In honor of the General Relief Society Meeting taking place this weekend…I am sharing this message of beauty. My very first vlog! Ahh! I am very much an amateur at videos. However, after this life changing experience at the mall, I had to share it. Any of you that have attended my speaking engagements know exactly what I teach about beauty, self love and being true to who we are. Those things that I teach, that is truly what I believe and it is how I live my life.
Until today, I never realized how much I could offend my soul by stepping away from who I am, even just a little bit. Watch the video, and hear all about my “makeover”.
After you watch the video, please take the time to look at the pictures I posted below. These were taken at Camp Cumorah last summer. (more…)
The last two days have been crazy town! Lots of busy running around. It was so fun watching Ethan do this Homecoming thing though!
Kiri and Ethan aren’t just homecoming dates, but awesome friends too! She is the sweetest. She even let me do her hair and makeup, which was a blast for me, and she got to feel pampered. When Ethan showed up to pick her up, I snagged these pics from her porch with my iphone. I missed the other pics, so I was grateful for what I had. They had the best time, which melted my heart to see the kids making a beautiful memory.
Kiri was the perfect date for homecoming. Yay for sweet, strong girls and gentleman escorts! Always makes for a wonderful time. 🙂
Today Ethan and I had so much fun together while he asked Kiri to Homecoming! He is finally enjoying some of the benefits of being sixteen…woot woot! I am looking forward to watching him enjoy the dating life, and boy is he off to an incredible start. I had such a proud parent moment when we went to Kiri’s house and talked with her mom LiLing. She was surprised at the amount of effort he was going to for her daughter. She asked, “Do you go to this much work every time?” Ethan was so quick to say, ” Yeah. It’s important to make girls feel special, and that takes some effort on the guy’s part.” In my mind I was like….”YES!”
And so the student becomes the teacher, lol!
Dear Ethan –
My sweet boy, real men make effort, baby! Don’t ever forget or lose that! ALWAYS make being thoughtful a part of your growth strategy. It will pay dividends for the rest of your life. Anyway, today was awesome. It was a great date with mom (while getting you a date to homecoming, lol!) It was fun taking pics and running around like crazy with you while we planned and plotted. Always keep that incredible heart.
Love,
Mom
Heck YES! #worthyThe hidden answer on back of the “worthy” signEthan admiring his workEthan finds himself #deepHere I am, send me!Cutest ask everMy Masterpiece (Ethan’s mom has skillzzz….) I have had so many people ask me to do this for their kids dance ask. I can make a custom one, just click the “contact” tab above and send me a message with “Where’s Waldo” in the subject line. Happy Dancing friends!
A week ago, I took part in a Mother’s Day initiative where I had the chance to talk about how I felt about being a mother, and we talked a little bit about my relationship with my own mother.
For along time, being abandoned by my own parents for the whole of my life both emotionally and physically, I lived in a place of bitterness and despair. It took me a long time to come to peace with things. I have a whole chapter in my upcoming book dedicated to this process. Sometimes we have to accept the role that God needs us to play in each others lives, and make peace with it.
Do I still miss her presence? Absolutely. There have been so many times in my life that I wished she was here, cheering me on. I wish she was here loving my children. I don’t think that you ever outgrow the need for someone to be proud of you, and see you through all of the stages of your life.
My mother still faces the same demons that she did when I was little, sadly enough. There’s been so many times I wished I could take it from her so she could be free from it and see the life she’s missing out on. She knows very little about me or about my family. She probably couldn’t name all of my kids, and has only met the youngest four twice. She doesn’t know about my life much, she doesn’t know about any of the work that I do or projects I have done in recent years. I wish it were different, but have come to find peace with it and understand my role in her life.
I do know her however, and I completely accept her for who she is. My mom is a beautiful person, and that’s enough. I won’t say much more because so much of my feelings are still being expressed in the chapters of my book…and I’m still working on how to fully convey the feelings of my heart. Let’s just say that it’s a process to forgive and fall in love again.
Here are some of the things I shared about my mother with the wonderful people at the “Happily Ever After Project”. I sure fell in love with them quickly, and am thrilled at their commitment to share goodness and light with the world. They have such a darling family, and beautiful spirits. (and they put up with me asking a million technical questions. Keep an eye on these guys for a lot of beautiful things to come!
