Through My Window

Stephanie is a not-so-young mom of three young children. Her daily life consists mostly of caring for her family, finding matching socks, thinking of something to make for dinner, reading or writing something that uplifts her, and occasionally shaving her legs. Stephanie blogs about finding faith in the trenches of motherhood at Diapers and Divinity. [...]

A Catalog of Hopes and Sins

Some things I hope are true: 1. That I will always have my sense of humor. 2. That when I visit America, my Australian accent will be happily accepted and understood. 3. That my divorce will help my sons have stronger marriages. Divorce messes with your head. I have spent a depressing chunk of the [...]

Get thee hence, butterdream cookie!

Chocolates on the kitchen counter, heart shaped waffles with whip cream at breakfast, cookies in Young Women’s and a pink lollipop bouquet shyly placed in my hands from an especially sweet girl; ripe red strawberries dipped in Belgian chocolate, a heart shaped cake, pinky red m&ms— I’ve been off sugar for three weeks and ably [...]

Rock the Boat (don’t tip the boat over…)

You know how you can pinpoint the exact place and time you were when you learned about the events on September 11th? Certain days become frozen in time; indelible impressions that mark a change. On 9-11 I was leaving to shop for a washing machine. My in-laws were visiting. My mother-in-law was upstairs ironing. There [...]

For Wick, With Love

Julie Wickens was my best friend all through elementary school and on into high school, until my family left Australia and moved to the U.S. in 1976 (that’s me and Julie in our fifth grade class photo; she’s fourth from the right; I’m fifth from the right—yes, the one with the attractive pig tails). She [...]

Exuberant Flaws

In the middle of Sacrament meeting yesterday, my toddler, frustrated from being poached from bed, rushed through cereal, forced to wear clothes, and walk on his own two feet, yelled as loudly as he could, “I WANT TO GO HOME.”

UP CLOSE for March: Depression Roundtable

A series of posts about depression begins today at By Common Consent. One week from today we’ll begin a similar series here at Segullah, featuring excerpts from a conversation amongst several of our staff members who live with clinical depression. We look forward to hearing our readers’ insights and perspectives on this topic. Stay tuned [...]

Wielding Power

That I may live to be one of the best women, who make others glad that they were born. -George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda Power conjures up images of the conquering Alexander the Great, Donald Trump’s boardroom, or Bill Gates’ bank account. But that is not my power. While I may lack political power, star power, or excess capital, I [...]

It’s a Miracle…

Miracle Max: Have fun storming the castle! Valerie: Do you think it will work? Miracle Max: It would take a miracle… As a scientist, I’m automatically skeptical of anything with the word “miracle” in it: miracle cure, miracle weight loss, miracle hair restoration, etc. Usually if something claims to be a “miracle” there is some [...]

Meet the Meanest Mom

Jana Mathews made her debut blogging as The Meanest Mom in the summer of 2008, and has since received national recognition for her blogging, including being voted Parent & Child Magazine’s Best Mommy Blogger of 2009. “Every mom has moments with her children that she would just as soon forget,” she says. “This blog reclaims the [...]

I’m Not Perfect. Can I Still Go to Heaven?–An Interview with Anthony Sweat

Anthony Sweat is a full-time religious educator, currently teaching seminary at West High in Salt Lake City, and a regular speaker at Especially For Youth and Education Week conferences. He is the co-author of the bestselling book WHY? Powerful Answers and Practical Reasons for Living LDS Standards, and the author of the newly-released I’m Not [...]

Confidence in the family

I was engaged once to a man I didn’t marry. For the record, he was a good Latter-day Saint and a good man. But I came to discover that even good people can have bad relationships. We were engaged for 4 tumultuous months before I finally called it off. I knew it wasn’t right early [...]

Olympic love

I was eight years old during the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, old enough to recognize that Torville and Dean’s “Bolero” performance was magic. My growing up (which I’m still doing, thankfully) is dotted with Olympic memories–MaryLou vaulting to her 10s, Katerina Witt’s “Carmen,” Kerri Strug’s one-footed landing (yes, I’m a little heavy on ice skating and [...]

