Easy??

Sorry for posting so late, it has been one of those days. May I tell you about it?

I went to work, nothing unusual there, except that it is the end of the quarter tomorrow and ALL OF MY STUDENTS want to see their grades. Forget the fact that I posted their grades on the door (well, not individual grades for assignments, which they should already know because I tell them their grades, but cumulative grades). 

So, I am pulling up grades and explaining why they got this grade on that paper, or this grade on that Seminar...and it is just taking all my patience. 

And then I of course have those students who want to turn in late work to push up their grade. Sorry buddy, we should have been having that conversation weeks ago. 

AND I am still grading essays and Socratic Seminars.

AND I had to bake cupcakes for a mini bridal shower we are having at work tomorrow. That required (another) trip to the grocery store to pick up what I forgot a few days ago.

.......

But in good news, I did not reach for the chocolate. Much like teachergirl found success in not getting donuts, I am somehow managing my stress and not eating my feelings. 

Look at me, I am growing (figuratively).

There won't be anything really substantial in this posting, except that I survived today.

Hope your day was a little easier...

celebrating small victories.

i realized today that i have not bought a donut in 2011.

this may not seem like a huge revelation to you, or even a huge accomplishment, but it's the thing that i have wanted to eat the most since i've been largely pregnant. every week, when i go to the grocery store, i look at them. my personal favorite is an apple fritter. our local grocery store makes a good one.  they sell them individually and they sell them in packs of four.

when i walk into the store, i walk by and look at them.  sometimes i have even picked them up.

but i have not yet purchased one, which means that i haven't eaten one.

that's not to say that i haven't eaten other ridiculous things, but somehow realizing that i have resisted that particular brand of my personal temptation is a huge victory to me.

today, i just wanted to write that down and say hooray a little, just for myself. 

what have you done well lately? what do you deserve a momentary celebration for?

--

in other news, i'm about 25 minutes away from having this baby (don't get alarmed--not really, but things are progressing, and i don't think it will be too terribly long), so i may not be around for a little while.  i'll trust that the ladies will let you know when our Baby Girl is born, and i'll be back with tales of new momhood and, most assuredly, some comedic stories of getting back into a workout routine. 

until then, thanks for your continued support of this little blog and, by proxy, of me.

Clueless in Virginia. {Sharing discipling dos and don'ts.}

Last night, after putting Avery to sleep, Emma Kate and I were downstairs playing. I went to do the dishes and EK was left to play on her own. It was suspiciously quiet, so I went looking for her. I found her in the place I least wanted to find her (other than a police station), in her sister's crib. She had let herself in, pulled down all of the dresses framed on her wall (along with the frames), climbed in Avery's crib and was undressing her to put on one of the beautiful dresses. Clearly a better outfit for "pwincess" dreaming.

I just about lost my mind. I was so mad. EK got sent right to bed and I cleaned up the mess, nursed Avery back to sleep, and went back downstairs, fuming.

Fast forward to this morning, it's Avery's nap time and she's resting peacefully in her crib. EK and I are downstairs, playing. I go to get some other things taken care of, leaving her by herself. That same quietness came upon the first floor of our house. I immediately dreaded what was about to happen. I began looking for EK and found her, again, in her sister's crib.

This time I did lose my mind. There was plenty of yelling, and even a little, LITTLE swat on the fanny (the only other time this has happened is when she colored all over the wall in her bedroom). Off she went, to sit in her room and cry while I went downstairs to fume.

After her timeout was over, I called her downstairs, gave her a hug, and we talked about what had happened. She then went to play in her playroom while I cleaned up the kitchen. It got quiet again, so I called her name and began to look for her.

This time I found her, not in her sister's crib, but hiding in the corner, quiet as a mouse. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "hidin'." So I asked her what she was hiding from. Her response,

"Mommy is going to yell at me. It makes me sad."

Talk about a major gut check. I struggled to fight back the tears as I realized my two-year old little girl was scared of me. I'm supposed to be the person she runs to when she's scared, not the person she hides from.

So I'm at a loss. I have no clue how to discipline this child. Timeout doesn't really work anymore, at least not for the big offenses (like sneaking into her sister's room and coloring on the walls), I don't want to spank her, and I hate yelling at her. I've said this a lot, but I want to be the type of mother the General Authorities talk about during General Conference. The mother that "rules in righteousness" and never raises her voice.

But how?

How on earth did those mothers discipline their toddlers?

Now I don't know how this fits in here on this blog, but this is the biggest thing on my mind, as I'm sure is on many of other mothers' minds. I figured I would ask the question here and open up the comments section as a sounding board for everyone to share their experiences with this... the good, the bad, and the ugly.

What methods of discipline and positive reinforcement work in your house?

If you don't have children yet, what methods did your mother use when you were growing up?

Let the SUN shine in!

Well maybe it's because the sun has been shining all week here in Texas, but today I would like to sing praises to our bright ball of burning gas! There are good reasons I can't live in constantly rainy and cold places. I love the sun. It clears my skin, gives me color, boosts my mood, and gives me energy. At the hospital, if I have the opportunity, I try to take my patients outside to get some sun and fresh air - it is so revitalizing to them after being confined to a dark cold hospital room!

