July Up Close

Thank you for your continued patience with our cyber dust as we continue some transitions and work through some technical issues on the blog. We welcome your submissions for July’s Up Close. Those of us on staff are heading off to points near and far and we know you are too, so share with us [...]

Who’s really got control over that remote?

a tale of two brothers Just about four years ago I posted this photo on my (former) personal blog as food for thought in the whole “nature vs. nurture” debate. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a huge advocate of nurturing. I believe in its inherent powers so strongly I chose to forgo a career and [...]

What About Your Walls?

I don’t like Greg Olsen. Well, that’s not true, I’m sure he’s a lovely person, he may even be a gas at dinner parties, but I don’t actually like his art. It’s not my taste. It doesn’t speak to me (in fact, if I’m telling you the most honest thoughts of my heart, sometimes it [...]

A Moment of Clarity

Heather Olson Beal is guest posting for this week’s UP CLOSE – MAKING MARRIAGE WORK piece. She is a mom of three kids who sometimes drive her nuts despite being genuinely great. She lives in deep east Texas and is happy to finally be a professor and no longer a student! She has a BA in Spanish from [...]

Are We There Yet?

In the thirty-second chapter of Alma we read that our faith is like a seed. If we are diligent and patient in nourishing our faith-seed, “behold, by and by ye shall pluck the fruit thereof, which is most precious… and ye shall feast upon this fruit even until ye are filled, that ye hunger not, [...]

leeway

Is there anything better than people who accept us for who we are? Friends who know our weaknesses but laugh them off and frankly forgive us? Five days a week, for the last nine months we’ve carpooled with these sweet people. It’s part of rhythm of our days. I drive Gwen and Mary to kindergarten, [...]

Staying Grounded

My brother Aaron wrote a family letter day-before-yesterday, chronicling the goings-on of his week. It was informal, cheery and full of the stuff that makes up his life. In closing, he mentioned an article he had read in this month’s Ensign magazine; a Devotional Address entitled “Things As They Really Are” by Elder David A. [...]

The Nature of Union

Susan Noyes Anderson has written our UP CLOSE: MARRIAGE MAKING IT WORK post today. Sue describes herself as a grandma who loves to write and a writer who loves to grandma. She hails from Northern California and is the mother of four grown children and the grandmother of three (who still have a lot of [...]

Inherit the Word

While reading my ancestor John Solomon Fullmer‘s letters last week, I came across this piece of advice, written in a letter to his brother David: P.S. Inasmuch as your vocation will in future be of a public nature, I will give you this little piece of advice, at which I hope you will not take [...]

Time

In honor of Father’s Day, we bring you a post by guest Jennifer Wunderlich. Beyond composing grocery lists and the occasional “Thank You” card, Jennifer is a novice to writing. But oh! How she loves it! Married to her sweet husband of 16 years, together they own a sign and graphics company and try to [...]

Behold Your Little Ones

Today’s guest author is Nan. Her three little boys keep her hopping. It is a good thing that she likes camping, Harry Potter, Star Wars and Legos almost as much as they do. Or more. She is always up for an adventure, as long as she remembers to pack plenty of snacks and diapers. Besides doing [...]

I’ll never be Heather or Courtney or Gabby

In blogging circles, I’ll never be known by the name of my blog (as in “Dooce says this” or “cjane says this” or “Design Mom says this…”). You know what? In all likelihood, neither will you. I had visions of grandeur when I started my blog back in 2005. Since I was too chicken to [...]

Turning My Kids’ World Upside Down

So, we’re moving. If you’d have told me a year ago I’d be saying such a thing, I would have looked at you like your head was on backwards. But a lot can happen in a year (e.g. reversals, epiphanies, startling answers to prayer, not to mention a good long stare into the eyes of [...]

tick . . . tick . . .

Can’t believe the clock is moving this fast. This Friday, June 18, is the last day to register for Segullah’s Writing Retreat on Saturday, June 26th. The registration fee includes lunch, but if you want to come to dinner, that needs to be paid for separately. Registration for the creative writing studio is now closed; [...]

The False Happiness of the World, or why cotton candy is evil.

We live near a large amusement park. I happen to love roller coasters. Sadly, this love is not shared by my family. Neither my son or my husband are into this particular kind of thrill seeking (which shocks me about my son, actually, as we are talking about a kid who went to the ER [...]

