Tag Archives: Thanksgiving

Worth The Effort

Normally for Thanksgiving I host my family and extended family at my home for dinner, but because my Mom and Dad have to stay isolated this year there wasn’t a dinner planned. So my husband and I decided we’d take our kids to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with two of my brothers and their families.   […]

Be The Miracle

Wishing for your own Thanksgiving Miracle or Christmas Miracle this holiday season?  After all…this time of year does tend to be a time of miracles… But what if this holiday season you decided that rather than just wishing for your own miracle you were actually going to BE THE MIRACLE for someone else’s life instead? […]

Can A Vending Machine Change The World?

Can a vending machine change the world? If all its dispensing is a Twix candy bar or a bag of chips then perhaps not (although I do love a good Twix 🙂 ). But what if that vending machine was actually a Giving Machine? Then could it change the world? …Watch this 1 minute video […]

How Lucky Can You Be?

Tonight I came across an audio file of a talk given back in 1964 by one of the greatest men I have ever known to walk this earth. When he passed away back in 2008 I was incredibly sad, but his influence in my life continues on to this very day. His name was Gordon […]

Only 90 Days Left In 2018! LET’S DO THIS!

WHAT??!! Only 90 days are left in this year?? How is that even possible?! It’s October 1st people – that’s how!  I can hardly believe it’s October already. But the good news is it’s October! And October starts off all the fall and winter holidays! First comes Halloween…then Thanksgiving…and then Christmas…Oh how I love all […]

My Favorite Thanksgiving Tradition

I grew up in a big family. My parents have ten children and nine of the ten are married currently and all ten of the children have children of their own, and some of those children have children of their own. In fact at present my parents have a total of 70 something children and […]

What Matters Most

“They do not love that do not show their love.” – William Shakespeare I can hardly believe that it is Thanksgiving this week!  I feel like the past few months have been a bit of a blur in which time has both stood still and yet been flying by. As odd as that description is, […]

It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful

“Ordinary happiness depends on happenstance. Joy is that extraordinary happiness that is independent of what happens to us. Good luck can make us happy, but it cannot give us lasting joy. The root of joy is gratefulness. We tend to misunderstand the link between joy and gratefulness. We notice that joyful people are grateful and […]

A Happy Thanksgiving Wish From Me to You

The best way I know how to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving is for me to express my thanks to all of you. I am so grateful to all of you make time in your lives for me and the words I share in my blog. And I am grateful for the comments and the […]

A Gift of 86,400 Seconds Today. Have you used one to say Thank You?

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today.  Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’”  ~William A. Ward There are many ways to say “thank you” to others. One of those ways is to give people compliments. Someone once told me that holding in a compliment that someone else deserves is like buying […]

The Language of Gratitude

“If you’ve forgotten the language of gratitude, you’ll never be on speaking terms with happiness.” Over the years there have been numerous studies conducted which have shown that the expression of gratitude has profound positive effects on our health and our moods. One study performed by Robert Emmons, PhD and Mike McCullough randomly assigned participants […]

The more you recognize it, the more you will have of it

I love a great motivational speaker. Zig Ziglar has always been a personal favorite because he is always so amazingly positive, so when I came across this excerpt from the book “Attitude is Everything: 10 Rules For Staying Positive” by author Vicki Hitzges, which shares a story about Zig I had to share it with […]

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like….

I would love to say it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas outside, but as I walked out of the Little America Hotel after giving a speech at a big Women in Business Conference today the temperature was in the mid 70s and that made it look like anything but Christmas here in Utah! […]

It’s Thanksgiving and I say “Thank heaven for stretchy pants!”

Each Thanksgiving we go around the dinner table and share what we are grateful for that year. It is a tradition we never miss doing. And every year in the back of my mind there is something I am truly grateful for on Thanksgiving, but I’m always too embarrassed to say it out loud, but […]

“The highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them”

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”   ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy I love Thanksgiving because it is such an amazing reminder for all of us to focus on our blessings and to remember to appreciate all that we have in […]

Gracias, Merci, Shukran, Danke, Mahalo, Dhanyayad, Grazie, Domo, THANK YOU!

