October 14
Potty Training a Boy Who Isn't Interested Yet
Ben is two years eleven months and shows no interest in the potty. Here's what I wait for, what I won't do, and how I'll set it up when he's ready.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
Autumn · October
Every essay, every home note.
The complete archive of Melissa Whitaker's essays and reflections on LDS Family Life, organized around family discipleship, honest motherhood, marriage, faith at home, and the home rhythms that shape a family over time.
Family discipleship
Practical essays on prayer, scripture study, Sabbath patterns, and building a faithful home culture in ordinary life.
Motherhood & marriage
First-person reflections on parenting, emotional honesty, family fatigue, closeness, and raising children without performance.
Home rhythms
Home notes on homemaking, hospitality, steadiness, and the spiritual texture of ordinary family routines.
Browse by theme
This archive gathers Melissa Whitaker's essays for families who want faith to live in ordinary prayers, ordinary conversations, and ordinary rooms. Readers will find family discipleship, honest motherhood, marriage reflections, homemaking, hospitality without performance, and steady faith-at-home writing shaped by the rhythms of a real home.
Essays
October 13
Our Date Night With No Sitter Is Twenty Minutes on Wednesday
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 12
My Plan for Two Days Off School With Three Different Ages
Fall break starts Thursday. Here's what I'm fixing ahead, what I'm leaving open, and the hour I expect to go wrong.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 11
In Isaiah 64 the Mother Is Clay Too
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 10
Stop Asking Who Started It
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 9
Saturday Was Split Evenly and We Were Both Worn Out
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 8
I Keep Coming Back to Brother Reid's Talk on Teaching at Home
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 7
One Halloween Theme for Three Kids Doesn't Work Here
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 6
Lily Asked Me to Stay and Not Say the Thing
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa
October 5
Tonight We Each Pick One Conference Talk and Say Why
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.
By Melissa Whitakerwith love, Melissa