Tag Archives: parenting

Why We All Need To Become Linguists!

I’ve thought a lot the last few days about the just how important it is that we try and understand the people we love’s love language. If your not familiar with what I mean by the term ‘love language’ it stems from a book titled “The Five Love Languages” written by Gary Chapman in which […]

A Day In One Another’s Shoes

Last night my I went and saw the musical Freaky Friday with my daughter. I would guess all of you are familiar with the storyline from the Disney movie Freaky Friday already, but just in case your not, it’s about a mother and her teenage daughter who have been struggling to get along (as many […]

All Kids Really Want Is A Cardboard Box. Perhaps We Adults Would Be Happier With That Too.

I’ll admit it – I love buying the latest toys out for my grandchild the same way I used to love buying the latest toy out for my own children when they were little kids.  I mean, what parent doesn’t get excited to buy the coolest new toy for their child? Obviously there are lots […]

Success Comes From Doing The Little Things Over A Long Period Of Time

Today I heard “The Stonecutter’s Creedo” for the first time. It was written by Jacob Riis: “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will […]

The Courage To Be Imperfect

“The fact is, every single one of us is a work-in-progress. We may be at different stages in life. We may have different strengths and weaknesses, but there isn’t a single person on the planet who hasn’t felt vulnerable or made mistakes. Nor is there a single person who couldn’t be better at something in […]

Choices And Consequences

Life is full of choices. Some are easy choices and some are hard, but the upside of choices is they are always ours to make and no one can ever take that away from us. However, the downside to choices is that while we get to make them, we don’t get to choose what consequences […]

You’ll never get the same moment twice

“Life becomes more meaningful when you realize the simple fact that you’ll never get the same moment twice.” When my daughter-in-law came to drop off my adorable grandbaby this morning so I could babysit him for her while she went to work and I saw her lugging in the car seat and diaper back and […]

We can learn it the easy way or we can learn it the hard way and only we can decide which it will be

“Don’t touch that, it’s hot” my mom said as she pulled out a fresh tray of cookies from the oven – yet immediately I started thinking “I wonder how hot it really is? It’s probably not that hot. I think I’ll just see for myself just how hot it is.” You would think that nursing […]

Overwhelmed and Inadequate: Balancing Work and Family Life

Back when I was single and working full time with two small kids I often found myself feeling overwhelmed and totally inadequate. All these women around me seemed so perfect, with perfect kids and perfectly ironed clothes and homemade bread on their counters. I felt like a complete failure compared to them. My home was […]

The things we CAN do for others and the things we CANNOT do

One of the most difficult challenges a person can ever take on is the task of being a Parent. Being a parent is intimidating, it is heart wrenching, and some days it is downright terrifying. You do your best to teach your kids everything even though you are still learning yourself, you do your best […]

Learning the Hard Way

The older we get the more we realize how much better life is if we are just willing to learn things the easy way – like by listening to those who have been there and done it and who have the experience to give us advice on avoiding pitfalls we will face. In the early […]

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 […]

Some days you just need to go to the “Pooh Tent”

I’m sure everyone reading the title of today’s blog has to be wondering what the heck I could possibly mean when I say that some days you just need to go to the Pooh tent?  I’ll explain: Years ago I shared in a blog how when my children were young and they were acting badly […]

They CAN DO Hard Things IF you will let them

I was watching something the other day where s a mother to a teenage boy was busy doing her son’s laundry while her son was busy playing on his Xbox. The more I observed the situation the more I wanted to scream out “If your child is capable of conquering level 15 of their video […]

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.”

“We cannot become what we want to be by remaining what we are.” – Max DePree Change is hard because it stretches us. It pulls us out of our comfort zone. It forces us to come out of the known and head into the unknown, and that is always a little unnerving. But the fact […]

A Child Who Treats Their Parents With Respect Is An Employee Any Boss Would Be Thrilled To Hire (Forbes Article)

As a child I was taught the importance of respect – we were taught showing respect for other people, showing respect for other’s cultures, showing respect for people’s position of authority, showing respect for a venue, showing respect for an event, etc. This principle was emphasized greatly in my home and it is something I […]

Remember All The Good

No matter what ups and downs we have experienced in our lives, there have always been a million blessings.  Sometimes we forget to acknowledge or even recognize those blessings because there are so many other things to easily get distracted by.  And when you have always had certain blessings in your life, it’s easy to take […]

The Magic of Three Nice Things

When my two children were little kids I came up with the rule that if they ever said anything unkind to each other that the person who said the unkind thing had to immediately stop and say three nice things to the other person.  The three things had to be sincere, and unique, and heartfelt.  […]