YOUVE GOT THIS!

 

What if God is not disappointed in you?

How many times have you gone to one of your children’s sports events or music performance of some kind and the occasion didn’t go the way they had hoped?

Once my younger daughter was in a swim meet competition when for some reason, she began swimming in the wrong direction once she had jumped into the pool and surfaced ready to go.  She became disoriented and flustered.  By the time she had recovered and began to swim in the right direction, she was the last one to finish the relay.

Another time when my oldest son was at his piano recital, his mind went blank after he had played the introduction to his very difficult piece.  Though he had memorized it perfectly, it took him three or four starts before he could get beyond the first few notes.  His teacher even offered to give him the music to use so he could play.  He shook his head and surprisingly was able to play the entire piece flawlessly after those first initial attempts.

There were tears, frustration, and looks of heartbreaking disappointment on both those occasions.

In my experience, when those unfortunate things happen all of us parents at whatever event it is lean in —not just me because these might be my kids—but everyone worried for all of the participants, clapped louder, and cheered harder when each kid finally got going in their performance. Everyone wanted all the kids to get back up and finish strong if things were not going well.

Don’t you think that must be a little like Heavenly Father?

 When He sees us make mistakes, He does not distance Himself. When we are frustrated, discouraged, or close to tears because life is harder than we thought it would be, He is not standing back in disappointment.   He is helping us rise. He is cheering us on. He is still full of mercy.

 I invite you to think about your own life.  Maybe things sometimes have not gone the way you had anticipated.  Maybe you wish you could get your act together and do better than you are doing at this time.  Let’s face it, maybe you are just plain tired and every little thing looks insurmountable.

Please know the Lord has not left you on your own.  He DOES see when you are trying, in spite of being tired.  He does help you plug away when the task of being better seems insurmountable.  He stays right there—close by—while you pick yourself up and attempt again.

God does not give up on His children!

He is merciful, patient, and lovingly invites us to come back to Him.  His very character invites us to return to Him with hope. 

So, let us remember His promise to always be with us.  Not just when things are going well, but when we find we are going in the wrong direction, or something we know perfectly well how to accomplish suddenly seems like we do not know how to take the first step. 

Think of that positive cheer people exclaim to each other now when the going gets tough…

YOU’VE GOT THIS!

MEMORIAL DAY 2026

 

Memorial Day is my favorite holiday of the year!

I have such fond memories of going with my family to take flowers to the cemetery for my brother’s grave when it was still called Decoration Day.  Then we would usually have a picnic in the back yard with my two married sisters and their families who lived in my hometown.  

My graduation from Brigham Young University was on Friday, May 31st—the day after Memorial Day 1968—before Congress mandated in 1971 that Memorial Day was to be the last Monday in May forever after. What a great date for me!   Still celebrating Memorial Day!

When my children were growing up Memorial Day was the official start of the “Nichols Family Summer” and all that George Gershwin wrote about the living being “easy”.  After washing windows and cleaning the garage in the early morning, we would spend the rest of the holiday playing games, going on a long bike ride, and eating our favorite summer barbeque foods.  

After my children were much older, we would run together in the BOLDERBolder 10K race before a short rest followed by our holiday picnic and evening fun.

Once my children got married and had their own children, any of the Nichols Family who could would get together for a fun-filled holiday with many of our favorite Memorial Day activities.

 But now it is just my husband and me.  Not as much fun as it used to be when the day was full of so many people and events.  This year it was going to be an empty backyard, so I proposed we go on a day trip.  Louis picked Colorado Springs—close, yet still far enough away that it felt like an occasion.

 We saw so many stores with outdoor displays featuring riots of blooms and potted flowers, each shouting “Pick me! Pick me!” to the throngs of people purchasing summer livery to enhance their yards for the ultimate get-away of a summer afternoon.  No wonder Henry James said the two most beautiful words in the English language have always been “summer afternoon”!

