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The hardest part of achieving a goal is starting. Being sendy means making courageous decisions to try something before you have all of the answers. This podcast will remind you of the remarkable life you are living and will give you new ideas to make your life more meaningful and exciting and give you courage to accomplish your goals by stopping the negative voices in your head and just sending it!
My my family that I grew up in, one of the things that really affected me was actually my family lived in Brazil. My mom's very Sendy. Yeah. So, my dad came back and they were trying to decide if they should go or not go and they actually played a scrabble game. Scrabble was their game and they said the winner gets to choose if we go or don't go. And my mom
Becky:Scrabble? No way!
Jeanetta:My mom said, I wanna go. And my dad said, alright, let's do it.
Becky:I'm Becky Brouwer, and I'm a Sendy mom. You're listening to the Sendy mom podcast. Welcome to the Sendy Mom Podcast. I am really excited to be visiting here with my good friend, Jeanetta Robinson. And we have been friends for a very long time, like 25 years. 27 . My gosh. 27. They're 27. So our oldest sons were good friends back when they were babies.
Becky:So yeah, so we've been friends for a really long time And Jeanetta has a great, story to tell. So I am excited to talk to her about how she is a Sendy mom. She totally is. She's done some amazing things in her life, and she's raised raised some great kids too and teaching them to be resilient and to stand up for themselves. So Right.
Becky:So my first question is, what do you think a sending mom is?
Jeanetta:Well, this is a little new to me, but when I found out a little more about it, I could see why you're going in this direction because I've always thought of you as someone who just takes something new and makes it fun and exciting. And I'm sure you're scared and nervous a lot of the time, but you don't show it actually, for the most part. I feel like some of the things I've seen you do, I think, wow, that takes a lot of guts to do. So I don't know. I think it's something maybe you don't tend to notice in yourself.
Jeanetta:And so I think this is kind of an interesting format to talk about it in a way that I don't know that I would have really thought about it quite in this way before. I mean, I do think of myself as someone who looks at something new and thinks, I could do that. And I give it a try. And I've done lots of things that haven't turned out like I expected they would. But, I kind of look at it like, what's the harm in trying?
Becky:Absolutely. And and you say, you know, you don't always recognize it in yourself. And I agree. And I think you don't always recognize it in yourself either, but you're definitely a Sendy mom because you do try things. You you just go with it and sometimes you have things that are kinda thrust upon you that you have to do but you do them.
Becky:Right? And so you you learn how to send it as it's happening, you know. So I think that's really awesome. So tell me a little bit about yourself, the family that you grew up in, and, your family that you have now.
Jeanetta:So I think that's a huge part actually as I was thinking a little bit more about this. I grew up in a huge family. So I'm the 7th of 11 children.
Becky:Yep. And you know I'm second of 12.
Becky:Yes. And so I think some of it is your personality you're born with, but I think being from a large family plays into that as well. Because I was a little further down in the line, I had these older siblings to look at and see all the different things that they were doing and they're quite different in their personalities and their interests. And so I could see, you know, my oldest brother was very nerdy and into the beginnings of computers when they first came out. So we were introduced to some of those things and then another brother who's very artistic and would do different things and my sister's a nurse and my other sister went into anthropology and architecture. So, it was like all these various interests and activities of my older siblings and to see, well what's me?
Jeanetta:What am I gonna figure out for me? And, but it wasn't like I need to live up to what anyone else is doing. It was just we were free to kind of choose the own path, you know, because as my parents had all these kids they couldn't give so much direction all the time to say, oh, you know, let's get you into soccer and you into baseball and you guys have been, you know, so it was really self driven. Any interest we had, like, I do regret my my mom did sign us up for swim lessons because she wanted us to be safe, but I wanted to quit so she said okay you can quit. You know, it wasn't you know those things were enforced.
Jeanetta:We took piano lessons but when we wouldn't practice she would say why am I paying money for practice? You could be all done. It wasn't like, you know, where it hurts. So if it if it wasn't self motivated, then it didn't happen. My parents weren't, you know, I was I guess a free range kid before that was a thing.
Jeanetta:Yeah. And so all of those things I never looked at something and thought maybe I can't, maybe I shouldn't try that. If it was interesting, I could try it. Yeah. If it costs a lot of money, well, that was out.
Jeanetta:Yeah. I I knew that wasn't an option, but,
Becky:yeah. Well, and and so what were some of the things that you picked?
Jeanetta:So I tried gymnastics. I loved watching it and
Becky:Did you have any older siblings that did gymnastics?
Jeanetta:No.
Becky:And and did that play into it a little bit? Did you feel like I wanna choose something different than my siblings did?
