A Proper Mounain Woman: Georgia Anderson

Better Know a Proper Mountain Woman: Georgia Anderson
I met this amazing proper mountain woman on Instagram a few weeks ago, I clicked through to her blog (the Know How Mom) and knew I had to interview her for the Better Know a Proper Mountain Woman Series. I was thrilled that she agreed to do a phone interview with me and answer these questions below. Georgia currently lives in Cottonwood Heights, Utah and is a parenting coach, teaching parenting classes and doing speaking engagements on parenting. She hikes, cross-country skis, and downhill skis... basically an all around beautiful woman. She has conquered several large mountains in life and impressed me with her happy attitude when she talked to me about them and the lessons she learned from them.

I hope you enjoy her answers and be sure to click through to see the awesome playroom she built for her grand-kids below!

1. Where is your favorite outdoor refuge where you live right now?

My favorite outdoor refuge would be the mountains of the Wasatch Front, and it would be the hiking trails and the mountain lakes of the Wasatch Front, specifically. Because I can be there in a few minutes, they are close to my home, and they just bring me a lot of peace.

2. What do you do to feel creative? What is your creative outlet?

Trying to develop my parenting classes has been a big project, but really the most fun creative thing I have recently done is I finished a huge project in my basement for my grandchildren. So my children have all moved out, and we had this really large bedroom and we created an interactive playroom where the walls are covered with different possibilities, like a magnet wall, and a cork board, and a chalk board, and big mural of Southern Utah, and then we left the floor completely empty and ready for play and it just has things that can be moved around and played in. It took about two months creating that room but it's been a ton of fun. When I walk in the room I feel like there is tons of possibilities, and I want to share that with my grand-kids. So that's been a really fun project for me.

(To see this amazing playroom Georgia created click here, here, and here)

GPP: So what's the significance for the Southern Utah mural?

I would say that's another favorite refuge of mine, but I don't get to go there as much as the Wasatch Front. I just love the feeling of Southern Utah, I love how calming it is, and how much it fun it is. and how full of creativity and exploration there is. Ya know, there is just all the different canyons to see, or a different hike to take, there is just endless possibilities to me.

3. What is your favorite mountain? 

I think my favorite mountain is Mount Olympus, right south of Salt Lake City, because I grew up under that mountain. I always look out my living room window up to the face of that mountain and I see it when I drive past it on the freeway. It just always gives me strength, it's really magnificent and very unique looking. And I also love to climb it every so often, so I feel like I have a connection with that mountain.

4. What would you say is a mountain that you have conquered in life?

I am kind of an older proper mountain woman, so I have had many mountains to climb. I have had cancer, I have given birth to four kids, I have been through a divorce and remarriage, and now step-mothering, and every one of those symbolic mountains has provided me with valuable lessons... I don't necessarily want to climb those mountains again, but I am really grateful for each one and what they taught me. I'd say, at this point in my life, I have been a steady mountain climber.

5. Is etiquette important to you? How do you plan on teaching etiquette to your children? Who taught you?

Yes, it is very important to me... not the kind of etiquette that means to show off, or put yourself above another person... but I feel like real true etiquette is a way of showing others that I care about them. My mother was, and still is, a very proper woman. (And she just turned ninety!) She's very proper when she speaks, even to her children, she's very polite and very uplifting when she speaks to you. She showed me a lot of etiquette by example.
I also had a grandma who had this really great tradition of taking her ten-year old grandchildren to the nicest restaurant in town for a formal dinner. And then she would begin our education in proper meal time etiquette. I will always cherish that memory of her teaching me, and me wanting to please her by learning what she was teaching me. I think it taught me something about mutual respect, and I feel like in my parenting classes that's one of the huge principals that we talk about. One way to teach mutual respect is through really heartfelt etiquette. The real heart of etiquette is giving others respect and attention, and treating them with care. All of these things we teach in parenting classes because we are all about teaching mutual respect, participation within our family, and caring for other people without getting run over.
When you think of etiquette sometimes you think of sipping tea with your pinky up, but what my grandmother and what my mother taught me is that true etiquette is really being conscious in caring for other people.

6. What do you do to feel motivated when you are feeling lazy, or you feel like you are in a rut?

Finally in my life, now that I'm 54 years old, sometimes when I feel lazy, I just decide to be lazy. Which is not in my normal character to decide to stay in bed till 8-o'clock some days, if I want to. But when I really want to motivate myself, I'd say my greatest motivator is to read great books and to surround myself with happy and interesting people. People who also push themselves. I found that finding friends who share the same goals and dreams that I have is my greatest motivator.
And one of my very favorite things to motivate myself to get out and do things, is to get books on tape and listen to them when I am hiking in the mountains, or exercising, or doing housework... anything that might be hard to do, when I have something motivating me in my head (something I have to think about), it is super motivating.

7. What daily routine do you have to help you feel more feminine or more proper?

I like to keep my nails manicured, and I didn't do that for years, but now I actually have the time to do it more. I see my hands a lot while I'm working on people (I'm also a message therapist) and it's nice to look at my hands and feel finished and polished. 
I also feel like it's really important to just wear something, you don't have to dress extravagantly, but to wear something you feel proud of yourself in. So, whether that's your favorite jeans and nice t-shirt, whatever it is, I think it's important to feel like you are proud of yourself in what you wear.

8. What is your favorite fingernail polish brand and color?

"Love my Latte", it's a gel polish from EzFlow

9. Do you have a favorite song that you've been listening to lately?

Yes, it's by Adrienne Young and Little Saddie, kind of a bluegrass song called "Art of Virtue"

10. What new hobbies or skills are you currently pursuing? Do you ever feel nervous about trying something new?

This is a big one, I have been working on developing parenting classes for families and being certified in different parenting classes that I think are really good. It's a stretch for me because I never finished my bachelor's degree, I was just a year off of finishing it. I have decided to take this on as something I can do to support parents and moms who maybe are going through things that I have been through, and to strengthen families in the community. It's really scary for me to stick my neck out into the community and say I have something that I think will really help you, I would love to do this and will you come? That's been scary for me. I have started an Instagram account and blog, which is also scary for me because I don't like to be spending a lot of time on technical things... but I have found that as I am putting myself out there, I am meeting really cool people, like you, and teaching the classes has been extremely fulfilling for me!

Thanks, Georgia, I'm glad to have "met" you too!

___________________

Peace and pine trees,

Whitney (& Georgia)