I am a Believer of Faust philosophy

“Women today are encouraged to have it all – all simultaneously, money, travel, marriage, motherhood and a separate career in the world...But, my dear granddaughters, you cannot do everything well at the same time. You cannot be a 100 percent wife, a 100 percent mother, a 100 percent church worker, a 100 percent career person, and a 100 percent public-service person at the same time. How can all of these roles be coordinated?

Doing things sequentially—filling roles one at a time at different times—gives a woman the opportunity to do each thing well in its time and to fill a variety of roles in her life...She may fit more than one career into the various seasons of life. She need not try to sing all of the verses of her song at the same time."

-James E. Faust (emphasis added)

"In my opinion, the teaching, rearing, and training of children requires more intelligence, intuitive understanding, humility, strength, wisdom, spirituality, perseverance, and hard work than any other challenge we might have in life."

— James E. Faust, stories from my life

I am Forever in Blue Jeans

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

*photo used courtesy of nieniedialouges, thanks Nie!

I am "Like"able

A good friend (and fellow Coloradoan) once pegged it as my Colorado accent. Maybe...and perhaps for that reason, I should be remiss to let it go, but I'm not. I'm like, totally not.

At it's extreme, it's obnoxiously second nature and purely annoying. When telling a story, I come into my own and it flows out of me- a demon I can't control: My "like" habit.

The worst is when I hear my one of my children repeat it; I can't help but cringe. Cute at first. But like a fourteen-year-old with a lisp, it's gotta go.

Janice always was my favorite. Now I know why.

I am a Restorer of Fine Things

I am a chair rehabilitator and I have the triceps to prove it. Along the same lines as a certain house plagued with gold frosted mirrors and a handsome set of lockers, when I saw these two old ladies, I immediately saw their chair beauty within. It only took a few sessions with me and my sandpaper and here they are:

One has been crowned the new "hot seat" at our dinner table (where a certain lucky young man or lady gets to sit and be "it" for the night), and the other is living as I like to say, just sitting around and looking good.

I am a Bag Lady

I have never been friends with "the purse." Give me a bag any day, but please, not a purse. Bags are useful and sturdy. Solid, and slung over a shoulder. Bags are Style. I could find use for a thousand bags, but not a purse. Never a purse. Why? Are purses and bags so different? Just ask Mary Poppins. No, I've never even owned a purse- except maybe during middle school. But everybody's been to middle school, so who can judge?

Yes, bags are for me. They call to me and I hearken. Backpacks, diapers bags, bags slung cross-wise over my shoulder. Can I hold it without it holding me? That's the measure of a bag's creation. Give me a good, rich bag any day. Just don't call it a purse.

His, hers, and the one in between- a birthday present from a friend- made from a sweater.

I am a DECADEnt wife

We're still having fun, and-

You are my north

Olympic skating spins

Umbrellas

Rainbows and calamari

Electric I love yous

Saturday football

Timpanogos Temple

In timacy

Love notes

Late night laughs

Tommy Boy

Hot air balloons

Email

Outside dances

New places

Everything in between

If I would've known that being married to you for this long was going to be this much fun, I would've done it years ago. Happy tenth anniversary my love.

I

love

you!

I am a Sister

One of my sisters made me a pillow that says, "I loved you too much to be your friend, so God let me be your sister." She was younger then. Now she is daring and bold. In many ways, she has gone where no sister has gone before. She is our version of being a girl and a woman all at once. She has always been.

One sister once told me that she loved me more than oxygen. I don't know if she knew at the time how much that meant to me, but I know she does now. Someone once asked how to tell us apart. At the time we rolled our eyes and laughed; little did we know that he was the knowing one. She is smart and wary. She has a keen eye and a quick wit and her still waters are some of the deepest I know.

One warrior sister is both fragile and strong. She once quipped that if straight teeth, pale skin and an ample bosom were all a girl needed to be beautiful in the Austen age, then she had been born in the wrong century. It's not hard to see why my kids preface her name with "hilarious." She taught me everything of the preciousness of life, when she nearly lost her own giving birth to another. Everything about her is beautiful.

One is tall and lithe. Concerted enough to jump into a sea of sisters and swim along. She is right brained and left brained and everything in between. She put on her dancing shoes and kept them on.

Another sister is tenacious and tried. She knows what it means to put someone else first; she has done it all her life. She dreams and then she does. She is everything giving and good. And she never (no not ever), gives up.