Child Labor Laws Good and Bad

The problem that I have with most laws is their unintended consequences. While no one wants to return to the audacious conditions that occurred prior to the child labor laws, I believe that we are hurting our younger generations in other ways by not allowing them the opportunity to work.
What if we allowed youth to work? Even if it was only part time. There are many jobs that young people could perform without putting them in danger and still giving them the opportunity to contribute to the community. Work is a vital part of teaching our youth work ethics and moral character.  Principles that are becoming more and more rare among the new workforce.  Many of our young people are entering into the workforce with no experience and an unrealistic expectation of what work is. Had they the opportunity to earn a small wage they might even appreciate the work their parents perform in raising feeding and housing them.

Reporting in Week 6

This week has been fairly good. I have learned that when I am making dinner I tend to pick a lot more than I thought I did. No, I take that back I knew I did, but I didn't think that picking counted toward the meal. So, I have discovered that Sunday's may be my one day of eating a little more than rest of the week. I have also seen a pattern emerge on Fridays. Fridays seem to have become a night I have to watch because for some reason since starting this program it seems we have something lined up involving sweets every week. I am not about to turn them down, but again. I eat less and afterwards I move a little more. One of these days I will have to write a detailed list of what I am eating on a daily basis, but for now I am more conscious of my snacks which consist of a few chips, but mostly crackers. Wheat thins are my favorite. I love the nutty flavor and the crispness. Wasa whole grain cracker breads are good too. I have been able to flip that mental switch that tells me that hunger means I am starving. Now when I feel hungry it only means I need a little snack... a couple of crackers with some cottage cheese and sour cream dip.

I truly believe that if we are not moving a lot during the day we don't need a lot of food for the day. If we want to eat more we need to move more. If we don't want to move more then we need to Eat Less.

I used to tell people that I had my food storage and I carried it with me where ever I went. Sadly it was all in my stomach. Now that I am losing weight I can't say that anymore, thus my early entry on Food Storage. :) It feels much better to have a food storage that I am not carrying around.

Moving more- I finally ordered and received my tai chi workouts for beginners starring none other than the Grass hopper himself, David Carradine. While I was taking my mind body class I rented a similar video with Grasshopper and it looked unimpressive, but when we tried it, Holy Cow!!!, it was impressively effective. I am going to try it out and see where I will fit it in to my routine. I am kind of thinking that Mondays and Tuesdays may be good, because they are days I struggle to want to do something strenuous, and even though tai chi doesn't look strenuous it is, so I will use the deception to my advantage. Monday morning I did not do because of the holiday. But I picked things back up on Tuesday on Wednesday morning my unofficial weigh in on my own scale put me under 170, but on Thursday I drank an extra bottle of water, which happened to show up in my sauna suit on Friday morning. I am not sure that I have sweated that much in a 30 minute time frame since aerobics for football and wrestling in high school. This week I did increase the intensity of my exercise ball routine in the evenings. I work it until I almost break a sweat, just enough to warm not enough to burn.

I have not been feeling super duper tonight so my normal exercise ball routine was abandoned, but tomorrow should still bring me closer to my goal weight of  269lbs.



Week 6 273 lbs. Watch it drop!



Eat Less, Move More. Becoming physically what I already am mentally.

Reporting Week 5

Eating Less- This week I did not feel much of a temptation to eat anything in particular. I did decide that saving sushi might not be safe so I did not split my meal up, but we took it to go so I could spread my lunch out over about 2 hrs. So, I didn't feel too bad about not saving half of my meal. On Sunday and Monday I did have a serving of fruits and vegetables in a couple of pieces of strawberry rhubarb pie. Snacks were crackers and cottage cheese mostly, I don't remember anything out of the ordinary. Again the trick has been watching my portions and eating slower, enjoying the flavors of the things I do eat.

I have found that I have more energy now than I have ever had. I believe two things are making this happen: One I believe that eating less allows my body to use energy in ways other than digestion. And two, I believe that by exercising energy is stored in the body allowing us to use it when it is needed.