Jeanetta:I think, well I did have a sister-in-law. So, when I was just in my early teens my older siblings started getting married and I did have an older sister-in-law who was on the high school gymnastics team and I just liked watching it in the Olympics or watching it. I live close to the University of Utah and they had a great team and so just that kind of excitement. It did something for me that made me excited about it. And so it was something that I wanted to do.
Becky:Yeah. I wonder if it does help. Like, if if you, like, if you want your kids to do something, they have to see it first. Right? To get get inspired out of it. So I think that taking taking your kids to events and things like that can help them to kind of get that inspiration because I remember that as a kid too.
Becky:Going to to different events and, I only had one older sister and and we were only a year apart and so we kinda did everything together. My aunt, she had horses, and that's what got me really interested in riding horses because I would watch my aunt ride horses. So I think that makes a huge difference in inspiring people to do things just watching it and being there.
Jeanetta:Right. So but again, it didn't really stick Yeah. At the time and so I did it for a little while, but then when I got tired of it, I moved on to other things, but I'd always get excited. I remember, you know, the continuing education catalogs would come in the mail and I would always want to look through them even at, you know, 14, 15 years old where these classes were more meant for people my mom's age. Right. But they would take anybody and so when I was in high school I took a fencing class.
Becky:You did? That would be so much fun. I took fencing at BYU and I loved it. It was so much fun. Okay. Tell me about the fencing class.
Jeanetta:So I did I did that in high school and then I did take it at BYU, but just again for 1 semester. I feel like I start a lot of things and if I'm not really good at it and I feel like maybe I don't want to do it. And that's okay too. But I at least give it a try. I do wish I would have pushed that a little bit more, gone a little further.
Becky:I totally wanna fence with you. I'll do it with my kids sometimes, you know, just playing around and stuff. I'm pretty good. Like, I can, you know, dress and my moves.
Jeanetta:Yeah. No. I could get it right. But, so I tried, yeah, different things like that. But, part of, I think, in the whole my my family that I grew up in, one of the things that really affected me was actually my family lived in Brazil.
Becky:Oh. I that's right.
Jeanetta:When I was in basically preschool kindergarten age. And so we did that and my mom and dad, their oldest two children were in college. They didn't come, but they still took, 7 kids.
Speaker 3:Seven children to Brazil.
Jeanetta:To Brazil.
Becky:So what kind of happened? What what was your dad doing or your mom to
Jeanetta:So my dad, was an architect and he usually worked for himself but he had friends, in different places in in Salt Lake City. And, the he had a friend at the church that said we need someone to go down and oversee the construction of churches. There was a huge growth, in church membership there and they needed someone, not a local person, but someone that had experience with Salt Lake and new people.
Becky:Could be kind of a liaison to the construction workers and yeah. Got it.
Jeanetta:And so we did that and even my young or my second to youngest brother was born while we were down there. How did okay. So how
Speaker 3:did your mom deal with that?
Becky:Was she she's pretty sendy too then I guess.
Jeanetta:My mom's very sendy. Yeah. So she my dad came back and they were trying to decide if they should go or not go and they actually played a scrabble game. Scrabble was their game and they said the winner gets to choose if we go or don't go. And my mom
Becky:There's scrabble. No way.
Jeanetta:My mom said, I wanna go. And my
Becky:dad said alright let's do it. So did your dad not want to go his lunch? He he he
Jeanetta:was thinking about it. I mean I don't he wouldn't have even brought it up if he wasn't interested.
Becky:Uh-huh.
Jeanetta:But I think maybe part of him knew it kind of needed to be my mom's decision. Yeah. And to go or not.
Becky:So let's let's segue into China Okay. For a second. So so you you got an opportunity to go to China, how did you feel about that?
Jeanetta:So that was interesting as well. My husband, works for a hard disk drive company and so he had been traveling back and forth, to Asia, with the work that he does and he came home one day and said, they were talking about sending me over for a couple years to help start up a factory in south southern China. And, but I told them we weren't interested and I said, what?
Becky:Why aren't you interested?
Jeanetta:I think that would be awesome. Let's, you know, is it too late? Let's explore this. Can we can we still do this? And he said, really?
Jeanetta:You wanna go? I I thought if we did something like that you'd rather go to Europe or South America or something like that. And I said, yeah. Probably just because that's what I'm more familiar with but I still would totally love to to do that. So he had to go back and talk to his boss again and say, actually, I thought about it and I'm interested.
Becky:Mhmm.
Jeanetta:And they said, well, we've offered it to somebody else since you said no. So let's kind of we'll have to see how that goes, but he was their first choice and somehow that all ended up working out. I don't know if the second person decided they didn't want to go or if they rescinded. I I don't Don't know. You know, we don't know.
