Michelle Keil Coaching

Is it a Pivot or Just Figuring it Out?

My writing has been very hit-and-miss the past LONG while. I spent a lot of time in the land of “I don’t know what to write”. It is not too far from the land of “What I have to say isn’t that special”, as well as “No one is really interested anyway”.

It has been a reason for introspection once I moved beyond the judgment I had been holding for all of it.

I talk about learning to accept yourself and the momentum that gives you to make change.

I coached someone just last week on how you can’t change what you don’t see.

All the things I say for clients didn’t pertain to me because I “should” know better. I “should” be doing things better…..and on and on with the “shoulds”.

The problem with “shoulds” is they don’t fuel effective change. In fact, they generally stop the progress you are working towards.

So in this time of introspection, I have come to some decisions. And for a little bit, I was telling myself that it was a “Pivot” for my business. But the more I questions even that premise the more I don’t even believe that to be true. I am starting to see it as more clarification and focus rather than a change in direction.

You see, I have decided for myself that when I say my goal is freedom and flexibility, the way that I actually achieve that is through some structure.

Freedom and flexibility allow me to do things more spontaneously. Oddly enough so does having some structure in my life and my business.

Structure brings me peace of mind and the security I crave which in turn actually makes more space for spontaneity.

So what does any of this have to do with writing a blog and the structure of my business?

As I gain more clarity on what I am creating and why I am creating, I can see that there are pieces that have always been there. I am just fine tuning to make it more focused, more cohesive, and more resonant.

When I first created this website, I wasn’t really sure what I was doing, who I was talking to, what I had to offer others, or how I could make that happen. In some ways, I still don’t know what I am doing. But I am figuring it out as I go.

And over the next several months (since I am not a website creator :)) I will be updating my website to better represent who I am, what I do, how I can help you, and what that looks like.

I know that involves my belief that overall health is like a puzzle. And the corner pieces of that puzzle are Spiritual, Physical, Social/Emotional, and Intellectual health.

That part of my business was something I put on my website in the very beginning. I want faith and spirituality to be a more visible part of my business because I feel it is such a large part of who I am.

Understanding and trusting my true self is becoming increasingly foundational to the work I do. My faith and spirituality play a crucial role in this belief. How I interact with different aspects of my life is deeply connected to who I am as a person.

Who I am also influences the way I interact with other people. My understanding of who I am increases my understanding of who you are and how I see you.

So I will be writing each month about a specific topic and my writings will all focus on that. Within that monthly topic, each week will be from one of those four lenses.

Week 1 will address the topic from a spiritual angle. Keep in mind this is through the lens of my spiritual journey so you may or may not agree. I am always open to respectful discussion and listening to understand the perspective of another so if you have a differing perspective I would love to hear from you.

The lens I will be writing through will be my experience of being born and raised as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how my understanding, knowledge, and belief have developed over my 50+ years.

Week 2 will be through the lens of physical health. Again, my lens is my experience, the things I have studied and learned, and things that I have found to be effective for me and others around me.

Week 3 will be based on social, emotional, and mental health. I will explain more about why I group those things together later, but mostly it is for convenience. This is such a rich area with so much to discuss and so many ways to see any given topic.

The problem with “shoulds” is they don’t fuel effective change. In fact, they generally stop the progress you are working towards.

I’m Michelle. I am learning how to minimize my overwhelm, perfectionism, and people-pleasing and I am ready to help you do the same. I’m a certified Life Coach and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Come with me and learn how.

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I want faith and spirituality to be a more visible part of my business because I feel it is such a large part of who I am.

Understanding my true self is becoming increasingly foundational to the work I do. My faith and spirituality play a crucial role in this belief. How I interact with different aspects of my life is deeply connected to who I am as a person.

Who I am also influences the way I interact with other people. My understanding of who I am increases my understanding of who you are and how I see you.

Week 4 will be based on the intellectual lens. It could be a book I am reading, a class I am taking, a paper I found online, or what I am learning from those around me. Growing intellectually is more than just formal education and I believe it is something our deepest authentic selves crave.

You may get tired of hearing the same topic over and over, and that’s okay. My goal is to offer multiple perspectives on the same topic to see how so many areas of life are influenced by any given topic.

