Obeying the Commandments

As we were finishing up supper last night (at 5:00), The Teenager remembered that each boy was supposed to bring a dozen cookies to the fireside (which starts at 7:00).  Grrr!

So I jumped up and started making the dough. I scooped up 2 trays and then tasted the dough. It was salty! I looked back over the recipe and realized that with the salt and baking soda, instead of tripling the recipe, I multiplied it by 9. Nine!  Grrrrrrr! I was going to dump it and start over, but The Teenager said we could fix it. So we started gathering up ingredients and mixing.

The Teenager then made an interesting observation. He said, “It’s a good thing we’re Mormons.” I asked him why, and he said because we have a big food storage and had all the ingredients so we could multiply it all by 9. I said it’s not just because we are Mormon, but because we follow the advice of our prophet. But he was right. I had everything I needed.

Sometimes we find that our food storage saves us in the small moments, not just the big ones.  And to me, that can be even more important.

Sunday Quote

The babbling brook would lose its song if the stones were removed.

Latter-day Saints try to become “Biggest Loser”

Latter-day Saints try to become ‘Biggest Loser’
By Natalie Barrett
- Wed, 02/16/2011 - 22:43
  

On Sundays, behind the doors of The Biggest Loser ranch and unseen by almost 9.5 million viewers, several contestants of the hit reality television show meet in Moses Kinikini’s bedroom to partake of the sacrament and share their testimonies.

Six of the 22 contestants on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” this season are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, namely Moses Kinikini, Kaylee Kinikini, Rulon Gardner, Justin Pope, Sarah Nitta and Denise Hill.

“We are always here at the ranch,” said Moses Kinikini, who graduated from BYU in marketing. “We don’t have an opportunity to attend church anywhere. However, I got permission from my bishop to bless and pass the sacrament on Sundays. Our schedules get so hectic sometimes that we don’t get to it, but for the most part on Sundays we are able to bless and pass the sacrament between Kaylee and I and other contestants that are LDS.”

Kaylee Kinikini, Moses’ daughter, said she has found even though they are unable to attend church, they treasure the time they have to take the sacrament and talk about their beliefs.

“For me, it is actually a really special experience, especially being away from everyone,” Kaylee Kinikini said. “We are from Shelley [Idaho],  and that is pretty much Mormon town, so I’m used to having that type of environment around me. But here we don’t have that spirit around us all the time, and to have that separate time to really focus and think about our standards and the gospel is a really special time and I know I cherish it. Having that special time we do and having my Dad here to bless and pass the sacrament really means a lot to me.”

Since being on the show, Moses Kinikini has said he has found his journey is more than losing weight, but is a spiritual journey as well.

“I’ve been LDS my whole life and we believe in the Word of Wisdom,” Moses Kinikini said. “Unfortunately, being Tongan when it comes to eat meat sparingly, well, that is something that Tongans don’t really do well. However, being here you realize the truthfulness of the word of wisdom and eating right.”

The LDS contestants are learning a lot about losing weight and growing spiritually together.

If the LDS contestants were pitted against the non-LDS contestants, the Mormon team would be in the lead.  Moses Kinikini and Pope hold the top two spots on the leader board with the highest percentage of weight loss, at 24.3 and 24.1 percent.

Moses Kinikini also holds the only two records beaten in season 11, specifically, the most pounds lost in one week at 41 and the fastest to lose 100 pounds, the most coveted record, which he completed in only six weeks.

In seven weeks of competition, none of the LDS contestants have been eliminated. When stacked against one another, the LDS contestants have lost a total percentage of weight loss of 22.25 percent,  compared to the non-LDS contestants losing 21.45 percent.

Moses’ wife, Anita Kinikini, has been watching the show and said she was thrilled to see Moses lose 100 pounds.

“Before he went, he told me he was going to break that record and he did,” Anita Kinikini said. “He’s just that type of person. He likes to set goals and achieve them.”

Moses Kinikini said he was relieved when he finally beat the record.

