Planned Inefficieny and Voluntary Simplicity

Long contemplative post ahead. You have been warned!

So I talked about my "homemade" workouts a couple of posts ago, like strenuous housework, moving furniture, etc. The motivation behind these workouts is multifold, but can be summed up in four words: I hate organized exercise.

To wit:
Took a weightlifting class my freshman year in college. Apathetic to it. Passed with a B-.
Went running with a roommate frequently during my junior year. Only worth it for the stories she told.
Went on walks frequently with Mat while we lived in Sacramento. This was mostly to relieve my sheer boredom, as we had one car and I had no job. This is also where my computer/internet addiction formed as a way of passing time.
After Annika was born, I couldn't find the time anymore. Self-made routines of sit-ups, leg lifts, and other equipment-less exercises didn't cut it--they were boring. Yoga DVD--also boring. Other exercise tapes--couldn't keep up.

The point of the last paragraph? I'm a freak who gives things up if they stir up my apathetic tendencies. I have *strong* apathetic tendencies. (I'm also noticing that I'll do really mind-numbing exercise as long as I have someone to exercise with.)

I think I could do walking--in fact, I did for a while about eighteen months ago. I had a good friend to walk with (hi Anna!) and we talked about anything and everything. Unfortunately for me, I'm content with a low level of activity and Anna was more motivated than I was and actually started running. I couldn't keep up, so I quit (sorry Anna!). And it's too dang hot around here to just take a walk anytime I can get the kids organized enough to get out the door. I think I could do a treadmill, if we had the funds or space. Ideally, I could read and walk on the treadmill at the same time--bliss!

The point of all *that* was to explain my current exercise plan. In the American Heart Association's health booklet (don't ask me where we got it--it randomly appeared on our bookshelves a couple of moves back), they suggest doing simple things to incorporate more movement into our lives--parking further away from the store door, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, making multiple trips to take things from one room to another in the house. They called these pseudo-workouts "planned inefficiency."

Planned inefficiency works really well with the voluntary simplicity movement I've been looking into lately. My investigation started because we're on a limited budget right now, so I'm doing as much by hand as possible and I wanted to learn more about what I can do by hand. I've also been feeling like we have too much *stuff*. Much like Hermione in Harry Potter, if I run into a problem, the library is the first place I look for solutions. To my surprise, in searching to do more things by hand and to lose some of the "things" that are taking up space, I ran across a few books on the voluntary simplicity movement. The essence of the movement is choosing to consume less. (This does NOT mean voluntary poverty. Just conscious use of our resources, including the time, energy, and money it requires to maintain our stuff.)

The results so far? I make bread--no mixer, no bread machine. I stir it by hand--great workout for the upper arms--and I knead it, which can be a full upper-body workout if I'm in the right mood. Planned inefficiency exercise, simpler lifestyle because I'm not consuming electricity or space with a large bread maker. (Confession: I wasn't all that good at making bread with the bread maker anyway.)

In keeping with the voluntary simplicity movement, but also because it's cheaper to consume less electricity and fuel, we've been riding the available public transportation when possible and I combine all my errands into one gigantic run. When I bring the children with me, the errand running turns into exercise--an exercise in patience as well as restraining them from killing each other or whining excessively. Most of the time they're remarkably well-behaved, but they have about a 1.5 hour limit and then they're *done.* It's hard to get all the grocery shopping and banking and going to Target for other household necessities done in that amount of time. Planned inefficiency (parking far away from the store doors) and voluntary simplicity (doing it all in one run to conserve fuel), hand-in-hand again.

I'm also trying to consume less TV, and helping the children to consume less too. I don't think there's anything wrong in watching educational programs--just in the amount that we've been watching it. So the kids are down to two hours a day, spread throughout the day as rewards for doing chores and being obedient, and I'm determined to stick to my three shows (Life, NCIS, The Office). Well, I might add The Mentalist to that--it looks smart. My other bargain with myself is that I have to do something while I'm watching TV--sew or some other craft.

My greatest time consumer is the computer. No, I take it back. It's the internet. I check my email and my Facebook account a zillion times a day. I need to get over that. Twice a day is more than enough. It's a very difficult habit to break. I'm an information-gatherer and there is so much information to gather! Besides, if I break the habit now, I'll have more time in my day for the activities I prefer--reading real books, for one--and more time in the future to do things like have a garden and can my own produce and fun things like that. (I really, REALLY want to be a grown up with my own house so I can do these things and have my food storage and not have to worry about it anymore!)

