Blog
Together We Can Make Miracles Happen
Tonight we hosted an event at our home for approximately 60 women from our neighborhood. This event is held once a year and it’s called our “Favorite Things” night. Each woman brings a favorite thing to share, then we sit in a large circle and go around the room and have each woman share with […]
Tagged anxiety, bond, bonding, committee, craft, crafty, cute, darling, dinner, event, fantastic, favorite, favorite things, food, friends, friendship, gathering, husbandr, invaluable, learn, lightning, memories, men, miracle, miracles, neighborhood, party, perfect, perfection, plan, plan b, pun, rain, recipe, Rollin, share, storm, stress, team, teamwork, together, women, women are awesome, work together
You Hate Your Job But You’re Scared To Quit (Forbes Article)
You wake every morning miserable because you can’t stand the thought of going to the office to do a job you hate. You moan and groan so much about the job you hate that not only are you miserable, but everyone around you is as well. You get through each day of misery only to […]
Tagged afraid, awesome, boss, career, certain, certainty, customer, decision, decrease, devil, employee, employer, energy, experience, fear, field of potential, forbes, happiness, happy, hate, hate your job, Huffington Post, increase, job, known, less money, love, miserable, money, more money, new, open your mind, passion, possibility, possible, quit, reward, salary, scared, self-improvement, skills, succeed, talents, uncertain, unknown, vendor, wisdom
All It Takes Is A Thought
Do our thoughts really have an influence on what we are able to accomplish in our life? The answer is simple – YES! If the thought in our head is that we can possibly do something then the chances are we will attempt it, and the attempt means that there is that possibility that we […]
Tagged accomplish, afraid, all it takes is a thought, at least a chance, attempt, battles, beaten, believing, c.w. longenecker, capable, chance, chances, dare, determined, faith, faster, hope, i can, i might be able to, impossible, influence, insecure, leap of faith, lost, no chance, poem, positive thinking, possibility, possible, prize, put yourself out there, say yes, scared, state of mind, stronger, surprise, the victor, thought, thoughts, thoughts in our head, try, willing, yes, zero
Don’t just hit it, knock it out of the park!
Once you agree to accept any assignment you need to force yourself to be all in. Don’t ever take something on only to do it half-way. Life will be full of people who give you assignments that you might not get very excited about. In fact, many of them you might even dread. But once […]
Tagged alone, appreciate, appreciation, big picture, calling, care, cared, change of heart, commitment, committed, consider, dread, effort, excitement, facts, focus, force, half way, head in the right place, heart, heart change, knock it out of the park, learn, momentum, move forward, moving forward, passion, passionate, perspective, poorly, priorities, read, reading, recognized, research, scope, service, straight, study, touched for better
Time Management and the Parable of the Rocks
Getting back into work after being gone for the summer has made for a hectic week so far. As I started to go through all of the meeting requests and emails and calls I missed the last few months in order to prioritize them, the memory of a parable I once heard came to my mind. […]
Tagged appreciation, attitude, care, class, dreams, education, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, faith, family, first, first things first, grateful, important, loved ones, mason jar, mentoring, parable, parable of the rocks, priorities, prioritize, priority, quiz, remember, rocks, self-improvement, sharpie, speaker, students, success, teacher, teaching, time, time management, value, worthy cause
“I’m Grateful For All The Things My Parents Didn’t Do For Me”
Tonight I received a phone call from one of my dearest friends who is out of the country right now traveling. He said he was thinking about me and my husband today because he realized I was probably saddened with my kids leaving off to college and he just wanted me to know he was […]
Tagged ability, accountability, accountable, amazing, awesome, balance, career, children, college, confidence, dear friend, dearest, didn't do, education, effective, experience, friend, friendship, friendshp, grateful, growing, growth, hinder, homework, incredible, independance, learn, life experience, look back at my life, parent, parents, responsibility, responsible, schoolwork, single mom, single mother, struggle, support, time management, traveling, university, young adults
“Just go right along and you’ll start happening to”
Welcome back! I hope all of you had an amazing Labor Day Holiday! So mine was awesome, mainly because my two children came home from college for the weekend to spend it with me and that was pure heaven! Oh my goodness how I value every second I get with them now. Saying goodbye to […]