Moving more- This week I almost lost it completely. Mentally my brain shut off almost completely. I was repulsed by the thought of doing more "exercise." I am not a big fan of exercise as I have said before. Exercise is just one means I can use to increase my movements, so for now I am settling for exercise routines. I would much rather go on a hike or play some sports, but for now I need quick results so I will stay with it. I am going to try some different routines such as Tia Chi, or possibly Yoga. Anyways back on track. I tried using the exercise ball routine for Monday and Tuesday. Monday was a very abbreviated exercise routine and Tuesday was not very effective in producing a sweat, but it did keep me moving until I could mentally get refocused. I also came to the realization that when we exercise and we start getting "the burn" it means that we are burning calories big time. So the burn is our friend when we want to lose weight. I am also realizing that stretching outside of the exercise routine is very good for keeping the body from storing toxins in the muscles. I am amazed at how well my core muscles feel. I am developing a flat stomach as I have never had before. It is an incredible feeling.

If we justify our emotional reactions then we have no hope of changing our reactions, because through justification we give ourselves the approval to do it again. That is how abuse works, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, etc. It is justified and repeated. That might also be how emotional eating becomes a habit.

I had a dream that I was sitting down and suddenly I realized I was missing something....my GUT!!!!  Eating Less and Moving More. Becoming physically what I already am mentally.

I am looking forward to tomorrows weigh ins.

276.8 lbs Watch it drop!

Reporting in Week 4

Beginning of Week 4

Eating Less- This week was pretty good except for Super Bowl Sunday. I ate pretty good, although looking back I did not eat as much as I thought I did except the pheasant fingers that I made, those were yummy and mostly protein, so I was not super worried. I also heard that spicy food increases your metabolism so I ate a few jalapeño poppers :) That to counter the few chips and the small piece of butterscotch brownie I ate. 

I did notice this week that I was eating faster than I have been, but I have been able to control my portions, so all is pretty much going according to plan. Thursday I faced the temptation of emotionally eating after receiving a call from my daughter crying and telling me she was in an accident. Thank goodness everyone was okay. I feel God had his hand in that when I saw the vehicles involved. I did increase my munchies slightly, but tried to stay away from a lot of carbohydrates. I feel like I actually have control of my auto intake reflex. Once again we ate out on Thursday night and I asked for a togo box immediately and put half my dinner away before even taking a bite. 

As a note about emotional eating: I was talking to my wife and she suggested that emotional eating was probably related to that period of development when we are seeking comfort from our parents and they put something in our mouth to calm us down. I believe we have to find within ourselves that emotional trigger that causes us to eat emotionally and decide to turn it off. This might be easier said than done, as the trigger may be caused by something very emotional. Once we do decide to turn it off we will have to replace it with something physical, spiritual, and or emotional. Some may find that exercise works for them others may find prayer, meditation, reading, or acts of service work for them. But I believe the answer lies within ourselves. 

Move More -After large losses the first 2 weeks and almost no loss on the 3rd week I was afraid of a let down in momentum. I realized it would come but I felt like I should have at least lost a pound. Oh well, I decided that I was feeling better than I have in years so I would push myself past the wall. Besides my wife thinks I am starting to look hot ;~) It is nice, most mornings she will get up and do exercises with me. We are now up to 30 minutes exercise every morning, so we are feeling the burn pretty good, by the 3rd 10 minute segment we are doing about half of the workout in their modified mode. I am debating whether to change my routine to something else at this point. Doing the same thing day after day seems a bit boring, and part of increasing my movement I think should be increasing the types of movements as well, engaging new muscles or the same muscles in different ways.  In the effort to the different types of movements I decided that I would also intentionally not park at the closest stall when I go to a store. As a note I did sit on the exercise ball while watching the Super Bowl so while I ate some goodies I was burning calories at the same time. 

Tomorrows weigh ins should be kinder to me. 

End of Week 4 279.2 Watch it fall!

Eat Less, Move More. 

Becoming physically what I already am mentally. 

Unions Giving Your Power Away

Unions interest me. I see the cover picture of unions as a very powerful concept, the voice of the people joining together to force change for the better. Yet something has always bothered me about them. It started in earnest when I worked in Las Vegas for awhile and had to work at night for our own safety because we did not belong to a union. Before that I didn't feel comfortable with the idea, but I was not really against them either. As I have looked further into my own feelings my understanding has increased and I have come to a understand why I feel the way I do...besides the threats.

