Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

everyone wants to know why I’m wearing a skirt

Every single day (well, every single day I manage to change out of my running clothes or grungy sweats), I’m asked the same question, “What are you all dressed up for?” And the answer is usually “absolutely nothing;”  As the greatest homebody of them all, I spend most of my days in my home or [...]

General Conference– the discussion

Let’s chat. What talks did you love? Which ones made you think–”XX should listen to that counsel!” and which talks make you squirm in your seat knowing someone else thought YOU should listen up? Did you see themes emerge over the two days? And on this Monday morning, do you feel reinvigorated or discouraged?

toppling the queen

With twenty minutes left in a particularly trying sacrament meeting, I mentally consoled myself, “It’s OK, you don’t have a calling anymore. You can skip Sunday School and Relief Society today.” No sooner had the thought flickered through my brain, when my little girl turned to me and said, “If you go home, I’m coming [...]

Something good is coming your way

Facebook spread the word quickly– after four years of infertility, bake sales to raise money for adoption fees, tears, prayers, family fasts– Stephanie announced she was eleven weeks pregnant. And just this morning, sweet Mary, who also went the rounds of infertility, buried a sweet baby in Switzerland and suffered several late-term miscarriages shared the [...]

Turn the other cheek

Elementary school can be a tough gig. Early in September, my little Mary sobbed into my arms, “Alice told everyone not to play with me at recess. She says I’m mean.” “And what did you do?” I asked, my mother heart constricting. “I just walked away,” little Mary replied, “and found some friends who like [...]

Stupid Skinny Jeans

By now, you’ve heard more than enough about the BYU-Idaho skinny jeans scandal. I have just a bit more to add, but a little story for you first: Salt-of-the-earth isn’t adequate to describe my father-in law. At fifteen he emigrated from East Germany to the United States with his sixteen year old brother as his [...]

greedy

The other day I asked my cute neighbor, “So what do you want for Christmas?” “Hmm, not really anything,” he replied, “I already have a lot.” Eleven-year-old Isaac isn’t a kid with a cell phone, an iPad or a TV in his room, but he is well-clothed, well-fed and adored by his parents. His dad [...]

Nectar

  Just a few weeks ago, we pulled heavy frames from our hives, sliced away the wax and harvested fifteen bottles of liquid gold. It’s a modest harvest, but miraculous for first-year bee keepers. We’ve been enjoying the fruits of our bees’ labors on our toast, oatmeal and in a few batches of baklava, ever [...]

Best Conference Ever

It’s a good thing I watch General Conference at home. For one thing, you can’t eat strawberry/Nutella/whipcream crepes at church and I might get some funny looks at the stake center or downtown when I exclaim, “Yes!” and pump my fist in the air whenever a speaker says something I particularly like.  My children and [...]

simple pleasures

Whenever my Gabriel is overwhelmed (and often when he’s not), he retreats to his room and pulls Lego guys out of his blue safe. Time stops for him as the ‘guys’ talk and fly, fight and tumble. My 17 year old has a similar ritual– reading a novel in the shade of the front porch. [...]

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: [...]

If envy were a fever

Dining out with Stephanie is always entertaining. She orders the fried something appetizer, the cream covered pasta, a sugary drink. As we await our food she slathers butter on multiple pieces of thick white bread. When the food comes she happily consumes her own and begs for a bit off everyone’s plate. And even if [...]

Rude Crude Dude– and girls

Admittedly, I’m a prude. The f-word that refers to bodily gas is just as offensive and unheard around my home as that other f-word. But I can’t be the only one horrified that two of the top grossing movies in the US for several weeks are Bridesmaids and The Hangover II. From the reviews: If [...]

the books of summer

My older boys set the rule: if you want to see a Harry Potter movie, you must read the book. It’s a simple way to monitor age-appropriateness and for me, at least, to justify a PG13 movie for a 9 year old boy. Motivated by the final movie premiering July 15th, my Gabriel is knee [...]

Waiting on the Lord

Teasing, my husband called it graffiti from a religious fanatic. But I loved the scripture painted over my kitchen table: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 How [...]

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