Thank You! Two simple words that are said to be the most powerful words in the universe. “Thank You” is an acknowledgement that you appreciate the other person’s time, kindness, and talents they devoted to doing something. Saying “Thank You” is an expression to of love and kind thoughts. It`s the best way to say […]

Bust Out Those Holiday Traditions!

Last week was a rough one. I was down sick the entire week and then Friday I had to haul myself out of bed and get down to Bryce Canyon Utah to attend the Open House for my son and his new bride. I made it through the evening and then crashed again, sick as […]

Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is only a week away!  Time has flown this season!  As I laid in bed super sick again today (grrrr…..) it hit me that I hadn’t even taken one moment to think about Thanksgiving yet. I have been so wrapped up in my son’s recent wedding that the holidays had […]

51 Days Til Christmas!

Holiday season has officially begun!!! Which also means tis the season for awesome online sales!!! That’s what I’m talkin’ about baby 🙂 I love, love, love the holiday season and I love the month of November because it’s the official kickoff to the season – it is time to bust out the apple cider, the […]

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Welcome back everyone! I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving Holiday! I definitely loved the time with my family. The food was amazing, although I ate so much I am quite certain I won’t be able to fit into my clothes tomorrow…sadly…one thing I don’t love about the holidays is the aftermath that […]

Happy Thanksgiving To All, And May Your Pants Still Fit You Come Monday :)

Yes that time has come again – Thanksgiving weekend is upon us!  I am SO EXCITED for the holiday time to spend with my family! My kids came home from college late last night for the rest of the week so I am super happy right now. There is nothing better in life then time […]

Stop and Thank the People Who Make A Difference in our Lives

On this week that we celebrate Thanksgiving, I cannot think of a better way to honor this holiday than to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives. When I stop and really think about all the people who have made a difference in my life I am overwhelmed with how […]

“Online shopping gives me a reason to live for another 3 to 5 business days”

I thought it only fitting with Thanksgiving coming up next weekend to take a moment to talk about something near and dear to many of our hearts…shopping 🙂 !!! Today my sister-in-law texted me the title of today’s blog, “Online shopping gives me a reason to live for another 3 to 5 business days,” and […]

When Something Breaks Your Heart

“That moment when you can actually feel the pain in your chest from seeing or hearing something that breaks your heart.” Those moments are the worst…they just are.  Seeing or hearing something that breaks your heart is such a hard thing to go through. It’s a feeling you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Most of the […]

Families are Like Fudge…

“Families are like fudge, mostly sweet with lots of nuts!” As we head into the home stretch before Christmas Eve’s traditional gathering together of families everywhere, we ought to pause a moment to prepare ourselves to deal with the chaos ahead. I come from a very large family of ten children. My husband comes from […]

Welcome Home, There is Only 23 Days Til Christmas!

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.  We went to visit my husband’s family in Idaho on their family farm.  There is very little as fitting as celebrating Thanksgiving on the farm.  We had amazing food (all homemade of course!), my daughter learned to drive the front loader tractor, and they went shooting clay pigeons.  […]

Twas the Night of Thanksgiving

T’was the night of Thanksgiving, But I just couldn’t sleep. I tried counting backwards, I tried counting sheep. The leftovers beckoned, The dark meat and white. But I fought the temptation, With all of my might. Tossing and turning, with anticipation. The thought of a snack became infatuation. So I raced to the kitchen, Flung […]

“Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action.” -W.J. Cameron

And there is no better week to take the action of giving thanks and showing gratitude than Thanksgiving week.  This is the perfect week to extend a helping hand to someone in need.  And we can always find someone out there who is in greater need than we are.  It’s so easy to get sucked […]

Kindness on Purpose Day

Today I heard about one of the coolest ideas ever so I couldn’t help but share it with all of you. In 2012, a woman decided that for her birthday, rather than having anyone give her gifts, she instead challenged all her friends to perform a random act of kindness for someone else on her […]