Creating Home
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Home and Heart
I walked through the house one more time, but this time I was ready to leave. I’m a look-forward kind of person. I love to plan, organize and imagine what something will be like in the future. When my husband and I were engaged, I planned our wedding, but I also planned our first home, a 2-bedroom student apartment. I actually drew a rough blueprint and sketched where each piece of collected furniture would go. My forward-thinking works another way too. When we had 5 children ranging in age from 3 to 12, my husband was offered a job out of state. Before we knew it was right to accept,…
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Favorite Family Recipes
Intro I created this post for my children. In the last few years, I’ve spent time and energy reducing the belongings of my parents’ lifetimes. And dismantling our family home. I’ve learned about what matters, what I can actually keep, and how to lighten my load. I’ve also felt a pull to record stories and document memories, some of which surround food. As I sorted through my mom’s recipe box, I could see the history in each recipe. Some of the recipes I made with my mom or dad. Others I didn’t and wish I could ask them their secrets. I tried to add commentary to the instructions. I hope…
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Simple Living this Christmas
I can’t stop thinking about Christmas. Probably because all of our children will be under our roof for an extended time. We’re spread across 3 time zones – in fact, everyone has a new address this year – so being together in person is a rare occurrence and gift enough for me. Usually, I pull out Christmas decor Thanksgiving weekend, but this year we were gone. After I unpacked, I went to the basement to get the Christmas bins. I saw partially unpacked boxes and open bins from our move. I couldn’t bring myself to pull out more clutter before I tried to organize what I had. I’ve had several…
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The Biology of Change
I’m in the car with my son, his wife and their daughter. They are moving from a place they love to a place they are meant to go. Almost everything is unknown. I am along to help with my granddaughter. Our drive takes us through a town where I spent 27 years. And my kids know I will savor the trip on Route 66 through my childhood. We pull off the highway. I direct them to the neighborhood where I grew up, but I miss the entrance. It looks so different. As we drive the tree-lined hill that leads to my home, time shifts to a summer day in the…
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The Long Goodbye
Looking out the window, I squint from the glare of the airplane wing. The view of the runway gives way to unseasonably green hills then snow-covered mountaintops and fades into billowy white clouds. I feel nostalgic. Even though our entire family will be together next month, I mourn the loss of home base. We spent a quick weekend clearing our house. With the help of our local children and a friend (who has literally seen us through every challenge since we built our house), we deposited the final hard-to-decide-on items at Deseret Industries and storage. Gorgeous views from every room. That’s what I wrote in the home’s description, and it’s…