he could “please move over”. Her armless army man was attempting to climb the reception desk and the dentist was standing in the way. He looked down at her and then at my son and commented that it is so refreshing to see children playing in his waiting room rather than stuck in front of a phone or tablet or some other electronic device. He had forgotten what it was like to watch children ‘playing’.
Continue reading The Art of Playing →

Marriage is a complex and layered thing. Loving (and continuing to learn to love) another person is a full, and deep, and nuanced experience. To see someone, learn their way of speaking, understand their body language, know how they think and act, understand their moods, and decide that you love that person and want to be forever with that person is a thing that is dense with knowledge, emotion, and a connection to the spiritual level. It can look like a simple natural world thing of daily interactions, but sometimes we can see and feel more of these layers than usual.
Continue reading Getting Back to the Warm Fuzzy Feelings →

My husband and I are expecting a third child this winter, and I find pregnancy is a good time to eat a lot of cheese and re-examine my role as a parent. I’ve been thinking recently about how I approach my relationship with my kids in light of the Heavenly Doctrine. What makes me their mother? To what end am I raising them?
Continue reading My Children’s Inheritance →

As I write this, I have two sleeping babies. Both of my kids have gone down for naps, and for a brief moment (ten minutes? thirty? AN HOUR?) I have two sleeping children and the house is peaceful and quiet. I am both excited and overwhelmed by this time. Most of my brain is yelling: “GO! GO! GO! Get things done! Be productive! Move!” I stand still and my heart pounds, my mind racing, my hands trembling and I am OVERWHELMED by the to-do list – all the things I’m desperate to get done, jobs to finish, projects to start. So often, when I get this moment of peace I don’t use it as a moment of peace. I panic. Rushing around, trying to do ten things at once, inevitably being mid-task when someone wakes up and I wind up hungry, tired, and overwhelmed and another step behind with unfinished tasks behind me, and rested kids in front of me who are ready to go and who want Mama to go with them.
Continue reading Rest in the Season of Babies – I Cannot Do It All →