The idea of a union to increase the power of your voice is kind of alluring. It kind of reminds me of Ursula from the Little Mermaids. Ursula recruited those who wanted something better than what they had, but in order to get what they wanted they had to give up their power they already owned. She knew that once she had their power, she had nothing to worry about. She would never have to give them what they really wanted. She was EEEVIIIIL!!!!

I see unions as a threat to the individual. When we trade our voice in for a collective voice we lose our own voice. In the beginning, unions look good. They have great ideals, promises of a living wage, job security, and the power of your voice to reign in bad business practices. Once they have your voice, what you think is not nearly as important as the Union's agenda. You join because together the collective voice has more money, more power to get the attention of politicians. However, as each Union gets bigger the voice does get louder, but you do not recognize that voice as your own, instead of the collective sounding like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, it sounds like Roseanne Barr singing the National Anthem.

As Unions join with other Unions suddenly what you thought was a good thing starts to feel like you have no control whatsoever. It is then that you recognize Ursula for who she is. Your dues have fed this monstrosity that you have to feed in order to feed your family. Now you start hearing that tune of Doctor Proctor playing in your head. You know, "Doctor, doctor have mercy on me. Your cure is worse than my disease...."

We can not afford to compromise our individual power, by handing it over to any group. Like a candle on its own there is little light but two individual candles together work to synergize their power. One large candle may burn brighter than one small candle, but it does not have the same synergistic potential as many smaller candles working together on their own.

Welfare: Don't Feed The Bears

I was watching a documentary on Yellowstone Park the other day. They talked about how the government built up Yellowstone National Park as a tourist destination. One part of the story really caught my attention, mostly because it was an example of man messing with the natural order of God's creations. Yellowstone bears were being fed by tourists and several tourists were being mauled and some were even killed, if you can imagine that.
Well, as I see it if you warn people and they ignore the warnings then they must suffer the effects of disobedience   to their own good judgement and common sense. That can be deadly in some cases... Anyways, the government in its desire to make it safe for not so brilliant people to view the wildlife designated certain areas where they would dump food for the bears. Suddenly the number of bears began to decline. They noted that the bears when they did not have to hunt for their food lost their skills to hunt and they relied more on the food that they were given, which did not give them the nutrients that they needed to survive their hibernation.
So, it is in nature, so it is with men. Help those who need help, but if you take without offering and honing your own skills you are likely to lose the skills you have and when the "winter" comes, you will not be ready to survive. An easy meal may keep you alive temporarily, but in the long run, it will leave you malnourished and wanting for more.
It is our responsibility to help our fellow man, it is also our responsibility to take care of ourselves. There is a fine balance between giving and taking that nature allows for without destroying both the giver and the taker. A giver that gives too much or a taker that takes too much is destroyed by the contempt developed by those who take without gratitude. 

Reporting In Week 3

End of Week 2

This week I started off Sunday with a little larger dinner than I have been eating, and finished with desert. Key was only having small portions. Monday was normal except we increased our formal exercises to approximately 20 minutes. I do not officially weigh in until Saturdays, but I do weigh in morning and night. The night weigh in is sometimes discouraging, but overnight I can fluctuate almost 4 to 5 lbs. This helps motivate me to maintain my eating less. I want to make it clear that I eat less, but I have not starved myself either. I didn't need all that I was eating, so cutting back has merely been cutting excess eating. I believe that as I loose the fat my energy levels are going up. I am thinking this might be because the energy I wasted in digestion is now being able to go to other activities.
I realized that one of these weeks I would hit a wall as far as the scales go, but I am not discouraged because I am still feel myself getting trimmer. Drinking water has been critical as I can nearly feel the fat wash away as the water goes through me, which is quite frequent I might add.
On Thursday we went out to eat at Left Fork Grill which is one of my favorite places. DeeAnn and I will sometimes order a single meal and split it, especially when it is their Prime Rib, but this time I had their braised beef short ribs. Very tasty!. If we had not asked for a togo box at the beginning of the meal I might not have stopped myself from finishing it, as it was I got 2 meals out of it and felt good enough to share a piece of pie with DeeAnn.