Jeanetta:Down. I'm not
Becky:you guys. So how how much time did you have in between when you knew and when
Jeanetta:you were actually moving? So I was pregnant at the time when the offer came and so I was trying to decide. Was this with the twins or? Yeah, but I didn't know yet that they were twins. So, my youngest 2 kids are twins and when he told us about it I thought, oh that, how was that gonna work with school.
Jeanetta:My oldest was in kindergarten. And so, I thought, well maybe I want to stay until the baby is born and then we can go over. Because I wasn't sure what the health care system was gonna be like and whatnot. So, that was the date we set and then plus let my son get through the school year. Yeah.
Jeanetta:That kind of thing. I want to do that.
Becky:How long did you have the twins here before you moved back over there then?
Jeanetta:So they were 6 months old when we arrived.
Becky:Okay. Were you living with your parents then or?
Jeanetta:No. And in fact my husband was gone more than he was here and so we just got really lucky. There was a young couple that was doing an internship that we met and she was only gonna be around for about 4 months and so wasn't really sure what kind of job she could get while her husband had his internship in our area. And, I said, how about would you like to come be my helper? And, she was all excited about that and so that we kind of felt funny about it because we've never had to have that kind of help, but we didn't live close to family which is what we would have done if we were close to family.
Jeanetta:We would have just had a niece or nephew or someone else, you know, had come and helped from time to time. But, so yeah she ended up, we started her with just, you know, a couple hours in the morning. I was getting kids ready and stuff and then it became all morning and then it became
Becky:Yeah.
Jeanetta:Kind of 8 hours. When we went, my oldest, Yeah. I had a 6 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and twin 6 month olds. That's
Becky:crazy. How how did that go? Like setting your house up? I mean, you have to wait for your furniture to get there or did you
Jeanetta:So what we did, we packed everything up and they had a smaller shipment with like just mattresses and your bare necessities, but they shipped on a flight over. And then the rest of the stuff they shipped
Becky:on the slow
Jeanetta:boat to China. Yep. And so once we loaded everything up, we were living in California and we came and stayed with family for about a month Okay. In Utah while everything was shipping over there. And then we timed out our air shipment to go over on the day we knew we were arriving.
Becky:Okay.
Jeanetta:And then it worked out actually that our boat shipment and our air shipment both arrived on the day that we got there. Yeah. So and I'm gonna backtrack just for a second and this will tie in maybe with some other questions. But when I was 14 or 15 years old, I had someone who said, you know what? You should make a list of all the things you ever want to accomplish in your life.
Jeanetta:Make a, you know, get a journal, get something to write it down, and that you can keep. And, yeah. Just anything, you know, whether it seems impossible or big or small, anything. So I made a list of probably 25 things.
Becky:Kind of a bucket list.
Jeanetta:Yeah. Okay. And so, through my life, I've kind of gone back and looked at the list. I don't look at it all the time, but, you know, those they're kind of in your head. And so, while I was in China, I actually was able to get to a few of those bucket list things I did.
Becky:Oh, okay. Good. Tell tell me, what did you start with? With? Like you're 14, 15 years old and and you're looking at this list.
Becky:What was important to you at that time? So some of
Jeanetta:the things I wanted to get in better shape, I've struggled with my weight since I was probably 10 years old. Just up and down. And, I never enjoyed doing sports and so, you know, it, I had a hard time being really physically fit to active from from a young age. And so those were definitely on my mind because as a teenager, especially when you're having when you don't have confidence in how you look, that can affect, you know, your thoughts and your goals and different things.
Becky:Yeah. So And I don't think you're alone either. I mean, I think most women have had those. I mean, I certainly did when I was a teenager and of course now I look back at my pictures I'm like, what
Speaker 3:in the world was I worried about? I'm so sure.
Becky:So now I actually look at my pictures now and and instead of saying, oh my gosh, I think, oh, what
Speaker 3:am I gonna think in 10 years? 10 years from now,
Becky:I'm gonna be looking at myself saying, man, you are hot. Right?
Jeanetta:That's what my mom always says. Don't get rid of any pictures that you think you looked at and wait 10 years and you'll think you
Becky:look great. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Jeanetta:I definitely believe
Becky:in that. Yeah.
Jeanetta:But so there were quite a few items on my list that related to that. So it was losing a specific amount of weight. I wanted to start running because I figured I didn't need equipment or specific things. That was something that would be easier to do than a lot of other things and I didn't like team sports or things like that. So it was just that was easy.
Jeanetta:So I put on there to run-in a 5 k, run-in a 10 k, some along those lines. Graduate from college, write a book.
Becky:How's that
Jeanetta:come in? So I I have started probably 6 or 7 different books. Okay. And they've gone nowhere. And I have no desire to publish ever.