“I did it for [my friends and family],” Moses Kinikini said. “I didn’t want to let them down. I was really proud of what I did because it was something I set out to do and I worked my tail off to get there.”

Anita Kinikini said she is proud of her husband and her daughter Kaylee, who is currently studying at BYU-Idaho.
“Kaylee has just blossomed being on that show,” Anita Kinikini said. “She looks so amazing. For her to be able to come home and look so wonderful is just a confidence boost for her. She is so excited to come home and go back to college and …  date and do all the things that she never participated in before.”

Kaylee Kinikini has lost almost 50 pounds so far, but said she has found this journey has taught her more about her individual worth than about weight loss.

“After coming here, [I started] realizing how much I am actually worth,” Kaylee Kinikini said. “There is so much more to me. I’m starting to see what my Heavenly Father sees and I think it just so important for people to realize that in anything they do, that to see what Heavenly Father sees in everyone of us, that he loves us and that we are all special and worth something. Once you see that and once you realize how special you are, that is when your dreams come true. That is when you can change your life and become a better person, when you have that eternal perspective to realize that you are a child of God, that you are worth something.”

Gardner, an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling and another LDS contestant, has lost 103 pounds so far. He said he has found much success in losing weight and through his journey on “The Biggest Loser,” he is slowly regaining his life and health.

“I never thought I could do this,” Gardner said on the show. “It is just amazing. My belly is going away. This is the most amazing thing just knowing that we are going to get something back that we didn’t know we lost, and that means everything to me. I have my family, I have my life and I’m going to fight for it. It’s time to get it back.”

More than a Melody–Education

Everyone knows that music influences people—that it holds a special power all its own.
But what are its "magical properties?

For years researchers have studied why and how music has such an enormous effect on people. Music has been found to boost athletic performance; soothe and heal injuries; help depression, autism, and Alzheimer's; and increase academic performance. It seems there is something more to those tunes that get our toes tapping and our fingers snapping.

Education and Music

"But Mom, I do better on my homework when I'm listening to music!" Most parents have heard this, possibly repeatedly, from their children. And your children may be right, depending on the type of music that is playing. While things like popular music, TV, and chatting online all distract from homework and increase the likelihood of making mistakes, non-vocal, calming music can sometimes help a child focus more on their studies.

But what really causes an increase in your child's academic performance is music education. Studies repeatedly show that learning to play and read music correlates with positive results in learning capabilities.

Think about it – getting an 89 percent on an essay is a pretty good grade. However, if your child plays 89 percent of the notes correctly in the end of the year concert, neither your child, the band teacher, or the other fifty kids in the band are going to be pleased with his or her performance. The unique discipline that comes from learning and performing music helps children in many areas of their lives.

In one study, two elementary schools were compared – one in which children studied piano formally for three consecutive years and one that required no formal musical training. Students from the "music-learning" school had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequencing than the other group. Another study in Switzerland tested 1,200 children in 50 schools for various effects of music education, and found that children actively involved in music learned to read more quickly and acquired other languages more readily. These children also had lower stress levels and demonstrated more enjoyment in school then those not involved with music.

Using music in the classroom to teach math and reading is a new concept, but one that has proven to be very effective. Gregory Stevens, an algebra teacher from Elk Grove, California, has been using music in his classroom for several years now. To teach his students the quadratic formula, he has them sing the words of the formula to the chorus of "Jingle Bells." Because of this exercise, every one of his students is able to memorize this complicated formula.

Starlene Hansen, a student of his in 2000, says she still remembers the song (and, consequently, the formula), ten years later: "[The song] made an unfamiliar concept with an incredibly foreboding name into a simple and fun song." Hansen continues, "Mr. Stevens also used the 'Tomorrow' song from Annie and had us sing it the day before a major assignment was due, to increase our awareness and eliminate the excuse of not knowing when something was due." Hansen feels that singing made the mundane task of remembering due dates fun and created unique accountability.

