Pearls & Perfection Pending

If you had asked me 5 or 10 years ago what my life's ambition was, I would have answered, "To be Supermom!"  I imagined vacuuming in pearls and preparing beautiful, balanced meals. My children would always be neat, matching, and of course...perfect. Every day would start with snuggling in my feather-down bed and proceed with a tickle fight resulting in blissful giggling. We would take nature walks and my children would hang on my every knowledgeable word.  I would of course, be stylish, well accessorized, fun, and admired.       Today has been one of those days where I've had to seriously ask myself what I was possibly thinking.  Not to say that being a college student, a part-time employee getting paid nothing, a missionary, or a 4th grade teacher have been more glamorous or desirable occupations, but being a stay-at-home mom has its unique challenges. I have been pooped on, vomited on, spit up on, screamed at, cried...

Anytime we made mistakes playing games or doing anything really, as little kids (especially playing 4-square), we would yell, "I call redo!"  This was the all-inclusive, error-erasing phrase that could never be contested, and always allowed one the chance to try again.  You could use this phrase in many circumstances: when you messed up yourself, or when others messed up in a way that gave you a disadvantage.  Either way, it was a saving grace throughout my childhood. Well, today, I call redo. Earlier this week, I posted about my thoughts on the "Wear pants to church" controversy that people were talking about all over Facebook and in the news.  I had one friend who helped me to see that I hadn't really considered all sides of the story.  I am grateful for the time she took to point out some of my unjust and partly ignorant thinking. Just because someone participated in, or even initiated this event did not mean that she was demanding to be given the Pries...

This week has been...different.  It started off with some ridiculous feminist group deciding that men and women should be treated more equally in the LDS church and launching an initiative for women to wear pants to church today.  I was glad to see that my ward choose not to use sacrament meeting as the time or place to draw attention to themselves, but to worship God. Don't misunderstand me.  I like pants.  I wear them almost every day.  I don't care what people wear...to a certain point.  My very favorite investigators and friends on the mission wore pants every week.  There is a man in my ward that wears jeans every week.  Guess what they have going for them?   They are there every week.  I do  think that the way we dress says a lot about what we think of ourselves, others, and the activities in which we are participating.  There are some girls I know that wear really short skirts.  There are some boys that wear real...