Chicks, and Strawberries and Sons! Oh MY!

I have an 18 quart triumph!!! For the first year ever in my solo jam making experience my strawberry jam has set! It is all the more triumphant born in the light of its nativity days.

Yesterday, just before picking up the two cases of strawberrries I had ordered in my tranquil days, we were coordinating the reception of a new foster placement. A son. He is three, yet two. Simple and smiley.

A new foster placement is like going to college for the first time ever complete with moving into the dorms in a far away place. You are excited because you will learn and grow yet you have no idea how things will turn out. How will your roommate be? Are your professors going to be dull, overtaxing, or inspiring? With one call from CPS all that crazy elation comes swirling and as soon as that child walks in the door you begin assessing each other. Oh yes, these little people get you figured out just as you are figuring out them, only I think they are better at it. E has some more specific challenges that are going to keep surfacing but his will is iron. Perhaps if we adopt him I will change his name to Iron Will. Not.

Thank heavens Josh is home with me in the mornings and we were able to make a lot of the discoveries and game plans together. I had E yesterday until my rehearsals and then we all got home at the same time in the evening and worked out a bedtime routine together. E gave us a run for his money but he got settled down. I laughed when I found him turning on all the house lights at 2:30am, including the light in the kids' bedroom, and they were unphased by it. He is afraid of the dark.

To supplement the crazy kid collection we added 7 chicks to our family. After the tragedy of our last four hens (which I never did post about because I was actually really sad to loose my ladies to some wild beast that ripped them apart and left their poor feathered carcasses in my front yard) we have planned on getting more hens and the heat subsided. I don't know if the heat has subsided, but we have three week old chicks and we are locking them up tight against intruders. They sure are cute. I love hens as pets. Josh picked them out with Danny and Faith so we haven't concrete names for them all yet. That will change soon.

So what is to become of this crazy family - - I still have two boxes of tomatoes, one vine and one roma, itching to be processed. Got 100 ears of corn and 40lbs of chiles ordered for this weekend and enough fixins to try canning some tomatillo salsa. I am currently in a show rehearsing to open Sept 17th and auditions for two more coming up.

I love it! I wouldn't do it if I didn't love it, and I really really do.

Mini-Vacay: Sea World

Of the whole family I was most excited to visit Sea World. The reason for going was for Danny to see the 'sharks that bash you in the face, you know.' All in all, it was pleasant. I was hoping for amazing, but I will keep the happy moments foremost in my memory and learn from this experience. We missed 'amazing' mostly because our kids are not quite old enough to appreciate how well trained the animals are at Sea World, they just figured that is what all dolpins, sea lions, dogs, cats and killer whales do. And from there perspective, I get it. We don't have many wild sea lions around here so it is cool that they do what they do. Furthermore, fun has a time limit, which is about the age of the child. So after we maxed out our 3 hours and had limited 'other' things to do beside seeing more water life, the kids were not so excited anymore. Josh was a trooper and we pushed through to the 5pm Shamu show and then drove home.
boy vs. Walrus for scale
There are the sharks. And that was all he cared to see.
One Ocean, so showy, yet not the same as it used to be with the trainers in the water. Amazingly, sitting this close we never got soaked!
Faith and I (front row) on Journey to Atlantis, she was an amazing rider, I certainly screamed more than her, of course this was her second time on it, she had already gone once with Josh.
Absolute disappointment that he was not tall enough to ride with Daddy. I tried to get him distracted with the sharks while Josh sneaked away but he kept running after him. The ruler was not a very good explanation.

Mini-Vacay: Ocean

Seeing our last couple of days-off dwindling as the start date for Josh's new job nears, we jumped on it! We took a two day mid-week trip to San Deigo to hit the beach and Sea World. I have been itching to enjoy the relative proximity we have to this part of California. I will admit - I have been spoiled by Hawaii. The beach was....nice. Our kiddos are not quite to the age yet that they love it. They were certainly in awe the whole time but Viv's fear of the water was surfacing and she wouldn't near the surf at all without us nearly dragging her. Danny enjoyed it, only he couldn't stay on his feet when the surf went back out. Faith would have loved to play in the water had it not been too cold for her little fat-less body. The were minimally entertained by the sand but were done in 2 hours with the whole thing. In fact, they were done before that but I kept making them stay longer and forced them to enjoy it ;). Great mom, I know.

Good book, yes, must read

I am one of those people that prefers to read non-fiction. Thus my book reviews seem rather boring. No cavalier love stories or crazy action flicks, mostly just really good researched material that makes an excellent point. IN that vein, I loved my 'monthly theme' book this month.

As part of my Happiness Project, this month I have been working on stepping up to me own base, climbing my personal pedestal, and getting on top of my own world. Briefly; being my best self (flash back junior miss). Shawn Achor has made both a professional study of the advantage that companies the gain but one simple change, happiness. He has also applied the principles he deduced from his vast study to hisself. Brilliant.

I loved, loved the cumulative research that this book presents. Back to the basis of Pavlov's dog to crazy phsychology studies that uses the ever poor and vunerable college student as their guinea pig. Each artfully supported his 7 principles to gain an advantage using happiness that are SPECIFIC, ACTIONABLE, and PROVEN.