Jeanetta:That's not my goal. But but I do have ideas that I think would be interesting and I will get that's kind of as I was thinking about this whole interview, that was probably the thing that came to mind the most of my next challenge that I am gonna take on.
Becky:Yeah. Well, you're a huge reader and you're a librarian as well, so it seems the natural fit.
Jeanetta:Right, right. And so I I think it's one of those things though that everyone thinks they could write. Uh-huh. Fiction or non fiction? Definitely not non fiction.
Jeanetta:I'm not an expert really in anything. Okay. So not not the way I would go but but yeah so I have some some ideas ideas
Becky:for science fiction. What's the genre?
Jeanetta:My faith plays a huge role in my life. I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and that has affected a lot of what I do. And I feel like there hasn't been like the American novel about an LDS person of like, you know, there's a lot of LDS authors and they've done a lot of great things, but more of like I think along the lines of the book The Chosen Okay. By Chaim Potok. And that affected me so much as a teenager.
Jeanetta:It's the book I've gone and read it every phase of my life Yeah. And it still affects me.
Becky:Yeah. I'm trying to remember. I I'm sure I've read it. But anyway, continue.
Jeanetta:But if you you wanna take a look, go read it. That's my one of my number one one recommendation. But it's the story of a of a Jewish boy and his best friend and the experiences they go through as they realize more about their history and how their history affects who they are kind of thing. And so I feel like for me personally, I it wouldn't be my personal story. But taking some of those feelings and things and wishing that people outside of my own faith, my own religion could understand about why we are the way we are.
Jeanetta:And so That
Becky:gives me chills. Love it. No. That's great.
Jeanetta:So but I don't look at myself as an author or a writer really, but I just feel like I want to to express those feelings in some way and that's the way to to do it. Yeah. So
Becky:And I think you should totally publish. Why not? Just send it. That's the thing. Like, you just I mean, you just write it, you know, and you just start writing and you just keep going.
Becky:Right? And you do a little bit every day and then at some point you go and have somebody read it. And I think that's probably the hardest part because it's like your baby. Yeah. That you have put your whole soul into and then you let somebody else go and critique it.
Jeanetta:Sure.
Becky:Right? And then you get, I think you should totally go there.
Jeanetta:So I guess the point that I'm making though is that the process of writing it is what my Where your choice is. And that's where that would be my success whether it was impactful for other people or not is not my purpose in in doing it.
Becky:Yeah.
Jeanetta:So if it ended up that I let people read it and they said, oh my goodness this is so good. You should look at getting it published. Then I would consider doing it. But just knowing that I don't want that to be the goal because then that kind of sets it as a failure or a success, and that's not Interesting. That's not the point for me.
Jeanetta:Yeah. No. And I think that that's really true.
Becky:I mean, this this whole podcast is kind of like that for me too. It's just like I just wanna have some good conversations with some of my friends and see, you know, what they do that inspires them and inspires me. And I feel like sometimes, you just those are actually the best reasons to do it because that's what's gonna give you peace and joy. If you have some sort of an expectation that there's gonna be, you know, a huge success with this or that, then then it's not fun, and you're setting yourself up for failure. Right.
Speaker 3:Alright. It's time for the Cindy mom spotlight. So today's Cindy mom is Harriet Tubman. She was born into slavery in 18/22. Her owner began renting her as a babysitter when she was 6 years old.
Speaker 3:Her life really changed dramatically though when she was 13 years old. An enslaver told her to help him locate an escaped slave, and she refused to help him. The enslaver became frustrated, and then he threw a 2 pound weight that hit her in the back of the head. This caused her severe migraines for the rest of her life and narcolepsy, which is a disease of the brain where your brain doesn't figure out when to when you're sleeping or when you're awake. During her dream state, she would often have spiritual experiences with vivid visions of her freedom.
Speaker 3:She later escaped and became a leading abolitionist helping enslaved people gain freedom via the underground railroad. Her role was as a conductor where she led escaped slaves to safe houses where station masters would protect them until they could be conducted to the next safe house. People often referred to Harriet Tubman as Moses because of her determination to lead her people to freedom. She was also instrumental in fighting for women's rights, which was not always linked to slavery in those days. Raise raising an adopted daughter with her second husband, Harriet nurtured many as a leading advocate for freedom.
Speaker 3:She continues to nurture and inspire many people today with her courageous call to freedom. This makes Harriet Tubman a very sending mom. Unfortunately, slavery is still not completely abolished. Today, we often associate slavery with trafficking. I recently had a friend over who was abducted from her home in Mexico when she was 13 years old.