Tagged adventure, ashley, back to school, back to work, blessing, blessings, book, challenge, chapter, college, cry, Dalton, Dr. Seuss, empty nest, empty nester, excited, exciting, fall, fall apart, families are forever, family, focus, full steam ahead, go right along, goodbye, happiness, happy, holiday, joy, labor day, life story, memories, memory, move forward, new school year, over, reward, school, smile, start happening to, summer, tears, time, together, volume, worry
Happiness is a CHOICE
“Happiness is a choice”. That is the saying that my daughter has on a sign on the dashboard of her car that she looks at every time she gets in her car to go anywhere. When I asked her the other day if she had a favorite saying that was her motto of sorts in […]
Tagged action, appreciate, ashley, Belief, BYU, car, choice, choice to be happy, choose, circumstance, conscious, conscious choice, control, convocation, daughter, destiny, difficult, empty nest, empty nester, encouragement, fate, future, God, happiness, happiness is a choice, happy, hard, heart heavy, heavy hearted, hope, joy, motto, outcome, perfect, proverb, sad, sadness, saying, scary, season, smile, sunshine, thank you, thoughts, time, worry
Nursing a Hole in My Heart
Today was brutal. Today I moved my baby girl down to her college dorm and tonight is the first night of her being gone from home. Even though I will get to go see her tomorrow for the Orientation meetings on campus, it doesn’t change the fact that after today things will never quite be […]
Tagged accomplish, anxiety, appreciation, ashley, attitude, blessings, child, children, come home, concern, cry, crying, curl up in a ball, Dalton, embrace, fall apart, family, friend, future, God, grief, heartbroken, hole in my heart, home, job, joy, life goes on, love, loved one, mom, mother, motherhood, protect, purpose, sad, sadness, season, smile, sun is going to rise, tears, time, times, tomorrow, worry
Uncompromising Loyalty
Many of us grew up with a security blanket. It typically started as an actual blanket for most of us when we were small children, one we couldn’t go to bed without. Then as we grow older our parents and our home become our security blanket, the place we felt safe and secure. And then […]
Tagged anticipation, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, blessings, children, college, confidence, courage, daughter, fail, faith, family, fear, friends, future, goals, home, hope, husband, inspiration, leave home, love, loyalty, marriage, move away from home, moving out, pick up, scary, secure, security, security blanket, self-confidence, son, spouse, stand up for, success, trust, try again, unknown, wife
The Nest Will Soon Be Empty
Today was an amazing day – we had planned to take our kids out to the Lake to go boating with their friends, everyone got their swimming suits on and we packed the boat with snacks and we drove 45 minutes to the lake and got the boat on the water only to have our […]
Tagged accomplish, adult, adults, alone, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, avoid, blessing, broken heart, character, children, college, contributor to society, cry, Dalton, dorm, empty nester, empty nesters, energy, exciting, family, forever, friends, fun, future, goals, happy, hard working, heart, kids, kind, labor day, leaving home, love, loving, move away, moving out, orientation, positive, sad, swollen eyes, university, values
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 […]
Tagged anger, angle, appearance, assume, assume the best, benefit of the doubt, bitter, blame, care, consideration, deceiving, example, facts, fair, family, feelings, friends, frustration, hurt feelings, hurtful, inconsiderate, judge, kind, life lessn, life lesson, love, loving, mean, nasty, parable, parking lot, perspective, positive, road rage, story, stranger, strangers, unkind
When You Need Answers
When we have a problem we naturally seek for answers as to why?, or what we should do?, or where we should go?, and so forth. Everyone seeks out answers in different ways, depending on their own personal belief system. For me I seek the majority of my answers through prayer. And as a businesswoman […]
Tagged answer, answers, answers prayer, Belief, blessing, business, businesswoman, christian, consult, delay, delayed, direction, eliza hickok, facts, God, guidance, how, indication, journey, kneel, listen, need answers, open, path, poem, pray, prayer, question, talk, unanswered prayers, what, when, who, why, wise
Waking Up Is Hard To Do
“That moment when you wake up early in the morning to get something done, then you’ll end up convincing yourself it’s not important.” Do you bounce out of bed in the morning happy and excited like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh? Or are you a slow moving, snooze button loving, can’t seem to wake up […]
Tagged advice, alarm, bed, bounce, choice, consistency, consistent, covers, dream, dreams, excited, get out of bed, getting up, golden bear sleep research center, happy, inspiration, lights, live it, look forward to, mattress, morning, motivation, passionate, recommendation, rise up, schedule, sleep, sleep deprivation, snooze, snooze button, snuggle, stumble, sunlight, tigger, tired, waking up, Winnie the pooh, work
Feeling like you’re failing?
