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My Ordinary Days
My name is Sarah Johnson. I am a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, a baker, and a friend. I write for work and I write for relief. I write for fun. When I am not writing, I am often thinking about writing. This blog is a collection of my thoughts, my heart and my faith. I celebrate my membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love people, I also love connecting with and sharing life lessons and light with people of all faiths. I enjoy cooking and baking, gardening, and being in nature.
Mother’s Day: Timeless Gratitude for Life
As I walked sleepily this morning into the kitchen for Mother’s Day, my ten year old son stretched his arm high into the air and pulled the trigger on his new confetti gun. “Happy Mother’s Day!” A plethora of sparkly colors spun through the air as he handed me a huge box of gourmet cookies. I feel so loved, as my children adorn my cheeks with kisses and handmade cards. At 37 years old, I am a mother to four beautiful children. I am a daughter to an amazing,...
Many happy greetings from the Johnsons
This time will be just a moment, and then, like a flash, it will be gone. 13 years ago Jonny and I were proud new parents to our first baby, Anna. She was just barely over 5 pounds when we brought her home from the hospital. We were so excited about wrapping her gifts, and beginning our own family traditions. As it turns out, she slept through that first Christmas morning, bundled in a blanket on the couch, sucking on her giant green saucer binkie. Since that time, in...
LDS Policy Change: I was born of a gay father and faithful LDS mother.
I was born of a gay father and faithful LDS mother. The great storms of identity development and security were rocked as I learned that my dad died from AIDS when I was just ten. He left the church right after my birth and lived a homosexual life in New York City. I remember confiding in a just a few friends the real origin of my dad’s death, there were layers of shame and fear and loss and sadness. I didn’t feel safe enough to be vulnerable to everyone,...
The Last Harvest
Today before work I went outside into my garden. The harvest season is drawing to a close, but not before a colorful display of opulence in the form of fruit; yellow bell cherry tomatoes; red, yellow and green sweet peppers both big and baby sized; dozens and dozens of pumpkins donning white, orange and fiery auburn red skins; hot peppers including giant jalapenos, something red – I don’t know its name, and banana peppers. I carried my pink plastic basket around with me, my toddler at my heels,...
Unwanted Pregnancies: Abortion is the Wrong Solution
Did you know that……. at 8 weeks in utero, a fetus’ major functions are all developed, including their heart, brain, lungs and nervous system. I have even recently learned that they already have a finger print! When an in utero procedure needs to be done, even at that young age, fetuses are shown, by ultra-sound, to recoil from needles that collect blood. Why on earth would they not feel pain? We do. They are us. Of course they can feel pain. “If I quench thee, thou flaming minister,...
Legacy of Faith, My Pioneer Heritage
There are many ancestors… generations upon generations who have come before me. Today is a day of reflection. Looking in the mirror I see my Grandma Cannon’s blue eyes. I see my mom’s callick in my brown hair. I feel the fervor of faith gifted from my Grandma Joy. The the golden embers of Italian skin after an afternoon bathing under the golden sun, which comes from my paternal Grandpa Rizzo who immigrated to New York City from Sicily in the early 1900s. I feel the rumble of persistence...
For Our Time
This week has been monumental and historic. Here is just a taste of this national and international news stories: Planned Parenthood executive is recorded to be selling the remains of human babies for the highest bidder. The United States, along with many other world leaders lifted its sanctions on Iran in a deal to prevent the longtime known terrorist country to making nuclear weapons. Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu has been quoted as saying that the Iran deal is a ‘stunning historic mistake.’ Greece narrowly escapes imminent financial ruin with...
Love, Daddy
Today my brother and I sat around his kitchen table, scattered about in piles of old papers. As I perused the documents, dating back to the early 1950s, a chalky dust covered my fingers. We sifted through hand written letters, school report cards, government request letters and divorce decrees. We read through condolence messages and funeral programs. The weight of choices rested heavy on my soul. There are always alternating perspectives to life’s most gruesome interpersonal disputes. The great battles between once husband and wife stemmed not just from...
DIY Garden Grow Boxes
There is something to be said about renewal, the chance to start again. Whether the previous attempts were amazing, yielding fruit and harvest, or a dismal failure. Springtime is always a new beginning, starting over and planning life. This year we have been working on some new grow boxes. We have to move our back fence back several feet, and so we will be losing about 8 feet of our garden. We have a ton of grass in the back, and so we decided to build some grow boxes...
I almost ran a 5K
In the journey of life there are many highs and lows. The ultimate test of our humanity is to see what we will actually do with the opportunities afforded to us with our time, resources, passions and emotions. Each person is born into a circumstance, a father, and a mother, a lineage of fore bearers, and possibilities of posterity. Some are given more ease and comforts than others, while some are faced with great challenges from the earliest on set of life. Regardless of life’s stage on which you...
