Friends I am exhausted.  Still after a day of mostly rest, I am just plain tired.  Why you ask?  It’s the events of the last week.  I spent a week living my mother and father’s life and boy did it tucker me out.  You see last Sunday I flew to California to sibling-sit Anna, Sam and Madi.  I did this so my dad and mom could fly to Utah and work on the rental property.  In a way we switched places- like freaky friday without being in my mom’s body (that was a weird sentence).

Just to give each of you a taste of my day’s last week.  This is how it went

5:30 wake up, pull on whatever clothes handy

5:40 take Anna to seminary

7:00 make lunches for all

7:20 Wake up Same and Madi so they can be ready when I leave

7:30 pick up Anna from seminary

8:30 take Sam and Madi to school

10:30 take Anna to high school

12:30 pick up Anna from high school

1or 2 take Anna to independent study or music lessons

3:00 pick up Anna from above activity

3:30 pick up Sam and Madi from school

4:30 take either Sam or Madi to PGY (a performing group) practice

5:00 start making dinner

5:30 take Anna to dance

6:30 pick up Anna from dance and Sam/Madi from PGY

7:00 have dinner

8:00 clean up

Rest of the night- try to squeeze something fun in and must help Madi with homework taking 1 hour.

So, that was my day sibling-sitting!  To top all that off I had to squeeze in my own workload and make sure I didn’t get behind with any of that.

With all this running around you would think I must have had a miserable time.  Actually I had a good time.  It was nice chatting with each of my siblings and getting to know them better.  I feel that they also gained more respect and understanding of me and my life and all of the work that mom and dad do for each of them.  Anna said she was surprised by how much driving I had to do and that it had never occurred to her how much my mother was driving everyone around until she saw me doing it.

The whole experience made me realize how many moments my mother and father spent caring for each of us.  It’s so easy to take stuff like that for granted when you are young but now I understand more of their sacrifice.  I also have relearned how careful my parents had to be to use teaching moments when they got them.  I don’t know if I taught my siblings anything but there were a couple of moments thrown in here or there that I hope got absorbed.  The thing is they were always while I was doing dishes, giving a ride, checking my email etc.  Clearly being a parent requires a special focus on all of life to be effective.

This week also helped me realize that I have much to learn about being a parent.  Luckily if I do have kids I won’t have to start with a 17, 12 and 9 year old- I can work myself up to those blessings :).  Still, there is no doubt that a single gal like myself has a great deal I can do to improve my parenting skills.

Changing gears a bit…I also got the opportunity to visit my sister and her family while I was in California.  I love visiting them.  There is such an atmosphere of love, patience and kindness in their home.  It always makes me want to improve in each of these 3 attributes.  My nieces are so cute but they are also fiesty and independent.  Megan and Seth do a great job of nurturing their daughters- making them feel loved while still instilling correct principles and behaviors.

Megan is also a great example to me of living life to its fullest.  I haven’t mentioned it on this blog but the two of us have been doing a diet and fitness challenge since the beginning of August.  Each month we set new goals for each category and try to continue with the one’s already set.  For example, we are now on month 2 of restricting sweets- no candy, cookies, deserts, sugary drinks ect.  It has been fun to work on it together.  One of our goals for September was entering a charity race- Megan running while I walked.  So, on Friday we ran/walked in the Moonlight Run in Palo Alto.  It was (clearly from the name) at night and was harder than I thought it would be.  Even though I just did the walk (don’t worry I walked my hardest!) I felt sore the next day- next 2 days actually.  It was satisfying, however, to finish and to know I had done my best.  Megan also ran hard and did her best.  Isn’t it impressive that she ran a 5k just 2 months after having a baby!  Awesome!

Running is just one of the ways Megan lives a full life.  She is a diligent mother but also takes time for reading, writing (she’s in a children’s writing group), cooking, sewing and other crafts.  She is always thinking of clever activities she can do with her girls to keep her mind active and enlighten them as well.

Such a full life is a goal of mine.  It is the reason why I insist on sticking with my voice lessons every week even though I rarely preform.  Building my skills makes me a more interesting person and helps me to feel complete.  I hope that in the next few months I can add to the voice lessons by taking a cake decorating or perhaps a drawing class.  Both are subjects I have always wanted to learn.

Like Megan I am also a great reader and get a lot of joy out of writing both in this blog and in my own writing.  In addition, my Sunday school, church activities, time with friends and work all contribute to my overall happiness and well-being.  I don’t know how I would have made it through 2007 without such a full life and I hope to only improve upon it.

Perhaps Megan and I picked up this desire for a full life from my mom.  She was always multi-tasking but in a non-panicky way.  There was cooking, cleaning, gardening, reading, knitting, sewing ect.  All of which she did with the utmost taste and skill.  I hope I can follow the examples set by my mother and sister in living my life to its fullest.  Do you all have any hobbies or daily activities that give your life more meaning?  Make it more full?

So, that was the last week.  I am tired and at the moment glad to be living the life I have in front of me.  At least I get to spend less time in the car as a singlite!