Anyway, the two desires (to exercise and to live simply) combine well. Living simply means putting more work into some areas of my life (if I make bread every day, how long will it be before my arms look like a bodybuilder's? I don't think I have room in my freezer for that much bread) and simply enjoying the rest of it. To get a better overview of the whole idea, I'm reading Georgene Lockwood's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Simple Living. She also wrote The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Organized, a book that changed my organizational habits for the better. For better bread baking, I have Beth Hensperger's Beth's Basic Breads book--it's detailed enough that I get a good idea of what I'm doing the first time around, and has enough variety that I don't get bored. Mat said the recipe I'm currently using has produced the best bread yet (White Mountain Bread, pg. 39), so we're gonna stick with that for a while. I also learned Monday that I can only multitask two baking items--three puts me over the edge into "Oops! I guess it's done now!" breadmaking, resulting in...*ahem*...a very dark crust.

So here's today's question, plucked deep from amidst my ramblings: Is it really better to work smarter, or is there more benefit to working harder?

Where were you three years ago today?

Ask Afton how old she is today and here is the answer you would get:

That's right, today is Afton's third birthday!

And we also got to celebrate her first successful day in nursery without a diaper! She has been a little reluctant on the potty training, but something about the idea of turning three seems to have gotten her motivated.

All the celebrations took place with just our little family since all the grandparents are out of town. We made her favorite breakfast, scrambled eggs with cheese, and dinner is going to be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. (Mom will be making sure that we eat a lot of fruit as well.)

Here we can see the wonderful cake with frosting of her newly declared favorite color: Yellow.



And here is the loot she will shortly be collecting. Yes, that is a hand towel. Annika chose a towel set for her fourth birthday and is very protective of her hand towel, so we thought we would get Afton one of her own, once again yellow.

Karie's thoughts: Three years ago yesterday, a nurse said "Oops! I didn't mean to break your water!" How grateful I was that she did break it--I was tired of carrying around the massive amount of amniotic fluid that Afton had decided she required.

Of course all of this got Karie and me to thinking about what has happened to us since that last child birth experience. We have moved once, I have finished a Master's degree, we have potty trained two children, and despite our best efforts we both still have full heads of hair!

Happy birthday, Afton!

Inspiration and Homemade Workouts

First, I have to share what Annika and Afton looked like when I brought them home from a playdate not too long ago. It's not easy to see, but they have eyeshadow on. Their friend got into her mother's makeup and got a little creative on my girls. At least we caught them before she found the lipstick!





Anyway, after posting about the general condition of my house, I realized just how much I ignored my girls' closet. I would shove things in there and close the door quickly, hoping it would all stay put. Not the way to live, really, especially since I had some general organization already going in there. So on Thursday, I pulled everything out of the closet.

Everything.

The seventy-two hour kits...

...the bins full of outgrown clothes, shoes, too-big clothes, towels, baby toys, sports equipment...
...and other sundry items. It's amazing how much you can fit into one closet.

After a couple of hours of sorting, reorganizing, and deciding to let go of a few baby clothes (an entire 15-gallon garbage bag is now busting at the seams in my room, awaiting a trip to DI), the closet now looks like this:
And this:

Even the girls were impressed! And now I have all the holiday and gift-wrap stuff together, the 72 hour kits in the same general area, and the baby clothes and bedding all in one place. And there's room left over! I'd love to fit our extra car seats and stroller in there, but that's a no for now. If things go as we hope they will, we'll be moving into a bigger place in the next few months anyway.

The overhaul of the closet came towards the end of a pretty active week, for which I am proud of myself. On Monday, we went to the library, riding the Orbit (the free transit system that runs on local streets). Tuesday I moved furniture and deep-cleaned my living room. Wednesday I toned my upper arms by making bread (kneading by hand) and tortillas (you're supposed to roll them paper thin with a rolling pin--it takes some serious upper-body strength/pressure!). Thursday was the closet, and Friday I did the cleaning I skipped out on the other days to do my big projects. Saturday I did the laundry, hanging it up on the lines out in the back. I wouldn't count it as exercise, but it was nearly 100 degrees Farenheit with a *lot* of humidity. I think I lost a pound of water weight, at least....

But now all my big projects are over and I have to think of other ways to be active. Maybe I should take a closer look at my own closet. Hmmm....

What do you remember about me?

My friend Cami did this on her blog. I wasn't tagged, but decided to do it anyway.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Phoenix can do a fireworks show!

There are few things I have enjoyed about living in Arizona. Having family close by and enjoying a wonderful ward have been the saving graces of our time here. However, I have enjoyed two very intense fireworks shows in our time here.
This 4th of July we didn’t have Karie with us because she, along with parents are all up in Salt Lake City preparing for her brother Paul’s wedding tomorrow. Unfortunately we just couldn’t afford to get the whole family out there. So I’m alone with the girls for the next three days. I kept them up late tonight to watch fireworks. They loved it, even thought they were only able to be interested for the first half of the show before they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer.
But the best part for me, was that once again the monsoon season and the 4th of July combined for an amazing lights display! We live about three miles south of Tempe Town Lake, which does one of the major fireworks shows in the valley. So we can walk about 300 yards to a school baseball field and get a great view of the show. To add to the fireworks there were major thunderstorms going on to the north and west of us, so the whole show was being back-lit by lighting. It was awesome. The same thing happened two years ago.
So I don’t have a lot of good things to say about living in Phoenix, but the fireworks shows are pretty good!

