Tag Archives: joy

When You Can’t See The Positive Anymore…

Today was one of those days when I REALLY needed an inspirational quote to help keep my spirits up. The truth is that it has been a rough week this week for many reasons and I found myself getting to that point where you really need a motivational lifeline to help you get your head […]

Life is Like a Camera…

When I was wandering the streets of Europe on a recent trip I came across a little shop that had the cutest saying posted in their window. I liked it so much I had to snap a photo of it so I could be sure to remember it.  Here is what the sign said: Life […]

What Memories Will We Have Left Behind?

This weekend I attended the funeral of a neighbor and a friend. She left behind a husband, children, and grand-children and many friends who loved her dearly. She was an amazing person and she lived her life with love and service for others and I feel lucky to have known her. It was really hard […]

A Wish Flower or a Weed?

Today my husband and I were walking along a darling little riverbank when I looked over and saw an awesome Wish Flower. I used to see them all the time when I was a little girl living in Puyallup, Washington. They were all over our backyard and as kids we would go out and pick […]

Living a Virtuous Life

When Benjamin Franklin was a young man of 20 years old he decided he wanted to better himself. He wrote down 13 virtues and determined to practice one virtue each week. He created a notebook to track his progress, writing one virtue at the top of on each page along with a short description of […]

Haters Don’t Really Hate You

“Haters don’t really hate you. In fact, they hate themselves because you’re a reflection of what they wish to be.” – unknown How much do you love that quote?! Right!! Love it! It’s awesome. I would guess everyone has had to deal with haters at one point or another in their life, whether it’s a […]

Learn To See An Imperfect Person Perfectly

I have to start by saying how crazy cute this picture is! And the message is fantastic. “We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.” Anyone who is married either already has, or is quickly learning, just how true that statement is. None of […]

Life is Your Time To Dance. I Hope You Do It!

We all have an unknown amount of time to live our lives, and during that time we will have the opportunity to do many things like take chances, enjoy moments, fall down, get hurt, get back up, learn, and best of all….dance. The first time I heard the lyrics to the song below I fell […]

Billions More Chances To Be Happy

“If I am only happy for myself, many fewer chances for happiness. If I am happy when good things happen to other people, billions more chances to be happy!”  – Dalai Lama Being unhappy because of someone else’s success is a miserable and ugly way to feel. When a person is feeling envious of another […]

Choose Your Own Adventure

Remember back when you were a kid and they had those Choose Your Own Adventure books?  I used to love those! You would start off reading the story and get to the bottom of the page and it would say, “To choose to do <this> go to page x or to choose to do <that> […]

Does Life Ever Get Easier?

I remember as a kid thinking how I couldn’t wait to become and adult because life seemed so much easier for adults. Being a kid felt hard….I mean after all, Adults got to go out whenever they wanted to, they had money to buy whatever they wanted (at least that’s what you thought as a […]

Choose to be Mentally Strong!

“Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.”   – Rikki Rogers As we go through life we have to decide what kind of person we are going to be. Will we be mentally strong, or will we be mentally weak? The choice is ours. […]

 “Forget the Forecast, Live Like’s It’s Spring.”

80 degrees last week, snow today…?!  What the heck?!  Since when does it snow on spring break?  Yikes! I love springtime and I have been so looking forward to sunshine, flowers, blossoms…did I say sunshine? All I know it that sunshine makes me so happy! I agree with Robin Williams quote: “Spring is nature’s way […]

It’s Funny How Sometimes The People You’d Take A Bullet For Are The Ones Behind The Trigger (Forbes Article)

Actually it’s not really that funny at all…it’s really sad when it happens to be true. It’s unbelievably hard when someone you love and respect and consider a friend does something to hurt you deeply. It’s downright brutal. I’m sure many of us have been through times where this has happened. We are betrayed by […]

Life is short, Live it well

Today we got word that a friend of ours, who we love and admire greatly, has been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer which has spread throughout her body. It came as such a shock to hear the news about her because we ran into her and her husband just a few weeks ago and […]

