Productive(ish)

Well after a total disaster as far as productivity yesterday, I vowed to use my time better today. While I enjoyed my naps and book reading I knew that I was just avoiding tasks that weren't as easy to start. Unfortunately or fortunately, avoiding my to-do list only makes me feel worse. The challenge is to take the blah feeling I get from avoiding and being lazy and translate it into action. So today has been full of small steps. I haven't completely whipped myself into shape, but I have done the laundry, unpacked from our long weekend, cleaned the kitchen, and mopped the kitchen floors. It makes me feel so good to be a good steward to my time. So here's the question of the day, why do I, and I'm guessing a few others out there, resist doing things that have intrinsic and extrinsic benefits (exercising, tackling a to do list, etc.)?

In other news....

1. Daniel and I got to enjoy our family and friends this weekend. I saw some Kappas at a wedding in the KC area. I love the opportunities life is presenting right now, but man oh man I miss being around the people who I had an established college career with. There's vitality and realness I experience when I catch up with those who were part of my K-State and Kappa story. We experienced some of life's most exciting times together and opened ourselves up to each other when we were little more than strangers and ended up finding a genuine friendship. I know I will make friends throughout my life, but the bond I have with my friends from K-State is very strong and I feel a sadness when I realize weddings and occasional phone calls have replaced day to day interactions. For everything there is a season and I'm grateful for wedding season!

2. Caroline made is safely to Indonesia. It's a little crazy that's she's thousands of miles away for two months, but I'm so proud of her. It takes confidence in a vision to set off on a trek to a new culture and country to share life with strangers.

3. I'm not meant to be a rodeo clown. While working cattle this weekend a little stampede occurred. Two bulls started fighting in the pen we had corralled the cows into. When one of them got beat he decided to move along at a forceful pace. This caused all the other cows in front of him to do the same. When I heard Lynn, Daniel's dad, yelling I thought he wanted us to move with the cows closer to where we would load them. No, no he wanted us to get out of the way. I have an odd tendency to have a deer in the headlights look when I see large animals coming my way (this oddly means I have been in enough situations to pick up on this tendency). Luckily Daniel yelled at me to jump on the fence and I listened thus avoiding being knocked down by very large and very fast moving cattle. I only have a couple bruises on my shins to show for my life saving jump to the fence. Better than the broken body that would have been the result had I not gotten out of the way. Moral of the story, appreciate the beef you eat because working and herding cattle is not an easy job.

4. I am in the process of reviewing textbooks for my class next year. Below are the two different samples I got. If I had to choose just on packaging the job would be done, but I should probably look through the books. I'll let you know which one I choose.