Tag Archives: raising children

Mothers Deserve To Be Celebrated Every Day

There are no words to adequately express the tender feelings I have toward my Mother on Mother’s Day. She gave birth to and raised ten children, doing so much of the time alone because my Dad’s job required him to travel significantly. Not only that but my Dads work required our family be moved every […]

“Please pass me that parenting book. I need to smack my kid with it.”

I observed an interaction between a mother and her teenage daughter today and it was all I could do not to bust out laughing. Not because what was happening was funny, but because I knew exactly what emotions the mother was going through in that moment because I’ve walked in her shoes back when I […]

Greatness Takes Work

“The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night.” -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Achieving greatness, whether in business, or a talent, or our personal lives, takes work….loads and loads of hard, dedicated, crazy amounts of work. And there will […]

The Greatest Forces In The World Are Babies

“When God wants a great work done in the world or a great wrong righted, he goes about it in a very unusual way.  He doesn’t stir up his earthquakes or send forth his thunderbolts.  Instead, he has a helpless baby born, perhaps in a simple home of some obscure mother.  And then God puts […]

The Toughest CEO Position in The World

I was a CEO of a high-growth technology company for many years and so believe me when I say that I don’t make this next statement lightly: There is no tougher CEO position in the world than that of the CEO of a home. As CEO of a home you are not just the Chief […]

For A Seed To Achieve Greatness It Must Come Completely Undone

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” ―Cynthia Occelli When I look back at the last few years it is amazing to me to see some of […]

Tell The Negative Committee That Meets Inside Your Head To Sit Down And Shut Up

“Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up!” – Ann Bradford I still remember as a child seeing my mother standing in the kitchen talking to herself. No joke. She would literally have entire conversations with herself. At the time I just assumed my Mom must be a […]

You are more than enough. You. Are. Amazing.

The following article was written about Mom’s but the truth is that we have all been there before, both Moms and Dads. We’ve all had those moments when we feel we aren’t good enough to handle everything life is throwing at us as parents. But this article reminds us that we actually are: “To the […]

There is no such thing as a perfect parent

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent so just be a real one.” – Sue Atkins Without a doubt the hardest job on the planet is that of being a parent. The stakes are so high because every mistake you make as a parent affects your children and you realize that so you […]

When Someone Believes In You

Nothing is more motivating or inspiring than knowing that someone else believes in you and is willing to put their trust in you. It is one of the greatest feelings on earth. As parents one of the best things we can do for our children is to start when they are very young letting them […]

Do Parents Have Favorite Children?

I have two children, a 24 year old son and a 21 year old daughter. They are the best of friends until it comes to one particular argument that they have been having for the last 19 years since they were both old enough to debate it….who is Mom’s favorite child? And regardless of how […]

The Lessons We Teach Our Children

I often have people tell me how impressed they are with the character of my son and daughter, and that compliment is often followed with the question – how did you do it? How did you raise those kids to be such great people? Well as much as I would love to take credit for […]

“Life doesn’t come with a manual, it comes with a Mother”

“When the real history of mankind is fully disclosed, will it feature the echoes of gunfire or the shaping sound of lullabies? The great armistices made by military men or the peacemaking of women in homes and in neighborhoods? Will what happened in cradles and kitchens prove to be more controlling than what happened in […]

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 […]

LIKE A BOSS

“After a while I looked in the mirror and realized…wow after all those hurts, scars, and bruises, after all of those trials, I really made it through. I did it. I survived that which was supposed to kill me. So I straightened my crown…and walked away like a boss.” I don’t even have words that […]

Don’t think of it as a Sacrifice, think of it as an Investment

Sacrifice – the act of giving up something valued for the sake of something else regarded as more important or worthy. Sacrificing isn’t easy and it sure as heck isn’t always a whole lot of fun. But we make sacrifices because deep down in our hearts we recognize that there is a greater cause at […]

Wishy Washy Wishing

The last two days I had the privilege of attending the invitation only Annual MindShare Conference hosted by Intermountain Healthcare. At this conference they bring together top healthcare executives and experts from around the world to network with one another and to share innovations and ideas around healthcare. It was a fascinating conference and it […]

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 […]

Trading the Terrible Two’s for the Terrifying Twenties…

How could I have been so naïve? Here I have been thinking that the older our children get, the easier it is to parent them… FALSE! Sure when they were babies they kept you up all night and barfed on every nice outfit you owned, and then as toddlers they threw themselves on the ground […]

“Please pass me that parenting book. I need to smack my kid with it.”

The quote in today’s title pretty much sums up my day today…just kidding…only kind of…. We have known for the past several months that my daughter is going to be leaving us for 18 months to serve a mission. We have been given checklists of what to pack and prepare and all the things that […]