I didn’t buy any of those beautiful blossoms, however when I saw a display of colorful pinwheels, I bought one to enhance the atmosphere of summer afternoons in my own space.  So, when I see it turning in the breeze, I will remember my favorite holiday and all the memories that make it that!

                                                                                         

WILLPOWER VS. THE SAVIOR'S POWER

 

My father worked 43 years for the Union Pacific Railroad, first as a fireman when he started in 1927 long before I was born, then as a locomotive engineer as the years passed before his retirement in 1971 when I was a young married woman with two small boys.  Those early days my dad spent working for the U.P.R.R. were characterized by stoking the fires on steam locomotives for his regular run from my
Wyoming home—Rawlins to Green River—before his promotion to engineer about the time I was born in the mid 1940’s.

A few months ago, one of my nephews, just eight years younger than myself, decided to write a series of essays for his children and grandchildren highlighting lessons from the everyday in the lives of his family.  He has shared some of those essays with me.  His writing is thoughtful, clear, and spot on with the corollaries to life they express.  I include here an excerpt of one essay he wrote about my father’s work for the Union Pacific Railroad in his position as train engineer.

“Once my grandfather as engineer climbed into that locomotive cab along with the fireman, they faced a "Wyoming Sandwich": sub-zero winds whipping at their backs while the firebox heat scorched their fronts. To move a thousand tons of steel over the Continental Divide required an intimate understanding of their machine. In a steam engine, the throttle only lets the steam out of the boiler. The real mastery lies in the Johnson Bar, the lever that controls how much steam enters the power cylinders.

“A novice engineer keeps the valves open for the entire stroke, using every ounce of pressure to force the piston forward. The old-timers called this "tearing the fire," because it created such a vacuum in the smokestack that it pulled the burning coal right off the grates and sent it shooting into the night sky. Heat was lost because they were trying too hard for speed.

“But a master like my grandfather knew the "Art of the Cutoff." He would start the piston with a small, calculated "sip" of steam, perhaps just the first twenty percent of the stroke, and then he would "hook her up." He closed the valve which allowed the expansive power of the steam already inside to do the rest of the work. The two railroad men in the cab would then let the heat provide the momentum that their own muscles never could.

“I’ve come to see this as a perfect window into the Atonement. We often try to power through every trial with 100% of our own willpower, convinced that if we

just push harder, we will find the speed we need. We exhaust ourselves, and in our frantic intensity, we burn out like those coal fragments shooting into the night sky.

“The Savior is the expansive power of the Cutoff. Life works better when we offer our honest effort—our "twenty percent"—and then allow the Atonement of Jesus Christ to provide the infinite, expansive force that carries us the rest of the way. He does not wait for us to reach the destination before He helps; He enters the cylinder of our lives the moment we open the valve to Him. His Grace is the momentum that our own strength can never produce.”  (Paul Eyre—Tyler, Texas)

 

Though I often heard tales of the hard work that had to be performed in those steam locomotive engines (related to us after my father had returned home black with soot, full of cinders, and bone tired from the relentless cold and sheer physical effort to man that powerful machine) at that time I never recognized the lessons those experiences held for those with discerning minds.

Although I now can see a broader application of the “Johnson Bar” as I determine just how much of the Savior’s power I will allow for Him to carry me the rest of the way as I journey through life in need of His atoning grace to forgive, to comfort, and to enable me. I have learned I cannot do all that on my own.   However, I am sometimes as imprudent as a novice engineer trying too hard for speed.  But when I acknowledge I cannot “do it all on my own”, I receive a momentum to move forward with far more than my singular strength can produce.

Think of situations in your own life when you felt that you couldn’t “do it” on your own.  Willpower just wasn’t enough to get through whatever trial you were experiencing.  Were you humble enough to acknowledge you needed the Savior’s help to carry your burden so you could move ahead?  We’ve all been there, certain we could persevere without help if we just tried harder. 

In April 2026 General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Dale G. Renlund taught this truth about the Atonement: “Because of Jesus Christ, all that is unfair in life can and will be made right. He will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. He will sanctify to us our deepest distress. He will fill with sweet a bitter cup. He will dependably and consistently make us whole. If we let Him, we will “suffer no manner of afflictions, save it [is] swallowed up in the joy of Christ.”

