Joan Ruth Smith Stout

Joan Ruth Smith Stout
March 16, 1931 -September 5, 2007

Our Message

Joan Ruth Smith Stout passed away on September 5, 2007. She was my beloved mother and grandmother of the beautiful girls pictured to the right, Kim, Tiffany, Tara, Chelane, Stephanie, Tristen, Sara, Telisa, Mikel, Jenny and Ashling. My mother died due to complications from malnourishment, or in other words, an eating disorder. I believe it started in her teens and she was completely unaware of the insidious disease that took route in her mind. She was somehow blessed to give birth to four children, three boys and a girl. Joan loved her children with devotion and passion even though much of the time, she felt poorly. Stomach problems, headaches and heart palpitations were a daily occurrence for her. As her only daughter, I was oblivious to her plight until my very own sweet daughter started on that same journey in her teens. By then my mom had been suffering from her eating disorder for a good fifty years, and there was no redirecting her thoughts. Unfortunately for me, I was angry for a while when I realized that the route of all her illnesses was through lack of nutrition. That was shameful on my part, and I am sure that only added to my mom's illness. I hope she knows now how foolish I was. However, through the journey of Telisa's eating disorder, the girls in our family have learned much, especially Telisa! It is for this reason that we collectively, as Joan's Girls, are choosing to send the message out to the world of what real beautiful bodies need to support good physical and mental health!!!!!!! We watch with horror the unhealthy and unattractive images on TV, Movies, Magazines etc. We witness some of our dear friends struggle with body image issues, and frankly we are sick of the comparing and obsessing over one's size versus one's health!! We believe in good health, we believe in eating the food provided for us by our Heavenly Father, we believe in balance and moderation, we believe in exercise in moderation, we also believe the best exercise is done while serving others, we believe that God created many types of bodies and we thank Him for that! We believe in modesty and we believe that our bodies are a gift from Heavenly Father! We believe that true beauty comes from within. All of Joan's granddaughters are true beauties. Our legacy to her will be our commitment to the TRUTH of what is beautiful and praiseworthy. We seek after these things. We will strive for good health and the truth in all we do!

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

The Price of Motherhood

I've been without internet all last week, and will be without it for most of the rest of this week. So I'm just throwing this out there and hopefully I'll have time for another post this weekend when I'm back in internet range!

I read this book about 2 years ago. I found it totally facinating.  While I don't agree with everything that is said, I think there is real value and insight in this book.  

For me, since I'm so very left-brained, it was nice to have the value of motherhood put in terms of numbers and figures.  I guess the bottom line here is Motherhood is the most important job in the world. Sometimes I forget.

**On a related note, Stephanie has a link to a video that talks about the same kind of thing.
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4 comments:

Peters Family said...

I love to hear about good books to read. Thank you. I will remember that one!

May 12, 2009 at 1:58 PM
Sara said...

Mikel- You're so on the ball! I really need to post.
I think every mother needs frequent reminders that it is the most important job.
Thanks for the recommendation.

May 12, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Stephie said...

Yeah, it is nice to be reminded every once in a while that our jobs are so important and valued! Thanks Mikel!

May 12, 2009 at 4:57 PM
Dennis and Kathryn Peters said...

Super job Mikel! I can't wait to read the book!

May 16, 2009 at 6:21 PM

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