The TV's the Babysitter?

I have been thinking a lot about TV and children since our class this week.  I was surprised to learn that it is suggested that children under two don't watch any TV.  In our current world that just seems so unrealistic.  I do think that it is probably fine in moderation, but I want to do my best to limit the TV my future kids watch.  I brought this up at home and talked to my roommate this issue. We discussed how tempting it was to just turn on a movie when we used to babysit.  It made things easy and the kids loved it.  Back then, I was only watching kids for maybe 4 hours tops before they went to bed.  It made me think a lot about what I am going to do when I am a mom.  I will be with my kids pretty much all the time before they begin school and I never want to consider the TV to be a convenient and always-available babysitter, even if it does make my life easier!

#BeautyIs

I stumbled upon this little video on my Facebook news feed the other day.  I am so impressed with Dove and their efforts to change the way women perceive beauty in a world where the majority of women we encounter in the media are made up and airbrushed to perfection.  This is an inspiring little video and well worth the few minutes of your time. 

It also reminded me how important it is to avoid being overly critical about my body and outward appearance as an older sister and a future mother, as my perceptions about beauty heavily influence the perceptions of the younger girls I come in contact with.  My junior year of high school, I remember making a comment in my home about how I hated a certain aspect of my body.  My mom later heard my youngest sister (who was 6 at the time), make a similar negative comment about her own body.  My mom sat me and my two other sisters down and explained to us the influence we have on how our littlest sister perceives herself, and stressed that we need to do our best to make sure it is positive.  This video was an excellent reminder of this lesson I learned from my mom.

Walter Mitty

This week, I went and saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.  I thought it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time.  It wasn't any action packed thriller or catchy musical, but it was one that left me feeling uplifted and inspired when I left the theater.  I feel like movies that foster those feelings are rare.  Many movies may be entertaining, but they don't often make me think. This movie was subtly funny, which I loved, and I felt like everyone could connect a little with Walter Mitty.  He is a daydreaming negative assets manager for TIME magazine, who at the beginning of the movie feels like he has not accomplished anything exciting or noteworthy in his life.  By the end, he has turned his daydreams into reality and even recognizes the importance of his contributions before his adventures.  Leaving the movie, I felt empowered - like I can make anything I want to do possible.  I want to keep that feeling around :)

Divergent

I am a major bookworm. At the end of Christmas break I read Divergent by Veronica Roth in less than a day. I thought it was great, I love books about disutopian societies (The Giver by Lois Lowry has always been one of my favorites). When I start a good book, I have to just plow through it because I can literally not put it down. During the my school semesters, I do not allow myself to read because I can't trust myself to keep my reading priorities strait.  Hence, reading Divergent right before I left to come back to school was a bad idea, because Insurgent and Allegiant are waiting for me!  I need to know how everything ends...maybe I will just have to carve out a weekend for some serious reading time.

Family Search

Tonight my ward had a family history activity.  Our ward has a goal for each member of the ward to find at least one family name to bring with us to the ward temple night in March.  I am somewhat familiar with family search and have sat through several tutorials that scratch the surface of the basics of the site, but I have never learned as much as I did tonight.  We had several members of the team that designs family search come and explain to us how to use the site most effectively.  Within an hour, all 50 people who attended the activity had found at least one family name to take to the temple.  It was such an awesome experience!  I think it is amazing how we can use the media and technology that is available today to find family members so we can complete their ordinances.  In a little over a month, I will be doing work for Elizabeth Hitchcox and Cicilie Knudsen.  Hopefully more names will come as I continue to familiarize myself with the site and everything that can be done with it.  I feel a new hobby coming on :)

Obsessed

When I find a song I love, I will replay it.  Over, and over, and over again.  For some reason, it drives me crazy when the radio will over play songs, but if I choose to repetitively listen to a song, it is ok. I will get completely obsessed with a song and have this need to hear it.  It will constantly run through my head.  After calculating in class the number of hours a week I listen to music (a staggering number), I realized how important it is for me to not only listen to music that I enjoy, but also music that is uplifting. The music I listen to is always replaying in my mind, whether or not I am currently listening to it.  Songs that I spend so much time listening to are bound to have an effect on me.  Here is my current love. Enjoy!