Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

In our Lovely Deseret

Utah. I love it and I hate it. I am not from there (although my mother is). I am from The Mission Field. Like most Mormons Utah was always in the periphery of my life. It was the destination of many summer roadtrips, the place where all things churchy originated, the land where many members [...]

Afternoons of Nothing

I have just done my most radical act of parenting so far in my fifteen-year career of raising six children: I have pulled my children out of all extra-curricular activities. Even piano lessons. Last year I spent just about every afternoon driving little people to various lessons, games, practices and rehearsals. There were the accompanying [...]

Travel Tips–help!

Summer is drawing to a close and it seems like most everyone has taken their summer trips. We’re just getting started, though. We will be taking our six kids on a plane tomorrow to head to the Motherland (a.k.a. Utah). What I’ve learned about plane travel is to wear shoes that slip off and on [...]

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. [...]

A Loser Cruiser? I Beg to Differ.

I’ve been hearing a lot of crap lately about the “uncoolness” of minivans. I put uncoolness in quotes because minivans are, in fact, the coolest cars around. Does the Ford Flex have a button that enables the back doors to slide open? I think not. Does the cute little Mini Cooper have the ability to [...]

A Not Very Talented Girl

At age fifteen I compiled a list of everything I wished I could be: a world-class ice skater/skier/tennis player, amazing ballerina, professional-quality singer/harpist/cellist/pianist and speaker of multiple languages. My list of all the talents I wanted was very, very long. In reality I could do none of these things even vaguely well. I struggled hard [...]

My Old Pigeonhole

I started out as “the smart one” in my family. My little sister had waist-length golden hair which automatically made her “the pretty one”. Eventually, though, she got a bad perm, had crooked teeth grown in and started getting much better grades, so she became “the smart one” and I, an extremely bratty teenager, became [...]

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 [...]

Your Bum is Showing

I live in a place that has a relatively nice winter climate. Consequently there is quite a large population of panhandlers (or hobos, as my kids prefer to call them). Usually they wait at freeway exits and stoplights with their handmade signs stating the reasons I should feel extra sorry for them (I’m a veteran! [...]

The Customary Christmas

My first Christmas with my husband was a tempestuous one. Instead of exchanging romantic gifts in front of a roaring fire as I’d always dreamed, we spent most of the holidays arguing and nursing hurt feelings. Christmas quickly disintegrated into a “my family” vs. “your family” throwdown (my family’s way of doing things being the [...]

Just Doing my Best

Angie and I both stood in the church hallway, bouncing our fussy babies on our hips. Our conversation turned to temple attendance. I sighed, “I’ve been going once a month to do sealings. I should probably go more often, but I’m doing the best that I can.” Angie stopped bouncing and looked at me, ”You’re [...]

Cider and Donuts

Maybe it’s just me but a lot of my memories involve food. This time of year, this almost-autumn-not-quite-summer, always takes me back to Michigan where I grew up. Michigan flip-flops with New York as the #2 apple-producing state in the country. Meaning that cider mills across my home state are springing into action right about [...]

I’ll Have a Miniskirt with a Side Order of Cleavage

  I found myself furtively staring at the family across the aisle from me on the airplane.  The boys looked just like mine as they played their Nintendo DSs, but their yarmulkes and tzitzis gave them away as Orthodox Jews; as did the long-sleeved shirt and long skirt of the mother, a pretty woman who looked [...]

Many are Called

A few months ago a chunk of each of the two wards in my town were combined to make a sparkling new baby of a ward.  It’s an interesting thing being in a ward that’s starting from scratch; it’s not unlike the experience of being picked for kickball teams at recess in elementary school.  At [...]

(Don’t) Take Me Out to the Ballgame

I feel kind of bad saying this, but I really hate going to my son’s baseball games.  I go occasionally, but most times it’s my husband, the baseball lover, who takes him.  I’m the one who does the ballet and music classes for the other children.  It seems to be a good division.  Sometimes if we’re busy [...]

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