The Twenty Year Tag--Mat

Karie is out of town for the next three days. She is in Salt Lake City for her brother Paul's wedding tomorrow. So I have a few minutes on my hands as I allow the girls to watch more TV than is good for them.

20 years ago I:
1. Was also ten years old.
2. Lived in Arlington, Texas.
3. Loved to play with G.I. Joes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Transformers.
4. Was heavily involved in Cub Scouts.
5. Was just discovering pop music as I would hide under the covers at night and listen to a top forty count down on a Walkman. I still get flashbacks of lying under the covers with the head phones on when I hear certain 80's songs.

Ten Years Ago I:
1. Was Twenty Years old.
2. Had just surpassed the one year mark on my mission to Los Angeles, Ca.
3. I actually burned a "white" shirt that was more yellow than white from a year's worth of exposure to the L.A. smog. (For those who don't know, it is a tradition in some missions to burn a worn out article of clothing at certain time milestones: a tie at six months, a shirt at a year, etc...
4. Was in the Los Angeles Stake zone, Wilshire ward. Our area covered the entire downtown Los Angeles area.
5. I was either a district leader with Elder Jackson as my companion or a zone leader with Elder Paje as my companion, I don't remember the exact timing, but the transfer was right around this time.

5 years ago I:
1. was 25 years old.
2. was living in Sacramento, Ca. (I had to cheat and look at Karie's post).
3. was anticipating the arrival of our first child, and still trying to get the fish smell out of our apartment. (That's a story for another day).
4. was working as a "Target Protection Specialist" a.k.a. a security guard for a Target store.
5. was the second counselor in the elders quorum presidency.
6. was getting the first ideas in my head that maybe I'd rather go back to graduate school than spend the rest of my life wearing a pretend police uniform.
7. enjoying laundry days, because we would go over to Vlad's house to do laundry I would spend the time playing NCAA football on his PlayStation2.

3 years ago I:
1. had just finished moving all of our stuff out of our apartment and into Brother Brown's house.
2. Was working at Kindercare as the school age teacher and reading tutor.
3. was registering for my first semester of classes at ASU.
4. was serving as the Varsity team coach, and was helping plan the boy's high adventure trip that I wasn't going to go on, because they were going to be gone over Karie's due date with Afton.
5. was blissfully unaware of what I was getting into by starting school again.

So far this year I:
1. Have also turned 30 years old, but a good six months after my lovely wife.
2. Finished my second semester in a row of 15 hours of graduate classes and internship.
2. Finished a 6oo hour internship as an oncology counselor, which I loved!
3. Graduated with a Master's degree in counseling.
4. Passed two different national cumulative exams for counseling.
5. Was named a nationally certified counselor, which sounds really nice, but means nothing without a state license, which is a much longer process.
6. Arranged a pirate party for my wife, despite my own aversion to theme parties.
7. Found myself working at Kindercare again, but only until my license is approved and I can start a counseling job.

Yesterday I:
1. started my work day at 6am which involved stopping and cleaning up a bloody nose and teaching 7 year olds how to play Yahtzee.
2. went grocery shopping with the family.
3. tried to make some networking contacts in an effort to find myself a job.
4. played catch with Afton.
5. stayed up until midnight just because I knew I didn't have to be to work this morning!

Today I will:
1. try to make a list of things to do with the girls today and tomorrow so they won't miss their mom too much.
2. make sour cream chicken casserole for dinner.
3. attempt to talk Annika and Afton into a nap so that they can watch fireworks tonight.
4. spend the day being eternally grateful that I was born and live in the United States of America.
5. Probably watch the Olympic swimming trials with Annika, because she seems to love the Olympic sports. (She hates football and baseball, but gets really interested in gymnastics and track)

Tomorrow I will:
1. sleep in as long as the girls will allow me.
2. watch a baseball game.
3. perhaps take the girls to the park before it gets too hot.
4. take the girls out to lunch.
5. realize how grateful I am to have Karie as a partner and wish that she were at home to help me.

In the next year I will:
1. find a job that I will be willing to refer to as a career.
2. move my family into a larger living space thanks to my new career.
3. make a trip to visit my parents and see my sister's new house.
4. help celebrate Afton's 3rd birthday and Annika's 5th.
5. buy myself a new TV.
6. gain new and interesting experience as I start my new calling as an assistant ward finance clerk.