bring joy

pregnancy after miscarriage

Back in San Antonio, 2015.

I know many, many women have struggled with post-partum depression, but me, I struggle with pregnancy-induced depression. It sets in around the same time as the morning sickness & lasts as long as the nausea does.

I wake up, day after day, in a word, depressed.

I should be elated.

I’m pregnant!

Pregnancy after Miscarriage

After my miscarriage last year, we have been trying, & it finally took after about 8 months of hoping. I’m only 11 weeks, so still in the “danger of miscarriage” zone. Funny how with my first 5 pregnancies, having not once had a miscarriage, it was never on my mind, even in the first trimester.

But this time, it’s different. I’m finding it hard to ignore the mild anxiety, that sort of ever present worry that any day, any hour I could...

12 years: Can kids ruin marriage?

marriage, parenting

When Joseph & I were dating (all 1 & 1/2 weeks of our courtship–yeah, we were crazy), we agreed we were into big families.

We both came from rather large families (me–6 siblings, him–5 siblings), & we thought that 5-7 kids sounded good. After we had our first, we changed that to . For those of you who aren’t Mormon or Catholic, this seems like an INSANE number, I know.

Every August, as our anniversary comes & goes I tend to reflect on our union & I’m always in a bit of awe that it all happened & that it is still happening, better & stronger than ever, but not by chance. Our amazing marriage isn’t a matter of luck (read on).

[Other anniversary posts you might want to read–11 years: What is love anyway? & Love, 10 years of it ]

We’ve lived in Utah, Washington, Texas, & now Okinawa,...

Okinawan Diet: How Much Sweet Potatoes Do Okinawans Really Eat? (Part 2)

vegan/health, okinawa

As part of a series exploring the Okinawan diet, I’m going to answer a few questions a reader sent me.

Hi, my friend showed me this article it was very pleasing to read!

About the Okinawan diet, I’m Japanese, but never been to Okinawa planning to go next year, do the Okinawans really eat 70% of their diet as sweet potatoes? All the information on the Okinawan diet online says that, which would mean they eat it every meal, instead of rice?

Just curious, how much fish do they eat (daily or weekly)? And do they eat other sources of protein?

I had read plenty about the Okinawan diet before moving to the island & had my idea of what the Okinawan diet looked like.

Some things came as a surprise (they actually don’t eat as many sweet potatoes as people think, I’ll explain more later), &...