About This Blog

Welcome to Essaie Blog!

(Essaie is pronounced like "essay")

I'm Laura Roberts. 

In February of 2014, I lost my sweet sister to a battle with cancer. She was the young mom of two small kids, ages 3 and 18 months.

As it goes with tragedy, her death was a devastating wake-up call. I started looking around at the people I cherished and my goals/dreams that I hadn't accomplished for one reason or another. I no longer had any excuses left as to why I wasn't loving my people the best that I could, taking the chances that I wanted to take, and really living the full and beautiful life that I craved. All that I had left was a burning desire to make the most of myself and my time in this crazy life; to make my Creator--and my sister--proud of how I used what I'd been given.

When I consider what I love doing, what always bubbles to the surface is a love of writing: essays, poetry, songs, you name it. 
I've never been without the desire to get better at it, get braver at sharing it, and explore all the different ways of funnelling my thoughts, ideas, and heartaches into words; but could never quite move past my fears and hesitations...until I finally refused let my fears call the shots. At the risk of sounding cliche, but having no other way to say it: Life is too short.

And so, this blog was born.

In French, essaie (pronounced like 'essay') is a form of the verb that means "to try"...which is why this blog was started, and what I hope it inspires in its readers: courage! Courage to live the life you want, the strength to give it (whatever your "it" is) a shot, to dig deep and reflect, to create, appreciate the beauty in the simple things, and to enjoy the light and the laughter in the Everyday, living life deeper and higher...and savouring all the fun, beautiful things in between. 

My hope is that by sharing my perspective, my "trying" in my life, that you'll know you have a friendly face walking the road with you in yours.

----

Our family circa Fall 2018

In other random personal details, I am the mother of four amazing babies (ages 5-11) and the wife of one awesome dude. 

We're currently in the thick of homeschooling, an adventure that has been surprisingly, breathtakingly beautiful. 

We bought a giant van recently and are working towards building it out as a camping van so we can take our family on the road for longer stretches of adventure, exploring new places and faces and stories. The van is huge and white and it's called "The Yeti."

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Education with a minor in Special Education, a certificate as a Special Needs Educational Assistant, and have hopes of someday completing a Masters degree in something or other when that season comes. 

I moonlight as a photographer sometimes while my husband fully supports our family with his camera. He basically disappears during the summer and reappears during the winter. Seasonal occupations are weird.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and love sharing my faith journey and listening to others share theirs. Faith is such a tender subject, isn't it?

I'm still obsessed with 90's music.

I love the outdoors. It gives me so many feelings.

I like my men artistic, my chocolate dark, and my nachos loaded.

So, so glad you're here.