The Potential of Children

“When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small, but we do not criticize it as ‘rootless and stemless.’ We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed. When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don’t condemn it as immature and under-developed; nor do we criticize the buds for not being open when they appear. We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development. The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies. Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential. . . at each stage, at each moment, it is perfectly alright as it is.” – Timothy Galloway

What are We Waiting For?

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
Mark Twain

I am a big believer in dreaming big. Sometimes my dreams of changing the world, helping women or finding purpose and meaning in what I do gets some snickers but I don't care. I would rather dream big dreams.

This quote sums up my feelings pretty well.

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."-- Theodore Roosevelt

Today is the day to take action on something you have said you want to do someday. It only has to be a phone call or google search but take a little action to move yourself forward one of your dreams:)

Our Worst Fear

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate, our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'who am I to be so brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?' Actually, who are we not to be?

You are a child of God: Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

~Marianne Williamson, her book "A RETURN TO LOVE", 1992

Words to live by

These words of wisdom were written by Barbara St. George.

"To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me. It is the most-requested column I've ever written. My odometer rolls over to 90 in August, so here goes: " -Barbara St.George, aged 89.

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don't take yourself so seriously.  No one else does.
5. Pay off you refit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument.  Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone.  It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God.  He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10.  When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others'.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath.  It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood.  But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie.  Don't save it for a special occasion.  Today is special
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words. 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone for everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything.  Give it time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick.  Your friends and family will.  Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loss you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life.  Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative--dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.  Make it memorable.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day.  Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift.

Wouldn't it be great to take the word or an 89 year old and not have to learn all of these lessons the hard way. I found some of them to be very profound

Girls Camp Service Project

I went to a girls camp with 300 girls. A couple of ladies and myself were in charge of a service project that the girls would do. Here is what we came up with and what we did. We decided to have the girls write letters to the soldiers. We decorated the room very patriotic. This picture is one of the walls. The other walls were covered with patriotic scrapbook pages and flags hung on clotheslines. It looked amazingly good. When each group of girls came in I had patriotic music playing. I gave them an inspirational message about how blessed we are to live in America and what sacrifices the soldiers make to keep us free.

We showed them how to make this homemade card. They picked 3 quote cards to put in their letter and then wrote the letter. The quote cards were really up beat inspiring quotes that a soldier would like.
I read many of the letters the girls wrote. Each one of the cards I read made me tear up. The girls really got it. One of the girls said that this was the best thing she had ever done in camp in 6 years. WOW, that is amazing!



These are the songs that I had playing. I think this made a huge difference in the feeling that was in the room.
1- America the Beautiful - Mormon Tabernacle Choir
2 - God Bless the USA - Lee Greenwood
3 - God Bless America - Celine Dion
4 - American Soldier - Toby Keith
5 - Letters From Home - John Michael Montgomery
6 - You Raise Me Up - Josh Groban
7 - Battle Hymn of the Republic - Mormon Tabernacle Choir
8- Hero- Mariah Carey
9 - There's A Hero - Billy Gilman
10 - Arlington - Trace Adkins
11 - Homeward Bound- Allyse Smith

It is NOT Selfish to Take Care of Yourself!!

"If you are not taking care of yourself, body, mind, and spirit, the people in your life don't get the best you, they get what's left of you" Lorraine Cohen


When I coach women I find lots of them that do too much for everyone else and forget themselves. I hope something in this post can help you to know, YOU ARE IMPORTANT AND YOU ARE WORTH IT!!

I have learned that when I am a person that can do everything myself, people will let me do EVERYTHING, even when I'm exhausted.

When I don't have an opinion on the restaurants, vacations, and movies I go to, guess what? Other people pick where they want to go. It is my own fault when I end up at a sushi restaurant when I hate sushi.

Women don't have any problem buying new clothes, classes and camps for their kids but some don't save any money for clothes, classes and girl trips for themselves. If you don't think you are worth it, your children will begin to think you aren't worth it either.

Have you known women who think they are worth a manicure or a new outfit? Everyone else knows they deserve it too.
Don't you want your husband and children to have one of those mom's and wives that think highly of themselves, have opinions and think they deserve a nice life too?

People get treated, how they treat themselves.

You can only love others as much as you love yourself.

Think you are worth it and others will think you are worth it.

Have an opinion and others will admire you for having one.

