trials

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Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day   A year ago, on Mother’s Day, I sat in a church meeting surrounded by other women in Los Angeles, California. A teacher was at the front of the room doing her best to give an uplifting lesson about the importance of motherhood and womanhood, but I was distracted. I was reflecting on my journey as a mom. Exhaustion and stress weighed me down in my chair as I struggled to pay attention. There was gratitude and love...

Enjoy the Journey…But How?

We had just finished a long, grueling move from Los Angeles to Boise. It was a very challenging process to pack up our whole house in a few days, find a place to rent from afar, find appropriate programs for Jagger while living in a different state, and then make the long road trip with a huge U-Haul. What got me through the sleepless nights, the stressful planning and the ugly drive though was this thought that when we got...

The Street Of Opportunity

When I was growing up in southern California, my family with seven kids financially struggled for quite a few years. The five of us older siblings took on jobs as soon as we could, and helped our parents out by paying for our own cell phones/bills, car insurance, gas, missions, college, etc. We all worked hard, but there were still days we came home exhausted and overwhelmed wondering if we would ever make enough to not just make ends meet,...

Whether It’s Roses Or A Skunk, Marriage is Marriage

“Whether it’s roses, fresh cookies, or a skunk, when you get a whiff of something, molecules travel through your nose and to your odor receptors. This pathway then triggers the olfactory bulb in the brain’s limbic system and fragrant magic happens. Memories rush back, appetites roar, or something screams, ‘Get the Lysol!’… After a few minutes, your brain tends to blot out any constant and unchanging stimulus such as a certain smell. To keep your nervous system from exhausting itself...

Why I Pushed Little Kids

WHY I PUSHED LITTLE KIDS… AWAY  This post is not about kids I know or see on planned play dates, or my fellow mommy friends. This is about trying to play with my kids at the park, and being swarmed by a dozen stray children starving for attention, and me constantly asking the question “WHERE IS THIS KID’S PARENTS?!”  First off let me start by saying, I am not a mean person. Those who know me well would probably describe...