Summer · June
from a small garden south of Salt Lake
Family discipleship, honest motherhood, and the slow work of making a home, written at the kitchen table by Melissa Whitaker.
Lately on the kitchen table
read more →A note from Melissa
LDS Family Life is a publication about LDS family life, motherhood, marriage, homemaking, and practical gospel living for families who want faith at home to feel lived instead of staged. I write first-person essays on family discipleship, spiritual formation in ordinary routines, and the pressures families are trying to carry with steadiness and grace.
The sink full of mixing bowls. The garden row that finally came up. The child calling for one more glass of water. The prayer I whisper while scraping plates after dinner. Those are the things that hold a family, and they feel worth writing down before they slip past.
with love, Melissa
Essays
June 28
I put an empty mason jar on the kitchen counter and my kids filled it with everything from porch cats to bathroom complaints. The family council changed.
June 28
The candle was a gift I never lit. It sat on the kitchen windowsill for months, a vanilla and sandalwood thing that looked nice and did nothing else.
June 28
I found a dried piece of macaroni under the couch cushion yesterday. It had been there long enough that the cheese had turned into a fossil.
June 28
I was folding laundry at ten o'clock at night and the house was finally quiet. The toddler had gone down after three stories and a cup of water.
June 27
I found a blue crayon mark on the kitchen table this morning. A single line pressed hard enough that the wax is still there after I wiped it down.
June 27
I was standing in the kitchen on a Saturday evening with a dish towel in my hand. I was planning the Sunday the way I plan a work week.
June 27
The toddler dumped an entire box of Cheerios on the kitchen floor while I was trying to say the blessing on the food.
June 27
I was halfway through vacuuming the living room when I heard the knock. The rug was half done.
June 26
I called a family council for a Tuesday night and the teenager asked if she could bring her homework. The middle-schooler asked how long it would take.
June 26
The pancakes burned on a Sunday morning while I was trying to get the toddler into a dress. I let out a breath I had been holding since Saturday night.
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