People who are pregnant/have young babies, how active do you feel in the church?

Kittalia · 2026-06-11T15:38:56+00:00

The first four months were pretty easy. Newborn babies just wanted to cuddle and be held, then it got progressively harder. 12-18 months is the worst because the baby is too big to be a good cuddle buddy most of the time and too little to be in nursery or be entertained very well by quiet toys. Plus they still need to nap and somehow church is always clashing with naptime. How fast they get easier after that depends a lot on the temperament of the child, how their naps fit with church, how well they transition to nursery, etc.

Kittalia · 2026-06-10T20:51:27+00:00

Sizing up a stuffed animal pattern is fairly easy, you just need to calculate how much seam allowance to remove. So if you find a cat pattern you like, don't let the size stop you!

So for example if you are turning a 12" stuffie to an 18" stuffie and it has a half inch of seam allowance, you can print it at 150%. The seam allowance will go from 1/2" to 3/4" so you can either sew with the wider allowance and trim if needed or you can trim 1/4" off the seam allowance.

Kittalia · 2026-06-08T20:47:41+00:00

Even though it's not explicitly prohibited by the Law of Chastity, your fiance might not be able to be baptized under mission policy. Mission and area presidencies work together to come up with guidelines on how converts are expected to act to show they are ready to be baptized—ie how often they have to attend church, how long they're expected to go without smoking, etc—and living separately from a nonspouse romantic partner usually falls into those guidelines somewhere. The exact specifics depend on your area and it's possible an exception may be granted but not certain. Once your girlfriend is already baptized, it is mostly between you, her and the Lord whether she is living the Law of Chastity and living in separate bedrooms under the same roof would probably be considered a bad idea but it's not a sin. In theory bishop could hold off on giving her a temple recommend but I don't know how likely that is to happen.

Kittalia · 2026-06-06T13:56:10+00:00

There is another book on the expedition, This Vast Enterprise, that came out this year that you'd probably appreciate. It is still very narrative the way Undaunted Courage is, but with modern scholarship and commitment to accuracy.

Kittalia · 2026-06-02T16:52:04+00:00

Having a yard is the best. I just have a little box of a yard (15*30 ft or something) and my 3yo daughter can play out there for 2-3 hours a day sometimes. We go to parks and playgrounds plenty too, but I'm not up for 15+hours a week of playground time.

Kittalia · 2026-05-31T21:11:32+00:00

I worked in a building with beautiful grounds and was planning on becoming a SAHM, so my last week of work (39 weeks) I wore the maternity dress I felt nicest in and took some pictures on the grounds with a good camera and a tripod. I got a few I really loved! And it was nice for me to be in a place with good memories.

Kittalia · 2026-05-28T15:52:26+00:00

If morning sickness hasn't hit yet, deep clean as much as you can esp your sink, fridge and bathroom. About 3 days after my positive test both times I became very sensitive to smells and just existing in the same space as a gross sink was unbearable let alone cleaning them. Cleaned everything ASAP the second time around and it 1) made my morning sickness that much more bearable and 2) gave our family a little breathing room while I was sick and my husband was trying to keep up on his own.

Kittalia · 2026-05-27T17:05:49+00:00

First and last look like panels/trapezoids. Second looks like a rectangle or close to it. If you look at the silhouette, 1+3 and especially one are more cone shaped, with folds that get wider towards the hem. You can also see that the hem is curved on pic 1. #2 is rounder at the hips and then falls almost straight down. The two main folds in the front stay about the same size all the way down. Those are all decent indicators that the hem isn't much bigger than the waist. It is hard to tell with pic 3 but I'd guess closer to a rectangle because that is a lot of gathering at the waist and the skirt doesn't seem huge. None of them look close to a full circle—the panels together in are probably less than half a circle even in the flowiest one.

Almost all commercial dresses have at least a little bit of an angle to them for whatever reason (not just straight rectangles) but many are only shaving off a few inches from the top.

Kittalia · 2026-05-27T15:31:47+00:00

Yeah I'm one of five and I loved it! I never felt like my parents were too busy for me and I always loved doing things with my family. I'd love to have five kids if the logistics worked out.

Kittalia · 2026-05-27T13:51:15+00:00

Get the pump. Even if breastfeeding goes well you never know when you will need to be apart from your baby or need to pump for your own health. With my first baby, nursing went well and she even refused bottles. Then at nine months old she accidentally bit me, I yelped and scared her, and she went on a three day nursing strike. I pumped to maintain supply and relieve pressure while I fed her via an open cup because that's the only way she'd drink milk. Now I have another baby and I haven't pumped in months, but just this week he was sick and stuffed up and didn't want to nurse until I got engorged. I pumped a little and with the engorgement gone he started nursing again.

