Tag Archives: joy

“The Happiness of Your Life Depends on the Quality of Your Thoughts”

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 […]

Oh, My Hotness!

It is officially TOO HOT OUTSIDE!  I am usually a fan of the warm weather, but my goodness it is hot!  I walk out of my house and I am instantly covered in sweat, and I don’t ever sweat!  In fact, it is so hot that my sweat is now sweating!  It is hot as […]

“If you find yourself racing through life, slow down long enough to take along some good friends.”

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 […]

When The Cats Away, The Mice Go To The Mall Shopping!

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 […]

He Is Building A Palace

Life is full of unexpected events, changes, and uncertainty.  Sometimes those changes are exciting and wonderful, and sometimes they are devastating, painful and hard. C.S. Lewis is my favorite author.  I have learned many important life lessons by reading his books.  One of his quotes that has helped me tremendously as I have dealt with […]

Get Up And Dance!

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 […]

Wisdom Taught By Example Of A Tree

One of my very favorite poets is Shel Silverstein, and one of my very favorite books, which he wrote, is called “The Giving Tree”.    It’s an amazing story of a tree that loves a young boy.  The tree cares for the boy, protects the boy, feeds the boy, and over the years ultimately gives every […]

Impossible Is Nothing

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible […]

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” -oscar wilde

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 […]

It’s Not About the Nail

Okay so I saw the best you tube video ever made regarding male and female communications today as it was played on the morning news show.  I seriously could not stop laughing when I watched it.   It is a MUST WATCH FOR EVERYONE!  I kid you not.  It is only 1 minute 42 seconds, but […]

“Hi Ho Silver, Away!”

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 […]

Go The Extra Mile!

I am a HUGE fan of people who go the extra mile in life! Too often these days you see people who seem content to just do the very minimum required to get by. I don`t think I will ever understand that mentality. I grew up in a home where both my parents were going […]

Finding Your Zen

By the time I finish a long day of work my mind is pretty shot and my A.D.D. meds have started to wear off for the day – inevitably there always comes a point each evening where that combination leads to no chance of my being able to sit still and focus.  Tonight I had […]

The Joy of Summer Vacays!

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 […]

“Today Was Good. Today Was Fun. Tomorrow is Another One”

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 […]

Have a Breathtaking Day!

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 […]

The People Who Encourage and Inspire Us

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 […]

Have Something To Look Forward To!

“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 […]

The Wisdom of Lessons Others Have Learned

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 […]

Love Advice From the True Experts!

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 […]

Take Opportunities to Put Yourself Out There!

For those of you have followed my blogs the last few years you know that every now and then, when we are really lucky, my teenage daughter Ashley will write a guest blog for us, which tend to be everyone’s favorite blogs (especially mine).   Today I had to give the keynote speech at an early morning […]

It’s Not What Others Think, It’s What God Knows

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 […]

Love It While You Live It

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 […]

“You Are More Than What You Have Become”

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 […]

People CAN Change Their Past – Put Mistakes Behind You. (Forbes Article)

People often think they can’t change their past, but I disagree. Perhaps we can’t change every mistake in our past, but we have to remember that the past is a moving target. Every day that goes by us becomes a part of our past history. Whatever we do today will become a part of our […]

The Importance of Paying Attention to our “Todays”

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 […]

“A good definition of family”

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 […]

Make Every Day a Special Occasion

Isn`t it funny how in life we have that room in the house we keep everyone out of in order to save it for that “special occasion”, or the china plates that we only eat from on a “special occasion”, or the towels in the bathroom that can only be used on a “special occasion”. […]

The Master of the Art of Living

“The master of the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which; he simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others […]