Other things besides Will...

Will, who doesn't read the blog and thinks no one else does besides his Grandpa, asked me the other day if I ever wrote about anything besides him.  I think that he might have an over-inflated sense of self.  Actually, I know he has an over-inflated sense of self.  We love him anyway.  He is awfully funny.  I told him that I frequently write about other things on the blog besides him but I have to write posts about him since I have been banned from ever putting any picture of him on Facebook (as are all of his other relatives) and my non-existent readers like his occasional exploits.  So, FB friends, I do have two children.  I suppose the good part of Will not thinking anyone actually reads the blog is that I'm allowed to write about him here.  For the record, when I was still writing for Bluegrass Moms on Kentucky.com, I was allowed to write about him all I wanted and he wasn't even troubled by excerpts that appeared in the newspaper.  Evidently, he thinks more people look at Facebook than read the newspaper.  Doubtless he is correct. 

Case in point: this photo is of Howie, not Will.

So, different subjects.  Who watches Alias?  In my Netflix TV-watching world of a day late and a dollar short, I am completely hooked on Alias.  Thanks to Jennifer Garner, I no longer wake with dread on the mornings that the temperature falls below 25 degrees, it's raining or there's ice on the ground and I have to resort to running on the treadmill.  Last Friday, we had a snow day and I watched two entire episodes pretending I was Sydney Bristow and being chased off cliffs by packs of guard dogs or through casinos by angry men with guns (I speed up the treadmill during intense action).   Sadly, I do not come off the treadmill looking like Sydney Bristow...

Sometime in January, somewhere in Tennessee

It was a balmy 45 degrees. No better time for a swim!

Boy confidence...

As we are milling about the kitchen this morning getting ready for school, Will says,

"Does this shirt make me look....


...incredibly fit?"

Mary Rollins and I just cracked up.  I promise you that for the 1000s of times in my life that I've said "does this *fill in the blank article of clothing* make me look ________?", I have never ended the sentence with "incredibly fit."

It must be nice to be Will. 

The year without a Christmas letter...Part 1

That would be 2012 (and 2010 too actually).

I just got incredibly sad that I didn't send my annual Christmas letter this year.  I guess it's true that I'm a more productive person when hassled/nudged/hinted at by my husband to get something done.  Like the Christmas cards.  And, the Christmas letter.  I think I might surprise you all by sending something like a Groundhog's Day card instead...so beware.

Anyway, I'm sad because I like reading my old Christmas letters just like I sometimes like reading my old blog posts.  It's like looking at Reader's Digest condensed version of the year.  If I had written a Christmas letter for 2012, or finished might be a better way to put it as half of a letter is on the computer at home, it would have featured these topics:  college planning, driving lessons, ballet, lacrosse, and the quirky trip Mary Rollins, Will and I took up the east coast. 

Sixteen is a big year.  Bigger in ways I never anticipated.  Sixteen means driving lessons which leads to increased independence which means I went through a period of nervously biting my nails hoping that my children arrive safely together at high school.  Technically, that period is ongoing.  Does it ever end?  Oh, and I should mention that I have two children high school -- so simple to say, "both my children are at Henry Clay" and yet high school life is anything but simple.

The end of MR's high school years are rushing at us.  We attended college fairs, began talking about majors and have begun actual schools.  I registered MR for the ACT (fun stuff here...apparently she should have registered for the ACT herself but she was, of course, at ballet and didn't have time because we waited too late for her to do it for herself.  it turns out when you register for the ACT you complete oodles of interest inventories.  Personally, I think Will and I did a great job filling out her interest questionnaire.  For example: (actual questions) would you enjoy trimming hedges and trees:  NO.  Would you enjoy watching a forest for fires? NO  Would you enjoy writing a Broadway review? YES.  I read these questions aloud to Will who cracked up and asked me if I was making them up. It was fun...too bad Mary Rollins wasn't there to answer her own questions.  When I told her later that I'd completed her career-interest inventory for her, I thought she might be a little freaked out.  I told her she could go back and change them but she decided I probably got all the answers right.  Who knew?  She described herself to someone recently as "more of an English person" and in perhaps what might be one of the nicest compliments I've ever had as a mother, "there are worse people to be like than you."  Oh well, so much for having a daughter who will be fabulously wealthy and take care of me in my old age but at least we have a lot in common.  I guess I'd better keep working.  Or, maybe she'll marry well.  Or, maybe we've done a better job with Will and he can take care of all of us in our old age.

And here is the list of colleges of interest:  Brown, Elon, Furman, Belmont, Colgate, Vassar, Sewanee, the University of Richmond, and Transylvania.  So far we've been to Elon (loved it) and High Point (no longer on above list).  And, what does she want to major in?  Art History/Arts Administration, English or maybe some sort of social science.  Perhaps one day, she'll work for Sotheby's, the auction house as opposed to Sotheby's the real estate company.

So, that is all for today for a year without a Christmas letter.  Perhaps, there'll be a part 2 tomorrow.  Or, the next day.  Check back and see.

Oh, and the real reason I never got the Christmas card done wasn't because of a lack of nagging, it was actually because I could never get an "acceptable" photo.  Acceptable photos were described to me as, one where "I am not wearing a helmet, a life vest, or a bun.  My hair is brushed and I look pretty.  Like the Brumleys Christmas card.  Why can't we have a card like that?  Why do we always have to be 'doing something!'"

Alas, can I help it if the Mathews are a little more fun than a staged photo?      





   

The Willpower Instinct

My first post in over a month is about willpower and it’s still early January.  You probably think it’s going to be one of those New Year’s Resolution posts, don’t you?

Well, it’s not that kind of post.

It is, in fact, a book review!  Of Kelly McGonigal’s newly released book The Willpower Instinct:  How Self-Control Work.  Why It Matters. And What You Can Do to Get More of It for the BlogHer book club.  Which to be honest, January is a pretty good time to read a book about willpower and self-control even though I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions this year. 

I read this book with some trepidation as I don’t normally read self-help books .  And, yet, as I read The Willpower Instinct, I found myself nodding my head in agreement, puzzling over a lot of the truths about self-control, dog-earing pages, and writing little notes in the margins like “my mom should read this.”  Ultimately, I determined that as far as self-help books go (and yes, it is a self-help book) it was pretty darn fascinating.  It reminded me of one of my favorite grad school classes.  McGonigal’s writing was insightful, engaging and relevant whether or not I think that I personally have willpower challenges.

While I read the book on warp speed since I was on a schedule for the BlogHer book club, the author, a Stanford University psychologist who teaches a course called “the Science of Willpower,” suggests that the book be read in in increments over a longer period of time and that readers gradually implement the advice she proffers and undertake the self-control exercises.  I think her advice is sound.  I enjoyed reading this books much that I think that I’m going to go back and read it again if I don’t pass it on to someone else first.    In spite of only reading it for what I shall call academic reasons, I found myself identifying areas where I fail at self-control (looking at boots on Zappos) and areas where I succeed (exercise).

 

Dr. McGonigal says that people love resolving to change.  If you're one of those people that loves making resolutions but struggle with the follow-through, perhaps taking a gander at The Willpower Instinct might help you make your New Year's resolution a true lifestyle change.  Or, if you want to just enjoy the fun of resolutions, you can join one of the Blogher Bookclub's discussions of The Willpower Instinct.  After all, you don't have to make a change to talk about changing.

 

And for the record while I was compensated by Blogher for this review, the opinions expressed are entirely my own -- always are and always will be!  Now that's a resolution that doesn't take much willpower...