Rainy Days and Saturdays.....

Nate and Colby are up at the cabin with the boys, and my Mom is spending a girls weekend with her sisters. I am so glad they are able to go have fun this weekend. It is nice to have a nice, quiet house. (That is when Carson is napping!) I have accomplished a lot already and they all just left yesterday afternoon. Today is a rainy, grey day and it is making me feel a little drizzly. Just one of those days! But I do secretly like them because these kind of days remind me of Washington!

Inspiring Weekend

What a great weekend we had! We got to go down and spend time with Nate's family, cheer some of them on at the St. George Marathon and watch Conference together.

Being apart of the marathon (as a spectator) was so amazing! I remember Carrie coming home from it a year ago after watching her Brother-in-law run it, and saying she wanted to do it. I thought she was crazy!!! She was so inspired by the exhiliration there and the commrodery. I can now say I completely understand what she is talking about. It was so, so cool!!! I am so glad I went. It is just so hard to describe the feeling there, unless you have witnessed one. I loved it!!! Often seeing the runners go by and hearing the cheers for them I teared up. It was so cool to see the support everyone was giving the runners, even ones they didn't know. It was just awesome and I am glad that Carrie, Caytee, Jon and Chad let us share that wonderful experience with them. THANK YOU! It is such a HUGE accomplishment! I thought only hard core runners ran marathons, but I learned that is so not the case! I was inspired by the runners!

General Conference was incredible! I learned so much!!! Again....inspired! It was a wonderful weekend to say the least! Then we were able to go pick up my mom from the airport yesterday and how great it is to have her with us!!! Family is such a necessary thing in life. I am so, so grateful to be surrounded by such wonderful family members!

Good Luck!

We are heading down South today for the weekend to spend time with Nate's family and to cheer on Carrie, Caytee, Jon and Chad as they come across the finish line of the St. George Marathon. I wanted to say good luck to them! We love you guys and are so proud of this huge accomplishment!

Martha or Merilee?

My mother-in-law gave me this book a couple of years ago and I wanted to blog about it. I really learned a lot from it. It talks about raising responsible, independent children and ways to do that. The author tells this story:
She was having a church meeting at her home with two ladies she referred to as "Martha Stewart I and Martha Stewart II". While they were meeting in the kitchen, her 3 yr. old walks in, goes to the pantry and pulls out peanut butter, jelly and bread. He carefully laid out the bread on the floor and proceeded to make himself a sandwich. She saw him out of the corner of her and didn't do a thing. She noticed the other two women developing facial expressions and twitches. Finally one of them said, "Merilee! Your son is making a sandwich on the bare floor!" she responded, "I know isn't that fantastic! He just learned how to make sandwiches this week." She then turned to her son with a big smile and said, "Tanner, I am so proud of you. What a yummy sandwich you've made!" He was beaming with pride as he walked out with his sandwich.
That struck me because I would have been the Martha Stewart character and had my son do it on the table. So, it helped me learn to let my kids be individuals and do things on their own, their own way. (within reason, of course) Sometimes too much nurturing sends the message that our kids are incapable of accomplishing things on their own and therefore they can develop low self-esteem.
Are you the Merilee or the Martha Stewart in this story? I would love to hear your thoughts on the subject!