Good Messes

Is it strange that I love my daughter's messes? She is 16 months old and leaves little or sometimes big messes wherever she goes. Recently she was eating a fudge pop. I had wrapped the popsicle in a wash cloth to keep it from melting as quickly. As she ate it, the chocolate slowly became…

Having a Hard Time

I am a firm believer that no child is giving you a hard time. They are having a hard time.

Gratitude for Where We are Now

There are moments where I find myself focused only on the future. A kind of tunnel vision for a time. I remember that focus when my husband and I were wishing so badly to grow our family. For a time the majority of our conversations were about a baby or fertility. I had the same…

Motherhood and Marriage

A year ago, I couldn't have imagined how much becoming a mother would change me and my husband. I was a mother from the moment our daughter began to grow within me. I thought about her every moment of the day, and tried to take care of myself so that I could better provide for…

Infertility: Love, Loss, and Motherhood

I have been thinking a lot lately about two topics that seem very different but are actually closely related: love and loss. My husband and I are currently expecting our first baby, a little girl, in just a few months. We could not be more simultaneously thrilled and nervous! We have loved being able to…

Foundations of Parenting: A Six-Part Program

Hello readers! It has been ages since I have updated my marriage blog, largely because I have been creating a sister blog called 'Foundations of Parenting' for the last part of my Bachelor's degree in Marriage and Family Studies! This program has been developed and created primarily by myself with the assistance of a small…

Take the Good, Leave the Bad

I have been blessed to have two of the world’s best parents. They raised me to have solid values that have helped shape me into the woman I am today, and they continue to provide valuable support and counsel to me and my husband. I also have two of the world’s best parents-in-law. They have…

Taking it into the Other Room: Family Councils

After me and my husband got married, we had the opportunity to live with his parents for three months while we looked for a car and an apartment. During this three months, I was eagerly trying to absorb the good things that I saw my in-laws doing, things that I wanted to apply to my…

Speaking of Sex

When I was a teenager, I had a few defining experiences that helped me to shape my thoughts about sex. They also shaped how open I was to talking about it in the right circumstances. One, I had a youth leader who was very cautious about talking about sex. We had several lessons about chastity…

Charity in Marriage

“But we can also choose to see in a heavenly and loving way. That choice makes all the difference. Charity can be the lens through which we see each other” (Goddard, 2009). Several years ago, I had the opportunity to serve as a missionary for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.…