Words of Encouragement and Brushing Teeth

This afternoon while the boys played out in the front yard (thank goodness for semi-cooler weather!) I watched a boy skate boarding home from school. He was probably about 11 and he stumbled a little bit but caught himself. I was very impressed with his response. Rather than cuss he said out loud, "Way to go! You're getting it!" and then clapped. This moment probably made my whole day. It reminded me just how important it is to be encouraging. Not just to others, but to ourselves as well. I think like most women, I am my worst judge. I set these outrageous expectations and then get so mad at myself for not fulfilling them. I want to keep my house picked up and cleaned, give my children complete attention, read books, work on family history, learn to sew, cook gourmet meals, go on lots of dates with my husband, learn to can, do more with photography, have children that don't fight or fuss or throw tantrums . . ., work on emergency preparedness, do cute crafts and projects, organize my house, be a better visiting teacher, know exactly when and how to serve and the list goes on. I look at all the AMAZING women around me and of course I just focus on their best qualities. 'Well, so and so does this and so and so does that, so why can't I?' What I often forget is that so and so's life is different than mine and she has different talents and interests and she probably feels the same way I do. Why do we do this to ourselves? So here are some words of encouragement, "Way to go!"

The boys really don't like to brush their teeth, really. And Luke is usually pretty good about it, but tonight he didn't want too (probably because I didn't make them last night since David wasn't home), anyway, He finally grabbed the teeth from mister potato head, stuck them in his mouth and said, 'ok, you can brush my teeth now.' Pretty clever.