So, I invite you—and me, too—to do things differently.  Ask for help, the Savior’s atoning rescue, in the very beginning of your ordeal and let His loving power cover your path forward.  His grace is sufficient.  It will save soooo much heartache and pain if we trust His expansive power of the “Cutoff” right at mile marker one.

GRATITUDE IN APRIL

 

I am a murmurer.  A glass half empty kind of a person.  Always some kind of complaint which has been the fuel to help me take care of the task at hand, especially the ones I didn’t want to do.  It also seems that has been a recognizable trait of mine for a long time.

A specific example of this happened several years ago when my first husband and I had been talking about pioneer experiences from our family history.  He said he wished he could have been a pioneer, citing several examples to support his statement:  the adventure of stepping into the unknown, being out in the desert free from crowds of people, solving logistical challenges in the wagon train, etc.  You get the picture. 

That all sounded like a lot of hard, hot, and thankless work to me.  Ever the realist, I said to him, “Ross, you could never have been a pioneer!  You have to have a shower every day.”  He just replied in his real-life mechanical engineering thought process way, “I would have rigged something up and made a shower!”  My exasperated reply spelled out the truth of the West.  “But there was NO water even in the best of circumstances!”  Then I continued, “Is all I know is that I could NEVER have been a pioneer!”

Then came the statement which evidenced the truth of my whole personality as a murmurer.  Ross said, “Oh, yes, you COULD have been a pioneer—if you had been able to complain every step of the way!”

Spot on!  Both of us dissolved into laughter.  That was a true proclamation and a testament as to how well he knew me. 

Not long ago I saw a table-top decoration that made me pay attention to and rethink some of the complaints with which I had peppered my daily life.  On one side of the chart framed in the shape of a house were many of the things I spent a lifetime complaining about as I went all over the place taking care of my family. On the other side of the chart were the blessings I experienced which had necessitated the responsibilities on the first list.

 

   A house to clean                          A safe place to live

   Early Wakeups                                                     Children to love

   Laundry to do                           Clothes to wear

   Dirty dishes                                                            Food to eat

  Crumbs under the table                  Family meals

   Shopping to do                                                        Money to use

                          Lots of noise                                A house full of people

Had my existence really been so hollow that I had found no satisfaction in the care of my family? No!  I had loved being a wife and mother!  But I’m sure I hadn’t sounded like it sometimes. 

 

In the April 2014 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a powerful sermon about gratitude. 

He said, “Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be.

The choice is ours. We can choose to limit our gratitude, based on the blessings we feel we lack. ….We can choose to be like the Mormon pioneers, who maintained a spirit of gratitude during their slow and painful trek toward the Great Salt Lake, even singing and dancing and glorying in the goodness of God. Many of us would have been inclined to withdraw, complain, and agonize about the difficulty of the journey.  (THAT would have been me!)

We can choose to be grateful, no matter what. This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer.”

Okay, I didn’t complain ALL of the time.  But I’m sure there were times I surely made others uncomfortable in how I expressed myself when I had many responsibilities and so little time to take care of them and everything else, too.  I didn’t do a very good job of being thankful IN my circumstances.

I know it is April and not November, yet GRATITUDE is a subject that is always relevant.  I remember when I heard this talk, I was aware that I needed to make some changes.  Perhaps I did make some.  Now I need to make some more as I hear myself murmuring a lot!

So, I have committed to quit complaining and be grateful—no matter what is going on in my life!

And I invite you to examine your own gratitude scale and see where you might need some improvement, too.  We can do this!

                                                                                 

EASTER--NOW AND THEN...

 Yesterday was Easter.  

It was a very quiet day--just my husband and me.  We watched the televised General Conference broadcast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and took Easter greetings to the nine women in my congregation to whom I minister and to the recent widow who lives across the street.  

