Saturday, September 29, 2012

What a wonderful Saturday!  I started with a long run through the city.  The skyline is gorgeous at sunrise.  I spent the majority of the day being silly with my sweet girl.  I love the times I am able to turn off work and school and just play with her.  Today, she asked me to go look for bugs - ha!  We took a basket and walked around the neighborhood looking at different bugs.  She has absolutely no sense of fear when it comes to nature.  She "helped" me clean out her closet - ha.  She also spent forever pretending to play gymnastics - too cute!  I love to see her pretend play flourishing - such a great little imagination.  All in all, the best way to spend a Saturday at home.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Self Growth

My favorite part of my grad program is the constant emphasis on self-growth.  The program forces you to truly know yourself.  It is absolutely amazing what you can see when step back and observe your own patterns of behavior.
Recently, I have been extremely mindful of the model I am setting for my sweet girl.  I truly believe that children do what their parents do much more so than what their parents say.  This has led me to reflect upon the character traits I hope to instill in her.  Numerous have come to mind and this will hopefully be an ongoing exercise for me as she grows and matures.  This morning, I came across this quote:  "I will hold myself to a standard of grace - not perfection."  This statement eloquently sums up my hopes for her in regards to self pressure.  I hope that she strives towards showing compassion, kindness, mercy, intelligence - all of these together combine to picture of grace in my mind. I would much rather her look to develop these parts of herself than holding herself to society-based standards.