Just Say YES!

I recently spoke on a panel at a doctoral consortium where our task was to give career and life advice to Ph.D. students on how to succeed in academia. I am not sure how much wisdom I really have to impart, but I had the good fortune of listening to another great panelist present.

Her message - "Just Say YES!" Her main point was that there is so much advice in both academia and society at large to "Just Say No" to anything that could be a distraction from your core principles. While there is certainly so much value in knowing your core values and focusing on that, by saying YES, you expose yourself to all kinds of areas that help you learn and grow as a person.

I absolutely love this advice. Mainly because I have always been horrible at saying "no," so it was good to pretend that my tendency to take on too much might have value. And I truly do believe that there is indeed value in saying "yes," such as . . .

7. You make memories. The picture in this blog is of Jenny, Amy, and me after walking a full marathon in Estes Park in June 2014. Why walk a marathon, which takes almost seven hours, and makes every part of your body hurt? Because it's an adventure and something that we will never ever forget. Even if we never repeat it. ;)

6. You learn new skills. I am not a natural leader, but by saying "yes" to leadership roles, I've learned that maybe I am not doomed. From chairing the stewardship and finance committee at church to getting ready to take the helms of the Public Interest section in my professional association, I've discovered that leadership is really more developed than innate.

5. You feel connected. There are a lot of jokes out there about making sure that you don't join your child's school's PTA. But I can honestly say that I love being involved with the PTO at my children's schools, from staying informed on what is going on to feeling connected with other parents. It's a little harder with the kids at two schools now, but I've gotten to know so much about my son's new school by attending PTO meetings, and still feel very connected at my daughter's school due to my past service there.

4. You push yourself. I have never been to China. I have never led a study abroad trip -- or even studied abroad. But yet, in a little over a month, I will be leading a group of students on a study abroad trip to China. I am simultaneously excited and terrified. But I know how much this trip will push me outside of my comfort zone and how good it will be for me in the end. I think. I hope. ;)

3. You give back. This is something that I could definitely be better at, but I love volunteering and helping, particularly when I feel like I can really make a difference or give back. I currently help teach children's church (although I will be "retiring" come August) and Sunday School at church, and I love that I am able to help some in programs where my children have participated and flourished. It means so much to me to know that our children have so many wonderful, caring adults in their lives -- and I hope I could be that in some small way for another child as well.

2. Your life is richer. Some of the advice given in academia is to be quiet, work on your research, and don't take on any distractions. But I have never been good at following advice. ;) I love being part of bell choir at church and in book clubs that force me to keep up the habit of reading -- because they truly enrich my life.

1. You have FUN. You only live once . . . so why not go for it, and say YES to new opportunities that come your way? You just might change your life. Or at least have some fun along the way. ;)

What have you said YES to in your life?

Meal Co-Op

One of the most life-changing things that has happened to my family this semester is that we have started participating in a meal co-op with three friends from church who live in our neighborhood. I am not exaggerating to say that this has completely revolutionized the way we eat dinner.

Previously, our family was very hit or miss with dinner. Sometimes we would go out to eat for dinner . . . sometimes we would eat dry cereal . . . rarely, we might attempt to throw something together, or heat up a freezer meal that I had prepared with friends, but this seemed to required Herculean levels of organization that I never quite mustered. ;)

If you are struggling with getting dinner made consistently, or are just plain tired of cooking dinner all of the time, I'd highly recommend a meal co-op! Here are the details about how ours works:

When: We have someone in our group cook on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. We all eat church on Wednesday nights, and our family has plenty of leftovers for Friday/Saturdays (plus lunches!), so this means that I have home-cooked food at every meal now with only cooking once a week. Score!!

What: We typically make a main course for each of the four families, plus two sides. I am very boring and my sides are almost always bread and salad kits (sorry, friends!). Other friends are super awesome and make things like cilantro coleslaw or glazed carrots . . . yum!!

I am also super un-creative when it comes to recipes, so have been looking on Pinterest for recipes that serve at least 6-8 people in the "base" recipe, can easily be 4x larger, and can be completely prepped and cooked within an hour. I've found that I have to quadruple the prep time when making large batches, but the cooking time itself doesn't usually need to be adjusted. Here are some of the recipes that I've tried that met these criteria:

Chili (recipe off the seasoning packet - oh-so-fancy!)
Taco Soup
Impossibly Easy Chicken Pot Pie
7-Can Soup
Garlic Alfredo Chicken & Penne
Easy Baked Ravioli
Veggie Tortellini Soup
Bow-tie "Lasagna"
Taco Salad Casserole (coming up!)

How: On the days that it is our turn to cook, we deliver the meals to our friends' houses. We are all in the same neighborhood, which makes it really easy. It is also awesome when it is your night to receive food and a wonderful home-cooked meal shows up right at your door. If one of us is going to be gone that evening when meal deliveries come, we typically make arrangements so that it can be dropped off while we are gone.

Why: BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME. I cannot express how much this helps us on actually having a balanced meal at dinner, trying wonderful new foods, and exponentially reducing the amount of time that we are cooking.

And on that note, I am looking forward to a wonderful dinner tonight of ratatouille casserole, rice, and salad....that I didn't prepare. :) Thanks, friends!!

Days 5 and 6 of Vacation - San Antonio

On our last day in San Antonio, we had a blast at the DoSeum (a children's museum) and visiting Natural Bridge Caverns, where we had fun with a maze, zip line, climbing structure, and cave tour! We had a bit of a problem with traffic coming home yesterday and did not make it home until 2:22 a.m. All in all, a great vacation and we would definitely recommend San Antonio! 