End Week 3

I was kind of counting on this week being a minimal loss after the first couple of weeks, but I am still hopeful that I will break the 280 mark tomorrow. I am designating Fridays and Saturday mornings as my big push days to break through those barriers. So, I will eat carefully today and exercise good tomorrow, with my sauna suit before weigh ins.
One more thing I am going to be adding to my routine is a regular bed time about 10:15. This one although I feel it will be good will be harder for me mentally, because I like television at night. Oh well...So let it be written so let it be done.

A Practical Approach To Food Storage

Over the past several years we have been thinking about food storage. This was not a possibility when our obligations were going to our creditors. However, once we became debt free we realized that our next obligation was to plan for our future. Part of that planning involved food storage.

Food storage has been taught to us since we knee high to a grasshopper. My mom used to make all kinds of things out of wheat. I don't know that I was all that fond of it, but it left an impression on me nonetheless. So, when I thought of food storage I thought of wheat, rice, dry milk, sugar, and beans. Not real exciting things but when you are hungry they will fill your belly and are nutrient filled.

DeeAnn and I had differing opinions on the matter...kinda. I have found that more often than not our differing opinions are simply the way we approach the subject, in other words, it is simply a matter of perspective. Neither one of us were excited about what was suggested by the church, but I felt that if we truly believe in revelation and that the foundation of our faith is built upon that rock, then that should be our priority. However, I realized as DeeAnn did that it was not the most practical solution, because those items are not on our everyday menu. 

So, after looking at several different options, DeeAnn was inspired with a plan that satisfied, not only what we felt was our obligation to be obedient to the revelation for the church, but also would be practical for our eating habits. 

We decided that we would gather 3 months supply of the, what we call, hardcore extreme storage that was suggested by the church. This would be used for extreme emergencies, although we would incorporate certain things into diet so as to be able to digest it on a regular basis if necessary. So, by going to http://providentliving.org/ we found the tools to calculate what we needed and we have been working on gathering those items needed for our Extreme food storage.

Next we decided that to put some distance from us and the Extreme food storage, we would look into freeze dried and or dehydrated foods. Foods that have a long shelf life, but are more practical for what we use on a daily basis. We decided that Freeze dried was what we liked more and so we have chosen to go with  http://dailybread.com/ there are other companies out there as well, but we liked what we saw with these guys and the food was pretty tasty. They have a plan for 2 or 3 meals per day so you can tailor a plan to your needs and wants. Again other companies do the same, but we liked daily bread. 3 more months done and neither one would we have to worry about for 25 years. 

Lastly we decided to store up 3 months worth of every day foods our green beans, cream of mushroom soups, what ever we normally would eat week to week. 

Once these 9 months are taken care of we can then add a month to each level and have a years supply with little effort. 

This way we figured would be cheaper for us and more practical because it allows us to eat the things we like, while still having access to the things we need. We also figured that by the time we saw ourselves dipping into our secondary reserve we would be able to have enough time to work our extreme storage into our menu. 

My Thoughts on Finances

It is a well known fact that financial woes are the number one reason for divorce. First we have to recognize that financial problems have little to do with money, but we focus on money because money is easy to blame. We think we don't have enough or we think that our spouse just spends too much. More often than not our financial woes are simply a matter of ignorance, pride, and seeking comfort where you can not find it.
One of the reasons that we struggle is because we do not know how to communicate our emotions when it comes to finances and finances are all about controlling emotions. A man wants to be everything to his wife. He wants to feel confident and competent when it comes to running the affairs of his family. He wants to provide the necessities as well as the wants of his family. He does not want to know that he is falling short of his own high expectations. In the case of finances pride and ignorance seem to go hand in hand. Women on the other hand have the desire to feel secure and protected from their dragons. They place a high expectation on their man, because every woman knows that she married superman. She wants to believe that her every wish is at his command. Emotional spending might be blamed on both the man and the woman for these reasons.
Most of us grew up being taught how to tie our shoes, how to recognize the alphabet, and how to do math, but we do not learn about finances. Finances were done in the "office." Out of sight of the little people. All we know is mom and dad had money or they didn't have money. We never saw the games they played or the negotiations that they made in order to keep their household running. We have grown up for the most part without really learning the principles that govern money...especially budgeting.
Budgeting is where reality hits. As I said men do not want to know that they are failing and women do not want to feel unsecure. When we budget we have to face the facts. We have to step out of the fairy tale where money grows on trees and as long as we have checks we must still have money.
This is where a man and woman have the opportunity to grow closer together than any other way. When a husband and wife sit down together the woman encouraging her man, showing complete faith in him, beautiful things can happen. When a man sits down with his wife and they can create a workable plan, he will experience a hope like no other.

