November Prompts

If you had an extra hour every day, how would you use it?

I might be in the minority here, but I don't want an extra hour every day! The days are long enough, thankyouverymuch. 

What goodbye changed your life for the better?

That good, ol step-dad. I don't wish him ill, but I'm glad he's gone.

Have you ever spoken up and made a difference?

I’m sure I have, but in the eight days I’ve been writing this post I haven’t thought of any examples.

What's the first positive thing you notice right now?

My house is quiet. In a good way.

Have you ever confided in someone you didn't know well?

Only every doctor and therapist I've ever been to! "Hello, nice to meet you! Let me tell you about my poop schedule and my mental problems!"

Have you ever had a sit down meal that was different from all others?

I had a life-changing food experience that might sound kind of weird. We were in California with extended family, and everyone was coming and going to different activities throughout the day. My sister-in-law, Mindy (whom I didn't know very well at the time), offered to make everyone dinner that night. When we all got back from our various excursions, Mindy had a hot meal waiting for us. I don't remember exactly what it was, but I think it was pork chops (or pork loin) of some sort and possibly some potatoes. Anyway, it was a really nice, hot, well-prepared meal, and I remember two things about this experience:

1. I didn't know you could eat that nice of a meal on a random weekday. I was like, "What is this dinner we are being provided with? It's so fancy and comforting!"

2. I felt so taken care of. 

And that meal contributed greatly to my personal food culture. 

What is a bittersweet choice you have made?

Having our cat put to sleep several years ago. 

This is a picture Nicky drew of our cat when he was little

What is one thing school taught you about life?

I'm going to give an answer for each phase of school:

Elementary - the power of stepping away from something for a while and coming back to it later (taught to me by Mrs. Patterson who referred to it as "letting it get cold")

Jr high - check and cite your resources (courtesy of Mrs. Evans)

High school - this is when I really explored and solidified my testimony (a process that will never end, but a lot happened during my high school years to form my faith)

Jr college - this is where I got most of my financial education (through required finance classes and through earning my accounting certificate)

University - all things family, lifespan development, and therapy

What’s a path you didn’t take that you’re now grateful for?

I was signed up for cosmetology classes my senior year of high school, and I ended up not taking them. I’m so glad. I don’t enjoy doing hair.

What’s a choice you didn’t feel mature enough to make but had to make anyway?

Um… like every choice EVER! Isn’t that what it’s like to be an adult? Having to make all the choices but never feeling like you’re grown up enough to have that responsibility? 

What’s something you used to own that you still think about?

My Littlest Pet Shop toys. The originals. Before they had giant heads.

What’s different about Thanksgiving now from when you were younger?

My grandparents are all dead, and I haven’t seen my cousins in years. 

What’s a part of your personality you want to show more of?

Whatever this is.

What’s a part of your daily routine that makes you happy?

Eating breakfast and sending voice notes to my friends.

What’s something from your past that seemed like a big deal, but in hindsight didn’t matter all that much?

I used to feel so guilty and shamed for not breast feeding my babies, especially with the cost of formula and trying to make our finances work so I could stay home. I felt like I had to explain my choice to everyone. Guess what! It doesn’t even matter! 

If you had to volunteer today, what would you do?

Teach a dance class for individuals with special needs.

What could you do every morning to help you feel more hopeful?

Not touch my phone.

What’s the last thing you read that made you smile?

A reel that said, “Next time you’re sad about a man, just imagine how lame he’d look next to Benson Boone!” which I immediately sent to Daisy (who is often sad about “men”). But I mean… they can’t even do backflips. 

What do you enjoy talking about with people?

Any of these forty topics.

What did you get in trouble for the most when you were growing up?

"Mouthing off” and rolling my eyes.

What do you love most about November?

Cooler weather, the essence of fall combined with the feeling of Christmas approaching, and the food! I’m not a pumpkin spice girlie, but I’m a pumpkin girlie! I love all the pumpkin things (made with actual pumpkin - not pumpkin flavored). 

No Problem

I’ve been dealing with the infamous 3:00-4:00 a.m. wake-ups that are common in “women of a certain age” for the past three years. When this became my norm, I looked at it as a problem, and I tried various things to solve it. Nothing helped, and it was really stressing me out. Then one day I had the thought, “What if I just stop thinking of it as a problem?” I realized a huge reason I was trying so hard to fix it was because of the social media obsession with perimenopause. They were telling me it’s a problem, they were telling me what to do, and their solutions weren’t working, and maybe instead of trying to change it, I could just embrace it. I decided to stop seeing it as a problem to solve and just go with it. 

This taught me a very important life skill, and that is to ask myself, “Is this really a problem for me, or am I treating it as a problem because an outside source has convinced me to?” 

