My husband is an only child, the product of many years of fasting and praying, the child carried almost-full-term after several miscarriages. According to Neylan McBaine, in her Spring 2008 essay “Just Mom, Dad, and me,” there’s a lot to envy about the only-child lifestyle: besides material advantages, she always had the awareness that [...]

President Uchtdorf just delivered my all-time favorite Relief Society General Meeting talk, ever. It spoke to me so directly; I cried through nearly the entire thing, and had to blow my nose loudly at the end (it was okay; I sat by my sister and she blew her nose loudly too, in solidarity). [...]

The first month of my mission I taught only three discussions, tagged along in two different trios, and witnessed a scandal unfold among our missionaries. All that, combined with the sudden exposure to unfamiliar poverty, the strange food, and the Christmas season, made it the worst month of my entire life. Looking back [...]

I’m not a quilter, although it’s one of those hobbies I can see myself taking up at some point in my life. And I’m also not an artist, or an art historian. That’s my official disclaimer. But it turns out you can enjoy a quilt show even without technical or artistic expertise.
What moves me [...]

From the life of Phineas Wolcott Cook, one of my husband’s ancestors (spelling and punctuation modernized):

In the month of August Br. Brigham visited San Pete and found the people in want of a mill for grnding their grain. He came home and told me that he had made choice of me to go and build [...]

My next-door neighbor has been sewing pioneer clothes madly to get ready for our stake’s Martin’s Cove trek. She and the other leaders in our stake have spent hours upon hours in planning meetings and firesides and, of course, sewing. All this, on top of hours for Girls Camp and presidency meetings and weekly [...]

I ended up with a navy baby hat after the Segullah bloggersnacker. And I went out of town the next day, and, slacker that I am, I’m only just now posting about the hat. I am sorry if you have missed it, but if it’s yours, please comment so I can contact you and [...]

SEPTEMBER 1 is the submissions deadline for our Spring 2009 issue, Gifts of the Spirit. I love reading your essays and poetry–it is an honor to be entrusted with writing that is vulnerable and real. I hate having to choose between one story and another. I hope that, even though we cannot publish everything [...]

I always forget how to hold newborn babies until I’m presented with one: the small face, old, wise, young, perfect. It’s not just that I forget how to hold them, though. It’s the feelings a newborn baby calls up inside me. I held my newborn nephew Saturday and it made me remember the joy, [...]

Nothing makes me wish I were a convert to the Church more than doing family history. Kacy posted a couple of weeks ago on good pioneer stock, and she asked the question, “what does it mean to come from good pioneer stock?” Sitting in front of my laptop, staring at my impossible PAF file, [...]

I first heard the now-debunked “Generals in the War in Heaven” story in Seminary, during high school. I quote from FAIRwiki:
You were in the War in Heaven and one day when you are in the spirit world you will be enthralled with those who you are associated with. You will ask someone in which time [...]

“Too Late to Say Goodbye,” Dalene Rowley’s poignant essay about her mourning her father, has got me thinking about greetings and farewells. Dalene talks about not realizing how close her father was to dying until it was too late to say goodbye. He left without that official farewell from her, without that closure, and the [...]

What do Cream of Wheat, near-twin sisters, an Italian monastery, hair dye, Mormon opera singers, deep Southern accents, and frogs have in common? They are all part of Segullah’s Spring 2008 issue, Roots and Branches. Read and enjoy the articles here. To subscribe to our print edition, which includes art by Emily McPhee and Cassandra [...]

We’re going to the cemetery today, to put flowers on my mother-in-law’s grave. Mom died four years ago. It’s good for me to have days like today, to make me remember my mother-in-law more clearly. And to make me realize that I need to talk to my kids about her more than I do. [...]

My husband just spent two consecutive weekends, six days total, away, for Scout-related bishopric training. I was dreading it. I have a hard time motivating myself to do anything when he’s not around. Make dinner? Chicken nuggets sound good. Clean? Meh, he’s not coming home anytime soon, so I can save it up and have [...]