Our Easter dinner was toasted cheese sandwiches.  Nice and simple but totally lacking in the spirit of Easter celebration I had participated in or organized for over seven decades.  Truthfully, though it was a spiritual day, it seemed lacking when it came to the CELEBRATION part.  I longed for the family dinner and the cheery association with parents, children and grandchildren as I remember, not only as a kid, but as an adult and parent and grandparent in my own right.  

This is an article I wrote for the Newsletter I wrote for my children over a ten-year period.  The Nichols Family News was compiled of memories garnered from journals, conversations, and printed pieces from all kinds of sources.  It is still good reading.  And I hope my posterity finds some interest in those ten years of effort which I so immensely enjoyed compiling.

This piece is a look into some self-introspection on my part.  I wrote it in April 2011.

                                                              

 EASTER

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I loved Easter as a kid!  I especially liked it when it was at its very latest—like it is this year, the fourth Sunday in April.  By the end of April maybe—just maybe, we hoped—the weather might be a little milder in Wyoming, and it would seem like a “real” spring holiday.  The only “Spring Break” we had was Good Friday, which everybody got out of school to celebrate.  When I was in junior high and high school, we also had no school on Easter Monday.  So, we had a four-day weekend for a spring break.  That’s the main reason I liked Easter to be the latest date possible.  I wanted it to be fairly good weather during that precious long weekend.

Plenty of years we wore our new lightweight and gauzy Easter dresses and new patent leather shoes to Church in snow.  Or else it was so chilly we had to wear heavy coats over our frilly new dresses.  Back then, dressing up for Easter Sunday was a big deal.  We saw people at Church who never darkened the door any other time of the year, except Christmas, who came to show off their Easter finery.  We always had Easter baskets, dyed eggs, and generally enjoyed the secular aspects of celebrating the end of winter.  We didn’t think too much about celebrating Easter the way true Saints celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ.  Frankly, I was confused about the relationship between all the Easter stuff we did and Christ’s death and resurrection.

It didn’t occur to me until Harold and Brice were little, that I should be teaching my children that Easter was an occasion for gratitude.  Because of Christ, not only would we all be resurrected but through his atonement we could be forgiven, be comforted, and be succored in any way we needed. So, I began to separate the fun, worldly aspects of Easter from the more reverent celebration of the end of Christ’s earthly ministry.  Along with the Easter decorations, I tacked up a little verse on the kitchen door of the Welch Court house which outlined Christ’s resurrection making it possible for all of us to live again.  I would repeat it to Harold and Brice, and then when I would ask them why we celebrated Easter, they would parrot back to me that Jesus died so we could live again.  We saved the Easter egg hunt, the sugar-cookie making, and dying eggs for the day after Easter until they began school, then we moved that part back to Saturday.  (It was during that time Ross fashioned the huge egg cookie cutter we used for years. I still have it.) The FHE before Easter I always gave the lesson about Easter customs and what eggs, bunnies, lambs, new clothes, etc. have to do with the celebration of Easter anyway. That prepared us to make Easter Sunday a special occasion. 

I used to make sure everyone had something new to wear until I don’t remember when that wasn’t important anymore.  But, there were years I even made the clothes myself.  There are pictures of Harold and Brice in new outfits I made.  And, maybe Burgandy remembers the blue and white polka dot dress with a blue and white pinstripe pinafore I made her.  She also had a cute white straw hat to wear with the dress.

I have a lot of great memories of Easter over the last six-plus decades.  There are boxes in the basement still full of Easter stuff from Berlin and lots of doodads I have bought and collected through the years for our own Nichols Family Easter celebrations.  And, I would hazard a guess that there are about two-hundred plastic eggs that would make for a really GRAND Easter egg hunt.  So, if you’re ever around….

ANSWERS TO PERTINENT QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH YOU SHOULD PROBABLY BE AWARE OF...

 

   

AS PART OF MY AETNA HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY, I HAVE TO HAVE AN IN-HOME HEALTH SCREENING ONCE A YEAR.

