Dancing with Daffodils

I set a goal to read 35 books this year, after I successfully read 30 last year and felt the need to step up my game. I have read 17 books, so I am about halfway there, although more than halfway through the year so I am looking forward to catching up during the fall time when the kids go back to school. But here is my first 17 reads of 2018. 1. Victoria by Daisy Goodwin. Fantastic book! I absolutely loved this one although it is right up my alley of English historical fiction, but it is well-written and interesting and it was a great way to start the year. 2. Of Mess and Moxie by Jen Hatmaker. I have some friends that just love her and I liked her but am not quite drinking her kool aid. It was an easy, uplifting read and I enjoyed it but it felt a bit fluffy to me. Good book, just didn't wow me. 3. A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly. This takes place in the Adirondacks and is full of good characters, heart and mystery. I was really into it and it was a refreshing change f...

Sometimes it is just hard to be a grown up. There is something about summer that makes me yearn for the simpler days of my childhood. I drove nine hours last week to visit my parents and while I was driving I couldn’t help but be slightly envious of my kids sitting in the back of the car, reading and playing with toys. That used to be me. Since I am the youngest, all our years of road tripping across the country meant all my sisters would take turns driving but I was never old enough. I got to sit in the back and read, listen to my walkman, watch out the window, sleep or do whatever I wanted for 36 hours. That sure beats sitting in traffic, getting cut off by a red BMW, being rerouted onto sketchy streets because of traffic and trying to find a Wendys before your kids get too hangry. My kids always wonder why dad doesn’t have a summer break. Every day for the first week of vacation they ask where is dad and they’re so confused when I explain how he still has to go to work. Wouldn’t...

Last week I was at the beach and was therefore too busy dancing in the waves to write. It was a glorious week of being disconnected from any regular responsibility other than my children. I know I've written about how much I love the beach before but here it goes again. I love the ocean. I don't know if it is because I went so often as a kid or if it is just part of who I am but I love water in general and the ocean especially. I find the power of the waves inspiring and I love how it is always changing so it never gets boring; some days the waves are huge (fun!) some days the waves are calm (still fun!) and some days they are just right (super fun!).  I love how the water is always moving and going somewhere, pulling or pushing you. I love how beautiful it is when a wave crests and crashes on itself, spraying white bubbles and kicking up sand and shells. My favorite is getting out just past where they are breaking and wave dancing. This is a sport I invented when I was nin...

Well, you know how much I love summer. I've been verbose at times on how much I love having my own schedule, enjoy the beach and the pool, the joy of picnics and summer rain storms and dusk when it starts to cool off but isn't dark yet, and eating copious amounts of ice cream. One of my very favorite parts of summer is sleeping in. We've been out of school for a week but because my son attended cub scout day camp this week, I had to actually set an alarm and get up earlier than on school days. Thankfully I had a friend close by who drove him each morning so I just had to get him to her house or I would have to get all the kids dressed and in the car to go sign him in every morning at 7:45 am. Does that sound early to you? It is very early for me. I don't like to start my day before 8 am and I do have to say I was shocked by how many people were out and about at 7:25 when I was driving him to our friend's house, eyes barely open. This is how I have learned what a...

My second grader is a great speller. He rarely did any practicing for his spelling tests and maybe missed five words total for the year. When he came home with a paper saying there was going to be a class spelling bee and then the top four spellers would go on a grade-wide spelling bee, I was excited for him and expected him to do well. I didn't push it or want to put any pressure on him and we had a busy weekend so it was just three days beforehand that I suggested we go through the long practice list that had been sent home. Each day we had to go over an entire front and back of words in order to go over all of them in time. As it turned out, we didn't make it to the last three columns but I figured he knew the majority and would be fine. I anxiously waited for him by the door that day and when he walked in I excitedly asked him how it went. That was when he burst into tears and said he misspelled the very first word. He said it was one of the few on the last page that we h...

I gave this talk last week in church and thought I would share it here, mostly because I've been too sick this week to do any other writing, so enjoy! I was asked by the handsome guy in the middle [Josh but I felt funny calling him Josh in church and there was no way I was going to say Bishop Darrow so he became handsome guy] here to speak today on how asking gospel questions is part of gospel living. I think he gave this topic to me because he actually really wanted to give this talk and by having me do it, he could pepper me every evening with ideas. He tried to flatter me by saying it was because of my experience in journalism, which makes me  a professional question asker, but I know better. When I was at BYU and taking my news writing class, our managing editor inspired us the first week of class with an analogy involving fishing. The actual analogy was lost on me since I don’t like fish but his point was that we need to get into the guts of the story and not just stay...

First off I want to apologize to my loyal 10 readers. I've been very busy and haven't made time for my writing, which has led to a few late posts on Friday night in an effort to meet my goal. Without time to really reflect and edit my writing, I feel like it has led to lower quality posts. While it is a good exercise for me to practice writing on a deadline, it isn't fun for you to read lame stuff. So, thanks for coming back and I'm hoping quality will improve as I continue to practice. Let me share with you another struggle I am having. A few weeks ago we bought a new car. A minivan actually. I still have a hard time saying it. I've become a minivan-driving soccer mom. I have always been this person but just didn't have the minivan for the rest of the world to know it too. I am not ashamed of who I am; I love staying home with my children, I enjoy supporting them in their activities, I can even get into my son's soccer games. But for some reason I felt a ...