Search Results for: blog a mistake in my youth

A Parent’s Fatal Mistake

You may have heard the horrifying and tragic story of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzy, savagely killed and dismembered in New York. Although it has been all over the news, I first read about the arrest of his murderer when I was searching for traffic accident stories for one of my freelance writing gigs. The headline blazed across the computer and I honestly wanted to vomit. I won’t tell you the details. But as I read the news story, tears ran down my face. This little boy was simply lost and looking for directions. But he came across the wrong person to … Continue reading →

A Mistake in my Youth

In Sunday school this past week, I shared a story that was a little embarrassing, but did pertain to the lesson. The teacher asked if any of us had ever had a time when we wished that we were not who we were, or if there was a time when we didn’t want to make it known that we were LDS. I immediately thought of a story from my teenage years. As a teenager, living in Texas, I was usually very proud of who I was. All of my friends were non-mormon, and frequently asked me questions about my religion. … Continue reading →

My Mother’s Hand Came Out Of My Sleeve

This year I’ll turn 45. That doesn’t worry me since I’m far healthier than anyone in my family was at my age. My great grandmother died at 73, my grandmother at 63, and my mother at 53. Since I made it past 43, I feel I’ve broken the family curse of each woman dying a decade earlier than the one before. Through exercise, stress reduction, staying busy, and eating as healthy as I can, as often as I can, I have hopes to live longer and look younger than anyone in my family ever has. I’ve been mildly OCD about … Continue reading →

A Teen’s Reputation

How do you break out of a bad reputation? It can be really difficult and a painful lesson that one of my children is learning. It becomes even more frustrating when it’s a situation at church, and adults are involved. Youth leaders, who are supposed to be helping teens through these sometimes difficult years, yet can’t seem to let go of past behavior. Now I’m not talking out-of-control behavior. I’m speaking of a teen with an attitude and talking when you aren’t supposed to. Yet no matter how my child tries to remake herself, the old is the only thing … Continue reading →

Do You Believe in Miracles?

I have been loving studying the New Testament this year in Sunday School. There is nothing better than reading about Christ’s life. This past week, we talked about some of the miracles He performed while on this earth, and the lessons we can learn by applying the principles from these miracles in our lives. First, we discussed the reasons why Christ performed miracles. There were three reasons: * To build the faith of others * Compassion He felt towards others * To show His power Every miracle in the new testament can be categorized into one of those three reasons. … Continue reading →

One in a Million

Did you know that there are about 1 million primary children in the church worldwide? Amazing. I heard about a new project that the Friend is doing called, “One in a Million”. It is a place to showcase primary children across the world, and share the stories of their lives and testimonies. What a cool project! If you go here, you will find a map of the world, with stars on it. When you click on a star, it will bring up a story of a child. I watched one of a boy named Martins, who lives in Nigeria and … Continue reading →

2,000 Days

I wonder if the forest preservation people realize how much paper the average kindergarten class bleeds through in an academic year? I had the equivalent of at least a few hundred murdered trees stacked in my mock mud room courtesy of my just graduated kindergartener. Miles of worksheets interspersed with dozens of art projects, end of the school year autograph books (translation: scrap pieces of paper stapled to form a book with the names of each of my daughter’s classmates scribbled in kindergarten cursive), and mountains of registration material for everything from summer Bible camp to youth soccer sessions. Post … Continue reading →

Young Genealogists

I started researching my genealogy when I was about 23 years old. In the seven years since, I have noticed a common denominator among genealogists: they tend to have gray hair. It has been the rare occasion when I have come across genealogists who are in their 20s or 30s. I usually feel like the oddball when I am performing research in courthouses or town archives. But what can I say-I find my family history fascinating. To my blissfulness, I have recently come across a whole community of young genealogists. Unfortunately they are all online, but it is nice to … Continue reading →

Your Kids are Ready for Sleep-Away Camp. Are You?

Reading a recent article at Huffington Post about sleep away camp has me in a bit of a tizzy. The writer (Tina Traster) described a camp information session she was recently at where parents worried about peanuts, and junk food, and socializing with other kids. She also recalled the reality of her own camp days were counselors weren’t screened and she experienced “the most unadulterated part of childhood”. At 13 and 15, my kids have never been to sleep away camp unless you count a few 4-day church youth retreats and a couple of trips to Bob Jones University for … Continue reading →

Is It Time for Mickey Mouse To Get a Facelift?

Can an icon still be an icon if its image changes? That’s the question Disney officials are asking themselves as they begin to consider a reinvention of Mickey Mouse. That’s right; the trademark mouse in Disney’s house might be getting a makeover. Disney executives are concerned that the younger generation doesn’t care about Mickey. In 2009 only 20% of Mickey’s $5 billion merchandise sales came from the United States. Consequently, the folks at Disney fear that Mickey is nothing more than a corporate mascot to American children, and that’s the issue they want to address. Other than saying considerations are … Continue reading →