Once you can resolve to dealing with the real emotional issues involved with finances then you are ready to find the tools you need to make it as easy as possible. There are many ideas and many methods that have worked for others, but when it comes to comprehensive budgeting and planning tools I don't know of anyone with a better plan than Dave Ramsey. I highly recommend finding him on your radio or at least visiting his website and buying a couple of books. The principles he teaches are those we have been taught in the gospel all our lives, but we did not understand how to do it.  http://www.daveramsey.com/
My own experience with his program has been nothing less than miraculous. We went from going $200 dollars in debt every month to saving $1000 and paying off another $700 in 3 months. We went gang busters at first then we slowed down, but we were still able to pay off  $13,000, making less than $40,000 per year, and we did it in 2 1/2 years. We also remodeled my daughters room replaced a transmission and bought a used car in that same time period.

There is nothing more frustrating than working hard only to find out your debt load has increased. What is even more frustrating is watching someone do the same stupid things we were doing, and knowing that they will have to find out for themselves that it doesn't have to be that hard.

Reporting In Week 2

End of Week 1

This week has been a stepped up effort in my experiment on Eat Less and Move More. I have not done anything super strenuous, but have settled in mentally to my new eating habits and have continued to increase my movements in different ways.

This week I have increased my movement in a couple of ways. First, I did the full week of 10 minute workouts with my buddies from the Biggest Losers dvd. They have been most helpful. At first I felt very uncoordinated and I believe that is about as far as I have gotten in the past. These 10 minute work outs have given me hope because I didn't have to endure the humiliation of a 30 minute or one hour work out of never finding my coordination. Another mental hurdle climbed and conquered.
Second, I decided to use my exercise ball in the evenings while watching Television. I do not do any real organized exercise routine, but I bounce and roll on the ball I use it to stretch and to work on my abs, whatever comes to mind as I am just trying to keep moving. I figure tonight I might increase my moving some in anticipation of weigh ins tomorrow morning.
I am unsure of my losses this week but I am sure that I will be close to breaking that 180 lb mark. I am noticing how much easier it is to breath and I have more energy than I have in years.

As far as eating less, this week I have concentrated not so much on what I eat, although I have noticed that I am more inclined to eat healthier when I slow my eating down. So far, I have started my breakfasts off with eggs and toast and been full with 2 eggs and a piece of toast. Mentally, I have been trying to recognize when I am filled without stretching my stomach. My goal is to shrink my stomach so that less will be needed to fill it up. I am anticipating that there will be days in the future where I may go to all you can eat buffet. My challenge instead of seeing how much I can eat, but how many different things I can eat. Smaller portions will be the trick and not doing it very often which wont be hard because we don't go to them very often anyways.
My snacks have consisted of cottage cheese, crackers, cheese, and my favorite hint of lime Tostitos. The trick has been to slow down my snacks. What normally would take me 5 minutes to scarf down, now is done in half an hour to 45 minutes. Instead taking handfuls out of the bag I take one at a time and I savor them. I have noticed that the sharp cheddar is easier to savor than cottage cheese so I need less of it to satisfy my craving for flavor. Although I did mix cottage cheese and sour cream with ranch and that was good as well. Another very important thing has been my water intake. I have a 59fl oz container that I fill up every morning when I get to work and I drink 2 to 3 of them throughout the day, that is not to mention what I drink at home. It is amazing how I can feel the fat just washing away as water and gravity takes its course through the body.

