Least Favorite Month of the Year

August is my least favorite month of the year because it is hot, rarely rains (I do love the rain), and by then I am ready to be back in school, get organized, and have structure again. I crave structure. I am a organized nerd and proud of it.

I also think my dislike for the hot month of August started when I was in my Mother's womb. I was born two weeks late on August 31, and I imagine my Mom was desperately miserable through the entire month, and I was right there suffering along with her and been suffering through August ever since. Not to mention that somewhere in my life I lost a natural zest for spontaneity and fun and staring taking life way too seriously.

Now on the eve of the first day of August of 2013, I want to change my mind set. I am setting the intention of having the most wonderful month ever. It is going to be the most spontaneous and joyful August ever and I am committing to blogging everyday this entire month recording the new shift I am making. Don't expect anything really grand because I really don't have to do much to improve my experience. I just got through cleaning my washing machine, and something tells me that there is a lot more spontaneous fun to be had than that.  

A Day at the Movies

We had a fabulous afternoon at the Broadway Movie Theater in Salt Lake where they feature independent films. I have to say that I have grown weary of the mega action films that seem to be the rage. The action scenes that go on and on and on exhaust and bore me, and I am totally unimpressed and disinterested with the creativity that goes into developing those scenes. I crave films about relationships and deeper meaning, and that is what this theater offers. Yesterday we watched and cried through the movie Unfinished Song while we snacked on edamame and water. That is the other bonus of this theater--they offer healthier and more gourmet snacks--a great sound system and seating; not so much.  We then savored a tasty hamburger smothered in glazed onions from the Copper Onion restaurant right next door while waiting for the next movie that we wanted to see--Way Way Back, which we watched while sharing a bar of dark chocolate with orange pieces. Again another great movie that highlighted the tragedy of divorce and trying to blend second families interlaced with some laugh-out-loud humor. Back home again and we continued our desire to be entertained with watching several episodes of Parenthood from Netflix while snacking on homemade nachos (my personal favorite) and chia juice. It was a full and wonderful afternoon and evening of substantiating the importance of family relationships and commitment, and of course, eating.  What a great day.

Tap Dancing

Last night I started a tap dancing class. My oh my! So fun and so much more of a work out than I had ever anticipated. I had taken tap lessons as a young girl and so I felt like I was reliving my childhood a little--a blast to the past. There was a faint familiarity but it is a lot harder than I remember. I think in one night I was learning far more than I ever learned in all those young years.

It feels good to take advantage of doing these kind of fun activities while I still can (give me maybe three more days). It was especially great to do it with some fabulous friends and to be able to regain the weight lost from that incredible work out with dinner afterwards. Life keeps getting better and better.

Time for a Change

After a lot of years serving in the Young Women's program, I just got released and am now teaching 6-7 year-old boys in Primary. I am not going to lie. I didn't really want to go back to teaching Primary. My dream calling is being a Relief Society teacher. I would only have to teach every 5 weeks and usually women aren't a discipline problem. Usually (unless Meryl is in your ward). You can be as boring as heck and women will still be nice and polite. Young boys, however, let you know when you aren't cutting it. Like one boy said as I walked in to the classroom with his former teacher. He let me know that he didn't want me to be his teacher; he still wanted her. Their old teacher and I just traded places and now she has my nice, polite 16-17 girls (that I will miss immensely), and I now have the rambunctious boys she use to teach (one is our Stake President's son and another is our Bishop's son and another is the Primary President's son) who think farting is something much more important than the lesson. If I would have been called to teach Relief Society, they wouldn't tell me (to my face anyway) that they didn't want me to teach them. They would just politely be whispering it to each other, and they wouldn't be bragging about their bodily functions.

But now I have accepted a calling to teach these young boys, and I will be the best Primary teacher I can be and do whatever I can so that we will all enjoy it and learn a lot. And I guess enjoy the fart fest. But most importantly, I will learn to love these boys. I am already starting to. 

Reaping the Harvest

This is my bountiful basket of goodies from my little garden. What a simple little pleasure it is to see my efforts produce something I can benefit from. I used the kale and parsley in my morning smoothie and ate one of the green peppers and some of the tomatoes. What feelings of simple joy!

I have been watching a lot of inspirational talks especially while I exercise. I was watching a taping I had of Super Soul Sunday with Oprah the other day and was really inspired by something Devon Franklin said. "We are only in control of two things: How we prepare for what might happen and how we respond to what does happens to us. The moment when things actually happen belongs to God."I love that.

Today I reaped the benefits of the preparation of my little garden. The miracle that my plants produced was because of Heavenly Father, but I had to do the preparation and I had to take advantage of the benefits.

Let's Get Physical

When I eat healthy, I have more energy, and when I have more energy, I want to play and be active.

This last weekend we had a family reunion with my Mom, my siblings and all of our kids and grand kids. Since I had been making healthier food choices, I wanted to do more than I usually do. I went river rafting, hiking, swimming, took walks, and even joined in for a little soccer game. You know that I am not getting any younger (big surprise) and I realize that I had better enjoy all these kind of activities while I still can. Usually I am content to sit and talk but I figure I can do a lot of that while I am in a nursing home (which I suspect my kids are plotting to put me in any day now), and so for now I will be as active as I can. 

Inspired Healthy Eating

I always tried to encourage my kids to eat healthy. They would grumble about the fact that I didn't buy sugar cereals, white bread, and a lot of junk food. Now I have kids that are taking healthy eating to a whole new level and they have become my source of inspiration and encouragement. Weird to have the role reversal.

Watching some of the episodes of The Biggest Loser, I noticed that when there was a parent-child combo on the show that the child usually became fatter than their parent. So now I am wondering if we either get worse than our parent or improve upon but never stay quite the same. I am grateful that some of my children have taken healthy eating to a whole new level. Now I just need to step it up. 

Tingling Fat

When I am exercising vigorously, I can tell the places that I have a lot of fat because it starts to itch. I take it as a sign that that which I don't need will start to bother me when I am making the healthy choices. The same things kind of happens spiritually. The moment I start to try and be a better person, my faults seem to start itching.