Flow

I really enjoy This American Life. The quirky NPR radio show that each week has a theme and then stories that go along with the theme. I download the podcasts so I can listen while I'm doing things that I don't particularly enjoy doing (like cleaning the bathroom) because I get all caught up in the stories and the time goes quickly. I learned today, from this very program, that it's called being in the flow.

This morning I got up and thought it would be a good idea to run on the treadmill. I was consciously wishing that I loved to exercise. I find myself getting distracted, checking the time at least 4 times each minute, counting down, and feeling a general sense of impatience when I workout. So I listened to an episode of This American Life hoping that I'd be so caught up in it that I'd lose track of time and suddenly be done and feel good about it. It didn't happen that way, but it was ironic that one of the stories was about the subject of Flow.

The narrator of the story was talking about how he likes to make things, like crafts, and that when he's creating he experiences a "blissful absence of the self and a loss of time." He even compared it to what people who love to exercise must feel when they're working out! Achieving flow, which is a term that was coined by a Hungarian psychologist, is all about not being self-concious of what you're doing so that whatever you're doing is just flowing out of you. Pretty much, it's what you feel when you're doing something you really love to do.

The question is, how does one get to the point of achieving flow in an activity when it doesn't come naturally? (Is it possible?) And, the other question is, what's your flow? Comments, please.

Brian's Blustery Birthday

Happy birthday to Brian! I hope his Saturday is better than last. Last week his wife had an emergency appendectomy! Poor girl. Here are 27 things about Brian:

1. He's the 4th child in our family
2. We called him Bug when he was little
3. He's been in a band - 2 bands (Rash and Cute Band Alert)
4. He's an excellent cook
5. He has a good voice and is musically inclined
6. He plays the drums
7. He's a passionate person
8. He's studious and thirsts after knowledge
9. He graduated from BYU earlier this year
10. He's very spiritual and committed to the gospel
11. His mission changed the course of his life
12. He's an individualist
13. He's a really good husband
14. He's a great father to his two little boys
15. He's responsible
16. He's had some interesting hairstyles

17. He once rode his bike to the mall and got a perm
18. He's always had his own unique sense of style
19. He has big, interested, brown eyes
20. Not sure if he still does - but he always used to get sick when we'd travel
21. He likes to read
22. He's patient
23. He's entertaining (remember Sleigh Ride?)
24. He's a BYU fan
25. He has a blog
26. He's an optimist
27. He's been a good example to many friends

David's Turn

I did mention that it was birthday season beginning at the end of August. I never did post these 30 things about David, so here they are:

