Tag Archives: happiness

Another Look Unlimited Day

The day after a holiday is always a little rough. But guess what?! I just found out that the day after Labor Day is actually yet another holiday! Apparently its “Another Look Unlimited Day”, which frankly I’d never heard of before until today, but yeah…apparently it’s really a thing… What is it you ask? Okay, […]

#TheMeaningOfLifeIn4Words

When my twitter feed revealed #TheMeaningOfLifeIn4Words  as the top trend hashtag of the moment it totally killed my focus tonight. The truth is I don’t usually pay attention to things that are trending but for some reason this one caught my eye. Perhaps that’s because I’ve spent days on end doing nothing but writing word […]

Reframing How We View Social Media

“The opposite of depression is purpose.”  –(a blog post from Ashley, daughter of Amy Rees Anderson) There was a book I read as a child called “You Are Special” by Max Lucado that I think perfectly teaches this principle. It’s about a wooden doll named Punchinello, who lives in a town full of Wemmicks (other […]

Give A Man A Task. Preferably In As Few Words As Possible.

On a recent road trip I took with my husband down to our houseboat at Lake Powell I found myself getting incredibly bored during the portion of the drive where we lose cell phone and internet coverage. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with my husband but his idea of an exciting road […]

It’s BOTH National Bacon Lovers Day AND Cupcake Day! It’s Clearly Going To Be A Ridiculously Awesome Day!

Bacon and Cupcakes – celebrating either one of those delicious delicacies in a day would make it an awesome day, but celebrating both of them on the SAME DAY?! That is the very description of Ridiculously Awesome! When I discovered that National Bacon Lovers Day (August 20th each year) and Cupcake Day (the third Monday […]

Ten Rules For The Good

Starting off any new week,  it’s always good to have a really good motivational poem or quote that can help put things into perspective and motivate you to want to be better.  A perfect example of one that works well for any given week is these ten rules written by Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson’s Ten […]

When We’ll Know That We Knew What Love Was

My daughter Ashley wrote a great guest blog for me last week about how her definition of love is growing as she comes to understand more about what love and marriage are all about. Reading her post I couldn’t help but thing about how my own definition of love has grown tremendously over the years […]

You Can Only Be Young Once. But You Can Always Be Immature

“You can only be young once. But you can always be immature.” -Dave Berry My sister Jen and my niece Rachel came into town this week to visit from California. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to spend time with the two of them but 17 years ago my niece Rachel actually lived with […]

The Worst Decision Is Indecision

Where do you want to go out to dinner tonight? Sounds like an easy question, yet when someone asks it to you it often feels like they’ve just presented you the most difficult question ever.  There are so many options you could choose, and what if you choose one and you would have liked the […]

You Can’t Depend On Your Eyes When Your Imagination Is Out Of Focus

“You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.” – Mark Twain Just as you can’t trust your eyes when your imagination is out of focus, you can’t trust your emotions when your body is physically spent.  Sometimes we get moving so fast and furious through life that the terrain we are […]

12 Ways to Lighten Up

We all need help lightening up once in awhile. Here are 12 great steps to help you lighten up: “Approaching your life with a non-serious attitude gives you a clearheaded view of difficulties and the energy to deal with them. Problems are easier to solve, people are more cooperative and you feel more relaxed. You […]

Promise Yourself

“Promise Yourself To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all your friends feel that there is something in them To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true. To think only the […]

Keep On Keepin’ On

The weekend is just around the corner, which in and of itself is something to get excited about.  Some days things go fantastic and other days can be a struggle just to make it through. When times are tough the best thing to do is remind yourself to just keep on keepin’ on: Keep on Keepin’ […]

If I Had My Life To Live Over Again

Yesterday I blogged about a talk Steve Jobs gave in which he discussed keeping perspective on life and death in the context of making decisions and not letting fear hold you back. After I’d finished that blog I couldn’t help but think a bit more about that subject of life and death, but my thoughts […]

Family Road Trips – No Better Way To Test Your Love For One Another

Nothing bonds a family like traveling in an RV without air-conditioning in 105 degree heat…At least I suppose one could call it bonding the family together when all of us were so sweaty hot that our bodies were literally sticking to the sofa seats of the RV as we made our long drive back from […]

Be Too Busy Working On Your Own Grass To Notice If Theirs Is Greener

We’ve all heard the saying “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence” and more than likely we’ve all been guilty of falling into that mindset at one point or another. It’s easy to tell ourselves other people’s situations are better than our own, especially since we see a very limited […]

Am I The Only One Who Finds It Hard To Focus The Day Before A Holiday?

