Monthly Archives: March 2011

Famous by association.

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I’m feeling kind of glamorous lately.  Know why?  Because I know her:

Isn’t she lovely? And by “know her,” what I really mean is I’ve read her blog for a while and we’ve exchanged a few emails and stuff, so that totally makes us soul-sisters or something, right?  Right? . . . . Whatever, you’re just jealous.

Her name is Melanie Jacobson.  She is a wife, mom, shoe connoisseur, humorist, and AUTHOR.  And she’s a Mormon. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)  Her first novel was just published, and I was so lucky that Melanie sent me a copy of it.  Look how cute it is:

Seriously, it’s almost as cute as she is.  I know I said that I was going to take a break from blogging to work on a book of my own, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to be a part of Melanie’s blog tour for this new book.  I’ll tell you why.

Melanie writes what she likes to call “LDS chick lit.”  I dated for a full a decade before I met and married my husband, so I consider myself quite an expert in the LDS dating scene.  Frankly, I felt like my life during those years was LDS chick lit, and perhaps that’s why I don’t read much of it now.  Kind of like post-traumatic stress disorder.  Despite my normal aversion to the genre, I was really excited to read Melanie’s book because I really like her.  Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the read and the ride down memory lane.

During that delightful dating decade of mine, I made a list.  I really did.  I listed the things I was going to do with my life since I was probably never going to get married.  Somehow having a checklist of fun and fulfilling things to do made that possibility seem much less tragic.  It included things like travel, and getting a Ph.D., and foster parenting, and kissing one boy from every continent.  (I totally made that last one up right now, but why didn’t I think of that before?)  Anyway, Ashley, the main character in The List, did the same thing, only she wasn’t quite as pathetic as I was.  She wrote the list when she was 16 years old as a must-do collection of tasks to be completed before she got married.  And as a free-spirited young adult, she is still committed to that list.  I found myself quite attached to Ashley by the end of the book, and I decided that we could have totally been college roommates and friends.  It would have been one of those friendships where I rolled my eyes at her a lot, but still stayed up late talking and laughing.  I even would have shared my Pringles (a college dietary staple) with her.  I loved watching her learn the lessons that I painfully learned myself during those dating years, not the least of which is this:  Things don’t always go according to YOUR plan.

Melanie has a gift for writing fun dialogue full of clever, sarcastic banter that so genuinely embodies the nervous and flirtatious and awkward and exciting reality that I remember about that stage in my life.  The way she wrote about Huntington Beach and the ocean made me really want to be on a lawn chair on the warm, sunshiney sand.  As it was, I read the book from a lawn chair on the side of an indoor swimming pool while my children splashed and played.  I read for a couple of hours, went home and read for a few more hours, and finished the book.  In one day.  ONE day, people.  I read a whole chick lit book in one day, and I liked it.

Those of you who frequent my blog at all know that I am a bit of a self-proclaimed prude.  Having said that, if you’re looking for a fun, light read that takes you back to the days of an open-canvas future and blossoming romance, and you want it to be totally clean and enjoyable, you ought to give The List a shot.  I think it’s a perfect vacation book– either to take with you on vacation, or to sit down in the middle of your laundry pile at home and take a vacation of your own.

Since you’re almost as lucky as I am (though not nearly as famous since I “know” Melanie), here’s a chance for you to win your very own copy of The List:

Go here and just leave a comment.  That’s it.

Melanie’s also doing a giveaway of cool beach-related items on her own blog, so go leave a little comment over there, too.

