12/26/08: #7

Today, I spent a lot of time on key #7 of "The Great Keys of a Leadership Education." That key of course is "YOU, Not Them." I started my latest BYU course-GEOG 120: World Geography and Current Affairs (or something like that). I read the syllabus and started the on-line chapter 1 lecture notes. I also learned and now I need to memorize all the violin notes. I'm telling you music is all about patterns. I studied the strings and read the books until I figured out the pattern. Piece a cake. Of course I just have to practice (a lot!) making my fingers move to the right spot. This will take some time! After I learned the notes I spent some time practicing the violin. My arms are sore! I also read the first 120 pages in The Phases of Learning by Oliver and Rachael DeMille that I received for Christmas. Besides that I cooked for the weary Wii players and slept. I think I'm finally caught up in my sleep again.

The kids enjoyed a fun filled day with dad and grandpa. They spent hours on the Wii. All of them. We have a Wii rule: You can't sit down when you play the Wii. Silly I know. After this weekend we'll have some time constraints on the usage of the Wii. We debated long and hard about buying a Wii. I know some of you you TJEders are rolling your eyes, but I think it was the right choice for our family-so roll away! : ) They even had it hooked up to our large projector screen playing. Our family has two tiny TV's. But because of Alex's work we have a huge projector and projector screen. So we have movie nights on the big screen every once in a while-so fun. (It's come in handy at the church multiple times). And if was fun using it to play the Wii yesterday. After today the big screen will be retired again. The kids did watch Journey to the Center of the Earth tonight on it.

They also went 4-wheeling and sledding for a long time with grandpa and dad. Olivia started and read a couple of chapters of Jane Eye. I had her tell me what she read. She says she really likes the language of the book. We also played several rounds of Apples to Apples, Jr. This is a good game. We liked that the kids have to defend/articulate their answers, make decisions, and make comparisons. We recommend it! It's a great evening game.