August started off with Eric, Glen, and me traveling a very smoky road to Oregon to my mom's, where Glen and Eric got to meet Kyle's wife, Melissa, as Kyle and Melissa were on the end of their week long visit to mom. It's always so good to see them as it doesn't seem to happen as often as I'd like.
(smoky road to Oregon)
I had 2 days at home, and then I headed off to meet up with Deni so we could attend BYU Education Week.
One of the series of classes that I attended was written up in The Church News--Strengthening one’s foundation through diet, exercise and sleep. I really liked the classes and the speaker, Dr. Matthew Morgan:
So, things that I have already incorporated into my life from the lectures I heard (and most coming from Dr. Morgan's 8 classes that I attended):
I now sleep with socks on to keep my feet warm. I don't have "screen time" for an hour preceding bedtime.
I use low light in the evening.
I am better about going to bed about the same time every night.
I focus on my breathing (eliminating other thoughts) and this really helps me to get to sleep faster.
I have been riding my bike 2 miles 3 days a week kind of at a leisurely pace (concern for my knee acting up is part of the reason), but now I sort of do some HIIT (high intensity interval training) where I pedal hard for about 50 seconds and then go easy for 10-20 seconds. On the way home, however, it's more like 20-30 seconds high intensity to 20-30 seconds recovery.
I am listening to more uplifting music first thing in the morning (especially David Archuleta singing "Glorious"). I had done that before after attending Dr. Morgan's classes in past Ed Weeks, but had gotten out of the habit.
I am spending hardly anytime on my main social media source facebook (though I sort of started that before Ed Week, but now it's even less time--I aim for less than 15 minutes/day).
I have found some new educational podcasts to listen to (though for some, I'm only interested in a few podcasts and won't listen to others) and have added them to my spotify account:
Radical Personal Finance
You Need a Budget
Hardcore History
50 Things that Made the Modern Economy (hate the title, but it has some great topics)
Brain Science with Ginger Campbell, M.D.
Money for the Rest of Us
Some other podcasts that were already on my spotify account that I enjoy:
Hidden Brain
The Missing Chapters: History's Forgotten Stories
Sawbones
And I signed up to take free classes at Coursera.org. I've already done their Understanding Obesity class and have now started their beginning Chinese class. The classes are free unless you want credit for it and then there's a charge.
And the big "find" is Google Keep (keep.google.com) where you can make lists and get reminders and such. No more little pieces of paper floating all over my house. That looks like it will be really helpful to me.
While I was in Utah, Glen went back to school, attending teacher trainings. They had called him a week or so before school started to ask if he could teach one extra class--so he has 3 US History classes and 1 world history class on his schedule this year. The first day of school was after I was home.
After I got home we attended the "all class reunion" that they have every year here. It's really a great idea.
thought we were done taking "the first day of school" photos
July was a wonderful month. Full of games, heat (Glen had to put in a new swamp cooler pump during the big heat wave...so glad he's so handy), regular activities, irregular activities (like our 4th of July party we had on July 5th), and 2 birthdays. Happy Birthday Kaellen and Heather!
Another "handy-man" thing that Glen did was put in a 30" extension mirror in the bathroom--perfect for me to see the back of my head while I'm fixing my hair. I've been wanting one for a long time. So glad I finally ordered one.
He's also had to spend time dealing with blocked lines to our dishwasher and has been working on scrapbooking his years teaching theatre.
Glen got a call asking if he would consider teaching theatre 1/2 days at the high school as a "critical needs" teacher. He said yes, then a week or so later he was told that they actually found someone to fill the position, so he was no longer needed. Less than 24 hours later, Glen received a phone call stating that they needed a 1/2 day Social Studies teacher and was he interested. He said yes.
Pending school board approval and assuming they don't find someone else to fill the spot (ha ha), he'll teach 1 block of World History and 2 of US History. It's really perfect. He would teach 1/2 days on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, then teach all day on Thursdays and have Fridays off. He would be able to sub during his prep (1st block), in the afternoons, and on Fridays as well. I am also planning on subbing.
Just learned Glen in in the IMDb, if you know what that is, because he helped someone looking for an actor for a project they were working on, so he was an assistant casting director:
