We’ve lost many children in our ward in many different tragic ways. Those of us who were close to those children feel their loss deeply; there is an empty space where they used to be. Our lives were forever changed by their deaths. But we lost them one at a time. I cannot imagine the pain (and it is a terrible physical pain)the people of Newton, Connecticut are enduring right now. God bless them. God bless them.

A quick thought on this Sunday’s upcoming “Wear Pants to Church Day.”

I know that there are women out there that support this idea but who for whatever reason won’t wear pants themselves this Sunday. I think this is a bit sad. I can imagine a scenario in which the not-so-brave feminists of a ward show up hoping against hope to see one of their sisters in pants. They all look quickly at one another wondering where all the feminists are, only to find skirts and dresses. They’ll come away discouraged thinking that there are no like-minded sisters in their ward. Of course they’ll be mistaken. Many are of exactly the same mind: looking for those brave enough to wear pants but unwilling to do so themselves.

I encourage anyone who has any desire to do so to wear pants, and be a beacon to those in your ward that won’t. I know I will. And my darkest shirt.

When I was a kid, my adoptive LDS family followed the prophet. With 7-year old wonder I inspected the pantry of my new family’s house, in awe of the rows of home canned tomatoes, meat and eggs. Read more »

It happened again last night. I can’t predict it or guide it with my worry or anxieties. I can’t go to sleep praying, “Heavenly Father, Jennifer needs a needs a new coat and I don’t have the money for it. Help me find one.” It doesn’t work that way. At least, it hasn’t so far.

All I know is a few times a year I will have a dream and in my dream I am in a specific store, sometimes in a particular department, finding things my family needs at super cheap prices. Because of this weird phenomon, which I choose to believe is a spiritual gift, I have scored socks, shoes, shirts, pants, what-have-you all at last clearance prices. Read more »

O.k, – I hate to air dirty laundry in public, but once again I need advice. I am stuck and I haven’t found one book written for this situation.

As you figured out from my last post (the BEST family photo you’ve ever seen, I’m sure), I have a daughter who is divorced. My adorable granddaughter is from that temple marriage (1)

The kids have been divorced for a whole month and my ex-son-in-law is planning on getting married to his new cute, naive girlfriend pretty darn quick. Read more »

The bishop stopped by last evening to check on us because we didn’t go to church yesterday. We explained that we weren’t there because we were at the nursing home taking family pictures.

Sunday morning was the only time everyone could be at same place at the same time. I didn’t have a problem missing Sunday services to make this picture stuff happen because I have been harassed for months by my elderly parents about getting it done and I just can’t take it anymore. Read more »

I am not one of THOSE feminists. I don’t care to “hold the priesthood.” Baby blessings that are really Father’s blessings don’t kill my soul even a little bit. As a young woman, I did not envy the young men passing the sacrament, advancing through the priesthood ranks, or emptying the trash cans after church. One of my more classically feminist friends used to tell me how sorely she wished the Relief Society presidency ALSO sat on the stand during Sacrament Meeting so the congregation would have a visual representation of all the work women do in the Church–I thought that sounded kind of crazy and would MUCH rather have fewer people sit up front than more. But today my Sacrament Meeting was kind of a feminist nightmare, and it had nothing whatsoever to do with content.
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It’s an interesting and a bit awkward situation when we meet people we’ve become acquainted with on-line in real life. Let me see, I’ve met: Cathy Cann and Bridget of “Life in Red Shoes” (awesome women, that wasn’t awkward, for me, anyway); Heather (I can’t remember which Heather she was, but we’d both recently read the same book—I don’t think she wanted me to hug her. I’m a hugger); Marta Silver (THAT wasn’t awkward at all, Marta’s the easiest person to be around on the planet); Sara (I can’t remember the name of her blog, but she focused on mental health issues); a random John and Amira (that was awkward, but for me it was because Bill and I were so unhappy at the time. John, I still feel guilty about that chocolate bar you gave me because I really didn’t like it); and Brian Gibson, who absolutely rocks and has the warmest personality. I think that’s all. Read more »

I have recently renewed my interest in the Holocaust. I pretty much traumatize myself every few years by immersing in, and re-reading, books about the Holocaust.

This time, something struck me and I want to share it. There were no camps in Belgium, Bulgaria or Denmark. One, Westerbok, in Holland. The other camps were spread around Europe, with, of course, the most in Germany and Poland. Read more »

I’m actually enjoying the Deseret News I get on Saturdays; it’s not the real Deseret News. I don’t know how to explain it. We get the Church News and then a section of Deseret News, which is mostly editorials (Daniel Peterson figures prominently). I don’t always read them carefully (what else is new) and parts bother me, but still…

I was caught by this headline “Goals Gone Wild” so I have read that, which was in last Saturday’s paper (actually dated Sunday, Nov 4). The author, Michael De Groote, points out the many flaws of goal setting and how goal setting can be self defeating, taken to a fault. He discusses how some goals motivate us to accomplishments for the wrong reasons. Read more »

I posted something on FB about my longing for a lot of money to pay for extensive plastic surgery and my friend, Renee Thurber, sent me this experience from her own life. I think it’s worth a read:

Virtue would go far if vanity did not keep it company.
~Francois de La Rochefoucauld

I am a vain woman. Heck, I was a vain kid. on the morning of my very first day of kindergarten while I was primping before the mirror I felt a little confused so I asked my mom “am I pretty, or cute?”. obnoxious, i know. and the thing is – this was a serious question for me, one that I felt was weighty and consequential and deserved an honest answer. (Now, I find it amusing that my wisdomic mom’s response irritated me a bit – actually her cavalier answer absolutely annoyed me. “well, you look just fine Nay. and I’d say you’re pretty-cute!”) Read more »

My ward had its annual Halloween party a few days ago. It was a lovely affair, full of costumes, games and candy for the kids. Read more »

I lead the music in sacrament meeting which is pretty funny because I cannot sing a lick. I’m tone deaf and can’t read music. But I can count time and I smile and I love music, so it’s working, for now. I have a couple of strong singers in the congregation who know I will be following them. I’ve taped myself singing a few times and it’s pretty funny, but I still love to sing.

A couple of weeks ago, the organist failed to practice the closing song which was “All Creatures of Our God and King.” So she said she was going to set the organ to play the song—I guess the organs nowadays have the accompaniement in them. She had a little trouble with the buttons, but got them set (I thought) and we successfully went through the song several times before church. Read more »

There are many disheartening things that have come as a result of the economic situation that the United States has faced over the last several years. However, I am not certain that these disheartening circumstances are the result of the economic downturn. I am convinced that that how we currently see humans, their purpose in this world, has been something that has been cooking for some time now. It is just that the rhetoric has turned pervasively more moribund and functional over the last several years. In particular I am concerned about how the rhetoric has turned against what has been seen as an important, perhaps the central, aspect of our idea of what constitutes a solid education for our future citizens; namely, our children. Read more »

When I was a kid our church meetings were held in a building we bought from another church. The main floor was the chapel with long, narrow stained glassed windows along the tall walls and ceiling that came to a dramatic point. I spent many a boring Sacrament meeting watching the sun dance on the colored glass, making the pictures of Noah’s Ark and Baby Jesus seem to come alive with heavenly light. Read more »

I am an admittedly less active member of the bloggernaccle these days, but I know a common enough sentiment around here is that the LDS Church should get a divorce from BSA. Whether for monetary, feminist or egalitarian, or simplicity reasons, lots of us can jump on that bandwagon. Some of us just don’t want to be a den leader. Ever. To my knowledge, whenever such a sentiment is hinted at, some cosmic balancing force comments that that will NEVER happen under President Monson or that it will be a long long time or that BSA would die without us or whatever. Really, it always goes like this.

So I fully expected a post last Thursday along the lines of “here is 30 years of perversion papers from the BSA–let’s get a lawyer and get divorced!” The files released last week apparently show how, in case after case, someone at BSA chose to protect an adult over a child. Perhaps it doesn’t happen now. Maybe two-deep leadership fixed those problems. Some might say that parents who allowed their boys to sleep at a leaders house were the negligent ones. I have to admit that I am one of those bloggernacclers who eagerly anticipates at least a sepperation between the Church and BSA (wherein, interested families might participate in scouts and sponser and run the troop, which may meet in our buildings, but which would NOT recieve support from wards in the form of money or callings of leaders), so I am wont to say hey, this looks terrible! Let’s bail! Let’s do it FOR the kids.

Our stake just participated in the Childrens’ Sabbath wherein we all did our Primary Programs on the same Sunday. At the behest of my Stake President, I re-read Elder Oak’s recent General Conference address and while I can’t say I agree with every inch of it, I can of course support the thesis of it: that children are a valuable and vulnerable population who need protection. And, here’s the kicker– we must provide it.

So I am an easy target for this BSA problem. I have no great attachment to the organization, and could easily cut ties at this evidence of institutional illness. I’m there. But I wonder about others–are there defenders? Do any of you feel that these perversion papers are sufficinetly old or out-moded? That we cannot condemn this organization? That the good elements outweigh the (very) bad?

I’d love to hear what you and your troops have thought about this.

We are less than three weeks to the election. The race for President seems pretty much a toss up now given the strong surge by Romney in the last few weeks. What is your prediction? Who wins? Is Ohio the decider or is it Colorado? First Mormon President or reelection for Obama… Good news is you have a 50-50 chance of calling it correctly!

I wasn’t going to post anything on the internet about this, but it is 3am and I woke up with a start. I’m not going back to sleep anytime soon, so I decided I needed to come clean and reach out to my knowledgeable ‘net friends. Here goes: Read more »