Tag Archives: blessing

An Irish Blessing

Sometimes the simplest thing can touch your heart. Today reading this Irish blessing someone shared touched mine: May God give you…☘️ For every storm, a rainbow, For every tear, a smile, For every care, a promise, And a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, A faithful friend to share, For every sigh, […]

Want To Be Happy? Try A Dose Of Nostalgia

If you want to be happy try a good old dose of nostalgia. For those not familiar with that term it is defined in the dictionary as, “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” With all the madness in 2020 I’ve thought quite […]

Communicating Like That Isn’t Any More Effective In Getting What You Want As An Adult Then It Was When You Were A Child

“I’m gonna hold my breath until you give in and give me what I want!”  Now there’s a communication tactic we learned as children was never effective in getting us what we wanted. All it did was make our cheeks turn blue and give us a pounding headache. Never once did it actually get us […]

We Don’t Meet People By Accident, They Cross Our Paths For A Reason

Today I was blessed to have two new people come into my life, and as soon as we all sat down for lunch I knew there wasn’t anything accidental about our being introduced to one another. It was clear to me that these two amazing women, who I felt an instant bond of friendship with, […]

It’s A Roadblock, Not A Dead End

Nothing is more discouraging then when you are literally working your guts out to make something happen and you suddenly get a wrench thrown in your works. Having something unexpected trip you up can feel in the moment like you’ve hit a dead end. Especially if you are physically worn out and emotionally spent from […]

Make The Money. Don’t Let The Money Make You.

Money. Some say money makes the world go round. Some feel that the love of money is the root of all evil. And some believe money can actually by happiness…There are all kinds of differing view out there about money, but there are a few things I can tell you for certain: -When you don’t […]

One Guaranteed Way To Feel Happier

Did you know that being nostalgic can make you a happier person? Well studies show it can! Recalling happy memories from the past can literally make you happier. At the end of an incredibly busy day when I was feeling a bit stressed out and slightly grumpy, I sat down to finish one last to-do […]

Principles of Peace – An Easter Message

Peace…We can’t turn on the TV news or listen to the radio without hearing daily reports of worldwide tragedies, of acts of hatred and terror, of wars and rumors of wars. There is not much peace to be found in those reports. And on top of that we are all going through our own personal […]

Wisdom from a 94 year old WWII Veteran

Over the weekend my family and I traveled down to Moab, Utah to spend a little time together. We also went to go and visit my Great Uncle Mel Dalton (he is my Grandmother’s brother). My Great Uncle Mel is 94 years old and he has lived an incredible life. Over the last year I’ve […]

Anything Can Happen, Anything Can Be

Listen to the mustn’ts child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts, Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN, CHILD. ANYTHING CAN BE. -Shel Silverstein First I have to say that I LOVE Shel Silverstein’s poetry!  He teaches so many incredible lessons through his […]

Look to the Light

36 years ago today one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time was released. The movie stars one of my favorite actors of all time – Jimmy Stewart, which alone tells you the movie is amazing. The movie is called Mr. Krueger’s Christmas. For me Christmas isn’t Christmas if I don’t watch this movie […]

We Need MORE HUGGING

I love hugs and I have always been a hugger. I hug everyone. It is just something I have always done because it makes me happy! But it doesn’t just make me happier – hugs make everyone happier! Did you know that every time you hug someone or someone hugs you that oxytocin gets released […]

You’re Never Too Old To Wish Upon A Star

This week I have been sharing life lessons I learned during my family trip through the Mediterranean on the Disney Magic cruise ship where we visited Spain, Italy, France, and Monaco. To wrap up my posts for this week I will share the biggest life lesson I gleaned from my trip – “Where there is […]

A Harrowing Experience and My Gratitude For Those Who Got Me Through It

Last week my family and I went down to Lake Powell for the week to host our kids and their college friends for a welcome home celebration trip for our daughter Ashley. We knew she had missed Lake Powell vacations tremendously while she had been serving her mission for 18 months so we made it […]

Imagine Your Life Without It

“If you want to appreciate what you have, imagine your life without it.” It’s an unfortunate thing, but it is all too often the case – In life it is so easy to fall into the trap of not appreciating all that we have. Whether it’s a person, or an experience, or a material possession, […]

Lessons on Surviving, Turning Trials into Trails, and Choosing Happiness (Part 5 of 5)