Now when I wake up at 3:00 a.m. I first give myself some time to see if I can fall back asleep. I usually try praying - because I’m really good at falling asleep mid-prayer (this is another thing I’ve decided to not label as problematic, I think God’s okay with it) or I try a technique called cognitive shuffling. If I can’t fall back asleep, then I use that wake up time to do something I enjoy or to do something productive.

Of course, I can’t do anything noisy, and I can’t wander around the house because I don’t want to wake up my family. So that means I’m usually on my phone, which is not helpful in the sleep department. Alas, it’s what I’ve got to work with. So during my wake ups, I do things like pay bills, read books, play games (Crossplay, Ark Nova, or Wingspan), google important things (this morning: "when did “kick-ass” become an adjective"), make lists, update my library holds, delete emails or photos, or schedule important texts for the day. And for those who ask how I have time to blog, this very post is a product of 3:00 a.m.

Now that I've stopped treating my sleep disruption as a problem, I feel much better, and I find that I'm not usually more tired on my "stay awake" days than the days I'm able to fall back asleep. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to just work with it.

Actual footage of me at 3 a.m.

Currently (November 2026 Edition)

Reading: Nothing. My brain switched off this week, and I've tried to start several books but can't focus. However, a couple of weeks ago I had a pretty good reading run. Better than I've had in years! So here are some of the books I enjoyed:

*Language and sexual content

*Anything by Jennifier Neilsen is family friendly

*Language

*Surprisingly clean but there is some disturbing content

*Kate Morton-ish. Can't remember the content.

Wearing: A brown sweatshirt (that shows dirt and stains surprisingly well considering it's the color of... well... dirt) and leggings (which I don't think we're "supposed" to wear anymore, but who cares?)

Buying: Christmas gifts. Just a few. So it begins...

Hoping: that a few things go well over the next several days while I am recovering from some things not going well. 

Loving: that I occasionally get to wear a sweatshirt. 

Watching: 

*Language and sexual content (TV-MA)

Feeling: not my best, to be honest. I've been struggling for a couple of months, and I don't want to talk about it. 

Listening to: 

Eating: avocados. I love them so much, but I wish they worked better with my plans!

Singing: "Apache" by the Sugar Hill Gang (which is probably not PC).

And for the record, I do the Fresh Prince moves. 

Annoyed by: everything. I am constantly on the edge, and I don't know how to fix it (again... don't want to talk about it).

Procrastinating: planning my Relief Society lesson. But by the time this post gets published it will likely be the morning of my lesson, and I'll have my act together. 

Update: I prepared the lesson, and somehow I was able to grow a brand new zit with a whitehead on it during the 25 minutes I was teaching. 

Playing: Crossplay and Ark Nova. In fact, I'm feeling the itch to play right now, so I'm going to finish this up!

Suffering from: neuropathy, dry eyes, high blood pressure, family drama, intense anger, imposter syndrome, low self-worth, depression, stress, problems with cell phone service, a bad countertop installation, a messy house, parenting woes, dislike for mankind, and (any second now) a dead laptop battery. 

Cooking: hamburgers. We found a great deal on pre-made burger patties, and we stocked up. 

Missing: Nicky. 

Craving: a hot shower and three straight days of sleep wrapped up like a burrito. 

Proud of myself for: scheduling a much-needed doctor's appointment, pulling out most of the garden plants while we had dumpsters on our street, and eating carrots at dinner last night instead of chips (we had hamburgers - it was hard to let my crunch come from carrots). 

Grateful for: ibuprofen. But also thankful for every moment I don't need ibuprofen. 

Happy Halloweenie

Halloween 2026...

It happened, and I'm going to document it because otherwise it just blends in with every other Halloween, and then I don't remember it. In fact, Eva was saying on Saturday, "Remember how last Halloween I was sick? That means today is the anniversary of me being sick."

I didn't remember that she had been sick. But once she mentioned it, I vaguely recalled being really excited that she wanted to go home early, and I jumped at the chance to be the parent that went with her (I have about a 30 minute tolerance for trick or treating). 

Since Halloween was on a Saturday this year, I knew we would need to have some stuff planned to get us through the day. We started off by going to breakfast at Ogie’s Cafe. Then we went to Temple Square to do the new Visitor’s Center tour. 

Let it be known that today is Zoe's 14th birthday, and she will be taller than me any second now

The Salt Lake Temple grounds just reopened after being inaccessible for seven years. I realized some of my kids have spent most of their lives without the SL Temple! It felt so good to be able to walk around the grounds again. I would even say I felt relief! My girls were like, “Wait! You can just walk up to the temple and touch it?” 

After the Visitor’s Center tour, we made a gas station run, and then we came home and carved pumpkins. 

I refused to photograph Zoe and Eva’s finished projects because they got in a huge fight over who was copying whom, and then Zoe carved hers into a butt. 

