Musings by Melissa

It’s getting to be that time of year again.  The time of year when the Eefsting family ventures south to visit my parents who have rented a nice three-bedroom condo on the Gulf of Mexico and who are willing to have our family fill two of the bedrooms.  What could be finer?!?

Normally, we couple this vacation with an excursion to Texas or Florida.  But this year we’re just going to the Gulf and back.  (And spending some time combing the beaches for shells and swimming in the pool, of course!)

Instead of visiting Florida or Texas, we’re going to take the kids to the UP (that’s Michigan’s upper penninsula, for those of you out-of-staters) this fall.  It’s been about seven years since we’ve been there, and we’re way past due for another visit.  And seven years ago we had one in diapers, so hiking to various waterfalls wasn’t really something we could partake in easily.

But in the meantime, I’m planning our trip to the Gulf.  I’ve researched geocaches to do along the way.  I’ve made a list of things to bring in the van to keep the kids busy while we drive.  Carl’s loaded our new books on CD into our MP3 players so we have lots of stories to listen to.  I think we’re all set.  Since we’re not going to Texas this year, I won’t need any referrals for a Plano cosmetic dentist, but Wayne did mention that he wants to get in to the dentist before we leave.

And so, sunny south, get ready!  We’re almost on our way!

Those of you who know me know that I’m always reading at least one book, and that it’s rarely a fiction book.  (The recent exception being “Gone with the Wind.”  I love to learn.  This love of learning has led me to homeschool our three children.  And I hope that my love for learning is contagious!  May they always enjoy learning new things, and may they never be afraid to pick up a book to try to learn a new skill.

Now that Carl is in 8th grade, his post-high school educational decisions are looming in the not-too-distant future.  The more I hear about the so-called “Christian” colleges, the less likely I am to encourage him to attend one of those.  And while Carl is being raised to think things through and stand up for what he believes in, I don’t know that public university is a place where he would thrive either.

And so, I’ve started looking at other options.  Most people would be surprised to learn that other options do, in fact, exist.  One such option is obtaining an online degree.  Western Governors University (http://www.wgu.edu/online_it_degrees/programs) is an example of this. 

Western Governors University is a nonprofit accreditied university that was started by 19 governors in an effort to provide greater access to higher education for working adults.  The university focuses on mastery of a subject in order to pass a subject.  A student can’t pass just because they’ve put in their time and paid the bill.  They must master their subject matter first.

Because of this, when a student has mastered the material, they are permitted to continue at their own pace.  This allows for those with work experience (or a natural apptitude) in that field to progress faster than they would otherwise be permitted.

Tuition is about half of a typical university because WGU is a non-profit school.  Depending on the course of study, tuition is roughly $3000 per semester.  And if students are able to accelerate faster than normal, they would save even more!

The programs at WGU are challenging because they require mastery.  This makes it very appealing to motivated, independent students. 

I would need to do more research into this before suggesting it to Carl, but it sounds like it could be a very good fit for him.  Either way, it is definitely an option worth considering.

Honestly, my life hasn’t changed much since the economy has taken a big turn for the worse.  I’ve always tried to pinch a penny while enjoying life at the same time.  So, when people complain about only getting to eat out once or twice a month, I think, “And that’s something new?!?”  We’ve always eaten off-brands and picked up meat that expires tomorrow because it’s cheaper and I can cook it today or freeze it for later.  We’ve almost always dabbled a little bit in gardening, at least enough to eat fresh veggies in the summer months.  I don’t think we’ve ever had cable.  And cereal is a “treat” for our kids.  (They’re used to homemade muffins or scrambled eggs for breakfast.)

So no, aside from our retirement funds dropping quite drastically, this recession has not really affected me much at all.

However, I can see the affects on my husband.  I know that in the back of his mind he worries about trying to find another job if his office is down-sized out the door.  I can see the stress on his face sometimes, and he’s got quite a bit of seniority at his job.  He hates job hunting, and the thought of going through an Executive job search or any other type of job search at this point in life does not appeal to him at all.  (I must say that I am not worried at all about this possibility.  His job is fairly secure.)

So, what’s a wife to do when her husband is stressed about something that likely won’t happen?  The same thing she’s supposed to do when things are going well!  Be loving, supporting, and kind.  Be the help-meet that God created her to be.  Encourage him when he’s down.  Pray for him and his job. 

No, it’s not always easy.  Especially when stress causes tempers to flare.  But this, too, shall pass.

I recently wrote about what I’m doing to try to get my procrastination under control.

