Kyra Moon

Tonight after gymnastics, John asked if his teacher was a mom. I said I wasn't sure. "I think she is. Because she has a phone." "Well, maybe that is because she is a grownup," I responded.  "I know my preschool teacher is a mom, because she has bathrooms at her house." Someone is a mom if they have a phone and a bathroom. In the words of Sheri L. Dew, are we not all mothers? 

LIBRARY DIRECTOR: Hello, everyone! Thanks for being here. We're here to discuss ways to make the library more child friendly. I have invited a special guest who has helped design libraries across the country. Say hello! (Everyone murmurs "hello" to the GUEST.) DIRECTOR: Now, let me know what you have so far. LIBRARIAN 1: We have installed some bright new couches and some cushions that will be fun for babies to crawl over. We tried to get some that won't get too germy. LIBRARIAN 2: We have lots of tables set up for kids to color at. DIRECTOR: That sounds great! I think we need just one more thing to make this a great children's library section. LIBRARIAN 1: I think puzzles would be great. Lots and lots of wooden puzzles. Little kids love those. LIBRARIAN 2: I think lots of toys would be great. Duplos, trains, other building toys, maybe play food, maybe puppets, stuff like that. DIRECTOR (turning to the guest): What do you suggest? GUEST: Those are all nice ideas, b...

Me: I have a bad joke for you. Kevin: Okay. Me: What do you call a really nice group of nerds? Kevin: What? Me: Least mean squares. Kevin: That's terrible. Thirty seconds later: Kevin: I think I'm going to use that in my class.

Whenever I hear the sound of a plow Or see that it's ten degrees, Whenever I feel the wind on my face And my nose feels like it's going to freeze, Whenever I see my icy breath, Or walk by a leafless tree, Although it's less obvious now than in spring I know Heavenly Father loves me. (If you're wondering why I didn't blog much the past few weeks, it was partially because I was compiling those pictures. And trying to set things up with music stuff. Anyway, you should definitely buy the sheet music so I keep being motivated to write it down :D)

By the time fall semester started, no one was asking anymore if we were cousins. Each day we spent as much time together as possible. After classes were done we'd walk partway home together. Sometimes we'd walk together to one of our apartments, but other days we would part at the corner of 600 East and 700 North, giving a brief but affectionate hug and kiss before temporarily parting to eat our own dinners. (When we found out that our farewells had an audience in the house at that corner, Kevin and I were sure to give a hearty handshake the next time, marching opposite directions as the girls in the house laughed and cheered.) It was new and wonderful to be in love, but I still had some nagging doubts. Was Kevin getting tired of me? I asked him about it and he looked at me as if I was crazy. I had dragged him on a family outing that got us on the mountain next to Mount Timpanogos. I had him come along with me as the lone guy to a girls' outing at Olive Garden. He listened ...

A few weeks ago, I read an article by economist Tyler Cowen entitled "Want to Help Fight Climate Change? Have More Children." Apparently Mike Lee read the same article because after he stopped talking about tauntauns and seahorses in his speech about the Green New Deal he alluded to it. I've been thinking about it ever since, trying to decide how I feel about it. I think a lot comes down to the same idea I talked about last week. What do our hearts treasure? What do we value? Let's talk about Utah County for a minute. Utah County has a pretty high birth rate, and recent innovations show evidence for that. We went down there during Jim's spring break because there seemed like lots of fun things for kids to do. There are the museums at Thanksgiving Point. There's the Neighborhood Art Center in the mall. There's even a kids' section at the Harold B. Lee library. If we'd gone in the summer we could have gone to some epic playgrounds and splash pad...

Sunday did come. And to be honest, it was a bit somber. As I lay in bed this morning, I thought to myself, "I bet there was a terrorist attack today." It wasn't a premonition so much as an appraisal of the world we live in right now. And, sure enough, more than 200 people were killed in Sri Lankan churches and hotels today. As I looked through my Facebook feed, there was some really sad news interspersed with the bright family pictures and quotes from apostles. Friends who had died recently. Parents who didn't have long to live. This was shaping up to be a gloomy Easter, complete with a cold rain. During church, a speaker mentioned that because of Christ's resurrection we can see loved ones again. As I thought about it, the initial reason that we will see loved ones again is because we will die ourselves. We will be spirits, but we'll still see each other. Many people believe that -- even some atheists say they don't believe in God but do believe in life a...