So here’s Daisy’s:

I took a nap, and when I woke up, it was only 2:00 pm, which proves how stinking long holidays are. So we watched Ghostbusters and Addams Family, and then went to the grocery store.

 

We made mummy dogs, chicken nuggets, and a frozen pizza for dinner. 

When 6:00 finally rolled around, we headed out trick or treating. My kids wanted me to dress up, so I took the lazy route and threw on my trusty hot dog costume… hence the title of this post. 

At 8:00, Zoe and Daisy were ready to go home. Daisy headed out to a couple of parties. Zoe watched a few episodes of Treehouse of Horror (I gave up on keeping her away from The Simpsons - please don’t judge me), and Eva went out trick or treating again with our neighbors. 

I went to bed excited for my favorite day of the year… November 1st - the farthest day possible from the next time I have to go trick or treating! 

(It really is my favorite day, I’m not lying, but this year it felt a little less so because it fell on a Sunday, and (confession!) I really don’t like Sundays) (please don’t tell Jesus). 

I have to say, despite my disinterest in trick or treating, we have a really good trick or treat neighborhood. It's weird because no one trick or treats on our street (and they never have - in 23 years, I've never even had to buy candy), but beyond our street, the Halloween festivities are alive and well. The people who know our kids absolutely spoil them! The full-size candy bar inventory at our house right now is primo. 

Hope you had a Happy Halloweenie! 

Sunday Sentiments - Someone Said It Somewhere

Somewhere in the April 2026 General Conference, someone made quick mention of how the Holy Ghost will let us know what we need to improve on. It was a single line tucked well within the talk, so it's not easy to track down. For the past two weeks, I've been trying to find the quote I'm thinking of, and I haven't been successful yet! I know I highlighted it in my Conference notebook, and I feel like it's somewhere on the right-hand side, on the bottom half of the page. I've tried running a few search terms online, too, and still can't find it. 

The new Conference notebook just became 

available this week at Deseret Book

So for today's post, I am inspired by a line in a Conference address that I can't find, but when I read that mystery talk and came across that line (that I possibly imagined), I felt like I should jot down a few things that the Spirit had been impressing me to work on. I thought, "Oh, that's been happening to me a lot lately. I should write those things down." So I opened a new note on my phone and started documenting some of the things the Spirit has encouraged me to do recently. 

A few months ago I felt a prompting that cautioned me to stop telling stories I don’t know. That prompting has been recurring since, reminding me that I can't fill in all the plot holes. Let me explain that a bit further. 

At the time this chastening came to me, there were several things going on around me that I was making assumptions about, and I was talking about those things from my perspective. I was telling stories (you might call it gossiping) based on what I knew, what I saw, or what I was told, and to me, it all seemed accurate. I didn’t think I was embellishing or exaggerating or saying anything that wasn’t true. 

But the Spirit warned me, “There are things you don’t know. Don’t fill in the blanks with your assumptions." That's fair. If someone were recounting a story about me, I wouldn't want them to fill in plot holes or make assumptions that aren't correct. There is always more going on than we know, even when we think we see the full picture. I've been working hard on this and try to catch myself when I start "filling in blanks." I know from experience that I can be very sure about what's happening and still be wrong (it keeps happening), and as a person who really doesn't like to be wrong, that should be motivation enough to help me keep my mouth shut! Yet, I still struggle because sometimes I'm just so darn sure!

Another thing I've been prompted to do is to increase our Fast Offering. 

Let me take you back a few years. I don't remember how long ago it was, but sometime in the last decade, money was feeling really tight. I kept coming up short on the budget, and I was starting to wonder if I needed to go back to work, but every time I prayed about working, I felt a distinct, "Not yet." Then I had the feeling that I needed to increase our Fast Offering. I asked in my heart, "How much?" and the feeling I had was, "Double." 

It was counterintuitive to donate more money when money was coming up short, but I've had enough experiences with the Lord to know that this is how things go sometimes, so I did it - I started paying double the amount we had been paying. I can't explain it, but it worked. After several months of coming up a little short, we suddenly had enough. 

I've recently had this prompting again - that it's time to increase our Fast Offering. This time, I didn't double it, but I upped it a little. I've been feeling stingy lately, so this was kind of hard to do, but I'm giving it a go. 

There are a few things on my list that I won't share because they're more personal (i.e. embarrassing), but I will write about one last thing I've felt prompted to do, and that is to share my testimony online. That is why I started writing these Sunday Sentiments back in February. I know I don't always have the most uplifting presence, but I do have some pretty strong gospel-related convictions, and I'm trying to share more of them. I don't know if the purpose is to help me or to help others or to help both... or maybe it's to leave something for my children someday... who knows. But I felt prompted to share more of my testimony in this way, so I've tried to act on that. 

