Serving Arizona Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
September – October 2019 • Vol 45 • No 5 • Est 1975
Watercolor by Charleen Dunstan
Practical Dreamers Husband & Wife Team Dream Up Faith-Based Blog, Lesson Helps By Merry Gordon
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Photo courtesy Charleen Dunstan
Adam and Charleen Dunstan are the Practical Dreamers, Latter-day Saint bloggers who produce resources to help members with the new Come, Follow Me program.
e’s an idealistic professor of anthropology. She’s a pragmatic former English teacher turned stay-at-home mom. But together, Adam and Charleen Dunstan are the Practical Dreamers, bloggers who tackle faith, family, social commentary, wellness/recovery, and entertainment. In part, the couple call themselves the Practical Dreamers to reflect their personalities. “I was thinking ‘homely curmudgeon and his brilliant, sexy wife’ but Charleen nixed that one,” quips Adam. Ever the English teacher, Charleen gets deep about the meaning behind their name: “It encapsulates two sides of a person or relationship but allows room for both traits even if they seem polarizing . . . we help each other cut the tethers of our practical sides and let our
dreams float higher.” But the clever moniker goes beyond just the pair. “To me, ‘practical dreamers’ is anyone who has a deep passion for big ideas, and then brings it down to the specifics where it can really have an impact on people’s lives,” says Adam. Married five years, the Dunstans, members of Denton Texas Stake’s 1st Ward and parents of two, started as hobby bloggers in search of a side hustle. “I think like a lot of writers we had things we felt like we had to get out of our brains and into the world—things that we were very passionate about,” says Adam. “It’s why we’re both teachers, and it’s why we’re both writers.” Both Dunstans had wanted to write for a while. “I had always wanted to blog, and tried unsuccessfully more than once— like a lot of things in my life, it didn’t really get off the ground until Charleen became involved,” says Adam.
Though the pair generated ideas as they planned their Gospel Doctrine
“Heavenly Father had very different plans for us as the majority of our website traffic comes from faith-related topics and Come, Follow Me study guides and resources” lessons, their blog covers not just faith, but wellness and culture. Between the two of them, the Dunstans realized they had many perspectives to offer: professional perspectives, but also more personal viewpoints. Charleen draws upon her experience
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