Plants need the sun to survive and so do humans. Of course with all the skin cancer precautions we do our best to avoid it or block it (and yes, by all means, please be cautious with extended sun exposure), but maybe we're doing too much of that. The sun is not to be feared but to be respected and yes, even loved :). This site nicely outlines some potential benefits of why sunlight is good for you:

http://www.natural-health-restored.com/benefits-of-sunlight.html

There's also a lot of talk about the increasing prevalency of Vitamin D deficiency. Adequate nutrition and sunlight exposure are super important for health!

Probably the best thing I did today was chat with my mother outside in full sunlight after work instead of going home and lying on my bed. It felt wonderful and healthy. I say that everyone should (if weather permits) get your buns outside into the sun! (I'm a poet!! ho ho!)

A to Z: Ways to Keep Fit

Are you in a fitness rut? How about some new ideas? I thought it would be fun to come up with an A-Z list of things that I can do for exercise when I feel like I’m doing the same thing everyday. Print it out and keep it for when you are hitting a fitness wall or are bored with your normal routine! 

Workout A-Z

A: Aerobics

B: Belly Dancing

C: Cycling

D: Dancing

E: Elliptical

F: Field Hockey

G: Golf

H: Hiking

I: Interval Training

J: Jumping Jacks

K: Kickboxing

L: Lacrosse

M: Medicine Balls

N: Nintendo Wii Fit

O: Off Road Biking

P: Paddleboarding

Q: Qigong Exercises

R: Rock Climbing

S: Stadium Training

T: Tennis

U: Ultimate Frisbee

V: Volleyball

W: Water Aerobics

X: XXX activities J

Y: Yoga

Z: Zumba

 

Links to Health: 

Log Miles for Japan

Do You Cool Down?

Sleepy People Overeat

Heavy Smoking Declines in US

18 Healthy Dinners in Less than 30 Minutes

Percentages

Have you ever been near the end of your workout, totally exhausted and ready to quit when "your" song comes on? You know, that song that inspires you to keep going, to push a little harder...

That song for me has changed over the years, but lately it has been a song by Fort Minor, "Remember the Name". It is a great song for running...when it comes on, I find that extra strength to run a little further.

Particularly when the chorus comes on:

"This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill
Fifteen percent concentrated power of will
Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain
And a hundred percent reason to remember the name!"

Upon closer look at the percentages that the song offers, isn't it true? 

10% Luck

20% Skill

15% Power of Will

5% Pleasure

50% Pain

100% Remember the Name

But I actually want to change the 100%. I change it to 100% worth it. 

As I am working out or cooking or ignoring the orange glaze rolls sitting in my fridge that my roommate made (true story), I have to remember why I live my life the way I do. Not only am I getting healthier, I am fitting into smaller clothes, I am more confident in myself and being an example to others. 

And all that makes the 50% pain worth it.

choosing us.

we live in a fast-paced world.  we're plugged in, connected, anxiously engaged, and forever marking off a to-do list that never seems to end. 

a little snapshot of my daily to-do list routine

to a certain extent, my ability to manage all of this at once, to varying daily degrees of success, makes me feel like i can take on almost anything. it's not hubris or a great sense of my own superpowers, but more a belief, demonstrated by results, that we can handle all that we are given when we need to.

but i also am coming to believe that there are times and seasons when the other choices are more important to make--the choices not to work as much, the choice to invest in more important things.

over the past few days, i have had to make some decisions about my workload after the baby comes.  this means that i have turned down a few classes during summer so that i can spend more time at home with Baby Girl. this might not seem like a big deal to anyone else, but two things that are important to know: a) i rarely turn down classes, as i consider them to be blessings and i don't want to burn any bridges and b) i am the primary income earner for our family.  i am working enough for us to be fine, but i am making choices that are more about Baby Girl and me than about the bottom line and doing things the way i've always done it.

that impulse to balance, to choose differently based on different circumstances, is new for me.  i am the one who taught 8 classes in one semester while in my first trimester of pregnancy--i am a little bit nuts.  i can't say that it was an easy choice, but i also can't say it was hard. i think it was just...different. 

it occurred to me, as i was pondering about what to do and asking my husband, that it was a choice of health and well-being for everyone rather than just a financial one.  that hasn't be the case thus far in my employment decisions, and it was a strange moment to realize that i was choosing ME (and our family, to the degree to which i need to be healthy and able to care for our Baby Girl well, in all the ways that my body will be asked to do so).

but sometimes, you just have to make the new choice, the choice that seems less familiar but more wise, even if it seems foreign to your experience.

it doesn't have to be maternity leave that governs these choices. what do you have in your life that you continue to say "yes" to that might, actually, be forcing you to say "no" to yourself? are you overextending yourself at work? are you taking on too much with friends and family, negating the need for a little bit of you time? are you choosing yourself enough?

sometimes, we need to shake up our to-do list.  when's the last time you put yourself at the top?