You may think something is only about your relationship with money relating to work and career. But I have found my thoughts and beliefs about money are based on what I was taught, how I was raised in my family of origin, what I have learned in my relationship with my husband, assumptions I have made in my marriage, what I have learned from scripture as well as secular learning about money, and how my brain is tying all of that to my view of my own worth.

Untangling some of those thoughts has been enlightening, to say the least.

My social media posts will also reflect my monthly topic and specific lens for the week. Hopefully it is a way to build a more cohesive message for you.

And one of these days I may even start sending out emails to my email list 🙂

So get excited!! There is change in the air. And some structure and some new ideas. Some of it may be great! Some of it may not! But we are going to work on it and get better at it as we go.

“It’s ALL good…. in the end. If it’s not good it’s not the end.”

Good, bad or otherwise…… “It’s ALL good!”

When You Accomplish a Goal – Part 1

It has been a very interesting year so far… and at the same time, nothing unusual has really happened.

I started out the year spending time with the people closest to me, my nuclear family of my husband and all our children.

I started out the year with fun and new things.

I started out the year accomplishing the goal I set for myself a year prior.

I started to write about all the things I gained from those experiences….. and then I never went back to it.

I’m still not quite sure why that is but it is something I want to move through rather than dwell on, so here is to my new beginning for 2023.

It just happens to be 10 days into Q2, and that’s okay.

SO first of all….. what was the goal?

Originally the goal was to participate in the Walt Disney World Dopey Challenge but when I wasn’t able to register for that I “settled” for running
“just” the marathon.

It was fun for me (maybe less for them :)) that 4 of the kids decided to run the marathon as well.

I had decided over 15 years ago that I would like to run a marathon, (another story for a different day) so this seemed like a good time to do that. Check it off the “bucket list” as it were.

I had a training schedule. I had a plan. I had 3 different goals in mind.

My “OVERALL” goal was to run the 26.2 miles in the time allowed – 7 hours – and not get “swept” from the course. (That happens if you run slower than the time limit pace). That is a 16 minute mile pace.

My “STRETCH” goal was to run it in 5 hours. That is an average of 11:30 minute miles.

My net course time was 5:05:22. I consider that a goal achieved!! Not because I am letting myself off the hook but because I chose to stop four times, that would easily add up to those 5 minutes

You see, at Walt Disney World during the race there are also “character photo opportunities” all along the course. This year was a throw back to the 90’s since it was the 30th annual running of the marathon at Walt Disney World. You could also ride some of the rides as you run through all 4 Disney parks.

While I didn’t stop for any rides, mostly out of fear that if I sat down on “Expedition Everest” or “Hollywood Tower of Terror” I might not be able to stand up again, I did decide that if there was no line for a character photo I would take that photo opportunity.

I believe that is why I was able to take pictures with beloved 90’s icons like Timon, Abu, and Darkwing Duck!!

Timon

Darkwing Duck

Abu

I also allowed myself to stop and collect the pressed pennies that were around miles 11ish and carry those with me the remainder of the race. Thank goodness Disney is all set up with “Tap to Pay” and you can automatically purchase the entire set! 🙂

Anyway, I am calling it a 5 hour finish.

My “OVERALL” goal was to run the 26.2 miles in the time allowed – 7 hours…..

My “STRETCH” goal was to run it in 5 hours.

I also had a “SECRET” goal that I didn’t tell anyone else about.

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I want to take the time to congratulate myself on showing up, imperfectly at times, for myself, for nearly an entire year, to meet, achieve and succeed in my goals…. ALL of my goals for this particular event. Celebrating my achievements is not something I am accustom to so I am working to develop that more for myself as well.

I also had a “SECRET” goal that I didn’t tell anyone else about.

My secret goal was to finish ahead of all 4 of my kids that ran. That one was less in my control, and more just for the fun and challenge of it.

It ended up that they made that easier for me by the boys having limiting injuries, but even then Karai was less than 20 minutes behind me.

There are some things I want to remember and some lessons that I learned from this experience. I think those will require a “Part 2” for this topic.