The Stockdale Paradox

Recently in sacrament meeting, a speaker referenced the story of Admiral Jim Stockdale as described in Jim Collins’ book Good to Great. Stockdale was imprisoned in the “Hanoi Hilton” POW camp from 1965 to 1973, during which time he was repeatedly tortured. When Collins asked him how he was able to endure, Stockdale responded, “I [...]

SEGULLAH WRITING RETREAT REGISTRATION DEADLINE

This is your last week to sign up for our Writer’s Retreat coming up on June 26th! The deadline is Friday! Lunch is included in your registration, but dinner must be paid for separately. We will not be able to accept dinner registrations after Friday. We can’t wait to see you there! Please see our [...]

Advice from a Broken-down, Bedraggled Old Sheep Herder

In my senior year of high school, Ann Darr’s poem “Advice I Wish Someone Had Given Me,” was a favorite: Be strange if it is necessary, be quiet, kindly as you can without feeling the heel marks on your head. Be expert in some way that pleasures you, story-telling, baking, bed; marvel at the marvelous [...]

Passing the Bridge of Sighs

Many years ago, when our marriage had that just-out-of-the-box shine, my husband (G) and I lived in England for a summer. We visited Cambridge and decided to try punting on the river Cam. (Punting, as you probably know, involves steering a long skinny boat with a long skinny pole while standing balanced in the back, [...]

When a Three Letter Word Becomes a Four Letter Word

When I was nine my grandma made me a quilted fabric book bag, the kind with two handles that I swung back and forth on my way to and from school, ducking under the chestnut tree and brushing past the untrimmed lilac bush on the corner of Main Street and 850 North. The lilac print [...]

Hooray! :-D Boo! :-(

So, our family is getting ready to move. This partially explains my absence from Segullah as of late. I miss you though, my dears! After six years in NYC we are heading west, to Colorado.

Powder Fresh

It looks and smells innocent enough, with its pale pink label and delicate scent. But that’s the whole problem. Yes, this is a post about antiperspirant. Specifically, about an antiperspirant scent that sends a particularly creepy mixed message: I’m a woman, but I smell like a baby. I’m talking about “Powder Fresh.”

Puddles of Blossoms

With great pleasure we bring you this post by Deja Earley to kick-off our June UP CLOSE theme of Marriage MAKING IT WORK. Deja lives outside Boston with her husband and three cats. Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in places like Arts and Letters, Borderlands, and Poet Lore. She is poetry [...]

When Faith Makes it Harder

I believe in God– oh I do!– every mountain and flower and newborn babe shouts His name to me. But I’m struggling now to know if He is good– if His plan is truly one of happiness. Usually, I turn to God in times of distress, but right now it is His doctrines– especially the [...]

DANCE WITH THEM on Amazon

We’re stoked about the enthusiastic response our new book has received in the month since its release. The title is now available for purchase through Amazon.com. GO GET ‘EM! If you hurry, you can be the first to post a review. And speaking of which: ~If you missed Catherine Arveseth’s glowing review in Meridian Magazine, read [...]

Courting Myself

Today’s guest post comes from Meg who is originally from the great state of Wyoming, but currently lives in Northern Utah with her husband. She is a Registered Dietitian and loves food! At times, she fancies herself a writer. She also enjoys reading, cooking, music, dancing, and all things delicious. “I want to conclude this message by [...]

BFF

I looked at a picture my old high school friend posted on Facebook. Her face is turned to the side and her mother is laughing beside her. It took me a few moments to realize that I had it all wrong. The laughing woman was my friend, and the young girl was her teenage daughter. [...]

You know you want a free issue.

A free issue of Segullah, that is. In print. Delivered to your door. And I’m not talking about a back issue, people. I’m talking about a complimentary copy of our special-edition 5th anniversary issue, Inside and Outside Marriage, which will be rolling off the press this month. As part of our anniversary celebration, we’re giving [...]

With a Lot of Lying Down Comes This

First it was Elizabeth Strout. A thorough reading and rereading of Olive Kitteridge wasn’t enough and I delved back into her other novels with abandon: jealous and thirsty. Then it was an inordinate amount of chick lit, the best of which (probably Jennifer Weiner?) I’m even almost too embarrassed to admit. Right now it is [...]

The Secret Life of Cole’s Mommy

We’re happy to tell you that we’ve managed to sneak in one last UP CLOSE motherhood post by Eliana Osborn. Eliana worships the sun in the desert southwest. She spends her days teaching her two young Jedi masters to only use the force for good, as well as at Arizona Western College. She has published in Budget [...]