{Lifestyle} LDS Finds on Pinterest

Are you on Pinterest? No? Well, here are some great LDS finds to help get you hooked.

Oh, you crafty Mormon moms. You are so good at sewing, baking, blogging, and styling; and I am so good at “Pinning.” If we combine our skills, we can rule the LDS domestic world. Here are “our” best pins this week:

Free LDS Prints

Whaaat? This, free? It’s too pretty to be free!

Molly Mormon Pendant

Heck yeah, it’s green gelatin. You’ll eat it and you’ll like it.  

LDS Subway Art

{Lifestyle} New Twists on Old Holiday Traditions

This wonderful holiday season, with my brother out on a mission, I want to celebrate family even more – so here are my ideas for three new Christmas traditions that celebrate family. The holiday season is upon us shortly, and I am just so excited. One thing I love about Christmas is that it brings out the love. People are more willing to tune out the world and focus on family, Christ, service, and, of course, love.

I’ve been thinking about family a lot this year, especially because for the second Christmas in a row, my brother is out on a mission. Having my brother gone has made me want to celebrate family even more, so here are a few new traditions that focus on the family:

Holiday Time Capsule
The idea behind the holiday time capsule is to create a record of the love within a family and watch how it grows and changes over time.

Starting this Christmas, have your family members write letters describing what they love about each other and the memories they have from the past year. Young children can draw pictures to represent the love they feel in their family.

Spend a night reading through the letters and sharing thoughts with each other. Once you have gone through all of the family members, seal the letters in a decorated envelope, Mason jar or whatever else would fit in your home and display it prominently on a bookshelf or a mantelpiece in your home.

Next year, before writing new letters, take out the old letters and reflect on how the love in your family has grown and evolved.

Christmas Dinner Wishes
This is a twist on an old Victorian Christmas tradition in which family members all took turns stirring the Christmas “pudding,” which was a stew with beef and mutton and all sorts of spices and vegetables.

{Lifestyle} Fashion: Mainstream Modest

Sometimes finding cute and modest outfits can be a pain, with modern trends increasingly involving more skin and less cloth. But with retro styles making a comeback, you can be a fashionista and maintain your modesty.

Popular fashion trends have increasingly included the baring of skin, creating added frustrations for fashion-minded women who try be modest in appearance. As if we don’t have enough frustrations in our lives? Not wanting to resort to Victorian-era dresses with impeccable detail, skirts hemlines that pass the shoes, high necklines, and sleeves to wrists (I get claustrophobic just thinking about all of it), many resort to time-consuming personal creations, or (don’t say it!) dowdy “mom wear” in order to avoid trendy mini-length sweater dresses, low necklines, or sleeveless blouses.

As in the flapper-girl days of the roaring 20s, today’s fashions also pose a challenge to stay current and attractively modest. Fashion is circulatory. Designers play with new combinations of color, silhouettes, and patterns to come up with something that is “new.” The 60s mod shift dress recalled the shapeless form of the androgynous flapper girl, including everything from dramatic eye makeup to headbands.

Perhaps due to current popular television shows, movies, and music that are inspired by or set during the 50s, 60s and 70s, designers Zac Posen, Michael Kors, and even the cutting-edge Prada have begun to create looks featuring high waistlines, A-lines, or pencil to-the-knee skirts, bringing the midi and maxi back into style. These classic looks flatter the shape when fitted well and worn appropriately.

{Lifestyle} Be Prepared: Not Just the Scout Motto

When a storm struck and left us without electricity for a week, we realized we weren't as prepared as we thought.

Last weekend there was a huge storm that came through the New England area. We found ourselves smack in the middle of its path, and just when I was taking a batch of cupcakes out of the oven, everything went dark. I know, at least the cupcakes were okay.

We weren’t sure how long this power outage would last, but we felt prepared since Hurricane Irene had occurred just 2 months earlier. Side note--the topic on all the TV and radio stations before Irene was being prepared. Make sure you have enough of this, steer clear of that, etc. etc. But when last week’s storm came, no one knew it would be this bad, and people weren’t prepared.

We are now on day six without electricity. Let me tell you right now: it gets really old really fast. We have learned a lot about being prepared in this kind of an emergency. Below are some tips if this happens to you. If you have any to contribute, please do: I would love to get even more ideas for the (please don’t say it!) next time this happens.

•    Food Storage: I know this has been talked about over and over, but seriously, you don’t want to rely on other sources when there is a power outage.
•    Cooking method/supplies: What are you going to cook that food on? Our gas stove has been our best friend. We can boil water, make pancakes, and cook up the things from our fridge that would have gone bad. Gas stove, my friends. But don’t forget to use it outside only; there have been a lot of carbon monoxide poisonings from people using them inside.

{Lifestyle} How to Be Healthy at Every Size

With the holidays approaching comes the promise of delicious food . . . and more stress than usual about weight. But focusing on health, not weight, at ANY size goes a long way to improving health and quality of life.

The holidays are here and ‘tis the season for parties, family, food, and the topic of weight loss and diets. Some people put too much effort into obsessing about the exact angle of their body in each picture that will make them look best, while others worry about how all the great food will reflect on the scale. To these individuals, it becomes all about a number, and quickly the joy of the season is crowed out by the worry of weight.

Obsessing about a number is like staring at obstacles you are trying to avoid.

When I first started mountain biking, I focused on—and ended up hitting—almost every rock on the trail. Finally, a friend suggested that instead of focusing on the rocks, I focus on the path I want to take. (This insight worked amazingly, and I wish I would have realized it earlier.) This also applies to the topic of weight. Instead of trying to develop and live a healthy lifestyle, people become consumed by a number. They see a cycle of weight gain and loss repeated between each “diet,” their self esteem suffers, and often the dramatic adjustments are not sustainable. Instead of actually achieving healthy and lasting changes, they keep focusing on the rock in the trail.

Why do we obsess about weight? True, it is a number that can give us a partial idea of our health status and it can contribute to health problems. The problem with focusing on just weight is that it is not the complete picture. Instead of worrying about weight, why don’t we focus on making lasting changes that result in us being happier and healthier?