Pilates, Quilts, and lots of Potential

{Where did the day go?}
So its 1o:30 now and I am trying to look back on my day and figure out what the heck happened. It seems like I didn't do a whole lot, and we definitely slacked a bit on our 'school' inspire time. Oh well we still did some great stuff I guess.

I started out the day by doing my Beginners Mat Pilate's work out. Okay I am TOTALLY out of shape. 6 kids in 8 1/2 years will really do a body in. I think my biggest shocker was my utter lack of flexibility. I use to compete in gymnastics and I could do all the splits and everything. Now I can't even get my legs to stay straight when I lean over in a pike position. I took for granted my flexible condition growing up...never again will I take flexibility for granted. And I aim to work on it until I am flexible as I was when I was 17. That would be awesome!

So back to the point. I was just finishing up my 40 minute work out which kicked my little booty and was getting ready to jump in the shower when I noticed Meg sitting on my bed. She was super interested in what I had been doing and restarted the DVD and did the entire Pilate's work out herself while I got ready for the day. It was so cute watching her do it!

{The Power of Example}
Now I am going to pause because tonight at 5 Pillar class Susan read a paper she had written on the book A Thomas Jefferson Education that reminded me of this experience I had with Megan this morning. She talked about her toddler who had all of the sudden started randomly walking up to walls in their house and pressing his face to them. He would do it 3-4 times a day and for no apparent reason. Her husband and her joked that the little toddler must take after the other ones side due to the complexing and strange behavior. They were completely confused and admitted it was very odd behavior, but since he didn't exhibit any other strange behavior didn't worry to much about it. One day Susan thought she heard a car pull into her drive way so she walked over to the door and looked through the peep hole to see who it was. The little toddler followed her and pushed between her legs and likewise pressed his face against the door. Ding! The light went on. The toddler was copier her. He wanted to be like her. He had no idea what behavior he was coping or what it meant when his mother pressed her face against the door until she lifted him up and let him look through the peep hole. Immediately his behavior of leaning against the door stopped and he started pulling the chair over to the door to look through the peep hole. He now understood what his mother was doing and continued to copy her behavior.

This morning Megan was exhibiting that same desire to copy me. She is the most amazing little girl and I am so glad that I recognize her desire to learn by modeling my behavior. This privilege of being her and all my children's mentors also places a HUGE responsibility on me. Do I want my children to become like me? What types of behavior am I role modeling for them?

{You NOT Them}
Earlier this week I was kind of stressing out over the fact that I had to lead the 5 Pillar class's writing workshop. I was overwhelmed, busy, trying to get organized, inspire my kids to want to learn, oh and did I mention busy?! I was kind of feeling like I didn't have time to work on my education. I was too busy trying to keep a hold on my family...keep my house cleaned...my kids fed...my homeschool going...I didn't have time. My kids needed me to teach them...WAIT!!! That is when I stopped. By working on my education, by modeling reading, studying, and writing I was teaching my kids. I was teaching them without words that I think my education is VERY VERY important. That is the most powerful type of education I could give them. An example of someone in love with learning and sharing that knowledge and desire to learn with them. If I can do that they will also love learning because they will see my real example and much like the toddler in the story follow in my footsteps.

I use to be skeptical of this concept. I really believed that one person had the ability to teach another person. Now I believe differently. One person can have the power to inspire someone else if the relationship is right and both people love and respect one another. BUT the only person that can educate you is you. Education is not simply just learning a fact or multiplication problem...education is when something inside you changes. I heard that at a seminar this past spring and I was changed forever. 'Education is when something inside you changes.' To me that is so powerful.

So now when my children want to do what I am doing I am going to remember this powerful lesson (instead of showing them away because I don't have time or don't want to deal with the mess) and allow them to copy me, and help me. I can only hope that I have a strong enough relationship with them that they will allow me to inspire them to reach new heights.

{Kids are Amazing}
Wow that was a little long winded. Moving on with my day. Jarom made us all pancakes for breakfast which is HUGE!!! I am really beginning to realize all the untapped potential and abilities my children have and I am usually the reason that potential is not being fully tapped into). I've got to start allowing my kids to discover how amazingly capable they are. That is going to be a goal of mine this year. After we had all eaten our yummy pancakes he and I cleaned up the kitchen in 5 minutes flat afterwards which resulted in more glass beads going into our 'celebration jar.' WOO-HOO!

{the most important hour}
After breakfast we had our devotional including prayers, songs, scripture study, journaling, and scripture mastery. I am so glad we fit this in before getting busy doing other things. It makes all the difference in how our day goes.

{our year long project}
Then it was time to visit our quilting mentors my mom and her sister Joyce. It was amazing. A few days ago I read the Keeping Quilt with the kids to get them ready for our year long project of making a special Keeping/Reading Quilt of their own. Today we met with my aunt and mom to start planning out Jarom and Megan's quilt so we can go shopping for fabric next week. It was so fun!!
After our quilting session I let the kids play for a couple of hours before we headed home and I made my final preparations to teach the 5 Pillars class tonight. A couple of the kids fell asleep in the car on the drive home so I actually got around 30 minutes of uninterrupted quiet time to work on everything. Then when the kids did start waking up Brigett my awesome sister-in-law who lives across the street came over and watched the kids out back for another 30 minutes or so before Scott got home. I am so lucky to have her living across the street from me!!!!

{5 Pillars}
Tonight went well at 5 Pillars. It was our first class where we all brought a writing sample from a book we had recently read. All I can say is that it was life changing, totally inspirational, and completely amazing. The woman (and one man) that are in the class are so talented and insightful. I can't wait to see them all next week!!! Oh that reminds me I've got a lot of reading to do to get ready for next week. Here's to reading!!

{here's to being domestic}

Oh PS I just finished my ebay purchase (that my mom actually found for me) of a Bernina Sewing machine. Its new to me but is actually an older machine that is the same model as my mom's. That way we'll have two machines for our weekly quilting session and I'll have one to start playing around with as well! I can't wait for it to come.