Speaker 3:She had a difficult home life and was seduced by an online boyfriend. Like Harriet Tubman, she escaped her captors and now is trying to help other victims to find freedom. Victims need to want to be saved or they often go back to their captors because they don't know where else to go. However, recognizing victims is how we can help. If you notice someone who looks frightened or that you suspect might be in a dangerous situation, they often will not speak directly to you.
Speaker 3:They've been instructed to not speak to anyone. Don't prod or ask questions. You might get them into trouble. Note the situation, possibly take a photo or video if you're able to do so without being obvious, and then contact the appropriate people. The US Department of Homeland Security has a tip line that I'll put in the show notes after after this along with a few other phone numbers that you can call.
Speaker 3:Once you have reported, they will investigate. You can be a sendy mom by being aware and being brave enough to say something.
Becky:Okay. So tell me some of the other things that you did that occurred.
Jeanetta:So well, so I did start running and, I ended up getting to the point where I did the half marathon on the Great Wall of China.
Becky:So No way. That was pretty fun. That's pretty cool and you just sign up
Jeanetta:for that. Yeah. You don't have to qualify. It's such an awkward run, because you have a couple of bottlenecks on there that they, it's not used as any kind of official Yeah. Of course.
Jeanetta:Course to qualify for other things.
Becky:But you're on top of the wall then.
Jeanetta:Yeah. Not the whole time, just actually, you know, it's just a small portion of it actually, but it's through the village and up on the wall and down and around. But, I felt like that was a that took it to a higher level because that actually I had only put up to a 10 k on my list of goals I wanted to do. But, just had some good friends who said, why don't we do that? And so I That's well, I see
Becky:that's a good point too because a
Speaker 3:lot of times we just
Becky:need we need people around us supporting us. So sometimes we can make this list and it was probably pretty private. It was. Yeah. And you didn't talk to people about it, but as soon as you do tell somebody about I'm gonna do this, then it makes it a little bit more real and that those people can kinda surround you and kinda push you up and help you Yeah.
Becky:To be there. So that's cool.
Jeanetta:And then I was when we were in mainland China, I was able to get involved with a charity with their headquarters was in our, my same city and that was really exciting to me. It was, for a girl's home in a province of China. Okay. That was very poor and the girls would, you know, if they were in a very poor family who was really struggling financially, there were times where girls would just be sent out to fend for themselves and there was a family that started taking them in and they started a girls home. They would have a yearly gala to fundraise.
Becky:Okay.
Jeanetta:And it was you know definitely outside of my comfort zone, but exciting it was it was fun to feel like you were actually making a difference. Yeah. For for someone and so I don't know that I would have done that if I were still in my comfortable little neighborhood in California. You know.
Becky:Yeah right.
Jeanetta:Being exposed to different things and and a lot of different kinds of people that was a great experience.
Becky:Yeah what did you learn from those those girls? I mean what it, how did that change you? How do you feel like that changed you?
Jeanetta:Having your eyes opened a little bit to what the world is like. Lived in Brazil as a child. I went back as an adult and had seen poverty there, but it wasn't wasn't like the poverty that that and it wasn't even the poverty. I guess it was even more looking at the value that they gave to girls. I see.
Jeanetta:Yeah. And so being so impressed because they've developed this great program, and now they they have a training school together with the home. So that the girls can make a living and not be forced into sex trafficking and prostitution and other things that would often happen to these these girls.
Becky:So And it it it's interesting because with a lot of my interviews, I I come back to the humanitarian stuff that people are doing because we do have a lot. Right? We've been so blessed. And and sometimes you get a little bit of I I don't know if you call it survivor's guilt or just guilt because, you know, you were born into a situation where you had opportunities. And and like you said, you know, you come from a large family that probably did you didn't have a whole lot of money No.
Becky:Growing up. But in comparison to these girls in China, like, it it gives you some perspective. Right? Yeah. That that there is there is, you know, growing up, doing it hard, but then there's growing up having not no opportunity to even make make a difference and to to feel like you've been able to make a difference in these in these girls' lives to to protect them from from having some of these horrible things happen to them that they they would give you a lot of joy.
Becky:Yeah. Right? And and peace that that you can you can do those sorts of things. But also, it also gives you a little bit of,
Jeanetta:I don't know.
Becky:It it makes it makes me feel a little helpless sometimes. Like, what can I do to, like, make the world a little bit better? And I guess it's people who just sent it and they're they're like, okay. We're gonna start this. We're gonna take this one girl, and we're gonna make it better for this one girl, and then then, oh, she has a friend.
Becky:Okay, well I'm gonna grab my friend and I'm gonna see if my friend can help this girl right here.
Jeanetta:Like you're never going to completely eradicate poverty in the world. I don't think we can, but we can make a difference. So if you look at the whole problem as something too big to ever overcome then you don't do anything. You don't do anything, exactly. And so if you can take a little teeny bite sized piece and say, well, okay.
