BookSneeze: The Power Based Life

Read all my BookSneeze reviews here:

 
The Power Based Life by Mike Flynt

I was pleasantly surprised by this book.  I expected it to be a boring, self-help book with a lot of mumbo-jumbo about how you can attain any goal by just thinking about it.  But it wasn't!

It is an engaging read, full of real-life examples.  It's well written and keeps your attention.  The book is subtitled: Realize your life's goals and dreams by strengthening your body, mind and spirit.  Mike Flynt knows a lot about realizing life goals.  At age 59, he went back to play his senior year of football at his collegiate alma mater.  Almost 40 years before he had been expelled from the very same school for fighting and never got to complete his football career there.  Now he has.  It took a lot of power - mentally, physically and spiritually for him to go back and fulfill his dream.  He tells about the process in this book.

The book starts out talking about using your power bases - your strengths.  He says "you should celebrate the thing you do well and stop worrying about the way God didn't make you."  Once you find what you do well, there are 11 things you do to grow.  Master the basics - "Find out the most basic things you're supposed to do; then do them over and over and over until you do them perfectly."  Change your attitude by changing your perspective.  Visualize your goals.  Defy your skeptics and believe in yourself - "You have to wonder how much greatness is lying hidden in our society today simply because these men and women of future greatness are surrounded by the negativism of this world."  Be ready to commit to your goal - "Commitment is a lifelong discipline of giving away all that you have for the sake of one awe-inspiring goal."  Know the team you are playing for.  Be yourself and be transparent with others.  Turn your adversities into your advantages.  Be compassionate and merciful with others. Maximize the time that God gave you instead of focusing on the urgent.  Keep your body healthy for a long life.

Each of these power bases is covered in an easy-to-read chapter full of stories and applications.  I would say this is a great book to read for anyone considering a life change or anyone who is ready to follow their dreams.

All quotes came from The Power Based Life by Mike Flynt.

She knows the truth

My 7-year-old daughter has just passed a huge milestone.

She now KNOWS.

Why?  Because 7-year-olds talk at school. Then they come home and ask their mommies if what their friends say is true.  And then their mommies have to figure out on the spot how to respond to their questions.

No, no, we didn't talk about THAT.  Hopefully I have a few years before THAT talk.

We talked about HIM - the SOS - the Secret of Santa - of more accurately the Secret of No Santa.

Julie's belief in Santa is pretty interesting to me.  We never pushed it much when she was little.  She really didn't wholeheartedly believe until she started Kindergarten.  Then, presumably because every other 5-year-old in class believed, she came home a full believer.  Even up to this year, she truly believed.  She got the email from Santa (that mommy set up via a website), she wrote Santa a letter and got one back (also a product of mommy's imagination), she saw all 3 Santa Clause movies - and through it all fully believed that the man in red was bringing her her heart's desire.

All it took was one friend telling her on Friday that Santa wasn't real to plant that doubt in her mind. 

You see, I'm fine with her knowing the truth about Santa, but I don't want the same thoughts to cross her mind about God.  I have been careful over the years not to equate Santa with God.  I've made sure not to tell her that Santa is always watching her.  Only God has that capability.  We've made sure she knew Santa cannot be more than one place at a time (he's just really fast).  Only God has that capability.

Because if she learns that Santa isn't real and he has characteristics of God, will she equate those two in her mind and think that God isn't real?  I don't know. 

Knowing the truth about Santa is actually pretty liberating for me.  I can talk to her more openly about why other kids get bigger and "better" presents for Christmas.  I can tell her about the great deals I got on her gifts (surprisingly, she is very excited about good deals - my child all the way). 

The truth is we had a really good conversation about it.  My goal was to make her come to her own conclusion about the subject and she did.  Her biggest concern was whether she would still get what she asked for.  After assuring her that we had always gotten her the gift she wanted in the past, and that was not likely to change, she seemed fine with the knowledge.  We also discussed how David still believed and how we would keep playing the game for him, and not stop his fantasy until he's ready to.

What about you?  Do your children still believe?  What age did you learn the truth about Santa?

Our (almost) free dinner at Chick-Fil-A

Just had to tell you about our awesome meal last Friday night.  I was taking a meal to a family at church whose mom had had surgery, so, obviously I didn't want to cook for my brood as well. Instead, we all went to deliver the meal, then stopped at Chick-fil-a for dinner. 

I decided before we left home that I was going to get us as free of a meal as possible.  So I looked through our handy, dandy Chick-fil-a calendars that I purchased in December ($6 each) and cut out all the coupons.  In case you aren't aware, you can use CFA coupons anytime during the year, not just in the time-frame it has listed on the coupon.  AND, as I found out on Friday, you can also use expired coupons.  I just LOVE Chick-fil-a!!!

So here are the coupons I used:

FREE 8-piece chicken nuggets (for kids to split)
FREE medium lemonade (for one kid)
FREE medium lemonade (for the other kid)
FREE large Fries (for kids to split)
(These 4 coupons fed my kids.  Then they ran off to play in the large, super kid-friendly play area.  Yay!  Burn off energy time!)

FREE Spicy chicken sandwich (for my honey)
FREE grilled chicken salad (for me)
FREE large Fries (to split)
FREE large Coke (for him)
FREE water for me (because tap water is always free - no coupon needed)

So there you have it.  I used 8 coupons, saved $18.15 and only spent $1.81 for us to eat (darn tax).  And since there are still many more coupons to use from the calendar, I definitely got my $12 worth out of it.  Maybe I should have bought more than two...

Review: Elizabeth, the Golden Age

I thought it would be a good idea after my Hobbies revelation to discuss my latest read.  The book, Elizabeth, the Golden Age, is based on the movie of the same name and follows Queen Elizabeth I of England during the height of her reign.  The story starts out in 1585.  It shows Queen Elizabeth's wisdom and grace as an attempted assassination takes places and as the threat of war with Spain looms over her.