Music can make a huge difference in lives. Anyone who has listened to an inspired choir in a church meeting knows the effect that their simple harmonies have on people. Somehow music is able to connect with parts of us that speaking just can't reach. While research continues to be done, the whys behind the power of music have yet to be discovered. For now, the reason these joyful strains have such an effect on us will remain an amazing and wondrous mystery.

by Jamie Cline via LDS Living

More than a Melody–Exercise

Everyone knows that music influences people—that it holds a special power all its own.
But what are its "magical properties?

For years researchers have studied why and how music has such an enormous effect on people. Music has been found to boost athletic performance; soothe and heal injuries; help depression, autism, and Alzheimer's; and increase academic performance. It seems there is something more to those tunes that get our toes tapping and our fingers snapping.

Exercise and Music

It isn't surprising that music is a boon when it comes to working out. After all, walk into any gym – almost all the members are wearing earphones. But music doesn't only keep us entertained while exercising – it has been proven to increase performance. Even competitive athletes take advantage of its powers: track star Haile Gebrselassie set an indoor world record for the 2000 meters in 1999 by synchronizing his stride to the song Scatman. But why exactly is music so helpful in our quest for fitness?

Understanding how music affects exercising is dependent on grasping the entrainment (not entertainment) principle. Entrainment is when two or more unconnected rhythms synchronize, or begin to have the same beat. Scientist Christian Huygens discovered this principle in 1665, when he placed two pendulum clocks on a wall and found that they eventually began to swing at the same rate. This same principle explains why the footsteps of a jogger fall into the same rhythm as the music he or she is listening to.

Because of the entrainment principle, our bodies naturally push themselves to be in sync with the music that we are listening to. When exercising it's important to have several different music tracks, with varying beats, so that you can warm up to a slower beat and work your way up to a faster one, which will elevate your heart rate.

According to Dr. Costas Karageorghis, a researcher studying the relationship between music and exercise, the ideal tempo for a power walker is 137 to 139 BPM (beats per minute); for a runner, it would be around 147 to 160 BPM. The wonderful thing is, it doesn't matter what kind of music you use--if you can find a song with the right beat, whether it's classical, country, or rock, it will push you and motivate you just the same.

However, the entrainment principle isn't the only thing that makes music such a powerful motivator to exercise. Music also has the incredible power to boost positive feelings and block out bad ones. In fact, music can take away much of the body's awareness of aching lungs, beating heart, and lactic acid. It can reduce a person's perception of effort by 10 percent, which can make all the difference when you are pushing for those last minutes of a tough workout.

Music has also been proven to help with consistency in workouts. In 2005, Christopher Capuano, director of Fairleigh Dickinson University's School of Psychology, conducted a study which tracked a small group of overweight or obese women for twenty-four weeks while they dieted and exercised. Half of the women were told to listen to music of their choice while exercising. While all the participants lost weight, the women who listened to music were more consistent with their exercise routines (they adhered to the program 98 percent of the time), resulting in greater weight loss than the other group (who adhered only 68 percent of the time).

Music can make a huge difference in lives. Anyone who has listened to an inspired choir in a church meeting knows the effect that their simple harmonies have on people. Somehow music is able to connect with parts of us that speaking just can't reach. While research continues to be done, the whys behind the power of music have yet to be discovered. For now, the reason these joyful strains have such an effect on us will remain an amazing and wondrous mystery.

by Jamie Cline via LDS Living

More than a Melody–Healing

Everyone knows that music influences people—that it holds a special power all its own.
But what are its "magical properties?

For years researchers have studied why and how music has such an enormous effect on people. Music has been found to boost athletic performance; soothe and heal injuries; help depression, autism, and Alzheimer's; and increase academic performance. It seems there is something more to those tunes that get our toes tapping and our fingers snapping.