Jeanetta:I can't solve the whole problem, but I can help. I can fundraise.
Becky:Right? Or I can donate some money or I can donate some time to this event or I can just be kind to these people. When you, like, especially, you know, when you when you have lived in different places and you see you meet different people, it it levels the playing field a little bit. If you if you have that attitude of, like, there is no superiority or inferiority, we are all equal in value to each other, then that makes a difference too because the way you treat people, other people can see that and be inspired by that as well that, hey, we are all in this together. We all have the same feelings.
Becky:We all have the same desires, and and maybe we don't all have the same opportunities, but we're trying to make it make the world a little bit better. So Yeah. Yeah. I love that.
Jeanetta:That was a small part of it. And then just trying to learn Chinese. So when we went to China, I actually avoided trying to learn Chinese initially. Well, especially when we were in Hong Kong because so many people speak English. When we moved into mainland China and it was Mandarin instead of Cantonese, which is I, in my opinion it's quite a bit easier
Becky:to learn.
Jeanetta:But then it was more of a necessity, because if I wanted to go shopping and take a taxi and those kinds of things, then I needed at least have a basic thing. So I did start taking some lessons and studied pretty hard and I got so I was comfortable. Good. Being out on my own and that kind of thing, which was intimidating at first and I actually ended up getting my driver's license over there. So I couldn't even drive in China.
Becky:Do you have any kind of sibling rivalry with your kids at all? Well obviously twins. Right. It's
Jeanetta:tricky. They're identical twins and very different actually. I mean they have a lot of similar interests, but, just how they deal with, they have different struggles, and so that I think is the hardest part for them, is they see how much better the other one does at the things that they personally struggle with, which we all do that. Sure. As QMBs, but it's more especially because you're twins and you are in school at the same grade at the same time.
Jeanetta:So if one person has easier time with math, then the other one feels like I'm not good at math.
Becky:Right.
Jeanetta:Where you might be perfectly good at math, you just might not be as good as your sister. Right. And so they look at those things all the time. The other one, you know, is more shy and the other one's more outgoing. So then it's like well
Becky:Yeah.
Jeanetta:She's better at me than me at that.
Becky:As they grow older, then they recognize, yeah. She's good at that and I'm good at that. Great. You know? Like, we can't like, we can't be good at everything.
Becky:Right? You you pick different things. At some point, you do need to recognize, I have some abilities in this area too, and I'm going to explore those possibilities without feeling like I'm going to offend the other
Jeanetta:Right.
Becky:Sibling. Right? So at some point, I hope that they at least feel like they can try to do some of the things that their sister is doing.
Jeanetta:I think maybe they also supported each other, but at the same time it was like I don't have to be exactly the same. So I think that's where, you know, when people see identical twins and Yeah. I guess that'd be my one little piece of advice maybe to twin parents. I've never called them the twins. Okay.
Jeanetta:And and I guess it is easier because they're both girls. Right? If it was a boy and a girl this doesn't work, but I always call them my girls.
Becky:My girls. Yeah.
Jeanetta:Not my twins because I never want them to be seen as one unit.
Becky:Right. Yeah.
Jeanetta:So I want them to you know,
Becky:be Have their have their own independent personality. They're they're completely different people even though they were born on the same day. Yep.
Jeanetta:Yeah. So I they have I have 3 sons and then the twin girls. So the 3 boys, I know I always had really hoped that they would all be best friends with each other. Yeah. They like each other but they're definitely not best friends with each other.
Jeanetta:But I'm okay with that as well because for me it is nice to see that they do feel like they can be their
Becky:own
Jeanetta:self and take their own course in life and you know we, because my husband's in high-tech and he was very math and science focused, you know, Our family has kind of tended to be that way. So my boys all deal with high-tech in one way or another and what they do, but it's nice that they're connected, but yet they still felt that they could go and pursue what it was they wanted to do.
Becky:Yeah. Exactly. It is interesting to see like families that you know, you think you've got 2 parents and you're going to do these cookie cutter children and in the beginning it is a little bit like that. Like, you know, when they're young and stuff, but as they get older and the older they become and then they get married, it becomes more diverse because because they do kind of come up with their own, you know, their own direction.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Becky:And they're all on their own journey, and celebrating that journey is going to make you a lot happier than it than, wishing that they would have gone a different direction. Is there anything else that that you feel like you would like to do? Any other goals that are still on your list that
Jeanetta:you're still So I had made a goal to learn ancient Greek at one time. And so last year, I met up with a friend that I hadn't seen for a long time and we went hiking. And as we were going, she said, so
Becky:if you had the day
Jeanetta:to do whatever you wanted to do, what would you do? And I was kind of stumped actually because since my girl started college, I have had a lot of days where I can do whatever I want to do. And so once, you know, I was very involved with PTA and with my kids and things, but then once they were gone I hadn't really taken up all these things. I kept saying I'll do that at some point. And so that was kind of a wake up call to me that I had had at that point like a year and a half of plenty of days that I could do whatever I want and I kind of feel like I had wasted them.