1. He's the 3rd child in our family

2. He was the first one of us to have three kids of his own

3. He has a great giggle

4. He has an infectious sense of humor

5. We called him Boo when he was a kid

6. He has a good memory

7. He is a very good husband

8. He likes surprises

9. He was born on my 6th birthday

10. He almost didn't live past his first day

11. We have always been thankful that he did live

12. He travels a lot for his work

13. He's a natural as a father

14. He likes PLAIN hamburgers (well, not saucy anyway)

15. He loves Burger King (just kidding)

16. He is the tallest person in our family

17. He's sensitive

18. When he was little he thought he wanted to be a cowboy

19. He is not a cowboy

20. He is mild-manner

21. He has a calm demeanor

22. He likes football

23. He's lived in Minnesota

24. He has a cute smile

25. He, like the rest of us, likes The Blues Brothers

26. I've always loved that his middle name is Lawrence, after our great-grandfather

27. He likes history

28. He's punctual

29. Although he used to not like his food to touch, he's now a mixer

30. His little Avery adores him

About Our Dad

I involved my brothers and sister for this one. We all collaborated to come up with a list of 64 things about our dad. There is a little overlap in this list, but I think it's just reinforcement.
Mark:
1. He has always been a great story teller
2. He is patient
3. He always has a good joke
4. He has a great imagination
5. He loves to spend time with the kids
6. I've never heard him yell in anger
7. He has a good ear for singing
8. He is generous and thoughtful
9. He is a good teacher
10. He makes good investments
11. He is passionate about cars
12. He is an honorable priesthood holder
13. He has always been a Bears fan!
Brian:
14. He's tough
15. He makes others smile
16. His grandchildren love him
17. He is smart
18. He speaks French
19. He and Mom raised 5 pretty cool kids
20. He and Mom were married by a prophet
21. He has survived a lot of...stuff
22. He's a lot younger than Barbara Walters
23. He is compassionate
24. He teaches by a powerful example
25. He is the source of wonderful memories
26. His family loves him
David:
27. He is spontaneous
28. He is musical
29. He loves cars
30. He has a lot of stories involving cars
31. He's a perfectionist
32. He is a hard worker
33. He's educated
34. He's a good example to follow
35. He has a good memory
36. He is fun!
37. He's a collector
38. He's good at making targets (for arrows, etc.)
39. He is artistic and creative
Kristin:
40. He tells good stories
41. He saves his whiskers
42. He protects his cars
43. He endures well
44. He's scared of Chima (who/what is Chima anyway?)
45. He likes a good novel
46. He likes yellow roses
47. He makes interesting Easter Eggs
48. He's a good whistler
49. He's sentimental
50. He has a great sense of humor
51. He is a good Papa
52. He can cut his own hair
Laurie:
53. He tells the best bedtime stories
54. He is a talented artist
55. He loves a variety of music
56. He likes to make people laugh
57. He's optimistic
58. He's had a lot of health challenges that he continues to overcome
59. He's willing to try new things (like a new kidney, for example)
60. He's sensitive
61. He has good friends
62. He highly values family
63. He was very close to his mom
64. He loves our mom very much

Dad - we love you!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I love this day. I love to celebrate my dad. He is such a talented, unique, interesting and fun person! I'll be posting a list here later about him, but just in case that doesn't happen today I at least needed to post good birthday wishes for him.

Fish and Music

Jemma's been wanting a pet, as usual. She and Jordan are always campaigning for something. She got this goldfish for her birthday. I'm hoping this satisfies their need for some living thing to take care of. It's name is Goldie.

Jordan has taken up the clarinet. He didn't really choose it, the band teacher suggested it and he was happy to take on the assignment. We have some history with clarinetists in the family. My grandma played in her school's marching band, Chris has an uncle who's excellent on the clarinet, and I played in 7th grade band, although that's almost not worth mentioning. Jordan's doing really well with it and I don't mind his practicing at all!

The Party

The invitations:
The guests:

The cake:

The party favors:

The main attraction:

She's 5!

Here's Jemma 5 years ago:

And here she is today (I mean, yesterday, on her birthday):

Here's Jemma's 5 List:

• She always likes two books at bedtime
• She's famous for saying, "I'll have what Dad's having," when it comes to food
• She love animals!
• She has a great imagination
• She loves going to the library for books and movies

Five is a great age to be.

Happy Birthday Kristin!

Before I start I have to say that I'm still working on David's 31 list for his birthday! I knew if I waited to do this one I'd be miserably behind...so stay tuned for Dave's, coming soon.

33 Things about Kristin:

1. She's my little, and only, sister

2. She's got a strong will

3. She got a great sense of humor and makes me laugh every time we're together

4. She's diligent in everything she does

5. She's an excellent mother to 2 girls

6. She keeps a very clean house

7. She's organized

8. She's reliable

9. She's a Primary President

10. She makes friends that last (and keeps in touch with her childhood friends still)

11. She's naturally talented on the piano

12. She can remember quotes from movies

13. She likes to camp

14. She's very fit!

15. She's strong (she beats me in arm wrestles all the time)

16. She's a good wife to Ben

17. She's been devoted to Ben for over 20 years!

18. She's been married for 12 years

19. She does not like to shop

20. She has nice skin and doesn't wear makeup (doesn't need to!)

21. She looks much younger than she is

22. She fosters creativity in her kids

23. She likes to read

24. She was/is really into the Star Wars series

25. She is a hard worker

26. She's great with animals

27. She's patient

28. She's very nice -- and not just in the typical sense of the word -- she is really and truly a nice person

29. She got up on the wakeboard on her very first try and did GREAT!

30. She is faithful and obedient

31. She's a little shy

32. She's really good at baking, making cakes, and cake decorating

33. Hopefully she reads this today and is having an excellent birthday!

State Fair

Tuesday night we made a trip to the State Fair! Here's what we did:

• There was a boat exhibit right as we walked in the gate, so Chris was occupied there for a good 30 minutes.


• We had super fresh (as in just fried) corn dogs and it made me think of the commercials for the fair which have been featuring animated food -- there's one where a corn dog is asking a sushi roll why it doesn't come on a stick.


• Jemma was most excited to see some animals, so we went to see the rabbits and then the goats. I found it interesting that Jemma's experience must be hands-on. She is always inclined to pet the animals. Jordan, on the other hand, he didn't touch a single thing and headed straight for the hand sanitizer as we left.