Jewel has a song called Stronger Woman
My favorite line in the song is
Well tonight, I’m going to be
The kind of woman I’d want my daughter to be

We have to model the kind of person we want our children to be. We want them to know that women and mother's are important. We want our daughters to treat themselves as an important valuable person, not grow up to be martyrs or doormats. When we are respected by our husbands and children when they grow up they will expect respect as well.

Here is the chorus of Jewel's song.
I’m gonna love myself more than anyone else
Believe in me, even if someone can’t see
There’s a stronger woman in me
I’m gonna be my own best friend
Stick with me till the end
I won’t lose myself again, never, no
Cause there’s a stronger woman
A stronger woman in me.

Positive Attitude

One of the challenges to staying in a positive state is being around negative people. The individual who has the strongest emotional level will tend to pull the other person into his or her own emotional state, unless that other person makes a choice not to be impacted by it and strongly resists.
Peggy McColl

Do you have people in your life that like to sing this song?
Gloom, despair and agony on me. Deep, dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. Gloom dispair and agony on me.
--Hee Haw Ditty

They say that people who like to hang around complainers, do it so they can take their turn.

The Perfect Homemakers, "The Mollies"

I have no idea what the words to this song mean, but it is very cute. On youtube someone commented that it is addicting.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all could be this happy and peaceful while baking.

I don't like the terms "housewife" and "homemaker." I prefer to be called "Domestic Goddess." Roseanne

I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave
a man I keep his house.
--Zsa Zsa Gabor

Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance?
Phyllis Diller

A bright person can always think of something
better to do than housework.
Ruby Lou Barnhill

I got these quotes off my sisters website. She is a famous quilter. www.WinsorArtQuilts.com

Friends

"Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them."
W. Clement Stone

A Date with Destiny

To quote Coco Chanel a famous fashion designer and how she knew a first impression mattered, "I don't understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little - if only out of politeness. And then, you never know, maybe that's the day she has a date with destiny. And it's best to be as pretty as possible for destiny."

Have one perfect outfit for each season that you can put on in a hurry and know you look great. Create an outfit that fits great, in a color that compliments your skin and is accessorized with jewelry, shoes, and a purse.

Self Management

Blessed be the person who has nothing to say who refrains from giving wordy evidence to that fact.
--George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann Evans

"When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself."
Wayne Dyer Psychotherapist, Author and Speaker

"You can tell more about a person by what he says about others than you can by what others say about him." Leo Aikman

Solomon in all his wisdom made this meaningful statement: “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” (Prov. 16:32.)

Today is a gift

Time flies whether you're having fun or not.

Yesterday's the past. Tomorrow's the future. But today is a gift. Thats why it's called the present.--Family Circus,Bill Keane

If I worry a lot about tomorrows today it won’t help with tomorrow’s challenges, but it sure might mess up today’s joy.

Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.
John Lennon

Success

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. --Thomas Edison

A man can succeed at almost anything for which he has unlimited enthusiasm."-- Charles Schwab

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success."-- Dale Carnegie

"Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy." Groucho Marx

Happiness

I asked Kyle why he was so happy and he said it is funner to be happy. I thought is was pretty profound. It is funner to be happy. It is a choice. Abraham Lincoln said "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be".

If I can’t find joy here and now, will I find it anywhere?

Eventually your countenance will match your thoughts and actions.

Self Mastery

"I am the captain of my soul.I am the master of my fate."-- William Hanley

David O. McKay urged us to remember that “the greatest battle of life is fought out within the silent chambers of your own soul”

The Greek philosopher Epectitus also declared that “No man is free who is not master of himself.” This again is plain because he who does not control his impulses, emotions and desires permits himself to be their slave by following them at every turn. A slave, as we know, is one without freedom but does the bidding of his master to satisfy the latter’s every whim which usually leads to destruction and death.

Spencer W. Kimball quoted an unknown author as follows: “The height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. … He who cannot establish a dominion over himself will have no dominion over others. He who masters himself shall be king”

Plato said: “The first and best victory is to conquer self; to be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

Leonardo da Vinci once said: “You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself.” Then he goes on to say that “the height of a man’s success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment

Dream Big

This is me in 5th grade. I was dreaming big dreams even then. Look at what a grand snowman my brother and I made with no snow on the ground. That was dreaming big!

"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered with failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."-- Theodore Roosevelt

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? Dr. Robert Schuller