Well, I’m also trying to get my weight under control.  This is something I’ve always struggled with, and it was only made worse by having to sit with my ankle up all last summer.

I can’t say I’m winning the war on weight yet, but I feel like I’m making progress.  I’ve seriously cut back on my sugar intake.  I haven’t cut out all sugar because there’s a little bit of sugar in my pizza crust to make the yeast “fart.”  ~grin~  And I do allow myself one (or maybe two) desserts a week.  But rather than sweeten my  morning oatmeal with sugar, I’m using a mashed banana.  I’ve found a tea that I enjoy without sweetener. 

I always thought I would enjoy running, but alas, every time I start I get terrible shin splints.  ~bummer~  I’m thinking that spending more time with my elliptical machine might help with the shin splints.  Now that my ankle is healed I am looking forward to riding my bike again this summer.  I haven’t been able to seriously ride it because of my ankle, but now that that pain is gone, I’m looking forward to summer!

And so, I’m going to keep trying to become a runner.  I’ll never do marathons.  I don’t really have the time or the desire to do that.  My big running goal would be to run a 5k.  But we’ll see if I can overcome these shin splints first.

I’ve been putting off writing this post.  (Get it?!?)  But ’tis the time.  I’m sure that all of us suffer from some form of procrastination.  Some people procrastinate on everything and some people procrastinate only on the difficult or time-consuming stuff.   I fall in that latter group. 

On my weekly to-do list are things that I need to do every week, like clean the bathrooms, plan our meals, and plan our lessons for the week.  But I also include things that are of the “more difficult and time-consuming genre.”  Things like send my family’s picture to the free directory submission for our church’s directory of who’s who.  (Sending photo’s via the computer is not one of my strengths!)  Or writing two lessons for our Wednesday night church program.  (This takes thought and time, and for me, alone-time.  Something that is quite rare!)  Or planning the geocaches that we’re going to look for on our vacation.  (Again a time-consuming thing)

I can’t say that I’ve overcome procrastination, but I’m working on it, and my to-do list helps considerably.  I guess I’m the type of person who enjoys crossing things off a list. 

I think it also helps that I have two to-do lists.  One is for the stuff I’m working on this week, and the other is a list of what I hope to accomplish this year.  When I make up my weekly to-do list, I glance through my yearly list, and add a couple things from that list to my weekly list.  This allows me to procrastinate on the other stuff on my annual list while focusing on one or two specific things on my weekly list.  (I hope this is making sense!)

Overall, this has also helped considerably.  It allows me to prioritize my annual list every week, and it allows me the freedom to choose what projects I’m going to work on next.  I usually have a couple “annual projects” going at all times.  One difficult project and one time-consuming project. 

This has helped me.  Perhaps it will help someone else.  Now… to go cut those squares for my next quilt…

Alicia is under the weather.  We’ve all been healthy all winter so far, but a couple days ago I baked chocolate chip cookies, and I knew something was amiss when she said she didn’t want one!  That’s definitely not like my daughter.  She’s been running a fever – 100.5.  She’s tired.  She’s not interested in food.  And her eyes don’t have that sparkle that they normally have. 

It’s no secret that I love my kids, and I hate it when they’re sick.  Although I do love the extra time snuggling and making them comfortable.  I guess that’s one of the perks of being a mom.  At least until I come down with it, and find myself up too many nights in a row, unable to sleep, with bags under my eyes, and reaching for the wrinkle eye creams!  Ah, but it will still be worth it.

Alicia, honey, I hope you’re feeling better in the morning.  I love you!

I’ve been told for years that I need to read this book … Gone with the Wind.  But it’s such a big book that I knew I’d never have time to finish it while I was on Christmas break from college.  And besides, having just finished finals, who wants to spend their vacation with their nose in yet another book?

But I recently heard that the book is celebrating it’s 70th anniversary.  So, I thought to myself, “It’s now or never.”

Having never seen the movie, I had no idea what was behind the next page turn.  I had no idea, even, of the overall plot.  And I’m sure that made reading the book more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

I found myself in a love/hate relationship with Scarlett, the main character in the story.  Because she was the main character, I wanted her to succeed.  But because she was a selfish, step-on-anyone’s-toes-to-better-myself kind of person, I wished her failure. 

I respected her for her honesty.  She often said she wanted nothing but money, and lots of it.

I disrespected her for her greed.

I respected her for stepping up to the plate and taking care of things when need be. 

I disrespected her for being, what would today be called, an enabler.

