Healthy Body Image Challenge Day 3: "Healthy Balance: Moderation in All Things"

Sometimes I forget about how wonderful something is until it's gone. Monster Ballad comes in (enjoy the 80's rock band hair) Cinderella song "Don't know what you got, 'til it's gone. . ." or Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi" (remake by Counting Crows) "don't know what you got 'til it's gone, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

Having pneumonia has been a real trying time for me. I haven't been able to go running; walking just makes me tired; and I need to relax more when I come home. On the other side, it's taught me some things that I should keep doing. I need to relax more. My husband and I were talking about this with a couple of friends the other day (our home teachers).  We were talking about how it is important to take a good long break. This makes it so we are more productive. I know I try to cram in a lot during the day. Being a school teacher, there is a lot to do! You also want to get as much done because you never know when you will have to spend your time doing something unexpected. (Such as dealing with students that were disrespectful to another teacher or a class that is not doing what they are supposed to when the student teacher asks.)

But really, I know that I try to cram a lot of stuff in, sometimes too much. Then I get way overwhelmed and just don't know where to start. I become this crazed person who is trying to get everything done at once, but really getting nothing done at all.

I need to have a healthy attitude about what needs to be done. At school, we have been working on the Steven Covey: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of them talks about first things first. (He dedicated a whole book to this). I know that I have a problem with this. I have a task that should be done first, but for some reason I will do something else that is important, but less important than what I should be doing right then.

For example, it would be good for me to prepare my lesson for tomorrow. Instead, I decided to get the quizzes ready for the end of the week. Still very important, but it's not going to help me for tomorrow's lessons. It has been helpful with my sickness to step back and realize what really needs to be done. I don't have oodles of time just to get everything done. I should really just get the most important thing done and then move on to the next important thing. This is going to be a long time working on this.

How does this work with my body image? I am very good at coming up with plans for exercise and how I'm going to eat, but I will usually overload what I need to do to accomplish it. Since I cannot exercise right now, I am stepping back and focusing on one thing at a time. I am working on finding meals that are simple, weight watcher crock pot meals that I can do. If my sister-in-law Leia is reading this, I decided to re-start my goals by being vegetarian for the week. :) We've had vegetarian 3 bean chili tonight and I just finished making a yummy spinach and broccoli soup. This has been good for me to help get better as well.  Next is baked macaroni and cheese and sweet potato cauliflower soup.

3 Bean Chili

Broccoli and Spinach Soup

I have also been taking more breaks at school. It has been helpful having a student teacher right now, because I can step back and see how I can make things more efficient and prepare in advance while she is doing the day to day things. I have learned to come home earlier (being home by 5:30 is early for me when I was staying until 8 or 9) and not going in until 8 or 8:30 in the morning (contract time is at 8:30). I used to be "burning the candle at both ends" and I think that's why I was run down and got sick.

It has been so nice coming home and preparing meals. It doesn't seem so daunting because we do crock pot meals and they are set up before I get home. By preparing the meals ahead of time, I'm not so starving that I eat whatever is easiest to grab. I really do feel better about myself, I feel like I have more time, and it's been refreshing to take more time to myself. I still feel like I have plenty of time to get things done. The difference is I am more focused and efficient with my time.

Right after our home teachers left on Sunday, Ryan and I decided to apply what we had learned right then. We decided that we would take more breaks and play games in between those breaks. It was actually a lot of fun. We would play two rounds of Scattegories and then go back to what we needed to do that day. I felt like I got a lot more accomplished.

I am so grateful for little setbacks in life that help me to reflect on what I am doing. I realized that another one of the Covey Habits: "Sharpen the Saw" is something I need to work on. I need to not focus on just one thing, but step back and focus on a lot of things that will help me to stay more focused when it's most important. With that being said, I need to get to bed. Good night!

