Stuff I Learned Yesterday

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a contribution from Justina. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

In 2008 I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Colitis is an autoimmune disorder where your body attacks the colon causing intense discomfort and it caused me to lose a lot of blood. I lost a lot of sleep most nights due to the pain and the stress over not knowing how I would ever feel better. There were many of those nights that i cried myself to sleep. I never wanted to shop anywhere unless I knew they had a public restroom with more than one stall. I would take a few trips to Southern California from Central California to visit friends and family. I can tell you what almost every public restrooms looks like along the way. I joked once that I was going to write a blog titled, “The Bathrooms along Interstate 5." Read More...

Did you know you can have more than one cavity per tooth? As I said earlier, I found this out the hard way as a small child. Now before you pass judgement on my commitment to dental care, you should know it was completely, 100%, without a doubt, my parents’ fault. Don’t be too hard on them though. You see, I was the first child and my parents were cutting their teeth on the whole parenthood thing with me. In fact, they thought they were being very responsible new parents by protecting their young son from the harmful effects of candy. I wasn’t allowed candy in the early days of life, but was instead offered nature’s candy, fruit! Read More...

The struggle is real. What used to be an ironic statement around our house has become a truism. My girl’s strength and independence have come under fire and she is battling. I am honored to fight and battle beside her. Read More...

For the last couple of years my daughter has expressed an interest in planting a vegetable garden. We talked about doing something small like an herb garden and we talked about digging up a part of the backyard and planting some real veggies. However, nothing really came of it. This last spring I decided I would talk about it with her again and see if she was still interested in planting a garden. She was. Read More...

Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we go back to an episode that originally aired in July of 2014. It's an episode about perspective and observing the world around you. It’s Stuff I Learned Yesterday Episode 94- Awakening Your Awareness. Read More...

When Darrell asked me to contribute an episode to the final season of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I submitted an idea to talk about how my life goals are in a holding pattern due to not having a permanent job. Well, you know what they say about making plans. Life has a way of being unpredictable. I had no idea how much my life would change two weeks after that initial pitch. On Tuesday, October 18th at around 12 noon I got a very unexpected call from a local hospital. In my short life, I have received many calls like this because my parents have both had many health issues, especially in the last several years. But this time it was different. As I got ready to leave for my seasonal retail job, I got a call that my dad had taken a bad fall and was in the hospital. After the first call from the social worker I was in shock. I didn’t understand how serious it was and I had planned to still go to work. Read More...

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday! My name is Emilee O’Leary and when I was little I used to take apart electronics to see what was inside and whether I could put them back together and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I’m sharing a story about the long process I went through this summer in rediscovering the worth in work. Read more...

I wanted a change. I was mad at Mom, but I really don’t remember why. I know there had been too many changes in my life in a short period of time, and I wanted something else. I was only 5 years old, my father had died the year before, and his mother, my grandmother had rented the house across the street for several months before recently returning to San Francisco.  Read more...

For the last several years, my Facebook bio has said, "I am happily married to my wife, Kari. We have two great kids. I am the worship leader at Crosspointe Community Church in Edmond, OK. I am the owner of Pro Podcast Solutions and Golden Spiral Media." That bio contains five quick facts about me that represent the core of my life. My wife is Kari. I have two kids. I'm a worship leader. I own Pro Podcast Solutions. I own Golden Spiral Media. As of October 2, 2016, one of those things is no longer true. Which is it? Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Andrew and Jason. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

I am in my 14th year working in the office of a school. I feel very fortunate to have been there for that many years. During that time, you can imagine I have seen teachers and staff come and go, for good reasons and hard ones. I’ve seen my co-workers get engaged, married and have kids. I’ve seen them come back for visits after they retire. I know that this kind of love for the people and place is rare. But my school has been an environment of support and trust. We have gone through challenges and struggles along the way and there has been some hard times. Read more…

Growing up my Mom was Queen of Tradition in the McGrail household. There were specific protocols for each major holiday and heaven help you if you tried to suggest anything that didn’t go along with the protocol. One of the ones that I remember very well was the annual spiced apples that were made every year at our Christmas Dinner—always served on Christmas Eve after the perfectly timed Moravian Lovefeast that could be at 3:30 but never later than 4:30 because that was throwing off the rest of the day’s schedule. Anyway, the apples…they were peeled, cored and served whole with a very delicious sauce in my great grandmother’s crystal dishes. They were quite yummy for sure. The other tradition was the annual cursing fest that was the putting on lights of our Christmas tree. My dad would find new and creative ways to get frustrated and there was always a plethora of new vocabulary words that I was not to share outside of the home.Read More...

Life is like a connect the dots drawing. You don't know what your final picture will be, but it's slowly revealing itself as you connect each dot in your life. And if you take the time to look back, you can see how each one of those dots is connected to form the picture so far.Read More...

2004 was a rough year for me. In fact, it's probably the most difficult year I've ever faced. It should come as no surprise that it's also one of the years I can look back on now and realize that it's one of the biggest learning seasons of my life. If you're a long-time listener of this podcast then you probably remember some of the events of that year. Things got rough near the end of January when my boss called me into his office to tell me that he had hired someone to replace me. Just a few weeks earlier, he had reallocated my huge workload and hired someone to work along side me. So when he then called me in to tell me I was being replaced, I was shocked. Read More...