Most importantly I want to take the time to congratulate myself on showing up, imperfectly at times, for myself, for nearly an entire year, to meet, achieve and succeed in my goals…. ALL of my goals for this particular event. Celebrating my achievements is not something I am accustom to so I am working to develop that more for myself as well.

It was definitely a lesson in remembering my favorite phrase in its entirety…

“It’s ALL good…. in the end. If it’s not good it’s not the end.”

That is definitely true of a marathon!

So remember…..It’s ALL good!!

Mental and Emotional Fog

The month of November ended.

I managed to accomplish my goal; not in a “perfect” manner, but in a “perfect for me” way. I posted 28 out of 31 days nearly consecutively.

I learned some things about writing. I learned some things about “posting”. I learned some things about myself.

And abruptly, with one text, life changed.

It has been rainy, cloudy, and overcast for 3 days. Not typical Arizona weather.

Saturday I was waiting for the rain to let up so I could go running. It never really did completely so I just went running in the rain at 8pm.

It was a different kind of soothing to run in the rain. It was as if some of the emotions and swirling thoughts could dissolve in the raindrops. It wasn’t quite as heavy as I ran.

Monday morning when I went for my run a thick fog was blanketing the area. It was dark when I left so I wore a head lamp. It was fascinating to me that in the beam of light from the lamp, water appeared to be suspended in air. It wasn’t raining actively but the air itself was filled with water.

It was nearly imperceptible the way the world went from “dark” to “light”. Perhaps that was because the light was not the light I was used to or even the light I wanted. And yet it was not “dark”.

That is the way my heart and mind felt.

And the clearing of “dark” to “light” seems similar as well.

It is heavy, and thick….this emotional fog.

Sometimes there is cleansing rain in the form of tears. Sometimes it just feels like the fog.

It continues to move through phases of “dark” and “light” and the best I can do for now is keep moving forward, trusting that the clouds will break, the fog will lift and the sunlight will return.

Maybe then I will be able to see a rainbow.

Today it is hard but I am trying to remember…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

It was nearly imperceptible the way the world went from “dark” to “light”. Perhaps that was because the light was not the light I was used to or even the light I wanted. And yet it was light.

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November 30 – I am Grateful for…

Day 30… November 30

Today I am grateful for the love of my life, Robert.

I like to save the best for last.

It is hard to believe that I met Robert when I was a teenager!! I mean I was 19, nearly 20 when we met but still!!

So where to even begin with all the ways I am grateful for Robert?

And of course I will have to include some pictures through the past 32 years….. 🙂

I am grateful that he is willing to be a good and faithful man. I know that is a special thing and I don’t treat it lightly.

Not only is he faithful but also faith-filled, more than he sometimes acknowledges. I can see more of his faith-filled activity than I think he sees. He sees it as being a good person.

But his moments of faith have really shown up for me when I am in desperate need of being upheld by that faith because mine is wavering.

I am grateful that he is willing to put up with me. I am not the easiest person at times.

He has endured my perfectionistic tendencies, my severe independence, my crazy plans, and my emotional tidal waves.

Robert is a pretty easygoing guy unless he is competing in a sporting event. It’s fun when we are on the same team 🙂 According to him, while we were dating when we competed in a three-legged race at his company picnic and placed 3rd against all the guy teams, he KNEW.

I am grateful that he is active and thinks about the importance of being active for everyone. It has impacted our lives to have this shared philosophy while raising our kids. It makes life very fun when we do these types of things as a family.

He has endured my perfectionistic tendencies, my severe independence, my crazy plans, and my emotional tidal waves.

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I am grateful that he has taught our kids that the most important relationship in our family is our relationship with each other. We have always joked with our kids we can’t miss them if we don’t leave AND when they leave we still want to like being with each other.

I am grateful that he is there for me. We have been through some very challenging things over the past 32 years. And we have weathered those challenges together. I know I would not have been able to do that on my own, and I am grateful that I haven’t had to.

I am grateful that he is a good father. He is so supportive of each of our kids in the things

I am grateful that he has taught our kids that the most important relationship in our family is our relationship with each other. We have always joked with our kids we can’t miss them if we don’t leave AND when they leave we still want to like being with each other.

