CrAzY BuSy!!

 

Welcome to a new week...that is not so new!

 

Busy is an understatement! Mason is playing football so until October 19, he will be practicing 3 days a week with games on Saturdays, in culinary school one day, and regular school the other 4 days. Add to that, he is working on recipes to demo at the TomatoFest in September, and mandarin recipes for the Mandarin Festival in November as well. Mason's cooking demo at the TomatoFest will be his one year anniversary of his very first cooking demo, isn't that a cool milestone? When Mason is busy, you know what that means - I'm busy. Dave's job has had a few twists and turns and the most uncomfortable of them are the extra hour a day he has to work on M-W-F.

 

On a bright note, we have a holiday weekend coming up, and my work is taking off - I'm learning SO much! I'm counting the days to the upcoming weekend when I will get to paint rocks at the river while Dave and Mason are at a gaming convention. Stay tuned for some new RiverLights Images. I am also working on another idea, something to enhance our community and connect with more people on a personal level. Watch for good things to come.

Unsettling Winds, They Blow

Good Morning Friends,

 

Today is off to an unsettling start, the air quality is awful due to many fires that are burning in CA and Idaho, and we are expecting thunder storms over the next three days. The rain would be great, but for now, it is looking more like dry lightning, which would not be good. Another contributor to the weirdness in the air today is the realization that more communication is not always better. That might sound like, "Yeah, no duh! Sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut!" Well, Dave has been dealing with a difficult situation at work, and I'm usually of the belief that asking for help is the way to go. I have been encouraging him to go to his superiors and get some help. Well, he finally took my advice and what do you think happened? He not only got nowhere in terms of help/relief, the situation has gotten worse! His boss did not offer help with his workload, he did not offer to get him assistant type help, he told him he was under orders to take an hour lunch and two 15 minute breaks (keeping in mind, he is not getting his work done now as it is), AND he has implemented a new policy that the entire office must stay an hour longer on M-W-F to do physical training. Holy Cow! They added 3 more hours of work on to his work week! So all this boils down to, he is not only where he was when he started in terms of his stress and workload, but now he has even more piled on him. Maybe I should have expected this from the military as it's not a typical employment situation, but I just can't believe people could be so consumed with their power that they can't see when someone is legitimately struggling. Sadly, this makes me think the high number of Soldiers committing suicide may have asked for help to only be turned away or minimally not offered the help they asked for. Dave is not suicidal, but he is really having a tough time and the message he got when he sought help was, "Keep your mouth shut or it will get worse." I don't even know what to say...except I'm inclined to call his commander and give him an earful - can you even imagine what kind of effects that could create? Ugh, I just feel awful about this for Dave, and Mason and I...after all, how can we not feel the effects of an unhappy Dave?

 

On a bright note, Mason is loving the 4th grade. He has a great teacher and loves his school. One of the things we started doing every morning is 5 minutes of a visualization meditation exercise in addition to a locational exercise that helps Mason feel more in the present moment both physically and mentally. I thought he would resist this but it turns out he is totally digging it! He has been getting up early and asking me each day, "Mom, are we going to meditate this morning?" If Mason can learn to use visualization to help create the life he dreams of, what a wonderful gift I will have given him. I'll keep you posted as to if his enthusiasm keeps up or the novelty wears off. So far, so good. I'm thinking it would be good to get Dave in on this morning exercise, heck, it couldn't hurt!

 

Let's get to getting this new week off and running. Just because it started off unsettled, doesn't' mean it has to run the course this way. I tell Mason all the time, "You get to choose how you feel and you are in control of if things are good or bad. It's all in how you look at it and the actions you take to make changes." This is a good time to take my own advice. Have a great week!

 

Kathy

With Honor and Respect, Welcome Home Nick Burley

Hello Friends,

I am not on time and I am not in my usual jovial mood. A few weeks ago I learned that my dear friend lost her step-son in Afghanistan. Nick Burley was an Army Specialist and only 23 years old. Today I went with her to greet Nick at a small local airport. It was a very emotional experience, and as hard as it was, I'm glad I went. Not only to support my friend, but to pay my respects and honor not only Nick, but all of our service members and their families who gave, and continue to give so much in the name of our freedom. I'm one of the lucky ones, my husband came home to Mason and I, but it was very real to me today how differently things could have played out for us. With that said, be sure to tell those you love and appreciate, that you love and appreciate them. There was so much love shown today, I had to wonder if Nick knew how many people would come out to welcome him home. I hope so.

Contest News!

Happy Monday!

I don't mean to rush summer, but this morning I felt a chill in the air and saw some of the gorgeous colors of fall peeking out of the green leaves on the tress in my neighborhood. I wonder if I will ever stop feeling the excitement I feel as the fall season approaches. I sure hope not and if today is any indication, my enthusiasm is alive a well.

 

Mason and I have been busy in the kitchen and we made a video for an upcoming contest that could be big - Uncle Ben's "Let's Get Kids Cooking" contest. The prize is super cool - $15,000 cash, a trip to NYC to appear on the Rachael Ray Show, AND $30,000 to make over the winner's school kitchen! YES! All the money Mason is trying to raise plus $5,000. There are 3 Runner-Up prizes that also include cash and money to the student's school. Here are the criteria for the video submissions:

Personality and ability to engage and inspire the audience (20%);

Level of enthusiasm for the recipe and cooking (20%);

Demonstrating a basic knowledge of food and recipe (20%);

Creativity in responding to the questions posed by Entrant (20%); and

Votes: the total number of votes that the Video received on Facebook during the Public Voting Period (20%).

 

I don't like the voting aspect of the contest (you all know how I feel about voting contests! #Unfair), but Mason can ace the other 80% of the criteria. We worked as a family last night and made our video since the submissions opened on 7/29. The sooner we get in the game, the better I think our chances are of getting votes, and being seen by more people. I will be sure to send the link to Mason's video as soon as I get confirmation that it has been approved for the contest. Keep your fingers crossed and send good winning-ju-ju our way.

 

In other news, Dave made it home safely from Arkansas and we had a lovely weekend with not much on our agenda. We got some chores done, Mason washed my car, we grilled, ate outside and laughed by the fire on Saturday night, and on Sunday, Mason and I went to pick some apples and fig, we made smoshpellows for Mason's upcoming segment with GoodDay Sacramento, and we filmed our contest video for Uncle Ben's. Now we're back to work and school just like all of you. I hope you have a week that is filled with positivity, good friends, and laughter.