Today I received an email from a dear friend who expressed her struggles to keep up with everything in her life while also attempting to be a good mother, which she usually feels she is failing at miserably. As I read her email I couldn’t help but think of how so many of us struggle […]
Tagged abilities, alone, anxiety, balance, compare, comparing, define, depression, deprivation, despair, discouragement, do it all, enough, excel, failing, failure, failures, family, friends, good night sleep, happiness, happy, have it all, imperfection, impossible, inadequacy, inadequate, job, joy, judge, judging, money, one bad day, peace, perfect, perfection, possible, problems, sadness, sleep, stress, talents, time, time management, try, you are enough
We are All Equal and We All Deserve Respect
As a young man, Dr. Seuss was bullied over race and religion. As an adult Dr. Seuss wanted to write a book that would send a message to children (and anyone else who read it) that all of us are equal. The book he wrote is called The Sneetches. The book Sneetches is about the […]
Tagged appreciation, attitude, bullied, bully, children's book, color, differences, discrimination, Dr. Seuss, equal, equality, friendship, inspiration, leadership, love, manipulate, political, position, poverty, powerful, race, religion, respect, respectful, set aside, sneetches, starbelly, status, sylvester mcmonkey mcbean, title, wealth, worldly status
Forced Family Bonding
Last week my family and I went down to spend a glorious week at Lake Powell with a group of friends. We had a great trip, and although we all came home with colds…yet again…the trip was worth it. We had gone down to Powell a few days before our guests arrived because we wanted […]
Tagged ashley, balance, blessings, bonding, bonding time, busy, candy crush, children, college, Dalton, distractions, email, empty nesters, families, family, family bonding time, forever, friends, games, kids, lake powell, leaving home, life, loved ones, plan, play, projects, regret, regrets, relationships, self-improvement, summer, task lists, teenagers, texting, time, to do, trip, vacation, video games, work
Making Memories
“We didn’t realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun.” This summer has been such a special time for me. I have been able to have so much fun with my children and the memories we will walk away from this summer with will be with me forever. The most interesting […]
Tagged adversity, appreciate, appreciation, ashley, attitude, balance, beautiful, blessings, children, compete, conversation, daltn, Dalton, elaborate, family, fancy, forever, friends, fun, fun times, future, gift, grateful, gratitude, happiness, happy, help, hugs, joy, laughing, laughter, loved ones, make new memories, memories, memory, moments, money, movie, playing games, Rollin, smile, snuggle, struggle, summer, time
You have to start to be great
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” – Zig Ziglar Starting can be intimidating and scary. Starting means that you might end up failing and people might even see you fail. Starting means admitting something matters to you. Starting means admitting that you care. Yep. That’s […]
Tagged actions, admit, admitting, adversity, amazing, ask, attempt, attitude, be great, care, character, confidence, confidencet, courage, Do, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, excel, experience, fail, failing, failure, go after, great, greatness, integrity, intimidated, longshot, matters, move forward, other's think, put yourself out there, say, self-improvement, start, step forward, succeed, success, successful, trys, words, zig ziglar
When life gives you lemonade
“When life gives you lemonade, make lemons. Life will be all like “WHAT?!?” ” – Phil Dunphy Love that quote. I realize it was a comedy quote from a television show but to me it’s perfect – to me this quote represents taking charge of your life when things go wrong by not allowing hard […]
Tagged attention, bra, chocolate, comedians, comedy, comedy on hold, creative, customer service, discouraged, encourage, giggle, happiness, happy, hardship, humor, john wooden, laugh, laughing, laughter, lemonade, lemons, life gives you lemonade, life gives you lemons, minimize, modern family, music on hold, phil dunphy, sense of humor, trials, turn around, turn it around, upset
Talk to each other instead of about each other
“A lot of problems in the world would disappear if we talk to each other instead of about each other.” Misunderstandings, hurt feelings, anger, frustration, sadness….so many of these negative emotions all stem from the fact that two people don’t talk to each other about things. It happens in the workplace, it happens in friendships, […]
Tagged avoid, backbiting, choose, comfortable, communication, conversation, dating, disagreement, disagreements, discussion, easy, family, family dynamics, fight, friends, gossip, habit, hurt, justify, leadership, marriage, misunderstanding, negatve, postive, pride, relationships, relationshps, respect, right place, right time, siblings, sincere, sincerity, speak freely, success, talk, uncomforable, views, vulnerable
Change It, or Change your Attitude
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” -Maya Angelou In life there are some things you can change but there are a whole lot of things you can’t. And determining the difference between the two is a key factor in controlling your own happiness in life. Sometimes […]
Tagged anxiety, attitude, balance, change, choice, circumstance, confidence, control, courage, discouraged, encourage, future, goals, gratitude, happiness, happy, Maya Angelou, motivation, move forward, optimistic, options, perspective, pining, self-confidence, self-improvement, stand still, standing still, steve mariboli, success, take control, trick, truth
DFTBA – Don’t Forget To Be Awesome!