Positive, Optimistic, and Determined

“I am too positive to be doubtful, too optimistic to be fearful, and too determined to be defeated.” I love that quote because it provides a stark comparison to two ways we can choose to live our lives.  We can either be doubtful, fearful, and defeated….or we can be positive, optimistic, and determined….which sounds better […]

A Laugh A Day Keeps the Doctor Away

We’ve all heard the saying that Laughter is the Best Medicine, so when I came home from work tonight feeling a cold starting to come on I decided I needed to do two things: 1. Drink some Nyquil, and 2. find some funny quotes to make me laugh. I don’t think anyone who has ever […]

Have Courage and Be Kind

That phrase, “Have Courage and Be Kind” is repeated multiple times throughout the new movie Cinderella (the real life remake of the cartoon classic).  It was advice given to Cinderella as a small child by her real mother before her real mother passed away.  Today in a meeting someone reminded me again of the phrase […]

The Rules We Learned At Recess

I loved recess as a little kid. I loved being out on the field running around with the sun shining. Now that  I am an adult I can look back and see that not only was recess a time for fun, it was also a teaching ground full of life lessons that would apply to […]

Shaking Things Up

Boredom…there is little worse…That is why every now and again you just need to shake things up a little in life. It’s so easy to get in the same old rut day after day, doing the same old things. Life becomes mundane and you start to lose that excitement and drive. You find yourself having […]

Stop Waiting For Friday

“Stop waiting for Friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life. Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you are in now.” What an awesome reminder, right!?!  I admit that I have often found myself waiting for Friday to be excited […]

Live Life To The Fullest

We all have a limited time here on this earth, and none of us really know exactly when that time will come to an end. We all hope to live to an old age and then pass peacefully in our sleep, hopefully with our spouse right next to us going at the same time just […]

Love Isn’t Love Til You Give It Away

Do you remember how fun Valentine’s Day was when you were a kid? You would spend hours making your cute little cardboard mailbox out of the empty Quaker Oats container or an old shoe box. You would cover it with colored construction paper and then put cute heart stickers on it, and don’t forget the […]

“If we aren´t laughing and having fun everyday…we´re doing it wrong!”

As those of you who follow my blog know, once a week I get an email from my daughter who is serving her mission.  This week she shared that her group set a goal this week to see if they could follow all the mission rules with “exact obedience”.   Now I don’t know about all […]

Some People, Good People, And Extraordinary People

“Some people see the glass half empty. Good people see the glass half full. But extraordinary people are just grateful for the glass!”  That quote came today in the weekly email letter I get from my daughter Ashley on her mission and I loved it so much I had to share it with everyone. What […]

Groundhog Day Says We’re Going to Have To Make Our Own Sunshine

With all of the amazing technology we employ today it’s amazing the credibility we attribute to the shadow of a little brown rodent each Groundhog Day. But every year I admit that, I along with everyone else, wait to hear whether Phil saw his shadow or not. It never fails to bum me out when […]

Life is supposed to be Fun…The Joy is in the Journey

Today I want to write about JOY! And being HAPPY! Because I had a pity party for myself last night where I got all my tears and sadness out and I woke up today and decided that it is time for me to follow the advice my brilliant daughter Ashley gives me anytime I feel […]

“Everybody deserves somebody who makes them look forward to tomorrow.”

Back when I was single someone shared this quote with me: “Don’t marry a man unless you would be proud to have a son exactly like him.” That really made me rethink the men I was dating in my life. I hadn’t thought of them in that light before. Would I be proud to have […]

It’s Never Too Late To Start A New Tradition

Happy Christmas Eve to all of you! I want to wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday! Each of you touch my life and I am so grateful for all of you reading this. Thank you for being a part of my life and my life story as […]

I am Woman, I am Invincible, I am TIRED…

Some days you just need a good nap!!! As amazing as this holiday time of year can be, it is without a doubt exhausting too! There are parties to attend several nights a week, presents to buy, decorating to do, cards to write, wrapping to be done, goodies to bake…there is a never ending list […]