• We walked through the big livestock halls to see the cattle, sheep and pigs. Even though I know why they're there it always surprises me a little to see the information stands displaying recipes for beef, and advertising pork as the other white meat. What is it about that that I find somewhat amusing and disturbing?


• We bypassed all the carnival rides. They sort of seemed a little...dodgy.


• Happened across a stand selling corn on the cob. I'm not exactly sure how it was cooked, but it was something between smoking and steaming, and it was the best corn I've had.
  
• While we ate the corn, we watched a horse show.
  
• We made our way across the fairgrounds to this makeshift stadium where they had a "Wild West Turkey Stampede". Quite interesting. It was show where they have a remote-control truck with turkey feed in the back race around a little track while six turkeys wildly chase it. I must say that although it sounds a little odd, it was humane. These people really loved their turkeys!


• Jordan bought himself a hat and Jemma really wanted a clown to make her a balloon animal, so she got a butterfly.



• Just when we may have left, we happened across a comedy/magic/hypnosis show. If you've ever seen Arrested Development, you must know that this guy was such a Gob! It was pretty entertaining. We stayed and watched the whole thing.


• Unfortunately we didn't ever see the giant butter cow sculpture. How did we miss that?

The fair is a fascinating thing. There is always an interesting assortment of people to see, strange items for sale, live country music, and where else can you justify eating something as blantantly unhealthy as a funnel cake?

The Book Bag

I've always had a thing for book bags, over backpacks. But they're just not as practical if you have heavy books to lug around. Before school started, Jemma had been eyeing up all the pink shiny backpacks at the stores and trying to talk me into one. Luckily, we put off getting one and then found out that her teacher prefers book bags because they're so much easier manage for putting papers and projects in and she likes to pin notes to the outside for parents to see.

All this thinking about book bags reminded me of the book bag I had in kindergarten. It's memorable - not because it had Mickey Mouse on it - because the whole length of the top on the inside was lined with a large piece of velcro. I guess velcro was not a very common thing at that time, and when I got to school and opened my bag...you can imagine the loud and disturbing sound it made! As if I had just ripped the whole thing apart! I never enjoyed being the center of attention, which is probably why I remember this experience.

Back to 2007. I couldn't think of where to buy a book bag. They just don't seem that common. And I guess I was sort of in the mood for a project, so I made this reversible bag for Jemma:

It's quite a distraction for her in the mornings as she decides which side she wants it on.

New Foods

I have this crazy habit of trying a new recipe for the first time whenever we have guests. Last night we had some friends coming over and of course I thought it would be a perfect time to try out this new recipe.

It's a no-cook pasta sauce made of just a few simple ingredients -- tomatoes, fresh basil, thyme, garlic and olive oil. It worked out great since we had some nice tomatoes from our neighbor's garden, it's something that is prepared way ahead of time, and requires hardly any dishes. It was really tasty, although I should have tossed it with the pasta while the pasta was still really hot (I had a little delay between draining the pasta and serving). We had some nice crusty bread along with it. I thought it was very flavorful and smelled good too.

I found the recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen, a blog I like to check for food ideas. Click here for the link to the recipe and a great photo.

This Side of Paradise

I recently finished reading This Side of Paradise, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, for the third time. I first read it when I was in high school, and loved it. Then again when I was in college, loved it again. And just a few months ago I took it off the book shelf - curious to know if my view of it had changed. I took my time reading it through this time, while also reading a few other books, and found that I still really enjoyed it.

I've always been a Fitzgerald fan. I like his writing, I like his era, and I find his characters very interesting. Without getting into the complex reasons of why I like this book, here are just a few great lines - examples of what I love about his writing:

"It was all like a banquet where he sat for this half-hour of his youth and tried to enjoy brilliant epicurean courses."

"...rioting deliriously through life like superimposed waterfalls, half rhythm, half darkness."

"Long after midnight the towers and spires of Princeton were visible, with here and there a late-burning light -- and suddenly out of the clear darkness the sound of bells."

1st Day of 2nd Year of Preschool

Yea! Yesterday was Jemma's first day in 4-year old preschool. She's been looking forward to this day ever since school ended last spring. She was happy to see some kids she recognized from her class last year -- Eli, Spencer and Madison. It was only a one-hour day and later she kept asking me why her school wasn't very long. Today she'll be there for the regular 3 hours.

Secretary

My new church calling is Secretary of the Relief Society. I'm envisioning typing, organizing and reports. I really have no idea what is involved. Tomorrow I will find out.