How do You Measure Your Life?

This week was about how you measure your life.  That is a really interesting question.  When it comes down to how I will measure my life, I think about my family.  My family comes first.  I am a mother of five children.  I want my children to gain testimonies of the Jesus Christ and live worthy to return to Heavenly Father again someday.  I want my children to feel loved by me.  I understand that each of us feel love in different ways and so it is important that I, as their mother discover how each of my children feel love and give love to them in that manner.  I also want my children to feel of worth. That they are a child of God.

I really appreciated Clay Christensen standing up and saying that it God will as us at the end of our lives how we affected people’s lives.  I think that is true.  We must love and serve others in whatever capacity we are placed in.  If we don’t feel that love we need to pray so we do feel it! 

I also needed to hear the talk that Elder Wirthlin gave.  There is a quote that states “The days are long, but the years are short.” I am not sure who said it, but it is true.  Each day we feel like we have all the time in the world to get things done. Before we know it years have gone by.  This is very true as a parent.  Sometimes the days drag on when you are changing diapers, cleaning the house, helping with homework and trying to get the kids to do their homework.  Yet when you look up your oldest is 12 and entering junior high and before I know it he will be going on a mission.  Take advantage of the minutes you have.

At our house right now my kinds are on fall break.  It is a short break that the kids in Utah have in October.  My schedule has been crazy lately with taking 12 credits in school, having a virtual assistant client, orders for my hand printing business, helping my daughter who is now being home schooled and life as a mom of five kids.  I have some pretty demanding classes right now.  Our family was planning a trip to California during fall break.  I was supposed to get 2 weeks’ worth of school work done in order to go with them.  After a few episodes of tears I realized that it just wasn’t going to happen.  Right now I have to make each minute count.  I keep reminding myself that this too shall pass but it is still difficult to work through.  As I read Elder Wirthlin’s talk I realized I have been managing my minutes and not managing myself with the time I have.  I really need to use each moment to it’s fullest.

This week my 10 year old daughter and I were talking about her school work.  She is attending a charter school online.  We just started this a few weeks ago and she has not been doing well.  What I am finding is that she gets distracted easily.  She doesn’t remember what she has learned when she takes her assessments at the end of the lesson.  I shared with her the importance of living in the present.  When she is studying English her mind needs to be on English.  When she is eating lunch she should be focused on lunch.  I encouraged her to create a schedule of when she would learn each subject and use the allotted time for only that subject.  The next day when she was reviewing everything with her dad, she did great!  When she did the assessments she got 100%.  After having that talk with her I realized I need to take my own advice.  When I am feeding my baby I need to be present for her.  When I am working on my client’s website I need to be present for her.  This is really hard since I am a serious multitasker!  

This is something I really need to work on.  I need to my priorities in place and be present in the tasks I am completing!