Becky:Interesting.
Jeanetta:So I started thinking, okay what, you know, how do I want to spend my time? Because I have been, you know, looking at that from that perspective of how much time I've been wasting, and it wasn't like I just sit around. I do that plenty too, but of actually doing meaningful things that I wanted to accomplish. So I decided, okay I'm gonna do it. I waited all this time.
Jeanetta:I have no excuse. Last December I signed up for an online ancient Greek class and just dove right in, but didn't really realize the the level of
Becky:Okay.
Jeanetta:The class that I was taking. And so when I got in there, my class had, you know, university professors and archaeologists and
Becky:Was it online class?
Jeanetta:It was a it was online, but it was live. Okay. Right. It was a Zoom Zoom class. And I thought, oh, it's a whole lot harder than I was expecting it to be and moving a lot faster than I expected.
Jeanetta:And I thought, okay. I, you know, English is my first language. I learned Portuguese as a kid and then picked it back up as an adult. I learned some basic Chinese and so I thought I can do this. Yeah.
Jeanetta:Like this is very different and very outside my comfort zone, but I could do this. And I couldn't. I I stuck with it. It was a three and a half month course. I would go online and try to find videos and things so I could just listen to it a lot.
Jeanetta:And I kept coming across these videos about language in general and they'd say, you know, the top five hardest languages ever to learn and ancient creek was always on those lists and that's when I hadn't thought of it that way before I tried.
Becky:Before you wrote it down. I'm writing. Yeah. And so I'm like, what am I doing?
Jeanetta:And I would get sick to my stomach actually before each of my classes because it was probably, honestly, the first time in my life where I was the slowest person in the class. Uh-huh. And I kept saying, I'm the dumbest person in the class. And everyone kept saying, stop saying that. You're not dumb.
Jeanetta:You know, that whole
Becky:Yeah. You got through that mentality.
Jeanetta:But you dudes I wasn't alone. Right? The class started out with, like, 10 people. And by the time I did quit, I think there were 3 of us left in the class. I could say that was a failure and I did definitely feel like I had failed
Becky:at that.
Jeanetta:But then thinking of it after I'm like, well, I can't even really say it's a failure because I learned a lot about myself Yep. In the process. It was very humbling which I think everyone could use that every now and then. For sure. And, but then it directed me to something that I can do.
Jeanetta:Yep. And that I'm really enjoying and I probably wouldn't have added that to my list of things to do if I hadn't had that experience. Yeah. Tried it that way.
Becky:I mean, pivoting is a is is an important tool to have, because we don't often know when we get started with something the direction it's going to take us. And so as we as we move forward with with whatever decision we've made, the I think the point is is that you make a decision and you do something. So, you know, like you said, I had taken a break after my kids. That's totally fine. You take a break, but then you make a decision to do something, to make a difference.
Becky:And and it and sometimes you just have to go forward with that. And, you know, like, when I made the decision to to take go back to school too and, like, okay. I'm just gonna sign up for these classes, and we'll see how it goes. And then I they weren't as hard as I thought they were gonna be. I learned so much and it was great, but it also helped me to understand, like, I don't need to get another bachelor's degree.
Becky:I'm done. Like, this is fine. I will get this certificate and I will be done with it and this is great and I'm gonna educate myself somewhere else. So so pivoting is an a really important skill to have to be able to to stop what you're doing and to to take it another direction. I think the biggest problem we have is when we stop and we don't start again.
Becky:We don't do anything. That's when you fall into depression and anxiety really is when you stop moving forward then you you have more time to ruminate on past things or you have time to worry about other things. It's being in that present moment and making the decision right now to be deliberate about moving forward in in any direction that's gonna help you to feel more in control of your life and more free. I have some rapid fire questions that I can ask you. And sometimes these lead us down other paths too.
Becky:So we'll see what happens. Okay. Alright. So what has brought you the most joy in the last 24 hours?
Jeanetta:I got to read books with my grandkids. That's the best. That is maybe one of my all time favorite things to do ever. I love I love reading kids books out loud. I love seeing a little kid just totally there.
Jeanetta:Like, they're so into what you're doing.
Becky:Finger. And how old are your grandkids?
Jeanetta:So it was with, my 4 year old granddaughter
Becky:Okay. That I
Jeanetta:was doing that.