Organization battles Entropy

I recently went to a Stake Relief Society Workshop and learned that organization is not a talent, but is a skill that can be learned. Well, I have been trying to work on that skill during my summer vacation and I have found the nasty law of physics, entropy, lurking around every corner. Entropy's definition states - a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration/lack of pattern or organization; disorder. There is a Law of DISORDER! Therefore, for every thing that you put in order, entropy is there trying to take something else apart. (I hope it's not like the 3rd Law of Motion: For every action there is an EQUAL and OPPOSITE reaction. Uggghhh!) That has been my struggle for the past few weeks. For example, I just re-organized my kitchen exactly the way I wanted it. I had just made everything clean and orderly. The space on top of my fridge is now a space saving item, but I didn't realize I had left so little room for each item. As I was readjusting a basket, a bottle of Noni Juice fell on the carpet, hitting precisely at the bottle's neck causing the bottom to shoot off. Immediately, the sticky, nasty, tart smelling liquid, permeated into the brown carpet, splattered all over my kitchen chairs, table and wall. Entropy was out to destroy me! I had spent a good day and a half re-organizing my kitchen and it lashed back. It took me a good 3 hours to clean everything up, including the carpet (2x - thank goodness for OxiClean!)

I don't think you can see it very well, but this is the picture I took to 
show Ryan while he was still at work. It took me 3 hours total 
(not all at once) to clean!

Here is the cleaned result! No stains, just shadows from the table.

Even Ryan has felt the effects. He has been trying to get so much done with work, his new calling as 2nd counselor in a Singles Ward, and studying for the Enrolled Agent Exam. He has been doing all of this stuff to prepare and get organized and entropy comes along and he gets sick for 2 weeks straight! I felt so bad for him. He kept on trying to work and push through it, but every day he still had a fever of 102 degrees. It was horrible and there was no rest for him. In the end he had to succumb to entropy's power and call in sick. He took off Thursday and Friday and just slept. It was good for him to just sleep it all away (and go to an actual Internal Medicine doctor rather than InstaCare - not that they aren't good, just another opinion was needed). Thank goodness we got some good antibiotics and he is on the mend.

Poor Ryan. He just needed lots and lots of sleep.

I know that if you don't think about something, it takes it's power away, so can I do that with entropy? Can I conquer it and just not think about it? There must be a way to go against this Law. Maybe I'm thinking too much about this since I just finished "Matched". I need to not think too much about what I read. I just picked up "The Lost Hero" so I might be a little into Roman mythology for awhile. :-) Maybe Roman mythology and fighting bad guys is exactly what I need to fight entropy right now. I will just focus on the awesome power I feel of being organized and imagine entropy's power fading away. And if it doesn't, I guess it's another way for me to learn patience. :-)

Learning through Repetition

The best way to learn something is through repetition, right? Well, I guess the Lord wants me to be a professional at getting students accommodated with starting school in the middle of the year. I have had 10 students move out of my class from the beginning of the year. (It might be 11, I've lost track). With those students who have moved out (it seems at a constant rate), I have been selected by the school secretaries to receive the bulk of the new students. (Not by some malicious reasoning - at least I hope- it is just because my numbers keep going down and the other teachers' numbers have stayed the same).

The school secretary sent me an e-mail on Friday entitled "You are going to KILL me" and contained the name of the newest member of my class. (This will make 11 new students). My class seems to have a revolving door on it this year because as they leave, more come in. Luckily, I will be in the classroom on Monday when he comes, because it is also a joke that I am either at a training or something when the new student arrives.

I guess I just need to laugh and learn to perfect the art of helping students to start in a new classroom part way through the year. I'm glad that my fellow co-workers understand my frustration and laugh with me. The student before this one's name was Roxanne and my co-worker lovingly made me a CD that played "Roxanne" by the Police over and over again. I think I listened to it at least 15 times while preparing for my new student.

I must admit it is hard to see my other students go and new ones come in, but it keeps me on my toes and reminds me that the Lord is teaching me to learn by repetition. I must not have gotten it right yet. :)