It was very interesting because instead of just seeing the affairs of state that a ruler had to deal with, you see her personal life as well - her friends, her loves, her sorrows.  You get insight into why she never married, why she is the "Virgin Queen." 

Every little girl's dream is to be a Princess.  But after reading this book, you probably will never really want to be a Queen.  Elizabeth was always leery of getting too close to people because she never knew who loved her for her and who loved her for her status.  As a result, she was lonely most of her life.

Even though the book is fiction, there are many accurate historical points in there that I never realized.  I didn't realize the division that religion caused in Europe.  After Henry VIII (who was Queen Elizabeth's father) abandoned Catholicism and created the Church of England, Catholics were brutally treated in England.  They were tortured, interrogated and branded as traitors.  In fact the whole war with Spain during Elizabeth's reign was over religion.  The Catholic King of Spain wanted to bring the heathen English back to the "true religion" of Catholicism.  Even now there is a law in England that if any royal marries a Papist (someone who is of the Catholic faith), they give up all rights to the throne!  Wow, that's harsh!  No wonder the Puritans left to gain religious freedom. 

Overall, it was a great read.  It was easy to read and I finished the novel very quickly.  It was interesting and makes me want to see the movie (it's in my Netflix queue).  It also makes me very appreciative for the country I live in and governmental system we're under.  It may not be perfect and I may not approve of all the people in charge, but it's better than a monarchy.

What I've Learned Wednesday: Comments

I told you one of my goals this year is to learn about blogging for a business and how to generate more readers.  And I also told you how I failed miserably last week - the first week of my blog schedule - by not learning anything about blogging!!

Well, it's a new week and I learned something!!

This is probably pretty basic, but I have to start small. 
 
Kristen over at We are THAT Family talks about generating comments on your blog.  Between her post and the wonderful blogger comments that were left, 

I have learned...

1) To get more comments, I have to leave more comments. (It's the whole "be a friend to get a friend" approach.)  

That makes perfect sense to me and I will try very hard this week to follow that principle.
 
2) To get more comments, I have to talk about a hot topic, one that a lot of people have different opinions on. 

Ooooo, that one is more difficult.  Most of the time I'm pretty surface-level on here and don't go deep or write about controversial subjects.  So...I don't plan to change that anytime soon.  I'll just put that idea on the backburner for now.

3) To get more comments, I can ask the readers a question, or ask their opinion on a subject.

That one I have done.  And it does generate more comments.  But I probably need to do it more.  So, I will try this week as well to ask YOU more questions.

Well, that's it for my first lesson learned:  Be a bloggy friend, ask great questions, and possibly find a hot topic to discuss.

What about you?  What spurs you to comment the most? 

All About Me: My Hobbies

I have had many hobbies over the years that have come and gone, but a few have stood the test of time.

1) Playing piano - I started piano lessons at age 5 in Kindergarten and took lessons for the next 10 years.  When I first started, my parents said I had to play for 5 years and after that I could choose to quit.  If asked during those first 5 years, I would probably have said I wanted to quit.  But there was something almost magical that seemed to happen that 5th year - I got good.  I got good enough that it was finally fun.  I could play songs that sounded like real music. Then I started playing famous pieces like Fur Elise and the Moonlight Sonata.  And piano became an escape for me, a way to relieve stress.

After I grew up, my mom (who also plays) got a grand piano and passed on to me the upright piano I learned to play on.  It's beautiful - a Mason & Hamlin built in 1897 and in our family since the late 40's or early 50's.  My mom learned to play on it, I learned to play on it (as well as my brother and sister) and now my daughter is learning to play on it. 

I don't get to play as much as I'd like these days, but I still love pulling out my favorite music and getting lost in it for 30 or 40 minutes.

2)  Reading - I think ever since I was born, I've loved books.  I learned to read at age 4 and ever since, have been devouring books, magazines and more recently blogs.  Reading provides a source of new knowledge, an escape (hmm, is that a theme?), and a way to connect with others.  Ever discuss a good book with someone?  There's just that connection you get from pouring over the same words and sometimes discovering different meanings in them.  In college, as an engineering major, I wasn't required to take more than freshman English, but I couldn't pass up the Intro to Fiction class.  I'm not too fond of writing essays, but I've always loved reading books and discussing them.

These days, I have a pile of "to-be-read" books next to my bed - some fiction, some non-fiction.  I also have a wish list full of books on Amazon to buy for my Kindle.  I hope that as long as I live, I will always love to read and to learn.

What about you?  What hobbies do you have that have stood the test of time in your life?

Julie's Sewing Skills

Growing up my mom could sew anything.  At least that's how it felt.  If we needed new Barbie clothes, mom could make them.  Cabbage Patch kid duds - those too.  And I remember her making a large amount of our Sunday dresses as well.

Well, guess what?  I never inherited those genes.

I tried my hand at sewing back in my middle school days and all I remember is getting frustrated, crying and having the hardest time making a simple apron.  So I stuck to cross-stitching and other less frustrating, more logical pursuits.

My daughter is different.  She started sewing with Grandma not too long ago after Grandma made her a mountain of clothes for her American Girl doll (the Cabbage Patch kid of today). 

Then Grandma surprised her for Christmas and got her her very own sewing machine!!  Julie has been begging to use it but since I didn't inherit those genes and have no idea how to operate a sewing machine (OK, I have a slight inkling how it operates, but no skill), we hadn't gotten it out yet.

Last Saturday that changed.  We drove to Grandma's for a lesson.

And when we left, Natalie (her American Girl doll) was one skirt richer.

Now, she'll have to start teaching me!