Category Archives: Better Living

Growing up on a Small Farm.

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    I loved my life at home, I feel like I had a very wonderful childhood including gumdrops, lollipops, and unicorns. All kidding aside, I feel blessed to be a part of a great family. My parents taught us how to work hard. There was always time to play games, sing songs, and we loved God. I grew up on a small farm in Hunter, Utah. Now it is called West Valley City where we raised goats, ducks, geese, chickens, pigs, rabbits, quail, pheasants and peacocks. We had a few dogs in the middle of the family chaos, as well.
    Every spring we started planting crops for our large family. I grew up on 3/4 of an acre. I would say half of this was our huge garden. We started planting peas the end of February and usually finished up with tomatoes and squash the middle of May. My dad was a little bit of a perfectionist when it came to planting, or any job for that matter. He made sure the rows were even and straight. His motto was “Any job worth doing was worth doing right”. I feel like planting was made to be fun, and I looked forward to Spring with excitement. Anything that could grow in our climate we tried at least once, including popcorn, parsnips, and Jerusalem artichokes. I was not a fan of the latter two mentioned. My mom even tried putting parsnips in the pancake batter, and calling them parsnip fritters, yuck!
    I just loved our corner of the world. I mostly stayed home. When you have 9 siblings there is always someone to play with. We also had a barn for all of the animals that included a hayloft. Once a year in late spring my dad would fill the loft with hay, stacking the bales in such a way that it would make a private little hideout for us kids. This place had a small tunnel that we would cover up with a piece of hay that blended in with the rest of the bales. It was top secret. The tunnel opened up into a small room made from the hay complete with rope going out a window. The rope made it possible for you to climb out of the loft to the ground. Everyone thought our house was pretty fun.
    Thinking back on my childhood, Spring was magical. Living on a farm you get to see life and death up close. It was so fun seeing all the baby chicks, ducklings and all the other feathered critters hatch. My dad had a 600 egg incubator and would hatch all kinds of birds for people. He would keep part of the hatched birds as trade for hatching them. Seeing goats give birth to their kids was very educational. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. We would sell most of the goats putting an ad in the newspaper. We children loved feeding the baby goats. We would fill up pop bottles with warm goats milk then put a rubber nipple on the pop bottle, and those goats could drink a bottle in less then a minute. I remember seeing a few still born births. That was always hard to see. This experience helped me appreciate life.

Words of Wisdom For My Grandchildren

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    The older I get the more I reflect on my life and realize life is fragile and very short. When I was young, I wanted to to be old. From the time I was 25 and older, I wished I was young again. Now that I am getting close to retirement, I find it easy to wish I could retire. I would like to encourage everyone to enjoy the journey of life and don’t wish your life away.

    Always try to look at life with a positive outlook. Life can be really hard with many curve balls thrown our way. When I see someone frowning this reminds me to smile. When I am having a really hard day, I try to do something nice for someone. Doing random acts of kindness is a huge way to boost your spirit as well as helping boost the attitudes of others.

    Don’t worry if someone is not doing things the way you think something should be done. We are all trying to figure things out on this planet. There are many choices we make that are not right or wrong. What you think is a bad choice someone else might think is a good one. I think fish is usually disgusting to eat, and for someone else this is their favorite dish.

   Positive affirmations work! When I am feeling sick, in my mind I will say “I feel great!” Sometimes I will say affirmations as much as 100 time over and over in my mind. I usually start feeling better. Another affirmation that helps boost my spirit is “I am in the right place at the right time and good things are happening to me.” The power of positive thinking is amazing.

    Remember the world does not revolve around you. If is is to be it is up to me, this is one of my favorite sayings. Always ask yourself; what can I do to lighten the load of others? If you want to have a friend be a friend to others. If someone is asking you how you are doing, try to remember they want you to ask how they are doing as well.

    There are many different philosophies and religions in the world and we can learn from all of them. Don’t ever make people feel bad about their point of view. My way is right and your way is wrong will not help you make friends and influence people in a positive way.

    Don’t take life too seriously. Laughter is medicine for your soul. Always be appreciative of the small acts of kindness others give you. Saying thank you and I love you to the people in your life everyday will improve relationships. Saying I am sorry will make relationships stronger. 

    The way we dress and the way we talk is a direct refection of who we are as a person and the people we attract into our lives. If we speak kindly of others we will attract kind people into our lives. If you like wearing clothes that reflect professional people, like suits and dresses you will attract that kind of person. If you like wearing more relaxed fitting clothes you will attract more laid back people.

    Even when people are unkind, especially family, give them kindness and love in return. Everyone can have a bad day, bad week and even a bad year. Your words will have a lasting effect, so choose your words wisely. When you are in the heat of the moment, remember the words you say can’t be taken back. Before you speak take a break, then talk when your emotions have cooled down.

    Always love your parents no matter what! Your parents love you and want what is best for you, even when you don’t think this is true. Spend time with your parents, call them, drop in to say hello, bring them dinner, invite them over to your house. When your parents are gone, you will wish you did more things for them and with them.  At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how much money we made or how popular we were. It matters how we treated others. Be kind to everyone and always love your family.