Tag: Uncategorized

Is it just me, or does this story scare the hell out of you too? Would someone join with me in telling the government to mind the business of running the country and get out of our personal lives?? We’re way past walking a fine line here.

“IRVING TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Each day before the school bus comes to pick up the neighborhood’s children, Lisa Snyder did a favor for three of her fellow moms, welcoming their children into her home for about an hour before they left for school.

Regulators who oversee child care, however, don’t see it as charity. Days after the start of the new school year, Snyder received a letter from the Michigan Department of Human Services warning her that if she continued, she’d be violating a law aimed at the operators of unlicensed day care centers.“

“Snyder’s predicament has led to a debate in Michigan about whether a law that says no one may care for unrelated children in their home for more than four weeks each calendar year unless they are licensed day-care providers needs to be changed. It also has irked parents who say they depend on such friendly offers to help them balance work and family.“

Read the whole story here.

I’m not terribly regular at posting updates to my blog, although that really depends on the month and what’s happening in my life. I’m frequently reminded this is not “best practices” for blogging, so sometimes I feel a little guilty for not providing more regular updates via my posts.

This morning I’m reminding myself why I do this, and it turns out that it isn’t to satisfy anyone else’s need for regularity. Since this isn’t a business blog, and I don’t really have any topic to which I adhere as a theme, I just write about things that are on my mind. My blog topics trend around my life like Twitter trending topics do around pop culture and late breaking news. My life is just lots less interesting to the average person. The good news is that the average person isn’t following me.

I started this blog just under a year ago to satisfy my own need to start writing again, to remind myself how to take a thought, flesh it out, consider lots of angles to it and then put it down in print in some way that is interesting, if only to me.

That’s why you can find posts about my travels, my recent wedding, silly things that make me laugh, early morning thought posts (like the one you’re reading now), reviews of books I read and liked, motivational and life improvement posts, rants on things in America that frustrate me, things that are sad but still offer meaning in life, and hopefully a funny and positive perspective on it all.

For me, writing (good or bad) is cathartic. I enjoy sharing my thoughts and events with friends and family and since none of my family live nearby, the blog is a great way to do that. But like anything, putting the thought or idea down on paper (or screen) is a wonderful way to force myself to think through it and find deeper meaning than I might have, had the thought remained in the back of my head somewhere. Plus, it’s great when folks comment and offer insight and perspective on my thoughts that I would not have otherwise had!

So it turns out the purpose of this blog is really just for me and to satisfy my basic need to share. My life isn’t on any kind of schedule, so it seems appropriate that neither is my blog. But I like to think that the reader can always find an underlying current of hope, of belief, of faith in humankind. I hope people leave my blog feeling somehow happier, thought-provoked, or inspired. That would be great. But if not, that’s ok – I’m just writing it for me anyway.

This is too adorable – but thank goodness she doesn’t live in my house!

Starting your weekend off right – enjoy!

Wedding planning is exhausting! Okay, it’s not really, but wedding dress shopping is. So, we’ve decided not to do it anymore… at least for a while. Saturday we’re heading to British Virgin Islands for a week of sailing.

This is the same trip I did last year (same week too, in fact), when I traveled alone to meet a group on a ladies-only, learn-to-sail trip. Communication with Ryan was in the very early stages of dating and getting to better know each other.

This year I’m ecstatic to be taking the same awesome trip with my friend Carol Morley, sailing instructor extraordinaire. And as awesome as all that is, I’m thrilled beyond words to be taking fun trips like these with my best friend and fiancee, Ryan.

While being single all these years never held me back from doing exactly what I wanted (when I wanted to do it ;-), I know that in the future my adventures will have a new depth and richness of experience that they never could have as I wandered the planet flying solo.

We were initially going to elope on this trip (and still wonder if we shouldn’t do that!). But we are really looking forward to sharing the experience and celebrating with all of you (so we won’t ;-). I could pre-write some posts to go out while we are gone but… well, I’m not going to so nothing further until March.