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE HOLIDAYS?! I love everything about them. Great food, fun, friends, family….how could I not love holidays??  In fact, I get so excited about holidays that I start celebrating them in my mind the day before they even arrive…the closer we get to the actual holiday the more antsy […]

My First Fortnite Experience

Fortnite. I had heard there was a lot of hype about the video game, but I had never actually seen or played this game…until this weekend… My family traveled down in our RV to Bryce Canyon Utah (where our daughter-in-law is from) to support her family as they welcomed back her brother who was returning […]

One Man Asks Why Women Speak in “Woman Code”

“Men say that women should come with instructions…What’s the point of that? Have you actually ever seen a man read the instructions?” I walked into our kitchen today to find my husband, my son, and my father all laughing out loud and knowingly shaking their heads as they listened to this short little video clip […]

Plan Out Every Detail, then Take A Deep Breath…And DANCE!

Well I’m about as prepared as I know how to be for this weeks wedding festivities. I’ve planned every detail, I’ve done Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint galore showing each vendor exactly what to do and how things should look when it comes together. I’ve done timelines and checklists that map out every minute of the […]

Work as if everything depends on you, Pray as if everything depends on God

I must have been out of my mind to think it was going to be possible for me to be gone for a week to London and then come home for a few days and go right back out of country again to Prague, Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, and Budapest for another full week and then […]

How We’d Like To Be Remembered

In speaking of how he’d like to be remembered in life after he’s gone, Muhammad Ali said: “I’d like for them to say he took a few cups of love, he took one tablespoon of patience, one teaspoon of generosity, one pint of kindness. He took one quart of laughter, one pinch of concern, and then, […]

Be Content…See The Wonders

“Everything has it’s wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.” –Helen Keller Feeling content….that’s a concept I struggle with because I have always found that not being content with things as they are has been the great motivator for me to try harder, to […]

Stop Overthinking It and Start Doing It!

We always have the ability to freak ourselves out with those thoughts of “I can’t do it” or “I’m not good enough to handle it” or “this is impossible” or “it can’t be done”….one of the easiest things in the world is to convince ourselves that we shouldn’t even try…  Heck, if I had really […]

Give people the benefit of the doubt

“A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands. Her mom came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile: my sweetie, could you give your mom one of your two apples? The girl looked up at her mom for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one […]

It Couldn’t Be Done

It Couldn’t Be Done Somebody said that it couldn’t be done But he with a chuckle replied That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.   So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He […]

Things Will Straighten Out When You Stand Steady And Face Them

Sundays have always been a special day of the week for me. It’s the one day I set aside work and outside activities and as much technology as I can and I use it as a day to refill my spiritual tank. I always attend church for three hours each Sunday (…yes, you heard me […]

“Don’t let someone’s words blind you from their behavior.”

If we want to know who another person is all we need to do is watch what they do.  Strip away their words completely and just focus on their actions…observe just their actions over a period of time. As you do this you will begin to know their true character because their actions will be […]

Friendship Is Built In The Present, But We Can Deepen Its Roots By Sharing Stories From Our Pasts

Dalton here, Amy’s one month shy of turning 25 year old son (feel free to mark that in your calendars so you’ll remember to send birthday wishes my way 🙂 ) filling in for my Mom tonight so she can have a little alone time with my Dad…and frankly, I prefer to not know what […]

What Are Men Really Thinking?

“Women spend more time thinking about what men think than men actually spend thinking.”  -unknown There is no question that as a woman when you ask a man what he is thinking and he responds, “Nothing” it seems like an impossible answer. How in the world could he actually be thinking about nothing?? I still […]