I am no expert, but I do believe that each of us has the answer within us as to what our body needs. We often will turn to others to find the answer we seek because our own emotional fears of dealing with who we have become. Be assured that it is not important how we see what we have become so much as it is that we see ourselves for who we really are. God did not send us here to wallow in our misery. God sent us that we might have joy. Be true to yourself there are harder things in life than losing weight, losing weight will simply be the unveiling of what God and probably everyone else around you has seen all along.

End of Week 2

Week#2   282.8 lbs

My Thoughts On Weight Loss, Dieting, and Exercise

Before

Recently I joined a Biggest Loser weight loss competition. I have always maintained an attitude that I do not like diets, nor do I like exercise. To me those words are temporary words, words that lead to epic failure. As I  prepared for this contest I knew that I would have to make some fundamental changes in my thought process.
First I would have to change the way I thought of food. And second I would have to change the way I thought of exercise.
As for food, I used to eat whatever I could and I ate until I was full. I like food and I thought the natural thing to do with food you liked was eat more of it. Whenever the pangs of hunger hit it meant that I needed food and I needed it now. It really wasn't that I ate huge, monster amounts of food. It just was that I ate more than I needed to. I did not live an active lifestyle and I ate like I did.
As I look back I have had several things that have influenced my mental change. One most recently was a radio show that I just caught maybe about five minutes of. A gentleman named Gabriel claimed that he had weighed over 400 lbs and lost all of his excess weight without dieting. He claimed that we have emotional switches that control our weight gain and weight loss. That some emotional stressor causes a part of our brain to think we are going through a famine and it causes our body to store fat. He claimed that if we could get rid of that stressor that our body would naturally lose the weight. I am not sure why, but something rang true and I know that most of the battle is in your mind. Something clicked inside of me and I realized that I could eat less and still enjoy eating.
I promised that I would not go on a diet, but I would eat less of what I do eat and I would introduce some new foods into my menu. After I started this process the next step came when I started fixing breakfast one morning and I found myself asking if I had fixed too much. At that point I realized that mentally I had changed the way I thought about food. If I like what I am eating I now eat it slower and keep it in my mouth longer. It is not a race to eat as much as I can, but a challenge to keep the flavor lasting longer. Lately I have been enjoying my food more and when I am done I don't feel that stuffed feeling that I am sure caused my body more stress.
I have always felt that the stress of worrying about our weight was more dangerous than the weight itself. Which I still believe, but I also realize that the weight causes its own stress on our body and carries with it its own dangers. So, my philosophy has been if your weight bothers you get rid of it, but don't worry about it, just do it.
As for exercise, again another mental hurdle had to be overcome. That one came about a couple of years ago while taking a class one the mind body connection. We were given an assignment to increase our movement. We did not call it exercise because we did not want to get in a routine. Instead we were to try different types of exercises, from aerobics, Thai-chi, dancing, walking, or whatever increased our movement. This eased my mind on exercise which again I knew I could not maintain a routine for the rest of my life. I like variety and I know that a routine would not feel natural to me. Instead I just had to move more. Now exercise is just a tool to help me move more.
These hurdles have helped me start the process of becoming physically what I already am mentally. My Moto has become Eat Less and Move More and Become Physically what you already are Mentally.

Ouch!!! Watch it fall.

Week #1 I dropped 12 lbs. 

Free Enterprise and Personal Discipline

There are many who want to discredit Free Enterprise and Capitalism because some make a lot while others make little to nothing. I believe that Free Enterprise and Capitalism are being blamed for the greed of Commercialism. Even at that it is often overlooked that poverty in a Free Enterprise System has a higher standard of living than in any other system in existence today.

It does not matter what system we look at, throughout the world of ideas, greed will always play a factor in the haves and the have nots. Those who promote progressivism, socialism, or communism can not dispute that the upper echelon of society will still control the majority of the capital. The only difference between these systems is who has control of the capital and how much they are willing to allow others some stake in the game.
I believe that despite the frailties of Free Enterprise it is still far fairer than any other system in that you do not need to be a part of the political elite to own property and or influence the direction of the country, all you need to do is find a need and fill it.
Commercialism however has a tendency to take a more aggressive line and creates needs out of wants and flips priorities on their head. Living with Commercialism requires a personal discipline, but I believe that with personal discipline comes personal growth and the opportunity to increase in wisdom and understanding.