I believe that line that someone said... somewhere in the April General Conference. The Holy Ghost will nudge us toward things we need to do to improve our faith - sometimes gently, sometimes more forcefully. I am always grateful for any direction I receive, and I'm even more grateful when blessings flow from acting on the promptings of the Spirit. 

The Road Trip List

Our family loves road tripping! 

About five years ago my book club friends asked me to make a list of road trips we've gone on so they could have some ideas of places to go. After our trip to Glenwood Springs a few weeks ago, I'm finally getting around to it! 

Here are some of the places our family has driven to over the years. I've included approximate travel times from the Salt Lake area. Follow the links to my various posts if you want to learn more about what we did on each trip. I hope you get on the road sometime soon - if your heart so desires!

Day Trips

These are places you could visit in a day from Salt Lake

The Lodge at Strawberry Reservoir

Strawberry Reservoir, Utah (with pontoon rental) - 1.5 hours from Salt Lake

Our first trip

Our second trip

Maple Canyon, Utah - 2 hours from Salt Lake

Logan, Utah - 1.5 hours from Salt Lake

Crystal Hot Springs and Golden Spike

August 2019

Zootah (zoo in Logan)

Overnight Trips

These are places that require a stay.

Bear World

Rexburg, Idaho - 4 hours from Salt Lake

Bear World (and more)

Cedar Breaks/Cedar City/Brianhead, Utah - 3.5 hours from Salt Lake

Cedar City and Saint George

Cedar Breaks

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park

Glenwood Springs, Colorado - 5.5 hours from Salt Lake

Places to stop on the way

Hanging Lake and Glenwood Hot Springs Resort

Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park 

Rifle Falls 

Saint George, Utah - 4-5 hours from Salt Lake

Glitter Mountain

Pipe Springs/Kanab/Moqui Cave/Belly of the Dragon

Hildale/Coral Pink Sand Dunes/Kanab/Best Friends Animal Sanctuary/ice caves

Places near Saint George (Hurricane/Rockville/Grafton)

On the way to Saint George

That time we kicked Tony Finau's family out of our chairs

On a whim

Saint George

Phoenix, Arizona - 10.5 hours from Salt Lake (and not worth it)

New Year's in Phoenix

Bryce Canyon, Utah - 4.5 hours from Salt Lake

June 2021

Goblin Valley, Utah- 4 hours from Salt Lake

Yellowstone - 5 hours from Salt Lake

My graduation & more 

September 2025

Yellowstone

Las Vegas, Nevada - 6-7 hours from Salt Lake

November 2022

Salina, UT - 2.5 hours from Salt Lake

Gymnastics studio overnighter

Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef - 3.5 hours from Salt Lake

April 2021

Moab, Utah - 4 hours from Salt Lake

Arches National Park/Green River/Goblin Valley

San Francisco, California - 11-12 hours from Salt Lake

April 2021

The winds of San Fran

Gandy, Utah - 4.5 hours from Salt Lake

October 2020 (cave and lava tube adventure)

Lake Tahoe, Nevada and California - 8-9 hours from Salt Lake

Our first visit

Epic Discovery

Celebrity Golf Tournament

Salt Flats (on the way)

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho - 2.5 hours from Salt Lake

June 2018

Vernal

 Vernal, Utah - 3 hours from Salt Lake

May 2018

 

Places to stop on the way to Disneyland:

Parowan/Hoover Dam/Calico Ghost Town

Area 51(ish)/Teapot Arch/Cathedral Gorge/RyanHenge

California Science Center/Hollywood/Knott's Berry Farm

Mesa Verde

National Parks Hop - this was a trip we took to several National Parks

Ten Things I Googled this Week

1. What is a jacket potato?

(It’s what they call a baked potato in the UK)

That time I baked 75 jacket potatoes to make soup for 100 high school kids

2. What happened to Ted Bundy’s body?

(He was cremated, and his ashes were turned over to his attorney. He wanted to be scattered in the Cascade Mountains, which is so icky because that’s where some of his victims were found). 

3 & 4. Map of Appalachian Trail & map of Pacific Crest Trail

(Trying to decide which one I want to do). 

(Just kidding).

5. Difference between Amish and Mennonite

(Mennonites mingle more with society and use more modern-day technology)

6. Can animals have autism?

(One of my kids asked me this, and the answer seems to be… “maybe”)

7. Plural for thesaurus

(Thesauri and thesauruses are both correct).

8. Upcoming Movie Releases

(Just planning ahead for movie season)

9. Halloween food

(Trying to determine my level of ambition for the holiday)

(Hint: it is low)

Zoe's birthday party a few years ago

(I think it's beautiful and will recreate it this year with guacamole)

10. Blood pressure chart

(I can never remember what healthy blood pressure numbers are, so I always have to look it up. I just know mine is always high. Like "go to the hospital" high).