Author: Angela

I write so my family will always have letters from home.

happy salad

I made this salad a few times this week, and it nearly made me forget that it was January. It’s tangy, crisp, savory, sweet, and satisfying. This isn’t a food blog with pictures, so you’ll need to imagine a colorful salad. The recipe is adaptable, so don’t overthink it. The apple was my favorite part.

Ingredients I had this week:

a handful of greens, such as spring mix with spinach

1/2 apple, diced

1 carrot, diced or shredded

A spoonful of beets, diced (I used picked beets)

A spoonful of chickpeas, rinsed and drained

feta cheese

Chicken leftovers, chopped

sunflower seeds

a little chopped fresh parsley

dressing: two parts olive oil mixed with one part balsamic vinegar*, a spoonful of dijon mustard, and a drizzle of honey

*I had lemon-infused olive oil and a fig balsamic vinegar on hand from a foodie friend, so I used these. Yum. Any vinaigrette will taste good, though.

This salad is a mood booster, for sure. 😄

new to me

Text: Ellis Reynolds Shipp (1837-1949); Music: Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625)

Gradually, our church is rolling out new hymns, so it’s becoming more common for me to hear unfamiliar music at church. This hymn was sung in my parents’ sacrament meeting on Sunday and although it isn’t new, it was new to me.

It’s a beautiful prayer, and it was written by a woman I admire, Ellis Reynolds Shipp, an early female medical doctor in Utah.

Some of my favorite lines,

Calm the surges of the soul,

Bid the dark waves backward roll,

Let us all thy mercies feel,

Thru the pow’r thou dost reveal.

The storms we face are usually hidden in our souls, with dark waves and uncertainty that can feel consuming. This verse reminds me that we can ask our Heavenly Father to calm our storms. Jesus Christ showed us that He is really good at that.

Sanchez homecoming party

My parents are getting settled after their mission. Today they spoke in church about their experiences and then we gathered in their home to enjoy a meal. The young cousins (not pictured) joined one another in the usual arrays to play while adults settled into conversations long overdue. Sunlight reached inside to illuminate a very nice family gathering. My parents are themselves, and more tender and refined because of their missionary service.

More disciples needed

I sat with a wise friend this week and we went deep about life in our 50’s, this tugging, expanding, reinventing phase of life. There are many possibilities at this age, and an innate need to mentor, serve, and teach. Our friends scatter to many pursuits.

Balancing her concerns about current events and her desire to do something about it, my friend observed that the world doesn’t need more angry people, it needs more disciples of Christ. She’s decided that discipleship will underscore her service and mentoring in her 50’s and beyond.

I told you she was wise!

Something that helped me this week

In my personal study of the Creation, I looked at each day and pondered what the Lord was revealing about himself.

For instance, on day 2, He created the heavens. Here were some of my thoughts,

God is aware of our specific temperature and oxygen requirements. The atmosphere protects, insulates, provides rain. = He doesn’t intend for our lives to be uncomfortable all the time. God is our protector and aids our every breath.

He prepared the atmosphere to sustain life. He prepared Jesus Christ to give life.

He provides a Comforter to be with us. During mortality, we are engulfed in heavenly help, just as we are encircled by the heavens.

Perhaps this exercise would be helpful to you. What is the Lord revealing to you about Himself through His creations?

Daily doses

I have learned that short daily routines are powerful and effective for improving myself. A daily habit of reading one author or one subject for a period of time is a wonderful way to grow.

One year, I read A Year with C.S. Lewis: Daily Readings from His Classical Works. As I spent about five minutes with this great thinker each day, I was inspired to articulate faith in a clearer, more persuasive way. It didn’t matter that I had already read many of his books. These short readings were a steady dose of brilliance each day.

I have enjoyed other daily readings, such as Russell M. Nelson’s Daily Joy, and Clemency Burton-Hill’s Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day. Each of these informed and inspired me and gave me a sense of accomplishment each time I read. Dopamine! Yay!

My daily dose of culture for 2026 is Shakespeare. So far, I have floundered to understand my daily readings, but when something makes sense, a mark is made on my heart. I think that I’ll be able to comprehend Shakespeare better as I continue to spend time with him.

I’m most successful if a new daily goal is brief so can be linked easily to my established routines. I learned somewhere that this is called habit stacking. Basically, the idea is to link a goal to something you are already doing. For example, I have an established morning routine, so I might choose to add a 5-10 minute goal during that time.

An ongoing goal of mine is to simply read one page each day. That gets me into a book, then I end up reading much more. It’s an overtly minimal goal, but it’s effective.

Small daily acts give a better picture of where I’m headed than the things I do occasionally, in the past, or plan to do someday. Brief minutes add up to a lifetime.

#Goals

I don’t think we’re using hashtags or saying “#Goals” anymore, but this verse is pretty aspirational for me.

Notice that Nephi says his father Lehi was obedient unto the word of the Lord. End of statement. This is a character trait of Lehi, a long-established pattern in his life. Nephi continues, “Wherefore (meaning because of this, or for this reason), [Lehi] did as the Lord commanded.”

Nephi also says he was born of goodly parents. To Nephi, GOODNESS and OBEDIENCE were defining characteristics of his parents, so (of course) they would do what the Lord asked of them.

I have parents like this, and they have been missing from our lives for a year because they have been serving a mission. This is their second mission together. They served as mission leaders for three years when they were in their fifties, and now they are in their seventies. They have been serving in Puerto Rico where my dad served as a young missionary in the early 1970’s.

I can say of my parents, “They are obedient, so they answered the call for more senior missionaries to serve.”

They come home this week. I have their car in my driveway, a nice bedroom waiting for them because they fly in so late, and flags to wave at the airport. Hooray!

Or, as my dad would say, Hurrah for Israel!