Sunday Stuff

Today was Scout Sunday. We'd forgotten to have the boys dress in their uniforms. So Tara brought them back home to change while I helped the Elders Quorum prepare the sacrament. Usually it's our boys who are helping the Teachers Quorum. Then they asked me to bless the bread, too, since the guy they'd asked hadn't shown up yet.

After church Erik and I delivered a little cake with a dinosaur Hot Wheels car to Spencer Esplin. He seemed pretty excited.

Tonight we invited the Byrnes over to visit for a while. It was fun to reconnect. We've had fun making new friends in Rexburg but there's nothing like an old friend.

Peaceful Saturday

Today we slept in and lazed. After lunch we went to town. I picked up "The Jungle Books" at the library; got a new yellow shirt at DI; an extension ladder at Ace Hardware; and an antenna mounting kit at Radio Shack. Now I just need somebody to help me figure out how the bare coax on the roof and that in the garage relates to each other and to the other rooms in the house. This afternoon I started reading a book called "The Peacegiver". It was recommended to me by a couple of different people. It's not like I thought it would be but I am enjoying it. I'm taking notes on things that impress me on my www.GoodReads.com feed.

Still Habitualizing

I missed blogging again last night. Tara and I were at the temple from 5-8 pm for our weekly shift at Clothing Issue. After we finished we went out to Millhollow and shared a Ham & Swiss hot sandwich. When we got home we watched the end of a Simpson's episode with the kids then finished reading Garrison Keillor's "A Christmas Blizzard".

Lessons Learned

Last night I slept poorly. I made a mistake at work. A professor had a computer that kept crashing. I told him that I'd back up his data, upgrade him to Windows 7, and we'd likely see the crashes go away. I didn't realize until I had already reformatted his computer and began to restore the data that I'd inadvertently backed up his part-time-professor-wife's data instead. I was sick thinking of how to face him. In fact, when I finally did meet with him and break the news he stomped off angrily. I was busy removing a virus from another professor's computer so I just let him go. Luckily it ended well later. He apologized for stomping off -- admitting he was more upset about the situation than at me. We both agreed that we'd learned lessons; me to be more careful and less hasty and him to keep his own data backed up just in case. All's well that ends well, right?

Getting Classier

I just returned from teaching Excel 1 to adults. Next week I start a 4-week session to mostly the same group -- with a few not carrying over and a few joining anew -- of Excel 2. So, the question is, if I had called the first class Excel 101 would the second class be Excel 102 or Excel 201? What's up with those college-type naming conventions? Hopefully I'm becoming a better teacher each time out and getting classier, to boot.

Habit Hiccup

Last night after the Court of Honor I helped Mike Stahl remotely with his computer. We started working at 9:30 p.m., my recent usual bedtime. We finished up just after 10:15 p.m. I didn't even think of blogging.

Fittingly, when I awoke this morning, one of the first things I read was this article:

The One Deadly Sin of Changing Habits
http://zenhabits.net/2010/02/deadly-sin/

Here's a snippet:

Some tips for avoiding the One Deadly Sin:

• Just start. Not feeling like doing the habit today? Tell yourself all you have to do is take the 1st step. Usually the 2nd step will follow, but if not, at the very least you got started. And that’s what matters most.
• Do it, no matter how small. Need to exercise but don’t have much energy? Do it for a few minutes at least. Need to meditate? Three minutes will do.
• Do it, no matter how badly. Want to form the habit of blogging? Write a quick and dirty post that takes five minutes of writing, no proofreading or formatting. Quality doesn’t matter when you’re forming habits — doing it matters.
• If you fail, don’t beat yourself up – do it the next day. Let’s be clear: missing one day won’t kill your habit. Feeling discouraged about missing one day, and then missing the next and the next, is what will kill the habit. So let go of the guilt and just get back on your horse. Start again, immediately.
• If you don’t do it the next day, do it the day after. If you miss two days, don’t let yourself miss a third.
• Figure out what’s stopping you. If you find yourself struggling and missing a day or two, think about why. What’s getting in the way? How can you adjust for that?
• Plan ahead. Life gets in the way, but if you know something’s coming up, think ahead and be sure to get your habit in.
• Engineer success. Knock down the barriers and set it up so it’s harder to fail than to actually do the habit. Public accountability is a good way to do that.

Good words of wisdom. See you tonight!

Decadious Daughter

Today was Emily's 10th birthday.  I bought the movie "Up" for her.  It wasn't due in until Wednesday the 24th so I created a graphic of the cover with the words, "Coming Soon to a mailbox near you" superimposed.  She was pretty excited when it actually showed up today.  After a dinner at her favorite restaurant (Craigo's) we came back, ate some kitty cake with Butterfinger ice cream, and watched the movie.  It ended at exactly 9:17, 10 years to the minute from when Emily joined our family.

Daily Diary?

I've been thinking a lot lately about keeping a daily diary. I recently read that Wilford Woodruff kept one for 62 years and that he amassed over 7,000 pages! When I mentioned that in our Family History class today Bishop told of Brother Powell having kept one for 30+ years. Then Brother Pierce mentioned that I ought to be able to keep mine online since I'm a tech guy. I don't know if I'm ready for my personal thoughts to be out there for the masses. But what the heck. I'll give it a shot.

Erik and I went home teaching to the Esplins this afternoon. Jacob, Erik and I went to a Stake General Priesthood Meeting tonight where they talked about home teaching. Here are some of the notes I took:

Jacob Barzee - Home Teaching
Abraham 2:9
D&C 20:50, 59
-Encourage members to live the Gospel
D&C 38:40
D&C 42:12

Father Barzee
D&C 107 - Aaronic an appendage of Melchizedek
Home Teachers are to be "true messengers" of Jesus Christ
Pray before you go into their homes
D&C 64:33 - Be not weary...out of small things...

President Johnson
Are we disciples of Jesus Christ?
John 13:34 - A new commandment...love one another
ref? - Which is the great commandment?
Moroni - ...after they had been received unto baptism...that they might be nourished by the good word of God...
CHI - HT is a priesthood responsibility
3 Nephi - ...not everyone that saith...
Can we bend our will to God's?
How to learn to like it:
Ether - ...i will show them their weakness...
Moroni - ...come unto Christ...
Explicitly ask God to help you love the families.
Maxwell - ...as you submit your wills to God you are givving him the only thing that is really yours to give...

President Wightman
You must obey AND serve to be exalted.

Tomorrow is Emily's 10th birthday. Tara made a cake; as per tradition. Emily wants Craigo's for dinner.