For Better Or Worse Is No Cliche

Divorce is never a good thing, but the lesser of two evils. God does not expect us to stay in a relationship that potentially is damning, but he does expect us to stay in a relationship that is potentially exalting. In this life we often see things in our spouse that is annoying, and some times even destructive, but honestly we must look at ourself and realize that we ourselves do things that are annoying and destructive.
Sometimes, when we are hurt by the actions of our loved ones we think that divorce is the only solution. It is not! When we have entered a covenant with God we become perfected in Christ. None of us are perfect to our covenant, we may do well, but if we were perfect there would be no reason that Christ should atone for our sins. We do our best and we work with our spouse to overcome issues along the way. That is what our covenant is and that is what exalts our relationship.
When we enter the next life most things that are important to us here will not matter there. With that in mind we should truly seek to minimize our own annoyances here in this life.
For better or for worse must never be turned into a trite cliche.
However, when abuse of any kind is involved I believe the potential of the relationship is damned. Abuse has no place in a temporal or eternal relationship.

Dad's Bread Recipe

Dad's Bread was famous in our neighborhood. I remember we had an auction once and one loaf went for $35 dollars. My dad was kind of embarrassed about the fuss, but we all new it was good. Dad didn't ever go straight off of a recipe, but this was pretty much it, except he mixed the wheat with 50% white flour. I purposely have left out one secret ingredient, but then again how do you measure love?

2 Tbls Yeast in ½ cup warm water
5 cups hot water from tap
7 cups unsifted whole wheat flour
2/3 cups honey (or molasses, or 1/3 cup each)
2/3 cups cooking oil
2 Tbls Salt
5-6 cups more whole wheat flour

1. Sprinkle yeast in ½ cup warm water. Do Not Stir
2. Combine 5 cups hot tap water and 7 cups flour in Mixer Bowl and mix on LOW speed, while you combine oil, salt and honey (or molasses) in a separate bowl.
3. Add the salt, oil and honey to the mixture in the bread mixer, and continue to mix until everything is well blended.
4. By this time, the yeast should have had plenty of time to brew. The yeast should be on top of the water. Add to ingredients in the mixing bowl and blend thoroughly.
5. Add 5-6 more cups of flour. Let the dough knead on LOW speed for 10 minutes
6. During this time, grease four bread pans. Oil hands and the counter. Remove dough from mixer ¼ of the amount at a time. The dough will be a little sticky, but will easily form in to loaves by shaping on the oiled counter and drawing in four ways to center of dough to form the loaf. Place in pan with folded side to bottom of pan. Watch the bread so that it does not rise more than 1/3 in bulk.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. When bread has baked, remove immediately fomr the pans. For a softer crust, brush tops of loaves with oil or butter. Cover with a kitchen towel to cool.

Variations
Sweet Rolls: pat out desired amount of basic bread recipe to ½’ thickness. Sprinkle on cinnamon. Sugar, raisins and nuts. Roll up and slice off about 1” thick. Place in muffin tins or pans. Bake at 350 degrees 20 minutes. Add glaze, if desired.

Hamburger or Hot Dog Buns: Add rye flour to whole wheat half and half. Form dough into buns. Brush on egg white and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds.

Other Things On My Mind

Other Things On My Mind will will feature some of my families favorite recipes and some of my hobbies. I hope you enjoy them as they come.

Knowing Your Weaknesses is a Strength

Knowing your weaknesses is a strength. Dwelling on them is a weakness. God gives us weakness that we might be humbled sufficient to realize our need for an atonement. Once we realize the need for an atonement then He can reveal the reality of Jesus Christ.

The Eternal Christmas Gift Of Forgiveness

The greatest gift we have been given is not the gift of forgiveness but the gift to forgive. God sent his only begotten son to make it possible that we not live with the guilt of being a victim. When we forgive others it is not releasing the offender from responsibility, but releasing us from the offender so that we can be healed. As we celebrate this Christmas let us not forget that the greatest gift given was not wrapped in fancy paper and laid under a tree, but was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. The master gift giver is Our Father, whose gift was and is eternally ours.