I hope you win. I really do, because you’ll like the book.  If you don’t win it, go buy it (I think it’s on Amazon and even Kindle), then tuck your kids into bed, stay up late and read it until it’s done, roll over and kiss your hubby good night, thank your lucky stars that you survived your single years, and go to sleep.  That’s what I did, and it made me happy.  I like happy.  Thanks, Melanie.  🙂

The wisdom of an immature mind

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

My daughter Natalie is a 4-year-old genius.  (Doesn’t she look great in my glasses?) She’s like a grown-up, intelligent woman in a little tiny body . . . assuming that the grown-up, intelligent woman pees her pants a lot and screams like she’s being axe-murdered when her socks “feel funny.”  Anyway.  I was looking through some old abandoned drafts and I found this comment that Natalie made to me one morning.  It wasn’t just any morning.  It was one of those mornings where you’ve decided to give up before the sun even rises.  I think I actually crawled back into bed and told her that I’d decided to stay in bed all day and hide.  She bellowed with great sincerity:  “Nooooo.  We love you.  We want you to get up every day.”  I have to admit, it made me feel better, and I (mostly) recovered and survived the day.

This past Sunday, I arrived at church in a tizzy because I don’t care if we had church at 6:45 p.m., we would still be scrambling to get out the door on time.  It’s pathetic.  And in this case, I was pretty convinced that our family was hopeless, and that I was destined to be the lone, unappreciated crusader to get my family out the door and to church on time without missing any major articles of clothing.  I was annoyed.  During sacrament meeting, the hymns and prayers and sacrament began to cool me down (as they are designed to do), and at some point Natalie leaned over and whispered to Matt, “Daddies don’t have diamonds in their rings because they don’t make dinner.”

I love that girl.

That’s all.  Carry on.

GCBC Week 23: What Have You Done With My Name?

Posted in General Conference Book Club by

We’re on the final countdown now toward our next General Conference.  Can you even believe how close we are to starting over again?  This week we will study…

“What Have You Done with My Name?”
by Elder Mervyn B. Arnold

“Our Savior invites us on a daily basis to cleanse our names and return to His presence. His encouragement is full of love and tenderness.”

Share in the comments some things you learned or appreciated as you studied this talk.  If this is your first time visiting the General Conference Book Club, click here for more information.

Find-A-Friend Friday: Meet Amber P.

Posted in Find-A-Friend Friday by

First of all, my sincere apologies (especially to Amber) for not getting this up earlier today.  The day had a long to-do list and just slipped away from me.  Today you get to meet our second Amber on Find-A-Friend Friday.  Amber and I have known each other for a little while through blogging, and she has always been so nice to me.  She is the kind of person who really wants to do what’s right (and frankly doesn’t give herself enough credit for all the good she does.).  I hope you enjoy meeting her here today and leave her a little love in the form of comments or by visiting her blog.  Here she is:

 

Hey everybody!  My name is Amber Peck.  I’m so thrilled that Stephanie asked me to be on her blog this week, but I’m also super nervous.  Once upon a time I was a young and confident teenager who could stand up in front of anyone and own the room.  I was in theater in high school and I loved to perform.  I actually looked forward to giving talks in church.  Somewhere between then and now, though, I retreated into myself a little.  Being a stay at home mom has, at least in my case, toned down my love of the spotlight.  So I’m excited and yet tentative about all of you “looking” at me right now.

 

I’m still young, just 26 years old and I have four children. Taesya is six, Canon is four, Keller is two, and Jovie will be 3 months old tomorrow.  Grocery store checkers everywhere tell me, “You really have your hands full.”  And I do.  Luckily, though, I married an amazing man, who is a wonderful partner.  He helps me in so many ways, not the least of which is reminding me constantly “Everything’s going to be ok.”

 

1.     What’s your favorite part of motherhood?

We call them “Lovins” and they’re my absolute favorite.  I love it when my baby girl smiles at me, when Keller puckers up so tight for a kiss, the way Canon wants to sit right by me when there’s a whole couch worth of space available (k, sometimes I don’t like this), and how happy Taesya is to see me after school and tell me about her day.  Love and affection are my favorite part of this little family I have.

