Time for the annual book list recap! Even though it wasn’t nearly as much as I hoped for, 2020 was a great year of reading for me! Even more important than the quantity of reading was the quality and what I’ve learned from the books. So here’s my list of what I read in 2020 and a little bit of what I thought. You can also look back at the books I read in 2019, 2018, and what I had originally wanted…
“So I say to myself, remember this, ‘Kindness begins with me!’” Anybody else learn that song growing up? That is one of the Sunday School songs that has always stuck with me and will still get stuck in my head randomly. Especially when I’m not feeling super kind feelings toward someone… But ultimately, it’s true. Kindness really does begin with us as individuals. It’s part of who we are and is also something we can continually develop as we surround ourselves with…
What comes to mind when you think of strength? Do you imagine feats of physical strength and bulging muscles? Maybe perseverance through adversity? Perhaps one of those stories of a mother lifting up a way-too-heavy object to save her pinned kid? (PS my sister-in-law has done that, so that actually does come to my mind) Do you think of kindness? Kindness has several parts of its definition, but my favorite is that a kind person demonstrates considerate behavior. They show an awareness…
How many times have you been told that self-care is essential for your well-being? A lot. Probably a million times just in 2020! Now how many times have you talked to your daughter about self-care? Probably less. It’s pretty easy to neglect that, because…aren’t kids naturally pretty self-centered? Isn’t everything we do because they asked us to do something for them? They are the sun to our Copernicus, right? But childhood mental, behavioral, and mood disorders are on the rise in the…
Do you guys remember how last summer I was a giant ball of anxiety and decided to stop going to school and go to therapy instead? GOOD TIMES. I’ve been reflecting on the last year of my life and how good therapy has been for me. It was a little slow at the beginning due to my therapist’s maternity leave, but it has been pretty consistent since then. We usually meet every week or every other week depending on scheduling. I specifically…
“Smoke, you leave the air alone!” My daughter yelled that as we passed the old Geneva Steel mill. It’s actually water vapor that comes out of it, but she saw it as smoke. And she hated it. She was three. Part of that may be because the previous two summers were bad fire years with lots of smoke that got us all sick, especially her. For about a year she would point out smoke in the air and get mad at it. …
Think back to some of your favorite childhood memories with friends. What was going on? For me, I remember riding bikes to Shepherd pool to swim all day, playing street hockey/basketball/baseball/etc. with all the neighbor kids, sleepovers on the trampoline, ski trips to Utah, and playing with cattle bones we’d find in the woods while camping. Many of my best memories were outside. In college, I moved from Arizona to Utah and discovered super accessible hiking, campouts in sand dunes, and being…
“I know you don’t feel like doing all of this, the nursing and taking care of your baby here, is professional, but I think it’s good for the students to see it. They need to get used to seeing it. And to see mothers balancing all of these aspects of their lives.” That is some of the best encouragement I’ve ever received regarding my career. The Associate Dean in the Gonzaga School of Business told me this after finishing a meeting where…
Raising courageous girls is necessary for our daughters to develop and live fully. Courage helps us persevere when we feel alone, not smart enough, or out of our comfort zones. It gives us the push to take that hard class, not worry about going against traditional roles, or to apply for jobs we really want. It takes courage to be who you are and become who you want to be. For many of us, we need a lot of courage to explore…
Last summer, we went on a family trip to Park City and visited the Mountain Adventure Park. There wasn’t a lot my kids could do because of their height, but my four-year-old was tall enough to do the Mountain Coaster. She said she wanted to do it, so I took her up, not really understanding what the ride was or how fast it would go. As we sat in our little buggy slowly being taken up the mountain and saw the people…
When we think of jobs little kids say they want when they grow up, what type do they typically come up with? Firefighters, police officers, Wonder Woman…jobs that we can easily equate with bravery. But what about who you are now? Do you see bravery in being an engineer, a teacher, an executive assistant, a communications manager, or a number of other fields? Maybe our job doesn’t necessarily conjure up visions of bravery, but maybe we need to look a little closer….
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