Lessons Learned

The other day I was thinking about all of the things I learned during the year that I lived with my sister and her family. Here are the ones I've come up with so far:

-how to sacrifice my will for the will of the Lord

-the importance of living in a place as if you will be there forever (even if you won't)

-how to relax and let kids be kids

-making soups from scratch

-just how wonderful it is to have a vegetable garden (especially herbs)

-that my older siblings see me as a contemporary, not a little sister

-the importance of letting people know what I'm thinking and planning

-a love of visiting the temple every month

-that I'm a spring

-it's worth talking to people to get things cleared up (even if that conversation is uncomfortable) rather than avoid them

-a lot of great picture books

-the importance of generosity even if you don't think you have any to spare

-the joy of home decorating

-a little bit of what I want my home to look like some day

-how do-able regular family home evening is

-what kids are capable of an what they are not capable of

-the importance of toys and that they are worth spending money on

-that I am not ready to be the parent of a teenager (good thing I have a little bit of time before that happens)

-the need that men have to be able to support their family and women have to be able to run a home

-that Kristen and I look a lot alike (even we could see it)

-that we didn't have to live in a city for Jason to enjoy his job and I'm ok with that too

As you can see, it was a very productive year. I'm sure I learned more than this, I just don't know it yet. In a lot of ways living there was a tough year, but in other ways it was great. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.