Autumn · October
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
October 13
Three months after the back-step dinner, here is the twenty-minute Wednesday routine David and I keep with three kids home, and the weeks it falls apart.
October 12
Fall break starts Thursday. Here's what I'm fixing ahead, what I'm leaving open, and the hour I expect to go wrong.
October 11
Isaiah 64:8 is a prayer, and the clay in it includes me. What that changed about the habits I try to fix in my eleven-year-old and my eight-year-old.
October 10
What I do when my eleven-year-old and eight-year-old go at each other, when I stay out, and what to do about the toddler who grabs.
October 9
An even Saturday list can still leave one person holding the whole day in their head. How we're starting to divide the deciding along with the doing.
October 8
Brother Reid's Sunday afternoon talk was for anyone who teaches at home and doubts she knows enough. Here's what I took from it for my own table.
October 7
A nearly-three-year-old, an eight-year-old and an eleven-year-old who is too old. What I'm making, borrowing and letting go of for under thirteen dollars.
October 6
My eight-year-old was sad and couldn't say why. What I learned from Isaiah 53 and a woman I taught beside about staying put before saying anything.
October 5
Thirty-seven talks is too many for any of us to hold. Tonight each person in our house picks one, and we're going to try keeping it for three Mondays.
October 4
The temple doors open to the public April 5, 2027. I think the talking has to start months before anyone stands in line, and here's how I'd go about it.
FAQ