Food is my addiction

Christmas is here and I need to take a break from talking about raising kids for a few weeks.     Imagine I am holding a box.  Inside this box is the most precious gift you could or ever will receive.  Everyone imagine you are opening this box and you look inside. Not one person will see the same thing. It will be different for each and everyone of you. This gift is more precious then gold. A gift from Heavenly Father just for you.  As you look inside the box you see your reflection.  You see the one thing that no one else would ever see.  This is the most precious gift given to you from a loving Heavenly Father.  This gift is you.  Afterglow sings a song about an old violin that was being auctioned off.  No one would pay $1, or even $2 for this old violin.  In the back of the room appeared an older man.  He came forward and picked up the old violin.  He began to play a beautiful tune.  After he had finished play...

  When each of your children are born, you look at them and have all these wonderful images of what their life will be like.  For young men, in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints culture that dream for your baby boy is to serve a mission.  And now with the age for young women being only a year older than the young men, I would think that we see our girls going on missions also.  When I was growing up young men were encouraged to go on missions and young women could serve a mission if they were not married and reached the age of 21.  For all three of my boys I had a dream of them going on a mission.  I could see all of them going on a mission.  It almost seemed that if they did not go on a mission, I did not do my job as a mother.  For some reason, we in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints feel that if our child does not serve a mission, we did not do our job as parents.  I'm here to tell you that is not true.  Ju...

  One thing I've learned in my life is raising children is not an easy task.  Someone once told me that we as parents have until a child is 5 years old to teach them everything they need to learn. Once they turn 5, well they just strengthen what they have learned from there.  I'm not sure I believe that because we are learning new things all the time.  I did enjoy the poem written by Robert Fulghum All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten.  It talks about not hitting people, sharing, being fair, say your sorry, wash your hands, and a few other things.  But really sharing, being fair, and saying your sorry are some of the most important things you can do.  When you hurt someone be sorry about it and say something.  Wash your hands, we have heard that more in the last 2 years that it is making me crazy.  Being fair to everyone is really important to me.  I've thought a lot about that and right now I'm  going to get in a pol...

Happy Thanksgiving, It has taken me a few weeks to get this topic put together.  I will not lie, I am struggling with wanting to share this topic with you because raising kids is very hard sometimes and raising kids does not always turn out the way we want.  In the next few weeks I'm going to talk to you about raising kids.  I'm not a perfect mom, but I have learned some things over the years that I want to share with you, in hopes that it will help you in your journey. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints we have a Sunday once a year where our young children sing and say a little part to tell the adults what they have learned in primary for the year.  Today was our primary program.  It is my favorite Sacrament meeting of the year because the children are so genuine and their testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ are unique and special.  It always reminds me of the scripture when Jesus tells us to be like little children.  Their testimon...

 In April 2021 President Russell M. Nelson , Prophet for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints gave a talk call Christ Is Risen; Faith in Him will move mountains.  In this talk he said a phrase that has been on my mind  this week.    "Lazy learners and lax disciples will always struggle to muster even a particle of faith."   I am coming to the conclusion that I have been a lazy learner and lax in my eating protocol this past year.  I've wanted to eat what I want when I want and that has not served me well at all.  He goes on to say  " To do anything well requires effort." Eating what you want when you want is taking all the work out of doing something well.  To get what you want out of life you need to study and work hard at it.  I've done a lot of studying about what foods are good for me and what foods are not so great for my body.  But I've been Lax and Lazy in wanting to prepare the things my body needs to be...

 One of the things I have always wanted to do was a Mud Run.  In April I found this Mud Run in the Phoenix area. It is a Mud Run for Breast Cancer.  Breast Cancer has a special place in my heart because my sister-in-law fought Breast Cancer for 10 years until it took her life in 2011.  This sister-in- law has helped me see that you can find joy in any situation.  The treatments for cancer were so hard on her body, but there was not a time that I saw her without a smile on her face.  When we would talk about how she was doing, she would say "well I'm still here, so that is good".  I know that some days she would be in so much pain that it was hard for her to find something good about the day.  One thing I knew was that mentally she was strong and she would fight her battle on her knees a lot.  She was such a strong woman.  She had the most contagious laugh that I loved to hear so much.  When she felt good enough she would loose herse...

 This is my talk from Stake Conference March 2021, It is not exactly what I said that day but this is the talk I wrote that inspired that talk that day.  I hope it can help some parents out there know that we are not alone in this fight against pornography.  I really believe that all of us parents need to gather together to help our children fight this battle they are up against.  That is my reason for speaking out about the issues in my own family.   Last year I decided to do a triathlon. The trail I decided to do for the bike ride was the trail that goes along Reay Lane, Golf Course Road, The Safford Cemetery, and back. It took me a few months to build up enough courage to even want to try and climb the dreaded Reay Lane hill.  One of my friends started riding with me and one day we decided we would try that hill and start going out to Daley Estates.  A few weeks later I decided to go along Golf Course Road to 20th.  I figured if I could do...

It takes everyone in your life to help you reach your goals. This is what I learned this week at my son's football game.  Please bare with me as I share with you the excitement I felt as my son scored his first ever touch down in his high school carrier.  You see my son is a lineman                                             That's my Lineman                                             He holds back two guys so your son can get                                               around to make the tackle                      ...

 One thing I've learned is you need a reason for accomplishing your goal.  What is your drive?  What is the reason you want what you want. I've really thought about this especially this past few months.  One thing I know is a person will find the time to do what they really want to do.  A person will find the money to buy or do what they really want to do.  So what is your why?  What is my why?  When I first started losing weight in 2019, my why was I needed to work hard because I wanted to feel good and I wanted to be healthy to play with my soon to be grandson.  I was excited to be a grandma and I wanted to be able to get on the floor and play with him without hurting.  Now even through I've gained weight back I still play on the floor with him and I ride my bike with him and I play with him all that I want.  So my why has changed.  I'm still not 100% sure what my why is but I do know I need to take 100% responsibility ( John...

 On Saturday September 18, 2021, I did my first official triathlon.  I was so nervous and scared. Some of my fears happened and some of my strength came through.  Let me take you back to 10 years ago or so.  When I was working in Boy Scouts.  Every year in April, young men from all over the state would come to our small community and do a triathlon.  I never dreamed I would want to do one.  Then one year as I saw people getting ready for the triathlon, I thought maybe one day I will do that.  One day when I lose my weight.  I didn't think much about it through the years until, 2 years ago when one of my good friends told me she was going to do a triathlon.  I thought wow, good for her, maybe one day I will do that too.  I was losing weight and knew that if I set a goal for the next year, I would keep the commitment I made to my self and I would do it!  So that day I told my friend, Hey I'm going to do this with you next year....

 As I contemplated this day that happened 20 years ago, I decided I wanted to share with you my thoughts that I wrote in my journal almost 20 years ago.  I had 3 children at the time, one being a 3 month old. This is what I wrote in 2002 about that event.  I can't believe how fast time flies.  On Sept. 11, 2001 one of the most terrible things that I have witnessed happened.  Some terrists hi-jacked a few planes. Two planes crashed into the Twin Towers, the World Trade centers in New York , one crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC and one crashed into a field. They said this plane was possibly going to the White House or some other place but the passengers, when they heard about the other crashes decided to take over the plane, so it went down in a field.   This day started out as usual in my house.  I was babysitting at the time and all the children I was watching were playing in my backyard having a good time.  My Husband called me aro...