All in a Day's Work

There are many days when I go to bed feeling inadequate and defeated.  I hate days like those, but on days when we work in our garden, I always go to bed feeling awesome.  Gardening is a project that involves our whole family, produces long term pay-offs, and teaches my kids about hard work.  There are physical as well as psychological benefits and so many life lessons that we learn from this family project.

Last year I made the mistake of not investing much time and energy in our garden because, you know, we were supposed to be moving.  When Halloween rolled around and there were no pumpkins to pick, we were pretty bummed.   Paying too much money for pumpkins at the grocery store was not the same : / 

So, this year we planted strawberries, onions, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, and watermelon.  Plus we will enjoy the raspberries, grapes, and blueberries from previous years.  And boy do I feel good about that!

 This is a small sampling of the weeds we pulled about a month ago.  I told the kids I’d pay them a nickel a weed.  When we got to 1500 weeds, we scrapped that idea and decided our reward would be the produce from the garden.  

We had a little extra help.

The girls planted strawberries in one of the raised beds for a YW Value Projects.  

These are the pics from last Saturday.

Progress!

Where has the time gone?

Jackson turned 18, and I’m having a hard time adjusting : /  I want to stop time and then I want to speed it up.  I worry that I haven’t taught him enough and then I worry I’ve said too much.  I realize more than ever that when it’s all said and done, being a mother is the greatest responsibility I have, and I’m not sure if I’m doing it right most of the time.  I’ve never done this before!   One thing I do know is that I love my kids, and I’m super proud of them.  My greatest hope for them is that they will be wonderful husbands, wives, fathers, and mothers someday!  I think they will be because of who they really are.  I realize, when I list the things I love about my children, that most of their greatest qualities have always been a part of them.  The things that I love about Jackson now are the same things that I loved about him when he was three. 

Happy Birthday Jackson!



For your 18^th birthday, here are 18 things we love about you:

1.       Your dimples 

2.       The way you are a natural leader

3.       Your emotional as well as your academic intelligence

4.       That you are compassionate towards others and especially kind to people who don’t fit in- I’m thinking of all the times you’ve come home from school concerned about a particular student who was being made fun of or bullied – I wonder how these kids would feel if they knew you had prayed for them

5.       Your sense of humor 

6.       That you are a gifted speaker - Sometimes this comes back to bite me when we get in an argument and you tell me the fallacy behind my reasoning

7.       Your drive to succeed academically and ability to retain information

8.       Your talent for making nerdy look cool

9.       Your passion for Legos, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Nerf guns

 

10.    That you compliment others for their accomplishments and are not threatened by the success of others - It always makes me feel good when you compliment my efforts in the kitchen : )

11.   That you are not a pleaser - You say what you really think and we never have to wonder where you stand -  Sometimes I almost wish you’d tell me what I want to hear, but, no, I’m glad you are honest

12.   That you are honest with others and yourself

13.   That you talk to us and are quite candid in what you share - I’ve always loved this about you 

14.   That you are responsible and follow through on commitments you have made

15.   That you are a good friend

16.   That you have “good sense” when it comes to money, are careful about how you spend your money and ours, and always pay your tithing first -  that when you flushed a glow in the dark wrist band down the toilet, you refused to let me pay a plumber but, instead, bought a snake at Lowes and fixed it yourself 

17.   Your creativity and artistic ability – We knew you had talent when you drew the best owl in Mrs Castoldy’s preschool class

18.   That you are an excellent writer and have an impressive lexicon : )

Power of Moms

Last week I took a trip to Salt Lake City.  It was a much needed retreat.  I met up with James on Thursday afternoon and we headed to BYU to see the Carl Bloch exhibit.  It was amazing!  We also made a pit stop at Slab Pizza and enjoyed some really awesome Thai chicken and potato and rosemary pizza.  Yum!

The next morning Andrea and Kelly flew in and met me in downtown Salt Lake.  We walked around Temple Square, visited the Church History Museum, and stopped in at Deseret Book.  

After lunch we headed to Park City for a Power of Moms retreat at Richard and Linda Eyre’s home.  The Eyre’s have written many books on parenting.  It was exciting to think of meeting them and hearing them speak in person – not to mention hanging out in their home.  The retreat was actually planned and put on by a couple of their daughters, Saren and Charity, and a friend of my sister’s, April Perry. I had high hopes that I would come away from this retreat with some much needed help in my role as a mother.  I was not disappointed!  It was one of the “most well worth it” ways that I have spent my time in awhile.

On Friday afternoon April Perry taught us about an organizational system that she has developed based on a book by David Allen titled, “Getting Things Done.”  April has, with permission, adapted David Allen’s organizational system to motherhood.  Now this was one of the most enlightening parts of the whole retreat, and boy did I need it.  Lately I feel like I constantly have at least five people coming at me with papers needing to be signed, appointments needing to be made, big life decisions needing to be decided, and deadlines needing to be kept.  These things are important to my kids (they have to do with things like getting into college, scholarships, skin rashes, prom plans, try-outs for plays and sports, church achievements, school achievements, science fair projects, etc…) and I constantly find myself saying, “I’ll get to that, but you’ll have to get in line.  I’m way too busy right now to even think.”  The basic premise of April Perry’s presentation was to dump everything from our minds and organize it in a way that made so much sense I could hardly wait to get home and try it out.  I’ve been working on it all week, and it is life changing! 

Saturday was mostly spent listening to the Eyre family inspire us with practical parenting tips, ideas, and helps.  Richard and Linda Eyre were both charming and completely in tune with what matters most.  Each of their daughters presented or helped in some way.  I loved watching this family interact with each other.  I loved to see how they supported each other, respected each other, and were honest about what worked for them and what didn’t – it wasn’t all the same.  Several other mothers shared ideas and led discussion groups as well.  It was encouraging, uplifting, inspiring, and down right helpful.  I learned a ton, laughed, cried, and promised myself I would be more deliberate and present in my role as a mother.  Sometimes all we need in order to make positive changes in our life is help – help from someone who knows more than us.  I’ve been going along doing the best I could, but now I can do better because I’ve learned how,and I am so excited about that.