1989     2013 Recently my husband and I celebrated our 24th anniversary.  I used to think that was a lot of years of marriage but now I'm thinking it's really not.  We really did have color pictures back then but I guess my scanner is black and white.  We're not THAT old. I'm so grateful to be happily married.  I wish everyone could have that blessing in their lives.  I feel so sad when I hear about unhappy marriages or divorces.  I won't say it's always been easy to be married.  We've had frustrating and challenging times, although it's definitely easier when your spouse is as unselfish as my husband is.  He really wants me to be happy. Several weeks ago I heard a  talk by Elder Whitney Clayton at our church's General Conference, which was about marriage.  The phrase that has stuck with me the most is: "...the best marriage partners regard their marriage as priceless."   I have found myself remembering that phra

     This book is not a history of nearly everything (ie. political history) but is really a history of science and all the discoveries that have been made in both the physical and biological sciences.  Apparently the author was dissatisfied with his level of scientific knowledge (he had very little) and set out to write a book for a non-scientific audience.  I felt that he succeeded.  I enjoyed reading the book and found it quite comprehensible and entertaining, most of the time.  In fact, my husband who is a physicist with a doctorate degree, read it some years ago and also found it quite interesting and wants to read it again.  Because of the breadth of this book, I'm certain everyone could learn something from this book, no matter what their training.  One thing I liked was reading about the lives of the early scientists.  They were a quirky bunch and Mr. Bryson really made their stories come to life.  He writes very well. As you can imagine from the title, this is a

This is a juvenile fiction book about a young girl named Melody with severe cerebral palsy.  Her body doesn't allow her to feed herself, speak, or do much at all.  She's very intelligent with a photographic memory but she can't really communicate.  Finally, in 5th grade, she gets a "Medi-Talker" which is a computer that speaks what she types in.  Finally she has a voice. This book explores what it is like to be severely physically disabled but not mentally disabled. It seems like one of the most frustrating of all scenarios.  She is completely aware of all the cruelty (subtle and otherwise) that her classmates inflict on her because they don't really want to include her in their activities.  One of the saddest moments in the book comes when she realizes that every one of her special ed classmates is kind, where the "normal" ones are not.  Who really has the worse disability? The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable.  What I enjoyed about

Here's a blast from the past: our first family picture with our first child, not quite 23 years ago.  We were both graduating from BYU so we did graduation and family together.  My mom was always really good about getting family pictures taken just about every year and that probably has a lot to do with why I've tried to do the same. So last night we tried to take some family pictures.  Shall I detail all of the challenges of taking a family picture?  Especially with a big family? 1.  Everyone has to be healthy .  My 8-year-old has been suffering from a bad cold the last few days and it shows.  She was not smiling in most of the pictures. Her nose is red from excessive nose-wiping.  But we couldn't wait until she felt better because today was my 18-year-old's shoulder surgery.  His arm is going to be in a mega-sling for the next six weeks and I didn't really want that in the picture.  And my 5-year-old has a major bruise/goose egg on her forehead but fortuna

We started a new family tradition a few years ago.  I got the idea from the Ensign.   The article I read had something to do with creating family traditions around watching General Conference.  The idea was to have a family trivia contest shortly after the conference.  So that's what we do.  On the Monday night after (one day later), we have everybody write down some questions, preferably with the answers.  Some of the questions are trivial, like "What color was Sister Dalton's blouse?" or "How old was Pres. Monson when he set the grass on fire?"  Some are a little more profound, like, "What was the theme of Elder Perry's talk?"  Then there are the funny ones like, "Why is it so long?" (General Conference)   We form two teams, hopefully evenly matched, and I act as the moderator, asking the questions and keeping score.  This would be moderately entertaining, in and of itself, but my husband and children have managed to take

Do I seem obsessed with parenting?  This is the book I read on a short spring break trip our family took.  My husband likes to drive and the children were mostly self-sufficient so I got to read.  I liked this book, for the most part.  I found the latter half to be especially helpful.  The book was written by a clinical psychologist who has been counseling families since 1977.  The book was published in 1995. The first half of the book set the stage for the second half.  The author uses case-studies that seem a little extreme with children that are just completely out-of-control so it's a little hard to identify with these case studies.  She also talks about parenting styles and which are the most effective.  The best parenting style is one called "authoritative", not to be confused with "authoritarian".  (If someone could make these labels less similar, we'd all be better off.)   The third style is permissive.  Authoritative parents are "those who

The second day of the conference was not quite as helpful as I had hoped it would be (my parenting is still not perfect!), but I still came away with some good tips  Here are some of them: 1.  Brains like anticipation and don't really like surprises.  One way to help children in somewhat stressful situations is to talk to them about what's going to happen before, during and after.  For example, if they have to go to the doctor and get a shot and keep stressing about it, perhaps it's good to give them that timeline (first we're going to have lunch, then we'll get in the car and go to the doctor, then afterwards we'll come home and you can have a snack) and have something rewarding at the end to anticipate.  This will hopefully help them with the transitions.  Then, after you have told them several times, you can use distraction to help them cope with the stress they're feeling.  One mother at the conference does a lot of foster parenting and when the kids h

It has been a little more than three weeks since I started my water challenge so I need to report on how I did.  The challenge was mostly successful.  I think it really helped that I have been working on this for more than a year, although the last three weeks I was definitely trying harder. Things that helped: 1.  Marking my big red cup.  It holds two full cups so having to fill it just one time per meal helped. 2.  Tying it to events that happen every day. 3.  Having a cup in my bathroom and remembering to drink a full cup right when I wake up. Challenges: 1.  When my big red cup was dirty, I didn't have a good substitute.  Fortunately this didn't happen very much. 2.   I don't follow my routine quite as well on weekends, especially in the mornings, so this threw me off. 3.  There were a few days that were just too busy and I really didn't do very well. 4.  Fast Sunday.  I have decided that going completely without water in addition to food for an entire d