Neylan McBaine
Photo: Chelsie Starley
Neylan McBaine has explored many interests over the course of her career, including brand marketing, women’s advocacy, historical writing, personal writing, non-profit management and educational technology. As the founder of the Mormon Women Project (now Latter-day Saint Women Project) and author of Women at Church: Magnifying LDS Women’s Local Impact, Neylan was at the forefront of women’s expanded opportunities in church administration over the past decade. As the founder of Better Days 2020, Neylan highlighted Utah as the first place an American woman voted under an equal suffrage law, celebrating the 150th anniversary of that first vote in 2020 with a state-wide campaign and authored book, Pioneering the Vote: The Untold Story of Suffrage in Utah and the West. In 2020, among other awards, she was named Women of the Year by the YWCA of Utah. Neylan is currently the CEO of Duet Partner, a software that provides studio management tools to independent music teachers. She’s the mother of three daughters – one in college and two in high school – and lives in Salt Lake City.
Actually relaxing. With my children now older and a calling that doesn’t require attending ward council, I find that I’ve returned to a place where Sunday can actually be relaxing. It’s been a while! So that means that Sundays now start as late as possible. In my youth, that meant half way through the day. These days, I feel like a champ if I sleep till 8am. Even better is waking up at 7:30am and having a half hour to just lie in bed. That is definitely the right way to start a day of rest.
On the organ. Because my husband is the organist in our ward, and because we have a retired chapel organ console in our house, getting dressed on Sunday morning is inevitably accompanied by Elliot practicing the hymns for Sacrament meeting. He has headphones, as it’s an electric console, but on Sunday mornings he lets his playing permeate the whole house. He practices his pedal sostenutos, or transposing the tenor line up to the top – little things he can do to perk up the congregation as they sing hymns they’ve sung a million times. His music helps wake up my daughters and set the tone for our departure to church.
Grazing and chatting. Everyone is famished when we return home from church. We’ve inevitably been too rushed to eat before church. I used to try to make a nice breakfast on Sunday mornings – crepes, pancakes – but no one ever ate it and I felt underappreciated. So, I now keep it simple. I scramble to get a crudité type spread out after we get home: cheese and berries and salami and crackers and everyone grazes and chats about their lessons. Sometimes there are tears: sensitive topics have not been addressed in a nuanced way, kids in Sunday School have been disrespectful to the teacher, a doctrinal point feels uncomfortable and has to be wrestled with. Oftentimes we marvel at the kindness and insightfulness and dedication of our ward members.
Dinner. Favorite Sundays are when my mother-in-law invites the whole family over for dinner. The kids rush to get their homework and practicing done after church so they can linger at Grandma’s. If there’s no invitation, there are naps and walks for the grownups. If the kids get their work done, we watch an episode of The Chosen. Dinner might be popcorn, or I might have gotten ambitious and tried a new recipe from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem cookbook and a chocolate cake for dessert. I’m very unpredictable in that way.
Change. As the owner of a small business, working mom and someone who thrives on productivity, the stretch of Sunday afternoon is completely unique in my week. Those few hours – when the emails stop and I’m not expected to respond to anyone or get ahead on anything – give me permission to work on a personal writing project, playing the piano, reading, or cooking. The “rest” part of the day of rest doesn’t mean I don’t do anything, just different things. But, as my grandmother always used to say, “a change is as good as a rest.” So thank goodness for the day of change.