1- the Happiness Advantage; positive brains are biologically wired to capatilize on pasitivity to improve productivity and peformance. (I will refrain from commenting further on each of these points cuz each one is even more of a WOW then the next)

2-The Fulcrum and the Lever (not the most accessible title admitedly but he principle works): our experience and ability to adapt within the world is largely based on our mindset and how we manipulate it personally to the most powerful advantage.

3- The Tetris Effect (funniest examples in this one): when our brains are stuck in a pattern, it can make us or break us. Good news is we can retrain those patterns, with concious efforts and little goals, to spot patterns of possibility. This is super awesome actionable.

4- Falling Up: Ever heard of post traumatic stress syndrome? They have found that there is a more powerful side road, post traumatic growth syndrome. Really. In any situation of stress, defeat, or crisis, our brains will map out multiple coping strategies, if we can learn to find the road (already mapped mind you) that is happier we are actually way stronger and resilient.

5- The Zorro Circle (my personal favorite never mind the allusions to Antonio Banderas): when overwhelmed or brains literally hijack themselves. we have to stop that and find small areas in which we can succeed and control, master that, then make our circle bigger.

6-20 Second Rule: this is the habit retraining station. our willpower is limited (finally I have evidence that when I say 'I'm at my limit' I really do mean it). We can make energy adjustments to minimize reaching the limit and maximize positive changes we want to make.

7- Social Investment (the MEAT): the greatest predictors of success and excellence is our social support network. Make conscious investments.

That was an oh so brief synopsis of the book. Achor uses just enough of a personal voice to make the research both credible and applicable. Well written. Super true. Must Read.

Dino Day

It was [pre]histoirc fun to take the kids to the Natural History Museum again. The older they get the more interesting they place gets. They were all actually interested in what we told them about the Earth being created. There is a whole new section at the Natural History Museum on the hubble space telescope. I give more credibility to Star Trek now seeing the pictures of galaxies forming billions of years away. And then the creation of the earth and all the rocks. I so love geology. But of course the main draw was the dinos. What a collection of bones!
We built a few of our own dinos. This is the view from the third floor down the other levels and a huge dino display equipped with a moving T-rex and real waterfall that will overflow when there is a thunderstorm. Thank you Arizona Republic!

a boy and his big bugs

Pretty Good

Based on things that Josh and I have learned recently from some reputable psychologist in some pretty awesome books we decided to contrive some ways for our kids to build confidence in our kids. As a good parent ought (so we learn) we contrived our children's success in such a way that they felt as though they had done it. Many days it feels like we are doing most of the work, which in truth we are in many occasions, yet they are doing it. At three and four years old I have seen the pride that comes from having done a job well all by themselves. I resurrected a progress chart and we had a pretty awesome first week. This week has not been quite as awesome, that is my fault, but I am motivate to keep doing. There was enough positive reinforcement for me too! And this post is merely a reminder of what is possible with a few little people and a dedicated momma. I had a blast working on workbooks, doing chores, washing laundry and clearing the table with each of them. As a further reminder, last week was a great week for Viv because she, of all of them, is building this confidence from scratch and it was glorious to watch! Okay, time to go and do some workbooks.

Happiness Project Month #3: Personal Accomplishment

As much as I would like to escape right now into my 'light read' and just get lost in a batch of cookies - I know I will be much happier if I stick to my goal of making goals.

It struck me that I have actually been doing rather well on this whole project. It is still alive and interesting to me. The nuance of daily doing better and monthly changing it up has kept it out of the gutter and the ruts.

Last month, wholesome recreation, was a very balancing experiment. I daily recognized how very naturally I could live my life without actively participating in all the lovely good opportunities available. My personal Jiminy Cricket was a small, yet lively and stern, bust of the bearded Brigham Young. "8-8-8" he would remind me. "Recreation is not idleness" came quickly during my mind numbing turns. "Develop and diversify" moved me away from just working on the same think I liked doing instead of something I needed to do.

All in all, it was much more revealing to think through my day at the end of it at how I actually used my leisure time - even the mental moments - to define how I was re-creating myself. I seriously lack in the "Renewal" category. I neglect very much my mind, body, and spirit. What more does that leave? That is what makes it so very disturbing. I do very much enjoy my time with loved ones. I made concerted efforts to make a more 'homey' home, even though I often got stuck up on the physical aspects more than the needful metaphysical aspects. And graciously, I learned that sleeping 8 hours, regardless of when I got to bed, made the rest of the day much much more balanced (so I slept in more, evening is the only time I have with my husband and early morning is the only time he has with the kids).

On to Month #3: Personal Accomplishment

1- Take myself seriously as a professional: acting, singing, dancing, writing - do all studiously and prepared asking for help and taking lessons to best present myself particularly for auditions this month - be the part instead of just acting like an actress

2- Onward & Upward: prepare and research applications for master’s programs in creative writing or courses I can begin to start myself on that path. Write daily preparing my manuscript, 1500 words daily

3- Gospel Teacher: topical study of Gospel principles/doctrine utilizing a general conference talk and the standard works mostly to familiarize more with the teachings of the Savior and know where in the scriptures they are.

4- Give me 5: complete all 5 books in my reading categories:

1) spiritual; Jesus the Christ by Talmage

2)whimsical: Key Lime Pie by Lori Kilpatrick

3) Self-Smart: Six Questions of Socrates by Christopher Phillips

4) The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor

5) self-help: The Secret by Deepak Chopra