Life Is About Struggles

Everyone of us comes into life bearing the responsibility to struggle. Each of us has our own struggles we deal with, the struggles we have always look much harder to us than anyone else. Some of us have to deal with the struggle of poverty, other of us have to deal with the struggle of wealth. Each are different struggles but each in the end are a struggle. Neither the rich man nor the poor man will be able to overcome their struggles, until they recognize the need to struggle both will be poor. The lame man has his struggles and the whole man has his struggles. Until they look beyond their own struggles they will both be handicapped.
Struggles are an integral part of growth. The butterfly that does not struggle out of it's cocoon will either die inside or it will be crippled, for it gets its strength from struggling into this world. As we face our challenges in life we have to ask ourselves if we are looking too closely at our struggles instead of  looking past them.
The freedom to succeed requires a struggle. Life is hard, it is whether we are willing to struggle or not that will determine whether we have the strength to become who we are intended to become.
To let a weed grow requires no struggle, but their is no pleasing fruit either. That which we plant and struggle to grow bares fruit that is worthy enough to give us nourishment.

Christmas Trees

When I think of Christmas, presents are not always the things I remember the most. Yeah, I remember the time we snook into one of my siblings rooms and played with our Pfisher Price Barn and Airport. I remember sneaking into mom and dads room to discover their hiding places, but when it comes to the real spirit of Christmas I remember when we would hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. A couple of years we got a permit and cut our own tree down. Oh yes, the hot cocoa and chili, tying the tree to the top of the van, smell of pine sap on our hands, left a lasting impression upon my mind.
We would take the tree home and decorate it with ornaments, usually the glass balls of varying colors. It was exciting and it was my dad's way of ushering in the Christmas Season. He was not much of a present buyer, I suppose I grew up to be like him in that way.
I don't remember what we did on my mission for a tree. We spent most of our Christmases at members homes and talking to family as they celebrated at home. It was good.
Getting married was a new adventure in Christmas. Our first Christmas tree was a sad little house plant that made Charlie Brown's tree look majestic. We wrapped garland around it and tried putting ornaments on its branches, but it would have none of that. The next few years we had no money for trees, so we waited until a couple of days before Christmas when the tree lots would abandon their lots leaving trees behind. We were so happy to have what ever we got, it was so much fun.
 A few years later we could afford a tree so we bought them, but the prices seemed to be going up so we would search all across the valley to find the best cheapest tree we could find, and we brought it home. I think the funnest part of the Christmas tree was hunting for one. Then one year after discussing the price of trees we decided to commit a near unpardonable sin...we bought an artificial tree. it looked real enough when we bought it but it certainly did not smell real and I kinda ached inside whenever we brought it out, but really did not detract from the season too much so we used it
Then one year my reminiscing of Christmas tree permits brought about the desire to go for a live tree again, this time instead of putting money into the tree lot we would buy a permit and spend the money on a new adventure. So, for the past four years we have gone back to the real Christmas trees, and the adventures in mountains for trees.
Christmas trees have always been apart of our Christmas celebration and I will always remember them for the memories we have created along the way. Someday when the children are grown I hope they will take with them those memories that will lead them to honor the tradition of the Christmas tree.

Family A Christmas Gift

God intends us to be happy eternally. We often times think of the challenges we have in this life as cruel and unusually, as God's punishment for our bad behavior.
 I do not believe that God seeks to punish us. He loves us. He wants us to succeed. Our agency is our greatest asset to perfection as well as our greatest obstacle to perfection. We can not reach our full potential without the full potential to fail.
The greatest potential source of happiness comes from our family. Is it any wonder that such a source of happiness might also be such a source of equal pain and heartache. Is it any wonder that as a reward God would extend that happiness eternally? Our marriage need not end at death, but may continue on through the sealing power of God's priesthood. It only makes sense that as we are a child of God we would grow up to be like him.
This is just one more Christmas gift, made possible through the atonement of Christ.