2.     What part of motherhood would you subcontract out if you could?

I watch the Brady Bunch and wish so hard that I had an Alice.  I could really use a backup of some sort, like a nanny or a babysitter, who could watch my kids at a moment’s notice.  Then I could run to the store for eggs without towing four kids with me.  Or I could let my younger two keep napping, instead of waking them up to get the older two from school.  And during the times when I just feel overwhelmed and depressed, what a relief it would be to know someone else is there to help with the kids.

3.     Name 2 or 3 items on your “bucket list.”  (Some things you’d like to do before you die.)

(1) A vacation to New York City.  Preferably a trip that’s not super structured, with lots of time for Ben and I to just experience the city.  One night we’d dress up nice and get tickets to a Broadway Musical.  Sounds like a dream to me!

(2) A piano of my very own, so I can learn challenging pieces of music and feel proud of myself.

(3) Earn my Bachelor’s Degree.  Who knows if I’ll every have a career in the future, but I just really love learning, attending classes, doing homework.  I know it sounds crazy, but writing papers and preparing for tests sounds really wonderful to a mushy Curious George and Dinosaur Train brain like mine.

4.     Brag for a minute.  Do it.  What are a few things that you’re pretty good at?

Mainly, I would say that I’m creative.  I come up with fun crafts for the kids to make, I can think up catchy taglines or funny titles, I have a good eye for composition—basically, I’m just creative in a lot of ways.  And, I really hope this doesn’t sound cocky, I think I’m funny, too.  I love making people laugh.

5.     What are you loving lately?

Sorry to be so boring, but I am so in love with sleep.  My baby’s only three months old, after all.  I fantasize about my pillow.

But also, I just did a post about my current favorites.  (Just the silly things that make life a little smily-er.)

6.     Do you have a favorite scripture or quote?  Why?

Right now, I am really clinging to scriptures about prayer.  It’s important for me to remember that God hears me.  I have these two posted in my home:

2 Nephi 4:35 – “Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh.  Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness.  Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God.  Amen.”

D&C 112:10 – “Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answers to thy prayers.”

7.     What do you gravitate toward during your unscheduled time?

Blogging is, of course, on the list, along with Novels, Movies, and Theater.  When it’s warmer, I’m really excited to spend time at the park with my kids, and to swim at my parents’ house.

8.     Tell us some of your best mom-tricks  (things you’ve figured out that work well for you).

My kids seem to do really well with consistency, doing things the same way over and over.  We have family prayer every morning at 7:00, we clear our dishes after we eat a meal, Keller takes a nap after we drop Canon off at preschool—little things that always stay the same.  It’s been tough for me to do things this way, because I’d rather just make things up as I go.  But if I can avoid one or two tantrums with a basic routine, that’s what I’ll do.

9.     What’s something you don’t usually tell people, but that they need to know if they’re going to be your friend?

I’m kind of insecure, at least at this stage of my life, and I worry almost all the time.  So I’m going to be embarrassed about my messy house and my noisy kids, and I’ll wonder if I said something dumb.  That’s just the way I am.

10. If you were in charge of a girls’ night out, what kind of activity would you love to plan?

I think we all deserve a pedicure at Sego Lily Spa.  We’ll all sit in that big room and have a nice relaxing foot massage while we chat about movies and our kids.  To finish off the night, we’d eat some kind of magnificent dessert.  Comfort and sweets equals a good time to me.

11. Friends are great for venting.  What’s been frustrating you lately?

Oh dear, how much time do you have?  There’s a lot.  I think the biggest right now would be how much my kids fight and pick on each other.  I just want them to be kind, but somehow someone always ends up crying.  It drives me crrrrraazzyy.  And really I have no idea how to make it better.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

12. What parts of your testimony are you the most sure of?

I am so sure of my Savior, Jesus Christ.  He lived his life in the most wonderful way, to show me what is important.  He loves me and he believes in me.  He sees so much more in me than I will ever understand.