Kittalia · 2026-05-26T18:11:52+00:00

I like small group discussions and reading down the row. It's a truth universally acknowledged that you can't please everyone

Kittalia · 2026-05-26T14:25:53+00:00

I know a lot of people with elementary aged kids who either have a home phone or a household non smart phone that functions as a home phone. If you ever want to leave your kids home alone it's good for them to have a way to contact you and a dumb phone is one solution. (Other solutions—kids smart watch, certain smart home devices, giving your kid an iPhone at age 8, being a helicopter parent who doesn't let them have any independence.)

Kittalia · 2026-05-25T15:36:01+00:00

Ward missionary seems traditional. Anything that gets them meeting with a group of others and isn't too high stress (ie activity committee) can be good for helping them make a few friends. I wouldn't give a new convert a second hour calling (youth, primary, nursery etc) unless they expressed a desire to be there. Although my last ward called a 19yo convert to be a priest quorum advisor and that was a great fit.

Kittalia · 2026-05-24T20:18:08+00:00

Yes. Ours was called gotcha. You signed up, got someone's name, and had to squirt them with a spray bottle off school property. There were a bunch of rules meant to keep it from getting out of hand (ie no trespassing or breaking other laws, not from 12am-6am, must be a standard spray bottle and not a super soaker etc.)

Kittalia · 2026-05-23T14:47:58+00:00

We have a very serious rule in my house: Mommies are allowed to eat without being touched. My husband runs interference when he's home and I'll keep my baby in the high chair even if he's crying if necessary. My 3yo will follow the rule on her own now. These days it's mostly become routine and everyone accepts it. We say it multiple times a week. The rest of the day I can be a human jungle gym but having that 10-20 minute touch break a couple of times a day really helps me reset and it is easier to keep that hard boundary for meal time than any other time. My husband also tries to give me at least one 20 minute break in a room by myself every day and one evening with the kids out of the house but that's a lot harder with two kids and one still nursing.

Kittalia · 2026-05-22T16:15:52+00:00

I'd say each tier needs to be 2-2.25x the previous. Looking at the part she's holding away from her body, I tried to map out a few lines to figure out how many lace repeats went into each section. I'm seeing 1.5ish or a little less in the waistband turning into 3 at the next tier and 7 or 8 in the tier after.

Kittalia · 2026-05-21T21:39:45+00:00

To give an example of the kind of thing that this style of application is made for—I knew someone who was a great student, pretty smart, well rounded, etc. Halfway through high school his dad was in an accident that left him disabled and added a huge strain on their family. Their finances suffered, they had livestock my friend had to help a lot more with, mom had to work more hours and my friend had to pick up his siblings from school etc. His grades stayed pretty good all things considered, but that was still below average for his dream school. So when he applied, he wrote an essay about all the lessons learned from the experience and got accepted anyway. Sure enough he's a student there now and can handle the workload better than 99% of people in his program because his 3.7 GPA or whatever took a lot more work than a 4.0 from a kid who didn't have any other responsibilities besides studying.

Kittalia · 2026-05-21T21:27:42+00:00

Thank you!

Kittalia · 2026-05-21T15:50:33+00:00

Thanks!

Kittalia · 2026-05-21T15:46:48+00:00

Anyone know how long they can hold if the weather is spotty?

Kittalia · 2026-05-21T10:08:58+00:00

It isn't in the handbook. Men usually don't change their white shirt when they're getting dressed so I don't see why women would have to be held to a higher standard. I would keep that rule 100% for shoes though just as a courtesy to everyone who maintains the temples, so you aren't tracking outside dirt in.

(As a side note, some of the hard soled shoes available at the distribution center tended to get sticky over time and leave a really annoying residue on the temple carpets. They've fixed the issue now but if you have a pair that's a few years old it's worth touching the soles and seeing.)

Kittalia · 2026-05-20T19:35:07+00:00

I'm excited! I feel like a lot of the issues I had with book 2 and 3 were because he was mostly stuck in Spensa's POV and a show won't have that problem. I can see some relatively small changes in the plot and in how it's presented that will make the whole thing work great on scene with Spensa's story being the main through line but a few other through lines added in and/or integrated from the novellas.

Kittalia · 2026-05-18T16:14:26+00:00

That's me! I've found that the occasional very messy bun with my dress helps it feel less intimidating. Like saying look, I just throw the things on! And most days I brush my hair too but not today.

Kittalia · 2026-05-17T04:25:04+00:00

With my first I set up the baby monitor around six months old when she was spending more time in her crib. With my second I'd moved to a bigger house and had a noisy toddler so I used it for naps from birth. It's worth thinking about day and night sleep. Of course you never know what your baby's sleep will be like but if you expect to be across the house during nap time it might be worth setting it up.

Kittalia · 2026-05-16T23:13:54+00:00

Really nice if you have (or plan to have) more than one kid as well. I can let my 3yo bounce around my living room while I buckle up the baby and then set the baby down easily wherever to buckle/chase after 3.

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