Hurst Family News

One of my mental blocks as a writer is trying to figure out my audience. That was always a tricky question for me to answer when writing papers in college? Who am I writing this paper for, exactly? The college professor who is grading me, obviously. But what about the blog? Who am I writing for? Is it just for me and then I launch it out into the world in case someone else needed what I did? Is it a convenient way to communicate with family both near and far? To honor those who have come before me and those who come after? Is my rambling for friends? People with depression? Parents? Women? Mormon? Ex-Mormon? People with chronic pain? (I would argue we all live with chronic pain but I digress...) Will my words find English majors? (They are likely appalled with my lack of editing.) Poets? Artists? Quilters? Lovers of words? Spiritual people, who wonder if it is true that they belong everywhere and nowhere? Thirty-somethings? Teens? The walking wounded who carry traumas with th

I quit my job recently for a variety of reasons. One of which was health related. I have had some weird health things over the last few months. One concerning symptom is a buzzing in my tailbone, like a phone on vibrate that can be incessant and maddening but also severely worrisome. When I looked it up online, all signs pointed to cancer and then to multiple sclerosis (thanks google). I have a friend who is currently living with MBC, metastatic breast cancer, not curable- but treatable. The reality that cancer is a thing people my age live with is still a little unsettling. So I wasn't entirely ruling out those possibilities. But also, I know better than to trust the internet when it comes to matters of health so I also made an appointment with my doctor. I had hoped the doctor would say, "Oh yes, I've seen this before! It's probably just XYZ." But when I told the nurse, she seemed perplexed. Then, when I told my doctor she also seemed rather stumped. So we we

Notes from YALSA18 in Salt Lake City Young Adult Library Services Association  Toshi Onyebuchi said he didn’t see himself in literature until 2014 reading Americanah by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie as a grown man. He said see himself reflected changed him. Now imagine what that can do for a teen.  "To see yourself in literature is validation of the deepest order." I can’t remember who said that quote and but it hits as the very core of literature and art and why I think it’s important to have a wide array of choices.  Toshi Onyebuchi is a great, charismatic speaker and a delight to listen to on the panel. Multiple times I heard him use his male privilege to boost the experiences of women of color. He’s a black man- so he doesn’t have the same amount of privilege that say a white man does- but he used his voice and his platform and it was a powerful example. He also began a reply with "One of the challenges I appreciate..." and my head spun for a minute.  Appreciate chal

New/Old Town Moving to the place where Sean and I met and fell in love has been fun.  We were gone long enough that there are new aspects to explore but familiar enough that it feels like home. It's also kind of fun to explain to the kids, "This is where I lived in college and we used to walk here" or "This is where Daddy lived when we were dating" while pointing to familiar places that would go overlooked in the day to day living but have a deep personal history for me.  Today (2018) I have lived here for 12 years. Chopped up a bit here and there. But that is longer than I have lived in ANY one town. So I guess it IS home. My formative years were spent in the San Joaquin Valley in California and I have deep nostalgia for my hometown . My heart will forever be on the Central California Coast . But Utah is my HOME. And it is where my kids are growing up. Making the decision to move here from Blanding was a sudden shift but it was the Next Right T

In the year of our Lord,  Two thousand and fifteen:  In the cold winter months, we spent a lot of time indoors.  Sometimes we ventured out for a bit of sledding fun.   While indoors we did a lot of projects to keep entertained. This was a day we made rockets because biggest brother got to have a "science day" at school (2nd grade) and the other two were jealous. Landon was only 1/2 day at that point (kindergarten) and Charlie was home with me ALL. THE. TIME.  It was exhausting as a parent because this child is more hands-on than the other two have been and as such needed more constant supervision as a small child. I believe that was the winter we had to get x-rays done because we couldn't find the 3rd button battery to a toy and couldn't be sure Charlie hadn't swallowed it. So we played with a lot of cardboard boxes.  That winter was hard because we all took turns getting sick and the kids missed a lot more days of school than normal due