Whitney 2010 Nominees and Almost-Nominees

The finalists for the 2010 Whitney Awards were announced ten days ago. Congratulations to everyone! The Whitney Awards celebrate excellent writing by LDS authors, published both locally and nationally. Shelah and I will be reading and deciding on Segullah’s picks together–we will keep you posted. I have tried to read more fiction by LDS authors [...]

Sisterly Love

When I was a little girl I thought one of the happiest sounds I’d ever heard was my mother laughing with her six sisters. They’d stand around my grandmother’s kitchen, washing the dishes and putting away the Christmas dinner leftovers, laughing so loudly they sounded like the kookaburras that cackled outside my window every morning. [...]

Playing like a girl

I was a swimmer in high school. Not a very good swimmer, although looking back, I realize that I worked hard and probably had more natural talent than I gave myself credit for at the time. During those years, swim team was all about the music we piped underneath the water (lots and lots of [...]

Good Graciousness

The shutters and doors of the Radley home were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only. Of all days Sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes. But to climb the Radley front steps and call, [...]

Community Mormon

It was hot and overcast on a Sunday in late July. My companion and I wandered down the narrow dirt path, weaving through the Moscow forest. We had a few more minutes of time to kill, but the path was ending, and we‘d already walked the other end of it. Smoke and the scent of [...]

Mormon Artists

An interesting discussion at playgroup yesterday was cut short by toddlers stealing each others’ snacks and subsequent screaming. So I’d love to continue it here, though I won’t be able to check back until this evening, you can talk amongst yourselves and I’ll chime in later. Here’s how the discussion began- A member of the [...]

Train ride

On Friday, my five-year-old had an appointment at the children’s hospital. His orthopedist tends to run behind, so I cleared our schedule for the whole morning. We have a few rituals that come with going to the orthopedist: the kids always want a donut and a can of grape juice from the hospital cafeteria, and [...]

I Learned the Truth at Seventeen

Marla is a Utah native and a professional writer and editor. She is just weeks away (fingers crossed) from completing a master’s degree in English. She loves running, biking, reading, writing, and lurking on the Segullah blog. She blogs at mindofmarla.blogspot.com. I went to the Victorian exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art a few [...]

This is normal

Southern Virginia University has an intriguing little calender on their website: Typical Ups and Downs of College Life. For your reading pleasure– February: * Feelings of claustrophobia and depression set in with winter * Potential increase in alcohol and other substance abuse * Challenges with love relationship at home * Valentine’s Day brings out loneliness, [...]

The Stories of Women

Today’s interview is with Neylan McBaine, talking about the newly created Mormon Women Project. LG: How did get started with The Mormon Women Project? Tell me how your own unique background and personal experience influenced your desire to explore LDS women? NM: Growing up in New York City as the daughter of a professional opera singer, [...]

What the Little Old Lady Said

I was so busy corralling my children down the grocery store aisle that I almost ran into the old woman in front of us. Four children under age five made us quite a spectacle in the big city where we lived. She smiled at us and patted my arm. “Treasure every moment, dear. Time passes [...]

Eve: The Very First Wingman?

Or just thoroughly confused? I can’t stop thinking about the lesson in Gospel Doctrine a few weeks ago that was all about Eve. About whether she knew what she was doing when Satan tempted her with the fruit of that tree. About if she was truly tricked, or if she just knew in her womanly [...]

The Space for Change

Systems are resistant to change. This is one of the fundamental principles of systems theory (a paradigm for looking at people’s lives). Our lives are intricate webs of relationships and forces – home, church, school, community, family, friends. A shift in one area, relationship, or routine sends ripples across the whole system. So in essence the system tries [...]

Fleshy Tablets

I have a tattoo on my left ankle. A crucifix, blue-black, one inch long. A punk crucifix, anti-religious, if anything. Homemade, in 1988. President Hinckley hadn’t yet made his pronouncement against tattooing, but even if he had, it wouldn’t have stopped me. In fact, I would have been all the more eager to grab a [...]