She married for all the wrong reasons.  And I hated that.  I felt badly for her husbands.  I felt even more badly for the children that resulted from these marriages.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the historical parts of this book.  I often wondered if they were true.  If so, then my comprehension of that time period was quite askew!  As Scarlett would say, “Northerners would never understand our way of life.”   And yes, I’d have to agree with her on that one!

As I finished the next to the last chapter, I thought to myself, “Finally!  She finally gets it!”  And with great eagerness I read the last chapter, only to find myself wishing I had put the book down and picked up a magazine about face cream reviews instead.  Oh, maybe it wasn’t that bad, but it didn’t end as I wanted it to.  But I suppose I could say it ended as it should have ended.

A well-written book.  Definitely one worth reading.

Most Wednesday nights at church the kids play some sort of games in the gym.  Occassionally they will make crafts instead, but most of the time, “It’s Gametime!”

Our game leader is always coming up with new stuff.  This past week was no exception.  The kids paired off, and each pair was given a ball, like a playground ball.  For the first game they turned back-to-back.  Then the first person had to turn and pass the ball to the second person, that person had to grab the ball and turn and pass it back to person number one.  So, the ball was going around both people in a circle.

The second game was similar.  The two players were still back to back, but this time the first player had to pass the ball to the second player by putting it through their legs.  The second player grabbed the ball and had to pass it back to the first player by putting it over their heads.  This time the ball was circling their torsos the other way.

At one point in the second game, one of the kids needed a potty break, so an adult stepped in.  After one minute of “playing” this game, my friend remarked, “This has got to be the best fat burning exercise there is!”  It was like doing toe touches up and down for a minute!  She was pooped!

The moral of this story?!?  Why spend buco-bucks on a ton of space-eating exercise equipment when a simple playground ball can get you up, moving, and having fun with your kids?!?

I recently received a Kettlebell.  I was very excited about receiving it since I had gained quite a bit of weight while I was waiting for my ankle to heal after my ankle surgery and because I had heard positive things about it.

I was surprised when I opened the package to find that the Kettlebell was much smaller than I anticipated.  I received the five-pound Kettlebell, and I guess I thought it would be bigger.   My hands aren’t big, and I had a bit of difficulty sometimes slipping them into the handle part quickly.  Perhaps the ten-pound Kettlebell would have been better for me.

Anyway, I started the exercises, and I was pleased with how they went.  I liked the fact that each exercise was over in seconds and then on to the next exercise.  Then the whole group of exercises would repeat.  This was beneficial because if I had difficulty with an exercise, I knew it’d be over in a matter of seconds, and then I’d get to do an exercise that was easier for me.

I was a bit disillusioned with the fact that it took a bit longer than anticipated.  I remember hearing that the workouts were only 20 minutes!  But in reality, yes, the workout is only 20 minutes long, but add about 20 minutes for warm-up and cool-down.  I thought this was slightly deceptive.  Not a huge deal, but it just made me feel like I had been lied to.

I continued faithfully with the Kettlebell until I got to the point in the exercise where it was more than my bum ankle could handle.  That was a tad discouraging because I had hoped to stick with it.  But when I had to sit out for more of the exercises than I could do, I knew it was time to shelve the Kettlebell until my ankle was stronger.

One of the bonus things is that my kids enjoyed doing the Kettlebell with me.  We only have the one bell, so we had to take turns.  Even Justin would make a Kettlebell for himself out of k’nex so he could join in!

And now, winter is upon us, and it’s COLD in our family room!  Too cold to go do a workout, but once it warms up down there, I’m sure I’ll grab the Kettlebell and start swinging it around again.  I knew it was working my muscles because I could feel it the day after my workouts.  I’m excited to try it again and see how much better my ankle does now that it’s been a couple months.

Is this the best piece of exercise equipment on the market?  Well, I’m not the best person to gauge that, but I think most exercise equipment is beneficial if you have the perseverence to stick with it.

Alicia with Kettlebell

Well, Carl is now old enough to be an official deer hunter.  He does have a couple rules he needs to follow though.  He can only hunt on private land, and he must be hunting with a licensed deer hunter.  And so, the morning of November 15 found him sitting in his treestand with his gun, his safety harness,  and his dad!

They saw lots of deer, but they only saw one buck, and they didn’t have a clear enough shooting lane to take the shot.  (He couldn’t shoot a doe.)  They managed to stay warm and well-fed.  And to listen to the stories Carl has told since then, I know they made a lot of happy memories. 

Needless to say, even though he didn’t become a “mighty hunter” on this past hunting trip, Carl is still counting the days until he can take his gun back into the woods again.