Tsunami Brookies
My new sister in law is one of my favorite people!! We made these yummy cookies for her and my brother’s wedding last year. They are super moist and so tasty. I have modified her recipe a bit to make a brookie (part brownie + part cookie!) Who wouldn’t like an extra bit of chocolatey goodness to their chocolate chip cookie? I also played with creating the magical swirl that you can see in the photo. Not all of my cookies turned out as beautiful as this, but it sure was...
Following the Light: Lessons From My Garden
Everyday I water my seedlings. They are in their tiniest forms, just peaking their sleepy heads out of their seeds. The roots sent towards the earth, their green leaves soaking every parcel of the sun’s rays that it can. Some seeds take forever to sprout. I am beginning to thing that Impatients were named after the emotion they conjure for lack of sprouting. And so it began, another year of gardening has taken root in the tiny seedlings who are making their way toward God’s almighty rays of light. They...
Easter Sunday
It would be a great blessing to adequately put into words the feelings of my heart on the blessed Easter Sunday. My name is Sarah Johnson. I am a wife, a mother, a sister, a daughter and a friend. I have had a witness that Jesus Christ is our great Redeemer. As spiritual children of our Heavenly Father, the great plan of happiness was presented, and taught in the preexistence. I can imagine a beautiful place, where we created friendships and alliances there, just as we have here. We...
I thought I was the seed, it turns out I am the dirt.
St. Patrick’s Day of Old This last Tuesday was St. Patrick’s Day. When I was a little girl the holiday merited pulling out a piece of emerald material, in whatever form you find it; a scrunchie, a t-shirt or a pinned on swatch of fabric from mom’s gonna-use-this-fabric-someday-but-if-i-don’t-you-can-have-the-lot-of-it-when-I-die -pile. In today’s world St. Patrick’s Day consists of leprechaun traps, gold coins, green toilet water, mysterious small footprints, and halloween like dressing up. I blame the transformation on Pinterest, for sure. At our house, my children received a celebration that...
Modern Day Slavery
What is the greatest destruction of today’s generation? The tactics used by the adversary are not new. For endless amounts of time Satan, and his minions have used an unknown number of ploys to shackle God’s children to sin. Heavenly Father’s entire plan of happiness revolves around one fundamental key, agency. Satan will use every trick, deception, fear, longing and addiction in his arsenal to stave off the Atonement and forever bind the children of men to him. The absolute only hope we have of absolving our imperfections and...
Our family adventure into felafel
So tonight I was craving falafel. Weird. It’s been ages since I have had any. I decided to try a new adventure for our family. When I was studying in Israel at the BYU Jerusalem Center we had many opportunities to try new food. Our daily meals went something like this. In the morning I would enjoy yogurt and granola. For lunch, especially if we were on a field trip, we would have a pita bread turkey sandwich. At nearly every meal we had Israeli salad, think of this...
My Daily Walk
Doctrine and Covenants 19:32, “Behold, this is a great and the last commandmentwhich I shall give unto you concerning this matter; for this shall suffice for thy daily walk, even unto the end of thy life.” I arise early-ish. I pull my weary body out of bed. My foot hits the floor and weighs down the plush carpet. In just a step or two my feet become wildly aware of a plethora of carnal savagings left to rest; shirts, pants, papers, and toys. This is the first step of 5,000...
The Light of Suffering Made White
Let Your Light So Shine I have been pondering a question for a while. How does suffering enhance our human experience? How does God transform a tragedy into a miracle on our own behalf? If death, sin, mistakes and loss cause us pain, how come we are required to pass through earthly tribulation in order to become refined, as he would have us be? Talking to friends, acquaintances, members of my faith community, and family, I do not know a single person who has yet to pass through hard...
Prepared in a manner that had never been known
Last night the ladies from my church group, known as the Relief Society, gathered for an activity. My new volunteer assignment is to help lead this group in our mission of compassion, service and enrichment for the women over 18 in our area. I love it! I love working with the women of our ward. I love working with our Relief Society presidency! I love the opportunity I have to plan activities with our committee, and the chance to be used as a vessel for God’s work. This is...
Doing What You Love
When I was a little girl my grandparents lived in a closed subdivision called North Point up in the Avenues by the old Primary Children’s hospital. Up on top of the northern Salt Lake Valley mountains, on the western edge of the neighborhood you could look over Memory Grove, from way up high. One day my mom brought our little family up for a visit. Leaning up against the front entry closet were two small pairs of skis, poles, and boots. “Who are these for!!!!??” My brother and I...