Becky:K. What, was the last TV show or documentary that you watched that you liked? I actually really enjoyed Dark Matter.
Jeanetta:Oh, okay. I don't know if you've heard of that one. I've discovered my favorite entertainment format is when you make a TV series out of a book instead of a movie. Okay. So like you said, I'm a big reader and I feel like the movies never do justice to the book.
Jeanetta:That's all we feel. There's not enough timing. Right. And so if you turn it into a TV series,
Becky:then
Jeanetta:you can develop the characters, you can get the full storyline in, you can do some of those things.
Becky:So Okay.
Jeanetta:That's my favorite form of entertainment. I feel like yeah. Not to advertise for anybody, but I feel like Apple Plus has done a better job than just on being able to take a book and or a series of books and
Becky:And make them into
Jeanetta:a series. A series.
Becky:That's awesome. Good. Alright. What was the really the best book you've read recently?
Jeanetta:I'm not done with it yet, but I've been enjoying it since I've been on a language thing lately. There's a book that's called the land of made up languages. I'm messing up the title now. Invented languages. Lemus invented languages.
Jeanetta:And so it's just been fascinating to to hear about, you know, some of these different people. Some older history and some modern, you know, Klingon.
Becky:Right.
Jeanetta:And Okay. But then, like, there was someone who tried to invent a universal language that would be easy for anybody in the world to learn, and it was his goal that everyone in the world could speak to each other because they could learn this simplified language. And so it's just it's been a fascinating read.
Becky:Okay. What's that? Okay. Name one thing that you try to
Jeanetta:do every day. I try to exercise every day. I, again, it's something that I've been all over the board on throughout my life on what exercise looks like even. So even if it just means going for a walk, but I I fully believe that my mental health is directly related to getting up and moving. So even if I walk around my neighborhood that day, if that's my exercise, I try to at least do that.
Jeanetta:I love that. Yeah. I've tried to do I did quit running because my body wasn't enjoying that so much anymore and yeah just being a little bit sore, but just recently took up rowing. Really? So we'll see.
Jeanetta:Not actually on the water. I mean I'd love to kite but I got a rowing machine so I can Yeah I mean that's a
Becky:full body workout for sure.
Jeanetta:But so I try to do a mix and match of walking around and getting on the rowing machine. Yeah.
Becky:I think it's good to have a balance of both of of of, you know, use the whole body and everything. That's kind of my exercise right now too. So what do you think I should try next?
Jeanetta:I was totally stumped on this. I think because I already see you, like you said, like, you try so many new things when I you did make me want to climb Kilimanjaro. When I saw that, I was started talking to friends and trying to figure out how I could get over there and do that. Mhmm. After seeing you do it.
Jeanetta:So I'm like Let's do it. You already came there.
Becky:Let's go play the mountain. We'll go play the mountain together. I'll play a mountain with you.
Jeanetta:But just I don't know. I'd say learn a different instrument.
Becky:That actually sounds really good. Like, because I played the piano. I played a little bit of violin when I was younger. I don't really wanna learn the violin though, but maybe yeah. I don't know.
Becky:The accordion or something. Yeah. Or harmonica. I say the accordion's too easy with your pianos
Jeanetta:because you
Becky:gotta do something really outside of your comfort zone. Did you play instruments?
Jeanetta:Again, I took enough piano to know the basics, and that was another thing that I a goal that I had for this year was to practice every day.
Becky:Uh-huh.
Jeanetta:And I was devoted and faithful to it for about 4 months and then it became Yeah. Every other day and then I haven't practiced probably for 6 weeks
Becky:now. So
Jeanetta:Seems like,
Becky:did your kids do instruments?
Jeanetta:We tried them all on things but nothing really stuck. So we gave them opportunities and if they weren't passionate about it, I didn't push it.
Becky:Yeah. Mhmm. I
Jeanetta:didn't see the point. Yeah. Exactly. They may regret that now,
Becky:but Yeah. And and and they can still pick it up. So yeah. Oh, that is
Jeanetta:on my list. Learn to play the cello.
Becky:Oh. Yeah. Tell them about
Jeanetta:that one. That's one of my favorites. But see, one of my daughters did take it up and so we have a cello Yeah. She doesn't play anymore. So I should pick that up and Pick
Becky:it up. Well, this is so fun to talk to you and chat about your life and and see all the Sunday things that you have done. So you you you're an amazing person. I've always admired you and and felt inspired. Inspired.
Becky:Thank you for the invite and for reinvigorating my energy to
Jeanetta:think about some of the more things I can add to my list. Of course. Of course. So thank you for being with
Becky:us on Sunday mom, and be sure to subscribe to the channel and the YouTube channel and find us online at sendymom.com. See you.