MIXED: Lessons in Multicultural Parenting

Recently I had the opportunity to address my local church congregation about my faith. How I found it, and how I keep it. I decided I would also like to share it here. There is a lot going on in the world, a lot of hard and sad things. People are leaving organized religion and thanks to social media we get to hear all about it. More often than we used to. My experiences with my own personal revelation have helped me deal with all the madness in the world. 

Well I think this title speaks for itself. But seriously though, let's talk about Bruno and the entire Madrigal family, because Encanto is a smash hit and it's been stuck in my head since November. 

Birth story for Piedra baby #3!

I had the wonderful opportunity to sit down and talk with Elizabeth Dobson, the author and voice behind Family Remixed.com; a blog she created to educate and empower a growing demographic of interracial and adoptive families. Liz is a biracial woman adopted into an all-white family who shares her story to help and inspire others. Liz built a career in marketing in New York city, is a Tedx speaker as well as the winner of season seven of BYUtv's Relative Race alongside her husband Devin. 

My thoughts lately on the persecution suffered by early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how it applies to me today. 

A little life update for you on what has been going on in our house over the last few months and weeks!

This week I want to focus an episode on blended families and the many shapes they take. I decided to talk to my cousin Whitney about her experience losing her father at a young age (my uncle) and what her life has been like since gaining a step father. 

Today's episode is a conversation I had with my new friend Kimberly Castaneda. Kimberly met her husband Felipe when they were fifteen years old. Since meeting Felipe joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both have embarked on church missions, Kimberly has learned two languages and they are now married with two beautiful children. Listen as Kimberly shares the challenges and joys of being in a multicultural relationship and all that has happened along the way!

It's been a rough few weeks...not too long ago I experienced my first miscarriage, and shortly after beginning to process that we got to be part of history yet again and experience winter storm Uri, power outages and all. 

So it's been a while y'all...I can say y'all now that I live in Texas right? Let's check in with each other this new year...

Today's interview is with my new friend Lauren Cunico, who talks about her hispanic heritage, her global travels, raising bilingual children and serving a missing for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Honduras. 

For those interested, here is the Facebook group that Lauren mentions later on in the episode, as a resource for parents trying to teach children a second language, just shoot me an email if you would like an invite to the group!

Non-Native Speakers Raising Bilingual/Multilingual Children

I've watched many movies during this pandemic (don't even get me started on Netflix's Love Guaranteed...bleh!) but felt the need to do a personal review of the 2020 Disney Plus Mulan. there are MANY opinions on this movie, but here is my take. 

It's been a while! I've been on a hiatus as my family and I moved from Washington State to Texas. Right before our move to Texas I got a call from my dad letting me know that my Grandfather who was recently diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma wasn't doing as well as we hoped. So I went out to see him and wanted to share my experience with you. 

I watched Hulu's, Little Fires Everywhere, and had some thoughts. A lot of thoughts.   

Here is a little Tuesday pick me up for you! Enjoy my ridiculously cute two year old singing a duet of You Are My Sunshine with me. 

On Good Friday, April 10th there was a worldwide day of fasting. This fast was announced by President Russel M. Nelson during April General Conference and the main purpose was to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. This was a unique experience for myself, and I'm sure for everyone else who chose to participate. I decided to document my experience as I participated in the fast. 

This past Sunday was amazing, and I'll tell you why....and why this upcoming Sunday won't be one to forget!

Well, we all know what is going on, we've seen the news. There is lots of bad news, but there is also good news!

If you listened to my interview with my dear friend Aidan Stinger, you might remember that she gave me some book suggestions. One of those books was, "So You Want to Talk About Race" by Ijeoma Oluo. This book should be a mandatory read for every white person in this country. Aidan and I sat down for a book club discussion to go over our thoughts. You don't need to have read the book to listen to this episode, but I highly suggest reading it after if you haven't already. 

It's been so long! I want to recap some things that happened lately...poison control, Alaska, and the Super Bowl half-time show! So enjoy a little bit about my life lately.