The book, Good Inside by Becky Kennedy, erased many years of repeated self-criticism about my past mothering and grand mothering efforts. Not only do I now understand how “good inside” each of my children and grandchildren are, I also know how “good inside” I am! It’s a beautiful feeling—quite amazing really!
Read MoreI am grateful for the family relationships I have and for the love and fun times that bind us together. Being part of a family is a great blessing as we continually move forward to strengthen each other, forgive and forget past offenses, and remember to appreciate what we have learned from each other over the years. It’s a miracle when a family can all be happy together!
Read MoreMarch 5, 2010, is the day our son Jonathan passed away. As a family, we like to honor him on March 5th by doing something nice for somebody else. Jonathan was always going out of his way to help others; he was very kind and had a heart of gold. “March Forward Today with Kindness” is now my motto to remember to be kind every day of the year as I reflect on my son Jonathan’s life.
Read MoreOn Mother's Day, I started reading some quotes about love, kindness, and mothering. After reading all these inspiring, thought-provoking quotations, some words came flowing into my mind that I quickly wrote down. I decided to put my own quotation at the beginning of this compilation. I shared these quotes with my family that day. Now, I'm sharing them with you!
Read MoreOn February 3, 2023, David and I became great-grandparents to a beautiful new baby—a boy! He was born in the same Provo, Utah hospital where we had our own first beautiful baby—a girl—almost fifty years earlier! She was born on February 10, 1973. We feel that we have now gone full circle in the cycle of life!
Read MoreI love our family tradition of baking pies for Thanksgiving. I took this picture of my husband David with our grandson and granddaughter (twins) proudly showing off the pumpkin pie they baked together here at our ranch this year! Traditions are what pulls at our heart strings and bonds us as one, kind of like being stuck together with “Crazy Glue,” with our family and friends. Yes, some of our traditions are kind of crazy! Some make us smile, some make us laugh, some make us a little teary-eyed.
Read MoreI like to dress up for Halloween! This year I was visiting at my daughter and son-in-law’s house, so I looked around to see what I could find to make myself a costume. I found a black satin sheet lying on a bed, which I knew would work for my main costume. After searching through my granddaughters’ dress up boxes, I found a fluffy little skirt and put it around my head. I thought I looked great! My grandchildren all laughed at me and asked, “What are you?”
Read MoreExcerpts From My Journal
Our celebrations continue… The first activity of the day was a “Guided Courtship Tour” so David and I could show our family where we dated in Provo and where we lived when we were first married! Our tour began at BYU where we bought ice cream cones for everyone at the Cougareat. It was a great bonding experience to walk together across campus and other places in Provo in our matching yellow and blue t-shirts, which were our wedding colors! Such a long, fun afternoon!
Read MoreExcerpts From My Journal
I wanted to plan a big celebration for my 70th birthday, which was on June 29th and also celebrate David and my 50th wedding anniversary, which had been on March 30th. Our celebrations lasted a week—June 28 – July 4! It started in Provo, Utah, and finished in Cody, Wyoming! David and I wanted to begin our celebration by attending the Provo Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because we know that the Sealing Power of the Priesthood and our temple covenants provided the foundation for our 50 years of a happy marriage!
Read MoreAs we sat around the table for our family’s Thanksgiving feast, we all took turns saying what we were most grateful for on this special Thanksgiving Day. I shed a few tears as I spoke of the miracles of God the last few years, both big and small, which had allowed our family to be together this day. Without His divine intervention, we wouldn’t have had this day of rejoicing with our family and friends.
Read MoreI went home and looked around my kitchen and decided to start learning to love being there much more. Instead of thinking about my kitchen as a place of drudgery where I had to do chores, I started thinking about my kitchen as a place to create happy memories and teach my children to enjoy making and eating nutritious food.
Read MoreI admire John Hancock’s leadership, tenacity, and desire to use his wealth and influence to help America withstand the pressures it was facing and become the great country it is today. As men and women who live in the United States of America at the present time, it is now our turn to stand up and continue this legacy of faith.
Read MoreI want to say how much I love being a mother and a grandmother! I made many mistakes with each of my children, and I’m grateful they have been so understanding and forgiving of me. This cycle of life is God’s plan. It truly is, “The Plan of Happiness.” I’m so happy I can be a part of it!
Read MoreI was looking online to see if the 1985 music tape, “Bounce Back!” still existed because I wanted to share it on my blog. I FOUND IT! I was so thankful to Jason Poole for taking the time to remaster this tape! I cried all the way through the last song on the album, “You’re Not Alone,” which had given me so much strength and the courage to keep going on years ago.
Read MoreI have a friend who was planning to be with her daughter when she had her first baby, so she asked me if I had any suggestions for her—since she knew I had done it so many times myself! (In 2021, we are now up to twenty-nine grandchildren with a new granddaughter born on January 14th and a new grandson born on March 16th!) I typed up my suggestions for her, which I am now passing on to others as well. Whether you are a mother, mother-in-law, sister, aunt, cousin, or special friend, there is something you can do to help make life a little easier for a mother with her new baby!
Read MoreThe role of “aunt” in our family has always included nurturing newborns, playing with young children, overnight babysitting, cutting, styling, and/or braiding hair, painting fingernails, playing all kinds of games including baseball, basketball and football, helping with homework, assisting with cooking, cleaning, and house organization, being available to help family members with moves from coast to coast, and sneaking their nieces and nephews some candy and treats when their parents weren’t looking!
Read MoreA few years ago, while pondering about setting a specific goal, this encouraging thought came to me, “A goal is not a cane to beat yourself with—it is a walking stick to help you climb the mountains in your life.”
Yes! Let’s not beat ourselves up for what we haven’t done. Let’s set a small goal and achieve it! Enjoy that sweet feeling of accomplishment for a few minutes and then set another small goal. Step by step we can climb all the mountains in our lives.
Read MoreLife is unpredictable. Once in a while, everything is instantly turned upside down. When it happens to you, what do you do? Do you give up hope that you can survive this crisis, or do you fight back with the conviction that you will do the best you can under the circumstances?
Read MoreI learned to get up each morning, put a smile on my face, and leave the past in the past. Everybody was given a “clean slate.” I tried to focus on today and expect the best in everyone. If a new problem occurred today, I tried to deal with it today and not bring up or recite a long list of grievances that had happened in the past.
Read MoreOf course, the hard work of being parents is a 24/7 commitment, but the joy that each of our eleven children has brought us is well worth the effort. We learned that we had to always keep an eternal perspective on the hard/sad times. We also learned to sit back and simply enjoy the delightful/happy times. As David always tells people who are overwhelmed with the number of children we chose to have, “Even having one child is a wonderful gift.”
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