Tell us about your blog:

At eight years old, I received my first journal, and I’ve been hooked ever since.  I love writing and I love having a place to pour the contents of my brain.  A couple years ago, my older brother recommended I start a blog.  I’m so glad he did.  My blog is called Peck of Pickled Peppers.  It’s like Journal 2.0 where I write about my life as a mom and as an individual.  I share goals, ideas, stories, recipes, photos, and whatever else I feel like posting on any give day.  My blog is a peck/peek into my lovely and chaotic world.  Stop by and say hello sometime.

Words! Words! Words! I’m so sick of words!

Posted in Diapers, Divinity by

Do you remember that song from My Fair Lady?  Thanks to my dad, I will forever have all the lyrics of all the songs from that show in my perma-memory.

Anyway.

I need to take a word vacation.

I think my brain is a little bit overloaded, and the more I blabber on about stuff, the less it makes sense.  At the advice of several people whom I respect, I registered for a writing conference in May, where I will actually be pitching my book idea to an editor.  And just so you know, as soon as I made that appointment, I kind of had a panic attack because . . . seriously,  I don’t even have a book yet.  It’s mostly still in the ideas and research stage, with a sketchy outline.  So the little devil in my head gave me a big long lecture about what a poser I am and boy, oh boy, how I’m going to make a fool of myself.  And even though the little devil in my head is usually wrong, I thought it would at least be a good idea to dedicate myself to some serious preparation.  In short, I need to work on my book project.

So, I’m going to step back a little bit from the blogging world and focus my scattered word-spilling into something a little more cohesive.  I’ll still do my regular features (General Conference Book Club and Find-A-Friend Friday), but my posting will be much less frequent, and I need to take a break from visiting and reading blogs too.  I just need to harness my time and energy so that I can be ready for this next adventure . . . and frankly to protect myself from public humiliation.

If I were going to write a bunch of posts this week, they would be about this:

  • My house looks like a disaster every night.  Food and dishes still on the table and in the sink.  Unfinished laundry spread around the family room.  Folded clothes moved from my bed to the floor.  (And, yes, I will try to avoid sentence fragments like this in my book.) Some people can’t go to bed when that kind of mess is looming around them, but not me.  Boy, I love to bid it farewell and go to sleep.  I function so much better in the morning, so I just get up and face it while the kids are eating breakfast and getting ready for school.  My renewed energy allows me to clean, sweep, wipe, fold, put away, etc. without feeling like I’d rather run away to a deserted island.  Which I’d still like to do, by the way, but not out of desperation.  Moral of the story:  You’re allowed to visit me between the hours of 10 am and 2 pm.
  • I took Natalie to a specialist yesterday and found out that a recently-discovered condition that I’ve been really worried about is probably not as bad as it seemed.  A few more tests will be done to make sure, but mostly I feel reassured, and that’s such a relief.
  • I’m reading a book called The Infinite Atonement, and so far it’s really good.  Not the easiest reading, but some really cool insights.  Here’s a little sentence that totally jumped out at me yesterday:  “What is the Atonement of Jesus Christ?  It is, in short, that suffering endured, that power displayed, and that love manifested by the Savior . . . ,” and then this: “The ability of man to be at one with God in both location and in likeness is possible only because the Savior first became at one with man in location, thorough his mortal birth, and at one with man in likeness, through his assumption of man’s frailties– without ever abandoning his godlike character.”  Such a cool, simple way to explain the purpose and function of the Atonement.
  • Last week on our date night, we went to a bookstore and Matt bought himself three or four new books (He’s kind of excited about his new post-Bar free time), and he bought me one too.  Right up my alley.
  • Since I’ve been thinking about this for my own book, I just wanted to say that being a mother is really, really cool.  It is the one role on earth that most closely mimics the ministry of Jesus Christ.  It’s a privilege to be in that crash-course adventure of becoming like Him.

Just so you know, this less-words business is going to be tricky for me, but I think it will be good for me too.  And hopefully it will get the devil in my head to shut up a little.