A Good Ending

Wednesday night was the Eagle Court of Honor for my son Sam and his good friend Matthew.  It's the second time my pal Cathy and I have hosted a court of honor for our sons, and once again, it was a good thing.   As usually happens with these...

read more

Merry Christmas

It's the end of a really lovely Christmas weekend. A few of the new movies have been watched, the kitchen is nearly reclaimed from the firestorm of cooking and today has been a nice, quiet day of recovery and enjoying.  My sister and her family...

read more

It Does a Mom's Heart Good

A couple of months ago, when I knew I was having some younger children coming to stay with me, I bought some washable tub crayons, just for fun.  My own kids love them and the crayons have taken up permanent residence in the shower, yielding some...

read more

The Reason for the Not Reading

Today I got my kids out the door at 6 am, checked my email and saw a book on my desk that I really need to return to a friend. I put it in my bag so I would make sure to give it back to her today while running errands. But I really wanted to read it,...

read more

The Lunar Eclipse and Winter Solstice

Last night, I stayed up till 3 am to watch the Lunar Eclipse. It was of special interest to me that it happened the same night as the Winter Solstice. I love the skies and everything that has been imagined, written, studied and discovered in relation...

read more

Some Recent Reading

The Anglo Filesby Sarah LyallPart Memoir, Part DocumentaryYou might like this book if: You are interested in British culture or you enjoy books that examine other cultures in relation to American ideals.NYTimes reporter Sarah Lyall married an Englishman...

read more

Listening for Those Trucks

For the most part, the shopping is done. I still have a few things yet to be delivered, wrapped up, and, in some cases, mailed out again. I tried shipping things directly, but some things couldn't be gift-wrapped or the additional cost of gift-wrapping...

read more

Hard Day

I'm at a big wrestling tournament which started very promisingly yesterday evening for Evan. Today however, he's running a fever and showing every sign of getting a nasty virus, so he's getting stomped every time. Days like this are for character building...

read more

Discarding the Meaningless

On Sunday evening, our family participated in a tradition that I love because it helps me remember what I want my Christmas season to really be. We watched The First Presidency Christmas Devotional, which is an hour-long program of music and speeches...

read more

Good Bread

Update to this post, 12/14/2010: For some reason, the links to the actual recipe and blog post in the third paragraph below are dead. The whole article has disappeared. Drop me a line and I'll email you the recipe if you're curious.  So, I've been...

read more

Good Stories

Last night as I drove home from a teaching gig and some evening shopping, I chanced upon NPR's Hanukkah Lights. This is a feature that offers up to the listener specially commissioned stories by established authors during the Hanukkah season. I felt...

read more