Healing and Music

We've all heard miraculous stories of healing, some involving music and some not. But, no one can disagree that music is effective in healing the mind and body alike.
One of the amazing properties of music is that it can reach parts of the brain and evoke memories that speech simply can't reach. Therapists frequently use music from a patient's past to connect with them, often with significant results.

Jennifer Birchell of Utah, who works as a music therapist at Sunshine Terrace Foundation, a facility that assists the elderly with rehabilitation and assisted living, sees miracles of music healing almost daily in her work. "[One] man that I once worked with had dementia," she says. "We found out that he loved baseball and used to play professionally. So we played 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' and it helped him connect a little bit. His family came in and played it with him, and they were able to reach him. They were thrilled."

Birchell describes another man who had a stroke, which caused him to lose brain and muscle function on one side of his body. Like many other stroke patients, he also lost the ability to speak. "When someone has a stroke, . . . we've found that [sometimes] they can't speak, but they can sing," she says. This man was particularly angry about his lack of success when Birchell was asked to visit him. "When I asked him to sing with me, he got really angry. He knew he couldn't sing. But I told him to just try, and I started singing 'You Are My Sunshine.' His eyes got really big and excited because the words were coming out of his mouth and getting clearer and clearer. From there, we took bits of the song and turned them into phrases he could use. His wife came in and he was able to sing to her, 'I love you.' I worked with him for only three weeks and then he was able to go home and live with his wife."

Music helps people learn and develop because there are so many different elements to it--voices, rhythm, harmony, all which are processed in different areas of the brain. "Exercising" the different parts of the brain by using music helps encourage growth and stimulates parts of the brain that may be damaged.

Often, when music therapists work with groups who have some kind of brain disease, such as Alzheimer's, many of the participants seem almost asleep and uninterested at the beginning. The therapists start with slow music, and then they gradually increase the beat. The body entrains itself with the rhythm and gradually increases in responsiveness. Eventually, the previously unresponsive patients are clapping and interacting in a way that they couldn't do without musical encouragement.

Music can make a huge difference in lives. Anyone who has listened to an inspired choir in a church meeting knows the effect that their simple harmonies have on people. Somehow music is able to connect with parts of us that speaking just can't reach. While research continues to be done, the whys behind the power of music have yet to be discovered. For now, the reason these joyful strains have such an effect on us will remain an amazing and wondrous mystery.

Sunday Quote

Trying is planning for failure.

-Jillian Michaels

Sunday Quote

Why would you choose failure when success is an option?

-Jillian Michaels

The Shocking Numbers behind Cellphone Usage

The Teenager just cost me $1,000

I did my taxes today.  I enjoy doing my own taxes.  But I have a hard time hitting the submit button (to e-file them).  I always worry that I have missed something or we will get more forms in the mail.  It usually takes me a couple of days before I can submit them.

But I digress.

The Teenager can’t vote.  He can’t legally buy cigarettes or alcohol (I’m not complaining about that!).  If he commits a crime, he would be tried as a juvenile.  But The Teenager turned 17 this year.  And, according to the IRS, he is no longer considered a child.  We no longer get the $1,000 child tax credit for him. 

I guess this is the beginning of the end. 

Sunday Quote

We can't sit on the fence anymore. We need to decide which side of the fence we are going to be on and stay there.

History

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell. Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor: hence, the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the came the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs, thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt; hence the saying, "Dirt poor."

The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way; hence: a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Everyday they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the "upper crust."

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up; hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks stared running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

It’s over!

Yay!  It’s February!  January is over!  For those of us who do payroll, January is the crazy month.  We have quarterly taxes to do, sales tax to report, and W-2’s to get out.  It’s insane, and my boss is not that fun to talk to.  I ended up working on a Saturday morning to get a report out for her.  And it doesn’t help that stupid clients wait until the 25th to give us their paperwork. As in their entire year’s worth of bank statements that have to be data entered and reconciled before we can do their sales tax.  Grrrr. 

But, it’s over!  And now we can breathe! Now I can think about doing my own taxes.  I love doing my own taxes!