Mormon women can do it all-'in sequence'

I loved this article by Tiffany Gee Lewis. I feel the same way.

"It was an uncomfortable read for me. I thought of my notebooks filled with first chapters of novels, half-written poems, and of the nights I squirrel away with my computer trying to eke out a few sentences of intelligible thought. Every spare moment (as spare as moments can be with four children) becomes a weighty decision: Do I fold laundry or write? Play Legos with my son or write? Read my scriptures or write? (Or, as I am doing now, type with one hand while a baby sleeps on my chest.)

And the truth is, either way I feel guilty, as guilt is just par for the course in motherhood. I don't want my children to remember that their mother was always tucked behind a computer screen, but neither do I want them, as children are wont, to think that the purpose of my life is to orbit around the center of their universe.

There is no pat answer to this. The only consolation I heard recently was a quote attributed to Brigham Young in which he said: "Mormon women can do it all, but they need to do it in sequence."

For every woman, that sequence may be different. I have to tell myself that there will be years for reading books and writing novels and getting that advanced degree -- years when I will wait for little voices calling my name, and they will not be there. There will be a time when I will go to tuck small children in bed, and find that they have grown into able men. One day, every single Lego will make it into the box and stay there.

For now I have to remember that I am not silenced, that I am simply in a stage of life that requires more hands on the ground than with a pen and paper. These are years for storing away memories of tiny hands, dimpled cheeks and the freshness of childhood.

I can do it all, I tell myself. But, right now, I am doing this.
http://www.mormontimes.com/mormon_voices/tiffany_gee_lewis/?id=7484