Love Midlife Hacks
Midlife Wedding Anniversary Adventure Weekend
Celebrating 34 years with the love of my life, Samuel McArthur Smith, was amazing. It was a weekend full of love, fun, and adventure. From flying down the longest per water biplane in the world at Zipline Utah, to SCUBA diving in the Homestead Crater, to great food,...
Midlife Makeover Year 1 Complete
You are not too old to start over and make the second half the better half! I'm one full year into the midlife makeover. I've come a long way but have so far to go. And that's just fine! https://youtu.be/kldLeNSSGkQ What are you working toward in your life?
Sweetest Mother's Day Card — Instagram Edition
Nothing is more joyous and perilous than motherhood. The highs and lows, the joy the sorrow. The stakes are so high. It isn’t just a project or career. It’s a human life you hold in your hands. A life with free will of its own. With all our faults, sometimes our...
Fun Couples Date Night – All-Star Bowling & Entertainment
Many thanks to All-Star Bowling & Entertainment in West Jordan, Utah, for the great date night we enjoyed (with our teens tagging along) bowling, eating, and playing arcade games. https://youtu.be/wHsciTzI8oM Check out their shiny new makeover and don't miss the...
2 Tips for Coping when Kids Leave Home
Empty Nest Syndrome is a real thing. When Samson graduated last spring, I was hit square in the face with the realization that of my six kiddos, only one was still a minor. And with him on track to graduate from high school a year earlier, my time as a momma with kids...
San Diego Couple Trip with Teen Boys
The nearly empty nest thing takes some getting used to. This past week we took a final vacation with our boys before our 18-year-old, Samson, heads to Richmond, Virginia, for two years to serve as a missionary. https://youtu.be/3bA2FIzCQew If that's not traumatic...
Adopted DNA Test Results Q&A
After accidentally discovering two full siblings and nine half siblings, I’m answering some of your adoption biology questions. If you're an adoptee, you might be shocked! The 23 and Me and Ancestry DNA test results Sam and I took together were a big surprise (for me,...
Gifts for the Woman Who Wants Nothing
Need Christmas gift ideas for your wife (mother, daughter, grandmother, girlfriend)? Struggling to shop for the woman who as everything? Since having children my typical response to “What do you want for [Christmas, Mother’s Day, your birthday], has been “peace and...
Adopted DNA Test Results – Not What I Expected
As I told you in my adoption vlog, I took a DNA (we used both 23 and Me and Ancestry kits) test mostly to find out my true ethnicity. It was a fun activity and curiosity more than anything. In spite of the (surprising, to me) incredulity regarding my own level of...
My Adoption Story – Why I'm NOT Searching for My Birth Parents
Don’t you want to know your real parents? Don’t you want to know who you really are? Why don’t you get a DNA test? What if you have a strange genetic disorder? What if you’re an heiress to the throne? What if your siblings are looking for you?...