We started our Thursday at the DoSeum - good thing we got there when we did, as when we left, they weren't allowing anyone else to enter and said it would be about a 45-minute wait. I think that all of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas had the same spring break week, and everything was just packed. 

They had a special exhibit on Rubik's cubes - the kids loved watching the robot solve the puzzle.

Animation Station, where you can make your own stop-motion cartoon.

Daniel was excited to dress up like an astronaut.

Awesome outdoor play and climbing structure.

I think Daniel was occupied with this water table for at least an hour.

Giant map in the upstairs area.

Chilling with Greg outside.

Next, we all split up, and our family headed down to Natural Bridge Caverns. This is about 45 minutes to an hour away from where we were, but it is well worth the drive. The only downside is that it was VERY popular, it being Spring Break Week and all, but we were still able to do everything there!

First up: The gift shop. Because no matter how crowded a place, there is always time for the gift shop. ;)

Next up: The giant maze!

You had various checkpoints/letters that you had to go around and get stamped. You also stamped your entry and exit time to compete for prizes.

View of some of the maze from the top. Annika was the fastest, followed by Daniel and Will, and I was the slowest. Don't recruit me if you are ever trapped in a maze. ;)

Next up - the cave tour! This is called "Natural Bridge" due to the natural bridge above at the cave entrance.

Some of the views from inside.

Our family!

After the cave tour, the other three members of our family opted to go on this giant 60-foot climbing structure. There are all kinds of rope bridges and other perilous inventions with which you can torture yourself. I, wisely, opted to stay on the ground and take pictures.

Annika did an activity that none of the rest of us were brave enough to try -- the zip line!! Here is a video of her going across. Considering that a few years ago she had to be pushed off the high dive by the life guard at Cico Pool when she found herself too terrified to jump, this is a huge deal!

More climbing fun.

That evening, we made our way back to downtown San Antonio and opted to have dinner at a local pizza joint. Great trip!!

The most miserable part of our trip was our drive back yesterday. There was a horrible accident involving a fuel spill (necessitating a haze mat clean-up across all three lanes of northbound traffic), and it took us more than six hours to travel what should have taken two. Awful! But the good news is, we had plenty of time to plan our August trip to New England and NYC. :) We eventually made it home at 2:22 a.m. last night!! Woo hoo!

This weekend, our dear friends the Millers are in town visiting, so we are thrilled to extend our spring break fun. Overall, great trip to San Antonio -- and we are looking forward to returning some day!

Days 3 and 4 of Vacation - San Antonio

Yesterday and today have been more fun in San Antonio - we have visited Sea World, gone on a river cruise tour, and visited five former Spanish missions (including The Alamo). It is a beautiful city and there is so much to do - definitely recommended if you are looking for a family vacation! 

All seven of the Hagemans and Thorntons piled into our van yesterday morning for our trek down to Sea World.

When we lived in Orlando, we had Sea World passes for most of the time there because it was INSANELY CHEAP. I know there is a lot of controversy over places like Sea World in general and Sea World in particular. But we have a lot of memories with our kids at the Orlando park, and were game for going back again.

The giant kid-playing area! This was a series of huge nets, tunnels, and slides, with multiple entrances and exits. Our kids had a blast, but it is so much easier now that we don't have to worry about them running off somewhere.

We all rode the Shamu Express ride, aka the world's tamest roller coaster.

Giant fish ride that spun around . . . no thank you!

Daniel won a game of ring toss! I have never, EVER seen anyone win this particular carnival game, and was in shock when he came back, proudly touting a giant four-foot stuffed shark.

Giant Steel Eel roller coaster. The kids are climbing on a support pillar in the picture above, so that they could claim they have been "on" this roller coaster.

There weren't as many animals as we were expecting, but we did enjoy the super cute penguins.

Our families before the dolphin/whale/bird show, which was mostly (very impressive) human divers. :)

Sea lions! There were also some extremely adorable sea lion cubs.

There was an "animal conservation" area with snakes, toads, and other animals . . . including this giant bird.

River ride! This is a lot like Fury of the Nile at World's of Fun in Kansas City.

We all got wet, but Julie was the most soaked.

Oh! And Charlie bought a super cool Texas Hat, which Annika insisted on wearing. ;)

That evening, we had another lovely stroll around the Riverwalk.

The best part, though, was getting gelato and looking out over the river.

Oh, and Daniel insisted on sleeping with his shark. ;)

This morning, we took a river cruise tour! We got there right at 9:00 a.m. sharp when it opened, which thankfully meant no lines at all.

I really enjoyed our cruise guide.

One of the buildings on the tour - a very impressive tall, "2-D" looking building. :)

It was a short walk from the river tour over to The Alamo, aka the Shrine of Texas Independence. No pictures are allowed inside, but we took plenty outside the area to make up for it.

Annika in front in the Six Flags Over Texas.

This afternoon, we went on a Mission Tour -- and visited four other missions that are in the San Antonio! The first one was Mission Concepion.

Mission #2 below - San Jose!

Mission #3 - Mission San Juan!

Mission #4 - Mission Espada!

Honestly, the missions started to all run together after a bit, but I am glad we went -- it really hit home the structure of the missions and the relationship between the Spanish and the Native Americans in a way that just visiting the Alamo didn't quite convey.

This evening, we are planning to see Zootopia -- and tomorrow, there is talk of going to the children's museum and possibly the zoo, but we shall see what the day brings!