Have a great weekend all, and don’t party too hard, you Mobile Mardi Gras revelers!! Joe Cain Day was always my favorite day of the season – run hard and drink one for me. Laissez Les Bon Temps Roulez!!

Who can tell with a 12 hour contrast list this:

Yesterday, I went for a run wearing only a jog bra and shorts. Ryan started putting the railing on the new deck. It was 60 degrees, sunny and beautiful.

I guess this is winter in Knoxville!!

As in all prior years, I learned a LOT in 2008. Unlike 2007, when I completed my MBA, this past year involved a lot of self-teaching and discovery.  Fresh from graduate school, having turned down all the job offers presented to me, I started the year trying to figure out how the next chapter of my life should look.  

Asking Quality Questions

I’ve long been a fan of self-improvement guru Tony Robbins because his approach not only makes sense, it has worked for me for several years. One of my take-aways from his programs comes up repeatedly when I’m working with a client or just talking to a friend or family member.

How much time do you spend frustrated at your “inability” to change an undesirable behavior or achieve a particular outcome in your own life? Think right now, and get in your mind one thing that you would like to change about yourself or your life and keep it in mind for the rest of this post.

Our minds have a brilliant way of solving our problems *when we give them the opportunity to do so*. What often hinders us is that in trying to solve something we ask ourselves bad questions and our minds in turn, give us bad answers. If you ask yourself why you can not remember where you left your keys… your mind hears “I cannot remember where I left my keys,” thereby ensuring you do not (or ensuring copious amounts of frustration before you do). If instead you said “how could I save myself some time and effort and find my keys right away?” Aha, now your mind says… well let’s see, we could start by re-tracing our steps when we last came in from the car (and so on).

Consider this one: “why can I never lose weight?” or “why I am so fat?” or any variation of that horrible question. How is your mind to answer that… because you eat too much/don’t exercise, etc.? Poor question. Try instead: “how can I lose 10 pounds by the end of the year?” Ah! Now there’s a quality question which is far more likely to yield a quality answer.

Now – consider the one thing I asked you to keep in mind earlier. Think about the quiet questions that frame that thing in your mind. Are they enabling your mind to find the answers or are they ensuring you do not come up with a solution? If you’re asking negative questions, try to re-frame the wording and tone so that they are capable of producing a quality answer.

And now, practice changing your questions as you notice them. Become more aware throughout the day and focus on asking yourself (and others!) quality questions. It’s another that I promise will dramatically improve the quality of your life.

In Part 2 – measuring the quality of our self-statements.

I’ve been scratching my head about our “global economic crisis.” It’s not that I don’t believe there is one, or that people aren’t completely panicked about it. What strikes me is that if I weren’t keeping up with the news I wouldn’t know we are in a crisis. Signs in my part of the world are up, even today (I say that with the caveat that I vowed not to look at the 401K again until 2010). My peers and I are not experiencing the pain we keep hearing “main street” talk about on the news.

What I reason is that I (like most of my peers) am a person who acts rationally and behaves in a fiscally responsible manner regardless of the market conditions. I do not suddenly become an irrational and greedy individual when the market is up, and I do not freak out when the market is down. The people who do both of these things are the people who cause the market to swing so far up and down.

People who allow their financial decisions to be guided by emotions when times are good are slave to those emotions when times are bad. People who 1. do not spend more on a home than they can afford 2. do not consume more than their incomes allow and 3. understand that buying consumer goods on credit is unacceptable are far less likely to “experience” a financial crisis in any substantial way. (Unfortunately, it’s people like my peers that shoulder the financial burden of bailing out people who are not. But that’s another post.)

Live within your means. Don’t over-spend, over-extend or make purchase decisions based on what the emotional people around you are doing. Control your emotions, don’t let them control you. You’ll live comfortably in the upswing, and you’ll sleep very soundly in days like these.