Archive for April, 2011

12April 30, 2011
Marshmallows, Obedience and You

In the famous Stanford Marshmallow Experiment (1972), Professor Walter Mischel gave four year-old children a marshmallow, and instructed them that if they waited twenty minutes without eating it, they would...
3April 28, 2011
Twelfth Lunch

November 11th, 2010 I gave away the last lunch (somehow, the story of the eleventh lunch was never recorded and has been lost to the mists of time). It had...
31April 27, 2011
The Joys of Parenthood

Why do we have such a hard time admitting to the realities of parenthood? This morning a dear friend of mine who has just given birth to her second baby...
6April 26, 2011
Get Lost

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what we mean when we talk about “losing ourselves in a good book.”
7April 25, 2011
Pausing for a Moment of Silence

When my children had outgrown their need for a nap, but I had not yet outgrown my need to have them nap, we instituted “quiet time” where they could play...
2April 24, 2011
Ren’s (former) Ride to the Winter Quarters, Nebraska Temple

Today’s Ride to Church post comes from Ren (who now lives in Minnesota): I used to live in Omaha, Nebraska and this is my former ride to the Winter Quarters...
6April 24, 2011
Earn This

By Dan A long favorite movie scene of mine comes near the close of “Saving Private Ryan.” Capt. John Miller, the character played by Tom Hanks, lies dying in the...
2April 23, 2011
The Good Book

I love getting books in the mail. No seriously: I feel like no one could possibly understand how much I love it. It doesn’t happen often enough, but when we...
4April 22, 2011
A Spoonful of Sugar

Or how the ‘Making of Mary Poppins’ documentary included on the 25th Anniversary DVD restored my hope and sweetened my attitude toward life in general. A few years ago, my...
1April 21, 2011
Emergency: Lunches 9 and 10

On a drizzly day last fall, at the familiar corner near the Carter Center where I gave away the very first lunch, lunches #9 and #10 found homes with two...
14April 19, 2011
Book Worm Love

The books people love and the way they talk about them can be quite revealing about the way they view the world. Or not.
0April 19, 2011
Fff… family

I just read this today and loved it: http://www.literarymama.com/columns/perfectlynormal/archives/2011/ffffamily.html A great reminder that not all families look alike (which clearly we should not need reminding) and that for some people,...
4April 18, 2011
Worshipping WITH the World

Last Sunday I was in New Orleans for a conference. As much as I love the volunteer work I do every Sunday as the primary chorister (children’s music leader, for...
1April 17, 2011
Surely We Were Blessed

We were a wreck. The basses and tenors were supposed to be singing a unison line—yet I kept hearing a variety of notes, none of them correct. I’d moved two...
17April 17, 2011
Paula’s Prius Ride to Church

Today’s Ride to Church hails from Paula in Encinitas, California. The LDS Chapel on Lake Street in Encinitas, CA is our destination today. Encinitas is a town of 65,000...
10April 16, 2011
“Come to Zion”

‘Zion’ has become a dirty word in our world: now it is shorthand for the displacement of native peoples from their homelands, and a justification for the flexing of military...
1April 15, 2011
Natural Coastline Ecosystems

This is a photo I took on a short (half a day) trip to the beach over Spring Break. Behind me is the Atlantic Ocean. I was in Florida visiting...
9April 15, 2011
Before Sunset

For Jesse and Céline these questions are embodied in a single night and in each other. But the question of how we balance our passion, our need to continue living...
0April 14, 2011
Helping an Orphanage in Ethiopia

One of my dearest and oldest friends (one of two friends without whom I would not have survived high school) and her husband are adopting two babies from Ethiopia. She...
4April 14, 2011
Find Your Tribe

Over a decade ago I read this article in Mothering Magazine about a woman who is far from family and friends and meets up with another woman to share household...
1April 14, 2011
Bayou Courtableau, Louisiana

Alina Taylor writes: These images were taken on Bayou Courtableau in St Landry Parish, Louisiana near Port Barre right off 190. It is a town steeped in Louisiana bayou charm...
4April 14, 2011
Mormon Matters Podcast 27: Mormons and their Leaders

I really enjoyed getting to be a part of this dialogue with Joanna Brooks, Dan Wotherspoon, and Charles Randall Paul regarding the way Mormons regard our church leaders. It gave...
12April 13, 2011
The Grass is Always Greener

I just got back from a fancy schmantzy conference for educational researchers in New Orleans. I submit proposals every year and hope to get one in—even though I know I’m...
0April 13, 2011
MM 23: The KJV and Changes to Race-Related Book of Mormon Chapter Headings

I spent 15 hours driving this weekend and so had a lot of listening time. I enjoyed this Mormon Matters podcast–especially after reading Ed’s post here about his first Bible:...
3April 12, 2011
Just Too Good to be True

Context can be everything in art. Hearing those songs again, in a fresh context, I was actually listening to them for the first time.
8April 12, 2011
Salvador, Brazil

I gotta love Facebook because it allowed me to re-connect with Kim Allen, who was my roommate while I was on study abroad in Spain. Kim is a great photographer...
29April 10, 2011
Cafeteria Style

In last week’s LDS General Conference session. Elder Nelson, a prominent priesthood leader, said,“ Teach of faith to keep all the commandments of God, knowing that they are given to...
7April 10, 2011
Sterling’s Taiwanese Ride to Church

Today’s Ride to Church comes to us from Sterling Swallow–all the way from Taiwan. Sterling writes: Taoyuan, Taiwan is not only the site of three LDS wards, but it’s also...
4April 9, 2011
Time’s Fractal Line

‘I wish I had more time in my life.’ A friend wrote this on his Facebook wall yesterday. It’s a problem I can certainly relate to: I often feel the...
21April 8, 2011
Before Sunrise

An American man meets a French woman on a train in Europe. They connect and get off together in Vienna where they spend the night walking around the city and...
4April 6, 2011
Delousing the Kids

This beautiful poem was written by my dear friend, Dayna Patterson, after patiently listening to me whine about our 2010 lice-capade. It will be published later this year in a...
9April 6, 2011
An Unlikely Prayer of Thanksgiving

Last summer, Brent and Stuart went to get a haircut. While there, the stylist discovered that Stuart had lice (gasp!). We soon discovered that Marin also had it (double gasp!)....
1April 5, 2011
Bicycle Playlist

“Bicycles move with the flow of the earth …”
6April 4, 2011
Cleared for Take Off

“Does anyone smell smoke?” Not exactly the words you want to hear at 36,000 feet in the air halfway through a cross-country flight. Shortly after the flight attendant asked us...
6April 3, 2011
James’ Bike Ride to Church in Suffolk and Essex

Come see James’ bike ride to his favourite church just outside Suffolk, England, where James grew up and now works as a primary school teacher. This is not the Quaker...
7April 3, 2011
Reach Out and Touch Someone

He blazed up the wide middle aisle of our repurposed Presbyterian sanctuary, passing the stained glass depictions of Biblical scenes on his way to the pulpit to speak at the...
3April 2, 2011
The West

Yesterday on ‘Rogue Cinema’ I wrote about one of my Granddad’s favourite films, the 1955 version of Oklahoma!, and pondered how this representation of the American West appealed to his...
2April 1, 2011
Boise Trees

DaLyn took these beautiful pictures in or around Boise, Idaho. Thanks for sharing them with us, DaLyn.
8April 1, 2011
Oklahoma!

The first part of a two-post analysis of the dream of the American West, through a particularly successful 1955 movie adaptation of the Broadway hit. Six years ago, my paternal...