DFTBA- Don’t Forget To Be Awesome. Best reminder EVER! How great would it be if every morning we woke up and had a big sign on our bathroom mirror that said “DFTBA” to remind us to go out and be awesome every day. After all, every one of us is totally capable of being awesome […]
Tagged ability, arrogant, attitude, awesome, be awesome, believe, cocky, collection, confidence, courage, courageous, daily, DFTBA, don't forget to be awesome, enthusiastic, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fail, failure, fear, goals, hard things, inspiration, mirror, motivation, own it, own the day, reminder, safe than sorry, self assured, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-improvement, success, talent, wake up, wonder woman
A few words of advice for kids leaving home to college for the first time
First off you need to know that your parents are freaking out right now that their babies are leaving home for the first time. Know that this is a hard time for them so be patient and kind with your parents the next few weeks…they are not trying to hold you back…they just don’t want […]
Tagged abilities, accountable, advance, advice, agency, ashley, balance, BYU, career, change the world, character, classroom, cliques, college, consequence, consequences, Dalton, decisions, direction, discipline, do a good job, education, events, fear, freshman, freshman year, freshman year of college, friends, grateful, home, homework, job, kids, kind, label, learn, leave home, leaving home, lifetime, limit, loving, major, memories, nelson mandela, panic, parents, parties, party, patient, rules, scaredf, shy, talents, talk to people, time management, university, work, work hard, young adults
How to Tell if Someone is Lying to You
A few years ago there was a show on TV called Lie To Me. It was a show about a human lie detector who used people’s words, expressions, and micro-expressions to detect lies. I was in love with the show because it was fascinating to me to learn how you could detect lies in people’s […]
Tagged anger, anxiety, blinking, business, CEO, companyb, disgust, dr ekman, dr. paul ekman, entrepreneur, expression, expressions, eye contact, facial, facial expression, fear, happiness, head, high pitch, internet, joy, lie, lie detector, lie to me, lies, micro expression, palms, physical, self-improvement, smile, success, surprise, timing, tv show, voice, words
Living in the Present
So taking time off this summer seemed liked the best idea ever except that while I am taking time off the rest of my life is piling up like crazy into a mountain that keeps getting bigger and bigger and the truth is that I am a little frightened for when the day comes that […]
Tagged anxiety, anxious, at peace, attest, commitment, committed, depressed, dream, dwell, enjoy, family time, fear, future, happiness, happy, joy, live in the moment, moment, mountain, past, peace, piling up, present, sadness, stress, summertime, tasks, think, thoughts, time, time off, to do list, vacation, work, worry
A Reminder of what a SMALL WORLD it can be
Last week I had the privilege of taking my family to Disney World for the entire week to spend time together as a family. We have been trying to spend as much time as we can with one another before my two children leave to college at the end of the month. First you must […]
Tagged age, animal kingdom, ashley, black, bust a move, childhood, chinese, college, Dalton, dalton goofy dance battle, dance battle, desire, differences, disney, disney movie, Disney World, disneyland, economic class, epcot, family, family trip, florida, frozen, Goofy, happiest, happiness, happy, hollywood adventure, it's a small world, japanese, lion king, memories, mexican, Mickey Mouse, music, old, park, poor, race, religion, rich, Rollin, set aside, sing along, singing, small world, social class, song, summer, trip, typhoon lagoon, unity, vacation, vacay, white, you tube, young, youth, youtube
To Love or Not to Love, That is the Question
Loving someone can be scary. Scary because if you don’t love at all then in theory you will never get hurt. How can you be hurt if you didn’t care to begin with? And so some people take on the mindset that they are better off alone then to put their heart out there and […]
Tagged afraid, anxiety, break up, broken, C.S. Lewis, casket, change, coffin, cs lewis, diminsh, divorce, entanglements, fear, grow old with me, heart, hobbies, hurt, impenetrable, intact, irredeemable, lock, love, luxuries, marriage, men, open, protect, risk, risk taking, scary, selfish, selfishness, soul, to love, trust, unbreakable, vulnerable, women
Family Fun Ideas
It’s hard these days to come up with fun ideas of things you can do together with your family that are inexpensive, fun, and get everyone involved at every age in the family. A few years ago I started to make a list of ideas for things to do with family by gathering ideas from […]
Tagged activities, blast, bond, bonding, breakfast, children, dance, dinner, entire family, family, family ideas, food, fun, fun time, ideas, inexpensive, involved, laugh, list, list of ideas, lunch, memories, money, mystery, parents, park, party, Photos, play, read, service, summer, time, vacation
Friends by Design
“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us […]
Tagged accident, apart, ashley, aware, beauty, C.S. Lewis, children, Christ, coincidence, cs lewis, curcumstance, Dalton, discriminating, divine, divine guidance, divine intervention, effort, family, friend, friends, friendship, God, good taste, impactful, instrument, others, path, peers, people, personally, professionally, reveal, Rollin, spouse, stranger, strangers, worth