Today is the part 5 of a 5 part blog series I have been sharing all week this week. Throughout this week I have shared snippets of emails that my daughter Ashley sent home while she was serving her 18 month mission. For those who have followed along all week this week I am hoping […]

Lessons on Study, Selfishness, Repentance, and Never Looking Back (Part 4 of 5)

We have come to month fourteen of the eighteen months of lessons learned along the journey. I hope you are all enjoying reading these email snippets from Ashley’s emails. The life lessons she shares as she learns them was so valuable to me and I hope it proves to be valuable to all of you […]

Lessons on Love and Charity (Part 3 of 5)

Today was one of the happiest days of my life!!  My daughter Ashley is HOME!!!! Yep, after 18 months of doing service as a missionary she is finally back home with us and I am beyond words with happiness. This enitre week I have been sharing snippets of emails I received from my daughter Ashley while she was out serving her […]

Lessons on Character, Change, Hardships and Blessings (Part 2 of 5)

Today is a continuation of yesterday’s blog sharing some favorite snippets of my daughter Ashley’s emails she has sent home over the course of her 18 month mission with the valuable life lesons she was learning along the way – these lessons are such relevant lessons for all of our lives and I hope you […]

Incredible Life Lessons Along an 18 month journey (Part 1 of 5)

This week is one of my happiest weeks EVER as my daughter Ashley is coming home from her mission Tuesday! In last Thurssday’s email I explained just how much I have loved getting Ashley’s weekly emails she’s been sending home over the last 18 months because they share the cool life lessons she has been learning along the […]

Feeling Like A Little Kid On Christmas Morning!

Going into this weekend I feel just like a little kid on Christmas morning! I have waited 18 months for my daughter Ashley to finish serving her LDS Mission so she could come back home to me…and next week she is finally coming home!!!   YAYYYYYYY!!! I literally cannot describe how excited I am. It’s impossible to describe […]

The best thing in life isn’t things

The best thing in life isn’t things…its family. Family is a pretty amazing thing. First and foremost it is made up of our own immediate family, then our extended family, and then our friends that we love as family. Last week was a wonderful week. My own family was able to host several other families […]

Instant Gratification Is Beginning To Feel Like Not Soon Enough

The speed at which we expect everything today is almost unbelievable. We as a society want everything RIGHT NOW! We want our food instantly, we want our internet speed to be instantaneous, we want answers to questions to be given immediately, we want the news the instant it happens…. We want everything right here, right […]

Remember the old days when Apple was just a fruit?

Can you even remember what life was like before you had your Apple iPhone or some other brand of smartphone? Can you imagine for a second going back to that life? Let’s look at the pros and cons. Pros:  On the positive side we can be accessed real time, all the time, every day and […]

It could be that a small miracle is at play

At the end of last week I was invited by my friend Spencer Eccles to attend an Economic Conference out at Stanford University with a small group going out together. It was a fantastic event and I was so grateful I was able to attend it because I learned a tremendous amount and I met […]

Don’t be so quick to forget

My daughter Ashley who is still out serving her mission shared a story from a talk she attended on her mission that has such a simple, yet powerful message, that I had to share it with all of you. She was attending a meeting where a leader was speaking and in the letter Ashley is […]

Delicious Ambiguity

Certainty…it’s something we all long for because we want that feeling of security, but the fact is that none of us can ever really get it because life is, and always will be, full of uncertainty. That’s why the key to being at ease in life is to learn to embrace uncertainty. So how do […]

Re-evaluating Our Daily Routines

Vacations are without a doubt a HUGE blessing. But anytime you take time off or go away on a trip there is always the pain of struggling with re-entry back into your normal life again. For starters you get to deal with jet lag and having your body adjust back from any time differences, which […]

The Perfect Way To Start Off This Week of Christmas!

Two of my favorite Christmas movies of all time are “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart, and “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas” which also stars Jimmy Stewart. Mr. Krueger’s Christmas first aired on December 21, 1980 – 35 years ago to the day tomorrow! I was only 9 years old when I saw it for the […]

If you can make a situation better, DO IT!

In life we gain contacts, and connections, and wisdom that comes as we gain more and more life experience. As this happens we will inevitably start to find ourselves in situations where we might have either the talent, or the experience, or the resources to make a contribution to a situation that might really be […]