The life we have created together just keeps getting better and better. I am grateful for what we have and look forward to what we are working toward for our future.

We have some plans and lots of possibilities for what that could look like. I can’t wait to see what we do.

Whatever we do, I am just glad I get to do those things with him.

What are you grateful for? “Contact Me” and send me a quick email. If you prefer, you can “Schedule a Conversation” for a free session to discuss what you want to work towards and how to get started.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 29 – I am Grateful for…

Day 29… November 29

Today I am grateful for this month of November.

With only 2 days left I am grateful for the challenge I posed to myself to write a blog post every day.

Was I perfect?

No. Far from it! But I did post every day since October 31 except for 3.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share the people and things that I am grateful for with all of you. Thank you for taking the time to read any of these posts.

I am grateful for the things that I have learned about myself in the process.

Rest assured, one thing I learned is that I am not one who has the desire to post on my blog every single day, at least not at this point in my journey.

I am grateful for the time I have taken to focus on these 26 specific topics (27 with tomorrow’s topic). I am grateful that I have been able to share some thoughts with my kids and family.

I am grateful for the focus this has brought me that has allowed me to be more present in my life.

I am grateful for the mental drama I have been able to work through as I have spent time posting and reading those posts to see spelling or grammatical errors. My “performance-based” brain has made some large strides this month as I work towards B- work.

I am grateful for friends and colleagues who encouraged me and helped me work through some of that afore mentioned mental drama.

I am grateful that I have learned how to talk to myself in such a way when I am not perfect (which is quite often) that is compassionate rather than demeaning and critical. That is a big shift for me, and still a work in progress.

I am grateful that I have been able to show up for myself in a way that allows me to continue to keep growing as an individual.

I am grateful that I can show myself that I am capable of change and evolution. I can create the future that I want for myself. I can become the person that I want to be.

I am grateful for the things I have found this past month that I don’t want to keep repeating, specifically, sacrificing my bedtime to make sure that I post to this blog.

I now know that cutting into my sleep schedule is not beneficial for me and I want to continue to improve the way I care for myself in that regard.

I have narrowed down most of the parts of a morning schedule that I like, but starting at 4:45 or 5:00am requires me to get to sleep before 11:00pm if I want to be rested and energetic the following day.

I am grateful for these lessons and more. I look forward to creating more of what I want in my life and I believe that can come from being more grateful for the things that are already in my life.

I am grateful for the science behind gratitude and I hope to be able to share more of that science with others. The benefits are far-reaching and long-lasting for those that make a regular practice of gratitude.

Mental and emotional health as well as noticeable physical health benefits are all the wonderful side effects of a gratitude practice.

There are so many more things I am grateful for and I will continue to look for ways to be grateful every day. It is the person that I want to become.

I am grateful for the opportunity to share the people and things that I am grateful for with all of you. Thank you for taking time to read any of these posts.
I am grateful for the things that I have learned about myself in the process.

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I am grateful for the mental drama I have been able to work through as I have spent time posting and reading those post to see spelling or grammatical errors. My “performance based” brain has made some large strides this month as I work towards B- work.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 28 – I am Grateful for…

Day 28… November 28

Today I am grateful for my oldest son Karai.

Karai was the one who made me a mom. He is more than just a good hairdo.

He was and is a gentle soul. Probably the most reserved of all of our kids….although most of the time that is not a high bar in our family 🙂

As the oldest, he had to teach and train us to be parents and that was no easy task for him. But he has always been so patient and understanding.

I always thought of Karai as the first of our “renaissance men”…participating in sports, being a big reader (for at least a couple of years 🙂 ), being in the choir, playing in the orchestra, and then the band… He wanted to do it all. It was an example to his other siblings of how to love so many different things.

He is a competitor, especially in soccer starting very early. It was fun for him to be able to continue playing all through college. Growing up he also played basketball, and baseball as well as participated in summer swim team. In high school, he lettered in football, soccer, volleyball, and choir.

He has always been one to play at 110% which lead to a few injuries at times but he hardly let those slow him down. He is a good team leader as well.

He has a beautiful singing voice and has said that some of his fondest high school memories are in the choir.

