I won’t say the question, but I will say that it was answered by Elder Uchtdorf saying that courageous decisions require hope. Make them.
Edited to Add: Elder Bednar’s discussion about creating my spiritually before I create it temporally was a pretty powerful answer to the question: “How do I survive my days with all [...]

I am tethered. Every day, 11:50 a.m. slices into my life. I keep time by hours before 11:50, and hours after. I calculate minutes, distances, items in my shopping cart, all by how likely it is I will make it to 11:50.

I am a smarty-pants.
Self-proclaimed, anyway…
Oh, alright. I’m just a geeky sort of oddball.

I love being a mother.
I love playing tag in the back yard.
I love reading together in bed.
I love making cheerio necklaces.
I love hearing the kids roar into the house after school.
I love singing showtunes and dancing in the family room.
I love sitting on the bed having a ‘heart-to-heart’ with one of the kids.
I love [...]

Mom and 5 year old ~S at Costco…
Mom: “Alrighty, I think we’re about done here. Anything else you think we might need, kiddo?”
~S: “Well, just a map, I guess.”
Mom: “A map of what? Why do we need a map?”
~S: “Aren’t we leaving soon? Don’t we need a map?”
Mom: “Umm, where are we going?”
~S: “I thought [...]

When people start talking about politics around me, I tend to get a little, well, worked up.

I guess I should have warned them.

I sat at the kitchen table with my dear friends. We were mulling over summer vacations, playing through the various events that had transpired, musing about next summer’s destinations. (well, as an aside, it should be noted that I was merely smiling at everyone jealously, not having actually left my house all summer long)(well, except [...]

Don’t touch my stuff.
I’ve got very strong feelings about it.

-I comes into the bedroom crying.
-I: “-J hit me!”
Justine: “Why’d she hit you?”
-I: “Just because I wouldn’t answer her question! I wouldn’t answer her so she whacked me! It’s not fair! She needs a punishment, right?”
Justine: “So, what’s -J going to say if we ask her?”
-I: “I don’t know. I just wouldn’t answer her mean, [...]

Everyone knows how great my summer has been, eh? The most fascinating part of this whole thing has been the people I’ve encountered. Indulge me; let me tell you all about them. Pull up a chair.

We had some friends once who wouldn’t take the sacrament if the bread wasn’t home-made, whole wheat, preservative-free bread. They believed that anything else, “wasn’t really food” (their words, not mine).

Six weeks ago, in a conversation with my husband, we sat discussing the general gist of life here on earth. The conversation sounded something like, “Since we’re really just down here to figure stuff out, wouldn’t it make sense to just get it all over with, go through it all now? I mean, if there [...]

I woke up this morning, and decided waking up was a personal miracle from the Lord. I breathed in, slowly allowing the breeze from the window to fill up my lungs. My eyes looked over the bedroom — another miracle. I could see the dim outline of the bed, the closet, the desk. Another breath [...]

Shortly after my parents brought me home from the hospital — a tiny little baby in a light pink jumper — my father attempted his first diaper changing. My mother, as the story goes, found my father and I in the nursery, me still covered in poop, and my father turned away from me [...]