I had mine for 2026 last week.  It was the same old, same old questions Medicare insists the health-care professional asks each time about how I am getting along in life--balance, diet, exercise, blah blah blah blah blah!  Wouldn't it be kind of refreshing if just once the exam went something like this and I was asking the questions?

Anyway, I read this little "funny" somewhere years ago and kept it for a good laugh now and then.  I hope it kind of tickles you, too.    Do not remember the source.  Sorry!

If you’ve ever had a question about what is really healthy as far as food and diets are concerned, I did a little research on the subject and found these invaluable insights through a series of questions and answers.  Read on for more enlightenment…

Q:  I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?                                                                 

A:  Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it…Don’t waster them on exercise.  Everything wears out eventually.  Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.  Want to live longer?  Take a nap.

Q:  Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?                                                                        

A:  You must grasp logistical efficiencies.  What does a cow eat?  Hay and corn.  And what are these?  Vegetables.  So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.  Need grain?  Eat Chicken.  Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q:  How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?                                                                                                    

A:  Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.  If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q:  What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?                                        

A:  Can’t think of a single one, sorry.  My philosophy is:  No Pain…Good!

Q:  Aren’t fried foods bad for you?                                                                                                                                               

A:  YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!!... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.  In fact, they’re permeated in it.  How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q:  Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?                                                                           

A:  Definitely not!  When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger.  You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:  Is chocolate bad for me?                                                                                                                                                       A:   Are you crazy?  HELLO Cocoa beans!  Another vegetable!!!  It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q:  Is swimming 

good for your figure?                                                                                                                              

A:  If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q:  Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?                                                                                                     

A:  Hey! “Round” is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.  And remember:  “Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways—donut in one hand, chocolate in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and yet you’re screaming, “WOO HOO!  WHAT A RIDE!”

APRIL MEMORIES

SOMETIMES WHEN WE LOOK BACK ON OUR LIVES, WE TEND TO FOCUS ON THE LACK WE HAD OR THE STRESS WE WERE EXPERIENCING.  BUT AT THE TIME OF THIS MEMORY, LIFE WAS GOOD.  VERY GOOD!  AND I THINK OF THOSE EARLY YEARS WITH FONDNESS AND A JOYFUL HEART FOR THE SIMPLE BLESSINGS THAT BROUGHT SO MUCH HAPPINESS.

 By the time Easter 1973 rolled around, life was pretty well-

established for the Nichols Family.  We’d been in the Welch Court house in Arvada,

 Colorado, almost two years, the grass and trees were in their second season, the

 cast-off furniture had been recovered, and I had made drapes out of window

 coverings Beth had sent my way.   So, even though we had only the basics, we

 weren’t shabby by any means.  Ross hadn’t decided to return to school yet.  So,

 we had a pleasant routine of sending Ross off to work in the morning, doing the

 housework, then I spent available time, that wasn’t needed for my Church calling,

 sewing while Harold and Brice played with blocks, wooden puzzles, simple toys, and

 pretty much entertained themselves before and after their naps. 

 When Ross came home in the evening, we had supper and later spent time

 together out in the yard if it was good weather or in the house playing games

 with each other. 

   

I made Easter outfits for Harold and Brice and a jersey dress

 for myself.  Brice’s was a pale orange short one piece knit suit that had tabs on

 the shoulders through which I threaded a tie made from orange and white cotton

 knit. I tied it with a sailor’s knot in front.  The total for fabric and notions was

 $0.40. For Harold I made a pair of grey slacks, $0.35 and a sport coat

 of grey/white seersucker with a red kerchief print lining.  It cost

 about $1.00 for the supplies.  My dress was a 70’s print jersey of purple, green,

 orange, and white.  The fabric was on sale at Target for $0.66/yd, so it

 priced out at $3.00 for zipper and all.  We were pretty stylin’ as we hopped down

 the Bunny Lane in the Easter Parade. 

I look back at those days as pleasant and productive both.  There are lots of good

 memories from that period of time and slides down the basement as proof.