There is huge power in the examples set by the people we surround ourselves with. Tonight I want to share a story of one of the great examples in my life. My daughter Ashley is 17 years old. For those of you who have followed my blog for a time, you are aware that last […]
All of us have worries and concerns in life. Things we are scared of. Things we are dreading. Worries about what “might” happen or what “might not” happen. It seems that there is a truly endless supply of things to spend our time being worried about. Yet, at the end of the day does the […]
Today felt more like a hydrant day then a dog day! Building our dream home is quickly starting to feel like more of a nightmare lately. I won’t bore everyone with the details of all the problems that have happened over this last week other than to say that there comes a point that all […]
I have always been a firm believer in the power our thoughts possess. I believe that our thoughts very much control our feelings. I also believe that we have total control of our own thoughts. Therefore, we ultimately have the ability to control our own feelings by controlling our own thoughts. If you depend on […]
Sometimes we get so busy living our lives that we forget to slow down enough to make time for our friends. I have been guilty of that myself over the years, especially with working such crazy hours for so many years of my life. Taking time off this summer to spend with my family has […]
A little retail therapy is sometimes exactly what is needed when the husband goes hiking with the boy scouts and the wife and daughter are left alone for a day. Today Ashley and I had a fabulous girls day together. Now don’t get me wrong, we love spending time with my husband too, but every […]
I would guess that we have all seen the bumper stickers that say “Mean People Suck.” And the truth is that I couldn’t agree more. I have little tolerance for mean people. I just don’t. I don’t think there is ever a good excuse to be mean or hurtful to another person. Sure we can […]
Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we could make all our decisions with a little game of “Eeny, meeny,miny, moe”. Seriously! How cool would that be? And how much less stress would we have throughout our day when decisions have to be made?! Yeah, well it’s too bad life doesn’t work that way if […]
Nothing can lift the spirits of a crowd faster than putting on some great music and having an impromptu dance party! The last few days I have been attending a Girls Camp for the Young Women in our church group ages 13-17 and after a long, hot, uphill hike, the girls were worn out and […]
And no, I am not talking about Disneyland. I am talking about Lake Powell…that is the happiest place on earth in my opinion! I was blessed to be able to spend the entire week there last week with my family and several of our dear friends. We spent the week wakeboarding and surfing (oh, and […]
“Freedom means that no one can stop you from doing what is right, or persuade you to do what is wrong.” – Dadi Janki What a great quote! Love, love, love that quote. Because I believe that with all my heart. We may not all have freedom in our circumstances, but we all have freedom […]
People ultimately choose to do business with people they like, and everyone likes someone who appreciates them. I once read a quote by the ever so brilliant writer known as Anonymous. It states, “People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.” […]
Today I was reminded of the importance of the smallest kind act: a simple smile, holding the door open for someone, saying hello, giving a compliment, lending a hand, being a friend. So many times we think to ourselves that we want to be a good person and do something kind for someone, yet when we […]
The Bridge Builder (by Will Allen Dromgoole) An old man, going a lone highway, Came at the evening cold and gray To a chasm vast and deep and wide Through which was flowing a swollen tide. The old man crossed in the twilight dim; The rapids held no fears for him. But he turned when […]
This past weekend I was able to go with my husband and our daughter to Disney in Los Angeles to see the World Premier of the movie The Lone Ranger starring Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as the Lone Ranger. For those who are not aware, a good majority of the film was […]
For those who do not have teenagers at home, the word Vacay means Vacation (according to my teen daughter anyway). I am still trying to learn the revised English language used by teens today – Deets means details, Deec means decent, Cray-cray means crazy, Tots means totally, and vacay means vacation. Spending last week at […]
In the brilliant words of Dr. Seuss: “Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.” As we head into a fabulous summer weekend I wanted to remind everyone to not let a single moment get away from you. Life is short and there is so much to do and enjoy! Make this weekend […]
Breathtaking – what a great word! It’s the best word I can think of when I drive up the road toward my home, set into the side of a beautiful mountain in Utah. The weather is amazing, the trees are green, the flowers are blooming and all I can think is…breathtaking! We don’t take enough […]
There are people in all of our lives that lift us up when we are down or help us through when times are tough. There are people in our lives who make us laugh and smile and make us feel better about ourselves. There are people in our lives that tell us we can do […]
“People who say that life is not worthwhile are really saying that they themselves have no personal goals which are worthwhile. Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Always have something ahead of you to “look forward to“, to work for and hope for.” (Maxwell Malz). I don’t know […]
As I was looking through some old files tonight I came across a document that contained life lessons that were shared from different people – the document doesn’t show the names of the people that shared these so I can’t list them for you, but the lessons shared were awesome lessons and very inspiring to […]
Ah yes, the famous words of Hannibal on the A-Team. There is little in life that is better than when a plan comes together, especially when the plan itself turns out to be far larger and expansive then any plan you had pictured in your own mind 🙂 Throughout the years of my life I […]
Tonight I took a group of teenage girls on a service project to go to an assisted living center to visit with a group of adorable, lovely Grandmas. We sat the group of our 16 and 17 year old girls in a circle with group of Grandmas, all of which were widows. We asked the […]
This weekend we celebrate Memorial Day in the U.S. It’s the day we remember those men and women who died serving in the military. It’s also become a day to honor all of those who were near and dear to our hearts that have passed on. People place flowers on graves and flags on graves […]
“I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances.” -Martha Washington I very much believe that statement to be true. Our attitude about things is such a major determination of our happiness level in life. And we control our attitude by controlling […]
I learned long ago that if we try to judge ourselves by what others think, we will inevitably find ourselves constantly disappointed and sad, because it is literally impossible to please everyone. Not only that, but you have to realize that other people will never have all the facts of every detail of your life […]
So it is not very often that I would write about a quote from a sitcom as being a great life lesson, but this particular quote was so good that I haven’t been able to get it off my mind, so I figured I had better write about it today. It was a quote from […]
Yesterday I wrote my Forbes article on moving past your mistakes in life and I used a quote from the movie the Lion King. There is another quote from that movie that I can’t help but share today because I think it is so powerful. There is a part of the movie where we hear […]
Living in the moment is not always easy to do. It seems that we all have a tendency to focus our thoughts on our past mistakes and feel discouraged about them, or we focus our thoughts on a future that we wait to someday have. It seems that we rarely focus on our todays, our […]
As I mentioned yesterday we were able to Skype with our son Dalton and it was the happiest day ever. Today Dalton sent an email to our family and his friends and in that letter he shared something that was worth sharing – in fact he even mentions in his email that someone should quote […]
