Tag Archives: life lesson

Valuable Advice For Husbands

8 years ago today my husband did something that led me to share some valuable advice for husbands which I shared through a blog post I’d written eight years ago titled “NEVER let your wife’s car run out of gas!”: I was leaving the house early the other morning in the middle of that terrible […]

Working Hard Should Not Be Done For A Goal’s Sake At The Expense Of Relationship With Others

I was working at my office late tonight when a text came through from a friend with a video clip. I was super busy today and wouldn’t normally have stopped to listen to a video clip but for some reason I found myself hitting play. A young man in his graduation cap and gown stands […]

“Does Anyone Here Have A Sister Named Bambi?”

Back in my twenties I was invited on a trip with a group of people that didn’t know each other.  When the group arrived, one of the young men in the group started sharing his thoughts on a controversial political subject, speaking in a manner that assumed everyone else in the group shared his same […]

The Rule Against Why Or When

I moved every few years as a kid. My father’s work took us from Oregon, to Washington, Michigan, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, California and then Utah. Every time we moved and I had to say goodbye to my friends it was hard. That gave me a special appreciation for the fact that from the time my […]

Focus On Those Ones

For the last several months my husband and I have been working round the clock to help our son and his wife to redo a home they recently bought so they can hurry and get moved in before their next baby (my second grandbaby) is born this summer. We’ve poured our hearts and soul into […]

Destiny Is A Mysterious Thing.

“Destiny is a mysterious thing, sometimes enfolding a miracle in a leaky basket of catastrophe.” – Francisco Goldman A few days ago I posed a blog about taking control of our lives by first taking control of our thoughts and then figuring out what we can do to improve ourselves in every situation. Today I […]

What to do if you encounter an Anaconda

The other day someone sent me a survival tip on what to do if you encounter an Anaconda, the largest snake in the world – here is what they sent to me: The US Peace Corps train their workers to deal with any kind of eventuality they might meet in the field, and since they […]

Everything Can Change In A Single Second

Saturday morning I awoke to a phone call alerting me that my son Dalton and his pregnant wife Alexis had been in a car accident on the freeway. Getting that phone call was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I rushed to the Hospital Emergency Room where I spent the rest of […]

Realizing the Value of Time

“Lose an hour in the morning and you will spend all day looking for it.” -Richard Whatley SO TRUE! And today I’m guessing that is exactly how a lot of us felt. I know I did! It started when I woke up this morning and discovered I had completely FORGOTTEN it was going to be […]

Serving those you love and loving those you serve

I spent the last six days in Cabo San Lucas Mexico with the Brigham Young University (BYU) Center for Entrepreneurship Board Retreat. We traveled down with around 45 couples who flew in from all across the United States. These couples are all donors to the University who all share a mutual passion for promoting entrepreneurship […]

A Lickin’ Does A Fellow Good

Saturday when we got home from our Hawaii trip we opened a knock at the door to find my mother-in-law and father-in-law who had driven down from Idaho to surprise us with a visit as they wanted to be here for my husband’s birthday tomorrow (Tuesday).  One of our favorite activities when our in-laws come […]

Love Them All The Way To The End

I love the holiday season – I love the decorations and the holiday goodies and that extra feeling of love in the air. And I especially love Hallmark Christmas Movies!!! For those who don’t know what I am talking about, the Hallmark channel on TV puts out a bunch of original Christmas movies every year […]

Apply The Triple Filter Test

I think most all of us have either been guilty of either saying something we shouldn’t have, or listening to something we ought not to, and likely we’ve made the mistake of doing both. It’s likely we have all made those mistakes more times than we wish we had, and I can’t think of a […]

We can be All In or We Can Get Out

Sunday night I had to fly down to Los Angeles for some business I needed to be here to handle for the first part of the week. When I arrived in LAX it was after 10pm and I was exhausted and all I wanted was to get to the hotel and get to sleep. When […]

When it doesn’t work out the way you had hoped..

If you have done all you can do, giving it your very best effort, and it still doesn’t work out the way you had hoped it would, then you have to trust that it wasn’t in your best interest for it to work out that way. Sometimes when we are excited about something going a […]

Everyone Should Be Welcomed With Applause

The next life lesson I learned on my European Adventure came about the day we boarded our Disney Cruise ship in Barcelona. I have taken many other cruises before but never have I gone on a Disney cruise. For one they charge significantly more than other cruise lines so I have always opted for the […]

One Painstaking Petal At A Time Creates A Masterpiece

I promised this week I would share some life lessons I learned during my families recent European Adventure. Today I want to start by sharing my experience in Spain, specifically, during my visit to the Lladro factory in Valencia, Spain. First I need to explain my love for Lladro porcelain statues. My Mother once received […]

Everyone Needs Some “No Phone Time Together” (Our European Adventure)

Over the last two weeks my husband and I and our son Dalton and his wife Alexis and our daughter Ashley all went together on a European Family Adventure! We planned this trip to be our first family trip of just our own family because we wanted our daughter Ashley to get to know her […]

The Parable of the Rocks

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They […]

Things happen around us, but it’s what happens within us that matters most

My daughter-in-law came across a story I hadn’t heard before. When I first saw the title of the story I almost didn’t read it because I couldn’t imagine how a story with that title would be interesting, but I am really glad I decided to keep reading because the message it conveys is just plain […]

The Parable of the Elephant Rope

As a man was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they […]

Be Prepared…In Advance!

How many of us will find ourselves still awake at 1:00 or even 2:00 in the morning still assembling Christmas presents and getting them wrapped and putting bows on them?  How many of us will be tired and worn out instead of feeling relaxed and rested so we can enjoy this holiday week? There is […]

Learn To Be Satisfied (Forbes Article)

“Learn to be satisfied. It is just as easy as being dissatisfied – and much more pleasant.” -Jacob de Jager For over five years now I have been writing a daily blog. The topic of each blog typically stems from something I went through or experienced during that particular day that stuck in my mind […]

You Can Do It The Easy Way Or The Hard Way…

My husband Rollin grew up on a dairy farm in Idaho and as a child growing up he was given a lot of chores to do. As a child, when his father gave him a chore he didn’t want to do, he would start to grumble and complain about it, at which his father would […]

“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”

Life is ever changing, and sometimes it is hard to let go of the past we loved in order to make room for the future ahead.  We hold on to things tightly, dreading the thought of letting things go that we cherish so deeply.  But what we have to recognize is that as much as […]

Take the Time to Consider Every Angle

Today I heard a story about a woman who went through an experience that taught her a great life lesson about perspective.  I will try and relay the story the best I can remember it (since I wasn’t taking notes when I heard it). This woman was driving to the grocery store in her car […]

Perspective and Gratitude

Several years ago my family and I were down visiting the small town of Bicknell, Utah with our dear friends.  We went to a church meeting down in Bicknell back then and a very humble young man got up and gave a talk on perspective and gratitude that was awesome.  In his talk he shared […]

A “Not-So-Coincidence” Day

As those of you who follow my blog know, I try to write each day about the lessons I am learning in my life.  Those who know me well know that I also don’t believe in coincidences in life. Rather, I firmly believe that things happen for a reason. So the events of today led […]