Hurrah for Israel.....even in New Mexico

When my little Sarah was almost 2 we realized that she was going to need speech therapy.  We worked tirelessly in getting her the help she needed.  Diction and especially S sounds were very difficult.   Through years and years of daily drilling and practice Sarah finally was able to be understood.   One fateful day in our car she spilled her treat and yelled!  Sh**  I almost fell of my chair.  She said it so confidently that I realized that she  must have been saying this for quite some time,  but she had just mastered  the blend of SH which means for the first time we actually understood her.   This made all the difference in how we taught and corrected bad behavior.   Habit 5  says Seek  First to Understand, Then to Be Understood Communication is key for success in any situation.   We sometimes mess up the order of this habit.  We jump right to being understood.   We...

  "Seize the Day" is a catchy song from the Broadway musical "Newsies" the young news boys from the famous New York strike were trying to convince us that this is the moment.  There is no better time than now to make a difference and change your path.   I felt that this was the theme for this week's study.   Especially on the last few articles of the reading.   Becoming an entrepreneur takes skills, balance and a lack of fear.   How often do we see a need and wish someone would fill it.  Why isn't there some smart person who has a cart like the small drive through snow cone shack in my hometown but instead of snow cones I can just buy a gallon of milk on my way home from work?   I don't want to run into a huge store I want to buy a gallon of milk from the comfort of my car.   Why haven't I done this?  Well, a million reasons come into play.  This is a concept I learned this week was to not fear opportun...

         There are many types of journeys we can make throughout our lives.  We can decide where we want to go, what we want to be when we grow up and who we want to spend our time with.   You can even decide if you will have a hero's journey or the villains.   This week I was able to focus on what type of character I am while on my own personal journey through mortality.   What will people remember about me?  Will I be remembered as a good person who tried to be a disciple of Christ?  Will I be remembered as the person who continually loses my patience when driving on highway528.   We are blessed with free agency so in connection we get to choose how we are remembered.   The first step to success is deciding to take the journey to begin with.     Bilbo almost missed the entire journey because of fear of the unknown.  He would have never got to know the dwarves, seen middle earth or ...

 I hate the musical RENT, but I truly love the song, "Seasons of Love" the lyrics say; Five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes Five hundred, twenty five thousand moments so dear Five hundred, twenty five thousand, six hundred minutes How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets In midnights, in cups of coffee In inches, in miles In laughter, in strife In five hundred, twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes How do you measure a year in a life? This encompasses my feelings for this journey here on earth.   I remember when my boys were little 3 boys under 8 and everyone said, 'This will pass by" or "you will miss this" They were right. The seconds of legos, and minutes of Power Rangers, passed quickly.  Now they are all in college and serving a mission and I look back at the life we have shared.  It consisted of minutes that all added up to a beautiful life. However, my journey is still in being measured.  This week's stu...

The FSY program is inspired. It has served countless youth and blessed the lives of many who would normally not have the opportunity to attend. I am grateful to be able to be involved in this program.  Each session needs one female teacher and since the ratios of men versus women teachers are not equal within seminary and institutes, women teachers are asked more often to teach sessions.   I love teaching the extra sessions but to an outsider they could see this as un-ethical.  I would say no, because I have a bigger perspective.  The reason ratios are not equal is simple.  Women usually don't apply as often as men to work in seminary and institutes.  The numbers are going up every year and we now have a record number of women teaching.  This is why it is important to look at any situation that might seem unethical with a larger perspective.      We also balance what we know to believe and is true doctrine with teaching with lo...

 After my first trip to Disneyland when I was around 8 years old I had a dream.  The only job I wanted was to be Snow White in the parks.  To dress up every day and go around making kids happy.  Being from a small town in Wyoming this was going to prove to be difficult.  Jump forward  10 years my plan was to major in musical theater (a field of study where you still get to dress up every day and pretend you are someone you are not)  However, this childhood dream was still elusive. Just like  Randy Pausch's dream of being an Imagineer, it is quite difficult to become a "Disney Princess." So like many other dreams, this fell away.   This dream did however take shape in a different pathway.  I did study musical theater, and I loved it.  Then 20 years later when the Covid pandemic hit, I like everyone else was trying to find some type of normalcy and joy.  I had around 60 voice students who I taught over zoom.  I had the ...

 Creating a new institute program is very much like starting a new business.  We have to worry about budgets, numbers, recruitment, content, and experiences had.   I will be focuses on building up a brand-new institute program.   This will involve finding those students who are not attending and help them see the value of attending institute.  The readings this week taught me the importance of networking.   I had never really thought about the idea of networking students, but I did try it this week.   I re-formatted the way I reach out to students and went through an older text list to be able to reach the greatest number of possible students.  I then tried to use networking.  I specifically asked students to be in charge of reaching out to other students.   An invitation from another student is always more valuable than an invitation from the teacher.   I sent out Instagram links, texts, calls etc. lik...