Category Archives: LDS

boathouse


boathouse
Originally uploaded by pilgrimgirl.

On Saturday Caroline and I got up at 6:30 to go canoeing. That was 6:30 a.m. CT time, which meant 3:30 CA time (yawn!). When we got down to the lake we realized that the canoes were not conveniently located by our cabins, but were across the lake from us.

After a few hesitant moments, we headed off at a trot around the lake. What made it all more interesting was that I had forgotten my coat (left it on the floor of my bedroom back home) and it was COLD! I also hadn’t worn my leg (didn’t want to get the computerized knee wet), so I was on crutches. To my surprise the 1/2 mi hike around the lake goes pretty fast when you are freezing and it is 3 a.m. and you haven’t eaten and you are wearing a coat that you kifed from your still-sleeping bunkmate.

The paddling turned out to be delightful. All the more so because we were accompanied by one of the well-known founding mothers of ExII. What fun to get to know her better!

By the time I had crutched to the boathouse and back and paddled for half an hour, my arms were about ready to fall off. After a hasty breakfast I headed back to bed for an hour…

worship

One of the most beautiful sights I’ve seen:
Last night E spread her homework around on the living room floor. She sprawled her own body out in the middle of textbooks, papers, pencils/pens, erasers, etc. As she tapped her toes together while doing math problems, well, it rivaled the most beautiful painting on the Louvre. To see her wholly absorbed in the moment as her pencil moved across the paper, to have her look up at me every once in awhile and confirm a math question. To see the small ringlet curls that had escaped her ponytail, and the way they framed her face.

John, C and E can always capture my complete attention. To me they are the most disarmingly beautiful creatures. Perhaps it is sacrilege to say that I worship them. But I do. I devote most of my life in serving and loving these three people. They are my trinity.

It brings to mind a quotation from Jeffrey Holland that I heard a lot this summer. He said “Heaven just wouldn’t be heaven without my wife and children there.” I agree with him wholeheartedly. But I can also say that, for me, every day _is_ heaven. Because every day I mingle with deity.

from the mouths of babes…

Last night E told me that I’m building a house. I looked at her, puzzled. She replied:

“Well you have AROOM and you have an Outhouse, so I guess you should just go ahead and get the whole house.”

I giggled at her insight. AROOM is my reading/writing group (it stands for A Room Of Our Own Making–an allusion to Virginia Woolf that’s highly appropriate for our all-female group). Outhouse is what we call the group of liberal Mormons that we meet with every Wednesday night [The name came from a funny discussion about a year ago that we had about “in-house” versus “out-house” intellectuals. The name seems to fit our ragtag group of Mo’s pretty well and has stuck ever since].

I’d never thought about the group names in relation to an actual architectural structure. But, in a way, it’s apt. For, as a result of these groups I’ve found a community of friends to call “home.”

name

Guess I’ll feel really comfortable in my Mormon community now that I have an “official” Mo name. Here it is:
My Mormon name is An’Janae.
John’s is even cooler than mine:
His Mormon name is Jadon.
What’s yours?

exponent


About a year ago, Caroline and I volunteered to guest-edit an issue of the Exponent II. This image, a collage by Emma Taylor, appeared on the cover of the finished product.

Our “Southern California” issue just came out two weeks ago. It’s been a thrill to receive feedback from our readers.
🙂

leavin’

John’s heading up to Sunstone tomorrow. I am staying home since I’m usually the one heading out of town for conferences these days and one of us has to see the kids through the end of summer school.

I’m renting some good movies while John’s gone. Movies with Ewan McGregor that don’t involve light sabers. {BTW, did you know that Ewan, John and I are all the same age? Ewan was born in one of the two months between me & John’s birthdays}. Oh, and I might rent some Brad Pitt movies, too (tho he’s no longer as attractive to me as he used to be. Even though his photo shoot with Jolie was oh-so-vintage-cool).

But I’ll also be incredibly lonely and more than a little bored this week without John. I’ll miss him…