“You belong in every room you enter.” - Shonda Rhymes


6-21



From our beautiful Grandma Marie: Go easy on the makeup, get serious about skincare. Don’t skimp, use good-quality products on your face and neck. And remember SUNSCREEN on face, neck and hands every day!


16



Talking to people you disagree with is sometimes difficult. But it doesn’t have to be. Enter every conversion assuming you have something to learn.


14, 18, 21



The bull-sh*t never ends. Dealing with the bull-sh*t IS your job. If you think you’ll ever reach a “post-bullsh*t stage in your life, you’re wrong.


12, 15, 19, 21



Always wear an undershirt underneath a dress shirt.


13



Sometimes the only thing you can do is to show up. Be there.


13, 15, 17, 21



Talk about how to speak up for themselves and others.


1Infant-12, 16, 21



Never make a decision from a place of hopelessness.


14, 16, 21



Best take on parenting: “My kid is never gonna not feel safe with me.”


1, 5, 10, 15



Set up a 529 plan. Virginia has a great plan if you don't want to do too much research https://www.savingforcollege.com/


birth-age 3



You can’t grow in faith (or character or friendships) without learning to be humble. To forgive. To listen without agenda. To allow for the possibility you may be in the wrong. Ask for help. God will give it.


16



Your job is to help your kids find themselves, not to implant an agenda of your own.


1, 5, 10, 15, 20



Sometimes we outgrow relationships. It’s no one’s fault. It’s okay to move on. You’ve grown…Don’t abandon your healthier self for a relationship.


14, 16,



End of August by Robert Frost is one of my favorite poems.


20



Sometimes (oftentimes) the truth is easier to find than to face.


14, 20



"Surround yourself with people who trust and get YOU." - Josh Groban, High Point University 2018 commencement address. Note, I love that quote because it speaks to having a tribe, a close group of friends. But it's also important to surround yourself with people who challenge you, who may not agree with you or have the same perspective as you do.


14-19



Let decency be like a religion to you. Practice it …but don’t preach it.


14



“Tell me the story of your day.” (Works better than “how was your day?”


5, 6, 10



Practice road-rage roll playing. People are NUTS! It's hard to imagine how you'll react when someone gets aggressive with you. Let's practice staying calm when someone is shouting and in your face.


15-17



Taken from a friend’s Facebook post: You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere. Why did you spill the coffee? "Because someone bumped into me!!!" Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. *Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out.* Therefore, when life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled. *So we have to ask ourselves... “what's in my cup?"* When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility? Anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions? Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it. Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation


12, 17



If you’re unable to help someone, help someone else. Throw some goodness or beauty in the bucket of humanity.


16



Help him practice having tense conversations without getting a tone of voice.


15



At dinner time, go around the table and share your “highs and lows” for the day. (Re-ticket up to 21)


5



Get at least 2, preferably 3 estimates on any major expenses for home or car.


21



Read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit together


11



Fact: when you drink to excess you are significantly more likely to cause harm to someone or be harmed yourself. Being drunk means surrendering your ability to keep yourself and others safe.


12, 15, 18



No one knows what they’re doing. Just be kind and brave and curious. You don’t have to have it figured out.


17



I don’t want you to do drugs. It could hurt or $@!#% you. If you get caught doing drugs it could hurt your academic record


12, 15, 18