Then there was the time while he was at UofA when he was in a band and performed at the Spring Fling. That was fun!

As the oldest he had to teach and train us to be parents and that was no easy task for him. But he has always been so patient and understanding.

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He has at times put a lot of pressure on himself as the oldest, but hopefully he knows how grateful I am for him and who he is. He is a good man.

It has been fun to share that love of music with him, listening to and singing along with multiple musical soundtracks, and attending performances of Wicked and Hades Town together at ASU Gammage Auditorium. I look forward to more musicals and plays together.

He has always been a thoughtful and kind big brother looking out for his siblings, even when there were times they might not have wanted him to. And he has been good to include everyone when he can. He is kind-hearted….probably why he and Julie get along so well.

He is the one who encouraged his youngest sister as the kicker for the varsity football team. As a former kicker himself, he gave her her first football and tee. While he was home for winter break back in 2019/2020, he took her to the football field and taught her how to kick the ball.

The first of our college graduates, he wasn’t too sad when Covid made his commencement virtual. He was afraid I would make him walk, but that wasn’t even an option.

Now he has taken a position with Gilbert Public Schools teaching in one of the junior high schools, so he is working towards his teaching credentials.

This also gave him the opportunity to coach the first 7th-grade boy’s volleyball team, as that was added as a new junior high sport this year.

Our other kids tease both him and me about him being the favorite. And while I love all my kids, and they are all my favorites, I have known Karai the longest so… ;P

He has at times put a lot of pressure on himself as the oldest, but hopefully, he knows how grateful I am for him and who he is. He is a good man and a good example to me.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 27 – I am Grateful for…

Day 27… November 27

Today I am thankful for my body.

While I have always been grateful for my body on some level, there were times I was perhaps less appreciative of my body.

I spent far too much time finding and focusing on all the “flaws”. I noticed all the things that “should” be different about my body.

I should be stronger.

Why do my teeth seem so disproportionately large? I’m not Julia Roberts so it’s just weird.

I should lose weight.

Why can’t I do the things I used to do?

I should color my hair (but I am too lazy and too cheap for the upkeep that requires).

This scar…….that cellulite……all the wrinkles…..

My eyes don’t work like they used to.

The list could go on and on with limitations and flaws and all the ways I could pick myself apart.

I should also say that none of this was helpful or motivating toward any change. It didn’t lead me to take better care of myself. It mostly left me feeling worse about myself and not appreciating the gift that my body is.

And though it has not been a quick process, I have been able to change the way I view my body in many different ways.

From about junior high on I developed a love for science, specifically biology, microbiology, genetics and heredity, anatomy and physiology, and more recently, neurology.

The human body is full of wonders and mysteries that I have yet to understand. But that is perhaps a topic for a future post.

Today I want to focus on the gratitude I have developed for my body, even with all of its previously perceived flaws.

My body is an amazing feat of science. There are many things that can be studied and understood and we can try to explain but we would fall short.

My body was strong enough to deliver 6 beautiful children into this world. The gift of pregnancy and the opportunity to be a co-creator of another life is nothing short of miraculous.

It is something that for a long time I took for granted. That was until I was actually pregnant with my first. A common test that used to be done at the time came back abnormal for me.

In my studies of science, I wanted to find cures for congenital defects and here I was, now on the receiving end of genetic counseling.

After further testing, it was determined that this pregnancy didn’t show any greater risk of problem. And our son, though a few weeks early, was perfect and healthy. Miraculous.

There are stories of one kind or another with each of my pregnancies….. the breech/emergency c-section …..the one born six weeks early…..the one born after we buried his brother.

And that is just one area of amazingness that is my physical body.

My body, my hands, in particular, have been able to create wonderful things, beautiful things, and practical things…..portraits, scrapbooks, writings, paintings, woodworking items, jewelry, light fixtures, refinished furniture, clothing, blankets, home decor, gifts for family and friends,……..just one area of amazingness.

From about junior high on I developed a love for science, specifically biology, microbiology, genetics and heredity, anatomy and physiology, and more recently, neurology.

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My body is an amazing gift and I want to take care of it. I want to appreciate all the wonderful things my body can do. I want to appreciate how my body has gotten me to this point in my life. I want to appreciate the strength and endurance my body is capable of.

