A Slow Start to Summer…
Posted: August 6, 2012 Filed under: Working Mom | Tags: cooking, cupcakes, hiking, perspectives 3 Comments »
I have been taking a break from blogland, and though I have missed my daily interactions with the amazing people I have met online, I have enjoyed stepping away for a time. I have been catching up on blog reading, reading some paper books (!), and doing a lot of baking. Dee (our youngest, at 15) and I took a month long baking class and BOY can my scale tell!
I think the biggest thing for me to take away from my break was perspective. Have you ever read about “changing negative thinking”? This is a very modern psychological study based on cognitive therapy.
I was complaining to my husband that we haven’t had much of a summer – just lots of work and not much family fun. About the only thing I did this summer was try to eat outdoors at least 3 times per week (which isn’t saying much), and even that went by the wayside when the heat came upon us.
But my husband reminded me that we haven’t canoed, hiked, camped, or swam because he had been ill for quite a while, and until the testing was done in which they found he needed his gallbladder removed, he wasn’t up to doing anything. So here I was whining about not having a summer when we really couldn’t do our traditional outdoor things, but I wasn’t even thinking about the pain he had been experiencing.
His health is back and we are trying to make the most of it – we only have 3 weeks left of summer and we are packing a LOT in during this short time. Soon 2 of our kids will be back in college and the house will be a lot more quiet.
Do you, too, sometimes discover that you need to change your perspective to see the reality? Do you need to think “outside the box” to see a positive side to a subject (or a less painful side)?
I hope you have a restful Monday
Posted: May 7, 2012 Filed under: Working Mom | Tags: family, hiking, weekends 5 Comments »
I need a weekend for my weekend !
Grocery shopping, driving kids here & there (off to work, to the movies), and lots of loads of laundry!
Church on Sunday, packing a picnic lunch, hiking (no donuts).
Napping (that was only me) and lawn mowing.
The kids making Mozzarella and Tomato salad and a variation of a pepperelly dip, and enjoying fish tacos for dinner – fresh fish baked with olive oil and creole seasonings. Laughing and being silly, and the drudgery of cleaning the craft room.
I didn’t even get the things done that I had on my list!
On our hike, we came across a number of bugs, a frog, and lots of budding foliage, but the kids loved these cute little red salamanders the best…
Another one:
I hope you have a restful Monday!
Donuts, Hiking, and Pavlovian Responses
Posted: May 3, 2012 Filed under: Family, Working Mom | Tags: conditioning, donuts, hiking, outdoors, pavlovian responses 5 Comments »
Don’t you just LOVE those beautiful sunny days when there is barely a cloud in the sky, the sun is shining, and the grass is a rich green color? Everything even smells just perfect.
And, stay with me here, don’t you also LOVE those grey days, when the air smells like rain and the overcast sky feels like it is pressing down on you and you just KNOW a big storm is coming? I love the smell of rain, or wet earth. Just beautiful. And of course it is even better when you can sit on the porch and watch it rain while staying dry.
How about going to the park on a crisp fall day?
Hiking through the school yard?
Hiking through the woods?
Walking on the beach?
Photo by Salina of State of the Heart
Chances are, all of these words create a picture that comes to mind.
A positive happy picture.
But how often do you let life take you to those places anymore?
I know it can be a challenge for me. It’s too easy to stay at home. Too easy to stay inside. There is always work to be done, or maybe I’m just too tired after working at home and at the office or from running around with the kids. You just want to SIT ON THE COUCH!
So your BRAIN loves the outdoors, but your body just can’t get its bad self out there.
Well, my daughter and I came up with a way to train your body to get UP and OUTSIDE…
She and I love donuts. I mean we really love them. And I’m pretty sure there are a LOT of people who do – men and women.
So we thought that ONLY eating donuts outside in a park would be the classical conditioning needed to retrain our bodies to match our brains… If we no longer eat donuts anywhere except the park or the woods, we would always associate the outdoors with donuts.
It’s a win-win!
An alternative to this is to go for a walk and tie a donut onto the back of your walking partner’s jacket. You would have to take turns doing this, but you get the idea. It could work!
So GO, grab a donut and get outside! And let me know how it works. I’ve got to clean the donut crumbs out of my keyboard first.
