I Don't Know How She Does It

During this last weekend, I drove up to New Jersey to visit my sister and her family.  The idea was that we'd all get to hang out during General Conference together.  Friday's Next Tuesday's post will be about my time there with regards to the kids, but today I wanted to focus on my big sister.

Margot is currently wearing a walking cast on her right foot, which means that in addition to hobbling around everywhere, she also can't drive.  Despite this, she still runs a house full of people with big personalities.  And I do mean that she runs the house.  Not to take anything away from my brother-in-law, Bryan, it's just that he was super busy with work and was barely home while I was visiting. Margot appreciated my help, but it was clear to me that my being there was a bonus and if I hadn't come to stay with them, she would have had a handle on everything.

During my stay, Margot prepared personalized notebooks for the three big kids to use during Conference, made three home-cooked dinners, and made a big waffle breakfast for the Saturday morning session - Bryan and I helped with that last one, but Margot handled the big stuff on her own.

We also had a miniature emergency while visiting a local park.  When we were getting ready to leave, Margot saw a black bear wandering around about a couple hundred yards away.  She immediately rounded the kids up and got them back in the car and I drove us home.  No one else at the park seemed concerned (much like native Californians don't get too worried during earthquakes), but Margot was pretty collected considering that, in her eyes, her children were in danger.

All of this (fresh meals, bear scares, and Conference) was mixed in with a heaping helping of oppositional defiance from her kids.  Even on the "good days" every child but Sophie got multiple time-outs.  In her house, if a child is given a time-out and they don't comply immediately with the punishment or try to talk their way out of it, they get additional time-outs.  I wanted to point this out because there was never a time that a single time-out was administered.  And for the most part, Margot stayed pretty calm through it all.

Did I mention that she's also still nursing her youngest?  So, think of all of the things I've mentioned and add to it regular breaks to feed Sophie.

It was really educational to see all of what she goes through and yet she still has a good attitude.  If I'm half the parent that my big sis is when I have kids, I'll consider it a success.