The past year I have been able to develop and appreciate the strength and endurance that my body is capable of. My first exposure to long-distance running was high school cross country during my freshman year. I was not a fan AT ALL. After that season I chose a different sport to keep me off the cross-country team.

I have gone back and forth with a love/hate relationship with running but this year I set the impossible goal to run a marathon, my first. I assumed it was impossible because I have set this goal in the past but when things got hard, I quit on myself. A second goal was to run 1000 miles this year. Seemed a little crazy at the time.

When I started running again last January, I began with C25K. My first “run” was a 5-minute warm-up walk and then 8 rounds of alternating running for 1 minute with walking for 90 seconds, followed by a 5-minute cool-down walk.

I have to enter my mileage for November still, but at the end of October, I was around 815 miles for the year. And yesterday I ran (and walked) 25.5 miles at about a 12-minute mile pace. Miraculous.

My body is an amazing gift and I want to take care of it. I want to appreciate all the wonderful things my body can do. I want to appreciate how my body has gotten me to this point in my life. I want to appreciate the strength and endurance my body is capable of.

I am grateful for this body…. all it has done and what it will yet do….to make my life the blessing and gift that it clearly is.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 26 – I am Grateful for…

Day 26… November 26

Today I am grateful for my oldest daughter Ally.

Ally is the third of our six children. Today is her birthday. 🙂 <3

I am so grateful for the woman she has become.

If you have met Ally and you don’t know, it will probably come as no surprise that her favorite color is yellow. She is pure sunshine. With a 1000-watt smile and warm inviting personality, she is always ready to help someone else feel welcome and included.

Ally is a determined woman who is wiling to go after the things she wants to do in life.

Like all of her siblings she was a good soccer player, and probably still is. But in junior high and high school she found she was also good at running, distance running in particular.

The high school cross-country coach was excited to have her on the team. But when the track season came around Ally didn’t want to be “just a distance runner”. She wanted to try pole vault.

She was worried that the distance coach (also the cross country coach) would be mad at her but she still chose to pole vault. It was love!!

This was her senior year when she got a PR 11’9″. Yes I know the board say 11’3″ but it was 11’9″ 🙂

If you have met Ally and you don’t know, it will probably come as no surprise that her favorite color is yellow. She is pure sunshine. With a 1000-watt smile and warm inviting personality, she is always ready to help someone else feel welcome and included.

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I am grateful that her love of God took her in a difficult, different direction. She decided to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 18 months which abruptly ended her pole vaulting.

I am grateful that she was determined to follow her dream and keep moving forward. She could have quit when after being ranked at the top of the state her senior year she went to the state meet and received a “no height” meaning she didn’t clear any bars.

She continued on and went to compete first for Mesa Community College. She did well in her indoor season but due to weather and some scheduling issues, didn’t achieve what she would have liked in the outdoor season. That still didn’t stop her.

She had plans to come back stronger the next year. But her determination took her in another direction.

I am grateful that her love of God took her in a difficult, different direction. She decided to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints for 18 months which abruptly ended her pole vaulting.

As she neared the end of her mission she decided to see if she could pole vault again. There were some challenges and set backs but she still didn’t give up on her desire. Two years after her last pole vault at Mesa Community College (after an appeal and some really hard work on her part) she was cleared by the NCAA to pole vault for Utah Valley University.

Still more challenges awaited with injuries and Covid cutting the 2020 season short for everyone but she stuck with it and pushed through. She even earned a school record height in her final season. She doesn’t think that she is that special but I still tease her and tell her I don’t personally know many other top 5 pole vaulters in the D1 Western Athletic Conference. Sadly, she is finished with that season of her life. But that comes with graduation.

I am grateful for her spirit of adventure, her fun-loving nature, and her desire to serve others. She loves being married, the beach, and Disneyland. She is fiercely protective of her family, especially her sister, always watching out for each of us. She loves her cousins like sisters (and brothers). She loves her friends like family.

I am grateful that she is continuing her education, working on her Master’s program in Exercise Science as a strength and conditioning coach for Nova Southeastern University.

