Jessica L. Elliott

The Elliotts at the Reno, NV Temple One of my favorite hymns is "Love at Home." It opens with the simple truth, "There is beauty all around, when there's love at home." The past couple of weeks, I have been traveling through five different states, not including the one I started in. Each had different climates, different landmarks and features, different vegetation and wildlife. But as I traveled with my young family, we truly did discover beauty all around. In every state, every town, every little stop along the way. While there were parts that weren't our favorites, we found far more places with beauty than not. Traveling with young children can certainly be tough. There's not a whole lot they can do by themselves yet, and sometimes they're not quite at the same ability level you are, though they can surprise you. There were moments of frustration, tantrums, and arguments. But more often than not, our young children were enthusiastic, joyfu...

Summer Thunderstorm with Sunset If you're in the northern hemisphere like me, summer is well underway. If you're in the southern hemisphere, I have to admit, I'm feeling a bit envious. Here in southwest Kansas, I'm grateful we're not as humid as it was on the eastern side of the state. But, it's still pretty darn hot. Heat shimmers on the road as I drive from one point to another. And just getting into the car feels like stepping into a preheated oven. Instead of leisurely strolling across my patio, I find myself skipping along as fast as I can to prevent my feet burning on the cement (because the only thing I hate worse than hot cement is confining my feet in shoes). My poor black puppy spends his outside time panting and looking for any shade he can find. Heat surrounds us, and for the time being, there's not a lot of relief in store. Now, as much as I really dislike the heat, I can't say I hate summer. I certainly love the flowers, the berries...

My sweet Prince Charming and I on our wedding day. This July, Prince Charming and I will hit our tenth anniversary. It's crazy how fast time flies, isn't it? Shortly after we had our first child, I talked to him about how I thought it was really important for us to take time to just be a couple, and we decided that every fifth anniversary we would take a few days for a getaway trip. This trip has been a comedy of errors from the planning stages. Original plans had to be scrapped when the sister I had traded babysitting with learned that her husband would need to train for a new job, and they would most likely be moving by the time I took my trip. After assuring Bekah it wasn't the end of the world, we hadn't set up any reservations yet, we set up with my other sister to watch the children. She agreed, as long as we told her the dates in advance so she could get off work. While we had hoped to do the trip over our actual anniversary, that changed too. My parents ar...