Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

Enough for her

The other day in between attending the temple and picking up a few things at the grocery store, I dropped by the nicest assisted living home in town to see my grandmother. Grandma Jacobs was, of course, happy to see me. We both enjoy our visits together. If I’m alone we sit opposite of each [...]

Practicing Grace

Once in a while, you come across a talk or essay so eloquent, so profound, that you want to shout it from the rooftops. Brad Wilcox’s July 12th BYU Devotional is one of those messages. I highly recommend watching it here, downloading the MP3 here or reading the PDF here. Some of my favorite ideas: [...]

You’ve Got Mail!

His name was Alessandro. He was tall, Italian, with thick curly black hair and eyes warmer than dark chocolate. He didn’t speak English, I didn’t speak Italian, yet we were pen-pals for a year in the ‘90s. We murdered verbs and sentence structure as we tried to describe our lives in French, then sent our [...]

Justice, Mercy, and Other Mysteries (Also, It’s Time to Send Your Submission to Our Journal)

Last fall I talked briefly about how, in 1999, we discovered that my husband’s trusted business partner had been embezzling large sums of money and engaging in some other dishonest business practices that put my husband’s company in jeopardy and almost drove us to bankruptcy. This man had stood in the priesthood circle just months [...]

Faith and Ice Cream

Today’s guest post is from Ana Blake. Ana majored in humanities with a minor in English literature from BYU. She wouldn’t mind being a free-lance writer but up to this point hasn’t published anything. (She does have almost thirty full-sized written journals and enjoys writing the annual family Christmas letter, though.) She and her husband are [...]

Please read this after I’m dead

This isn’t my regular day for posting here on Segullah. That was yesterday. Er, I mean, Wednesday (I think). But on Wednesday, I was running all day that I didn’t even say hello to my husband until 10pm, and even then, it was a quick hello said as I flopped on the bed and flicked [...]

The Tyranny of Stuff

A quick reminder: Segullah’s book club will be discussing The Year My Son and I Were Born by our own Kathryn Lynard Soper next month, on Thursday August 18th, so get reading! Now on to the post. Over the last few weeks, the stuff I own has been stressing me out to a particularly lamentable [...]

Rock, Dust

Photo by Aidan McRae Thomson I love the Apostle Peter—his enthusiasm, his heedless loyalty, his solid faith. His answer to the Lord’s question, “Will ye also go away?” forms the foundation of my own belief: “Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.” The completeness of his devotion is part [...]

NICU Stories

I knew she had a story as soon as I saw the neon pink bracelet, with NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) written in clear black letters. We rode the elevator together up to the fourth floor. She had not yet recovered from delivery: still in a wheelchair (her husband pushed her), still wearing her hospital [...]

Switching Off

Today’s guest post comes from Rachel Jeffcoat, who studied English at Oxford University half a decade ago. After a hard day’s work correcting grammar as an editor, she comes home to read, cook, play the piano once the neighbours have gone out, and spend time with her lovely husband. In September she plans to hang [...]

When Cultures Collide

Hyde Park on the south side of Chicago was a happenin’ place to be in the 1980’s not long after the 1978 revelation on the Priesthood in the predominantly black part of the city. (Here’s an article I wrote way back in 1986 about life in that ward.)  There was cultural progress; there were cultural [...]

Obsessions

When I was in graduate school, a friend of mine told me that anyone who survives graduate school has to be at least a little obsessive-compulsive. I think she’s right. Certainly, my own life has been blessed—and plagued—by my ability to fall into certain projects with a single-minded focus. This ability to focus allowed me [...]

Have you got a story to tell? MWP Snapshot Portraits

I’ve been interviewing women for Segullah and the Mormon Women Project for the last few years, and one of the things I’ve learned from the experience is that every woman has a story to tell. You might think your life is boring, and that no one wants to hear about your struggles with your kids, [...]

A Missionary Mother

Today’s guest post is from Marcia Stanford. Marcia lives on a tree-lined street in California with her charming husband and delightful children, who are growing up much too quickly. She is a BYU English major currently completing the last few courses via Independent Study. Raised in Utah, she now savors the opportunity to pick fresh [...]

Swim Lessons for Them or Me?

The pool is gleaming neon blue. I lift my sunglasses to wipe beads of sweat off the bridge of my nose.  A high-noon sun beats down on my thighs and the water flashes white with reflections and limbs as I squint against the light. It is ninety degrees outside, but I am shaking. My hands [...]

VT: Bane of my existence? Or blessing my life one plate of cookies at a time?

I ignored the telephone call three times. My answer to the call being along the lines of “of-course-I-haven’t-done-my-visiting-teaching, sister so and so!” And if I actually pick up the phone at this point, your kindness will make me feel bad and I will offer some excuse about how my energy feels low and you will [...]

The Naaman in Me

Today’s guest  post comes from Emily Orchard. Emily lives in Meridian, Idaho with her patient husband, four young children, a dog, a fish, and a snake. Her favorite daily activities involve her kids but she also enjoys working a few hours a week as a speech therapist. Before her household wakes up in the morning [...]

Halfway There

If you thought this weekend was all about Independence Day, think again! Today, July 2, marks another cause for reflection — it’s the exact midpoint of the year. We’ve made it through 182 days in 2011, and we’ve got another 182 to go. Time flies, right? Or have the days of 2011 been dragging on [...]

What’s more American than corn flakes?

In grade school one year we put on a patriotic performance, in which I was one of the lucky girls chosen to be Lady Liberty and in which we sang with gusto the song, “What’s More American.” Anybody remember that one? . . . “What’s more American than corn flakes, the fourth of July, or [...]

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