There are so many qualities that she has that I am grateful for. She is a good example to me.

I could go on but she will be embarrassed by this much already.

I am grateful for her and for the things she teaches me about life, love, and determination. Love you Ally Cat.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 25 – I am Grateful for…

Day 25… November 25

Today I am grateful for my family.

I have a lot of it!!!

I mentioned it in yesterday’s post briefly but I will elaborate a little more.

Specifically my family of origin.

My parents are Mike and Shirley Anderson.

They have 13 children. 10 sons and 3 daughters.

YES…. I have 10 brothers and 2 sisters. This picture includes the first sister in law.

As if this wasn’t unusual enough, we actually like each other. And we like each other’s spouses. And we like most of each other’s kids ….jk…. we love them all!!

I’m not sure how I don’t have a more recent picture of all the siblings but it is a little challenging to get all of us together at once. I need to find who has the pictures from last summer!!

This one is everyone who was present (missing 4 or so and there have been a few more born since then) back in 2014.

And thanks to Covid and the world shutting down, we were all able to be with our mom during her battle with pancreatic cancer.

Probably one of the favorite things ever overheard from a stranger describing our family came while a large group of us, with a good portion of our kids, were hiking The Narrows in Zion National Park.

YES…. I have 10 brothers and 2 sisters.

As if this wasn’t unusual enough, we actually like each other. And we like each other’s spouses. And we like most of each other’s kids ….jk…. we love them all!!

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It is an amazing blessing to me to have so much support and love in my life. And even though we are all very different individuals, and have all our own crazy lives, I am so glad that we are able and willing to share those lives with each other.

“All I know is they are all related and they are all really loud!”

I guess we are not an everyday occurrence for most people. 🙂

And we can be “a lot”!!!

But I love that we accept each other just as we are and we are all allowed to just be ourselves.

Some more pictures through the years, just for fun.

One thing is for sure…… no matter how many there are at a time, we love having fun together!!

It is an amazing blessing to me to have so much support and love in my life. And even though we are all very different individuals, and have all our own crazy lives, I am so glad that we are able and willing to share those lives with each other.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!

November 24 – I am Grateful for…

Day 24… November 24

Today I am grateful for THANKSGIVING.

Thanksgiving in the United States of America is observed on the 4th Thursday of November.

I love Thanksgiving because more than just all the yummy food it is a day spent with family and enjoying some traditions.

One tradition that we try to maintain is using real dishes, glassware, and silverware. In a day when it seems that everything is disposable, it is very easy to let that go, but I love that we try to continue to make this a special holiday in simple ways.

This year I was able to host 2 of my brothers and their families and it was a small group of us for a change. Now when I say a small group of us, I mean it was only 19 of us. 🙂 Sadly, I didn’t manage to take any pictures of our group this year.

Just for reference, on the Keil family side, there are 52 family members still with us, and on the Anderson family side, there are 98 still with us.

To get “All together” is quite an undertaking, so it doesn’t happen all that often. But it isn’t unusual for our thanksgivings to be around the 40 or 50 people mark.

The older I get the worse I am at taking pictures of our activities together. That is something I want to get back into the habit of in the future.

It is a day focused on gratitude. I strive to make gratitude a regular practice that lasts longer than one day or month. It doesn’t always work out that way though. Thanksgiving gives me a good focus for an extended period and I like that.

It is a day focused on gratitude. I am striving to make gratitude a regular practice that lasts longer than one day or month.

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Even if I am less than perfect at that practice, I love that I can spend a day celebrating the many blessings that I receive all year long.

I love the foods we have come to expect from each family….Anderson’s usual include turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, rolls, black olives, and even the candied yams that not very many people will eat. 🙂 and lots and lots of pies for dessert.

….Keil’s usuals include turkey, ham, lamb, corned beef, (yes they need multiple types of meat!!), Samoan chop suey, steamed rice, taro in coconut milk, two different types of gravy, and then all the “normal” regular things like mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, vegetables, and all the desserts.

I love this holiday, and I am grateful for the traditions we can enjoy and pass on to our families.

The work is GRATITUDE, and I want to become a master!!

And as always…..Remember…..It’s ALL good!!