Anna VS Elsa

When our family saw Frozen for the first time my two daughters chose their favorites. My oldest followed the rest of the world and chose Elsa, but my youngest immediately latched onto Anna.
"You Elsa and I Anna!" She would enthusiastically yell each time she wanted to play Frozen. It was the cutest.

About two months ago my little peanut started moving more towards Elsa's side. It started innocently enough. At first she just wanted to sing, "Let it Go" more often than "Do You Want to Build a Snowman." But soon it became "You Anna and I Elsa." Sad.

For Christmas we gave her a simple Elsa dress and a tricked out Anna dress. The Anna dress has a button that plays the first few lines of "For the First Time in Forever" and causes the dress to light up like a Christmas tree. My husband and I were desperately trying to get her to like the Anna dress more, but it hasn't worked. She wears the Elsa dress twice as much as the Anna dress.

And in the end it saddens me. All the little girls everywhere love Elsa but I think that they should love Anna. In a battle of role models Anna beats Elsa into the ground. And as a parent I would much rather my daughters aspire to be Anna instead of wanting to be like Elsa. Let's take a look at them shall we, and you'll see my point.

Elsa (for most of the movie): Spends her entire life pushing everyone away from her. Is so afraid of what she is capable of that she does nothing. She is in charge of an entire kingdom and her entire focus is on herself. She doesn't think about how her actions are affecting others, nor does she try to do anything to help anyone else. She runs away from responsibility. She is cowardly, selfish, and of little good to anyone. (I know I'm being harsh.) Why do little girls everywhere worship her? She is beautiful, has great clothes, has one talent, and a catchy song. (Your typical pop star.)

Anna: Is the ultimate optimist. She looks for joy and happiness in everything around her and tries to share that joy with others, even if she is shot down again and again. She is courageous, adventurous, and full of life. She risks her life to save her sister and her kingdom (more than once). She faces her fears and doesn't take crap from anyone (not even Marshmallow). She is warm and loving. And she believes in true love. And even though true love with Hans doesn't work out, I still love that she believes in it so sincerely. Plus, she jumps right back in the game with Christoph even though her last boyfriend left her to die, tried to take over the kingdom, and almost slayed her sister. Not a lot of women could do that. She is the kind of woman that I want my daughters to become.

So what do I do about my littlest daughter's switch in allegiance? I'm not exactly sure. But you just might start hearing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" and "For the First Time in Forever" a lot more at our house.

Anna is My Hero!

This YouTube video sums things up pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buem1Yhtkxs

Spark Your Brain

"In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection." 

~ Plato

I like to exercise (most days) but sometimes I get in a rut and just need some motivation, or a spark. This book did that for me. Obviously exercise is good for our bodies, and as strange as it may sound, our brains are actually connected to our bodies. So, logically speaking, exercise might also be good for our minds.

In truth, I've known this fact for a long time. What I loved about Spark is that it explained the how and why behind it. It showed through case studies, scientific analysis, MRIs, etc. exactly how exercise affects the brain and thereby our mental capacity, emotions, focus, mood, etc.

The first part of the book goes into detail and several case studies to explain how exercise improves your ability to learn and how it actually causes brain cells to grow. "Exercise improves learning on three levels: first, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus." Who knew?

The middle section of the book looks at the positive effect that exercise has on stress, anxiety, depression, attention deficit, addiction, hormonal changes, and aging. These are each separated into chapters and the authors go into a lot of detail into how and why exercise helps these conditions.

The last part of the book talks about what kind of exercise you should be doing to maximize your brain's potential.

Spark goes into a lot of detail and as you're going through the middle chapters, it can seem a little repetitive. If you aren't super into the science behind it all, I would suggest reading the first two chapters and then reading any of the middle chapters that specifically apply to you before reading the last chapter.

This book definitely motivates you to want to exercise, and who doesn't need that.

Favorite quote: "If exercise came in a pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century."

And the Nominees Are...

I just received word that The Watchers is an official nominee for the 2014 Whitney Awards! The Whitney Awards are literary awards honoring excellence in fiction.

I'm pretty excited about it! Although it's led me to thinking about why people enjoy awards so much. My husband and I are runners and a very large reason that we sign up for races is for the medals (or bling). It's not as if we wear them around town or do much with them. They serve no actual purpose, so why do we want them in the first place? Bragging rights, memento, visual reminder, because they are cool? Probably a mixture of all of those things.

The dictionary describes an award as a reward or prize given to someone who deserves or merits it. I guess we all like to feel as if we deserve something. As if we have done something of merit.

Going back to running, after a half marathon I eagerly grab my medal, but not as if I deserve it, more as if I purchased it when I signed up for the race. After running a full marathon, I wearily grab my medal knowing that I've done something of merit. Something truly hard for me. Something that required more than I thought I could give at times. I'm proudest of my marathon medals.

For me, The Watchers is more like a marathon. It took a lot of time, effort, and energy. It took learning a lot of new things. It took expanding into a new industry. Writing the book was hard, but releasing it was almost just as hard in a completely different way.

Before I published The Watchers I asked my husband, "Do you think there is a way to publish this so that everyone else can read it except for people that actually know me?" He laughed and then hugged me.

Putting your words and ideas and inspiration out there for the world to see is scary. It's even scarier when that world includes your neighbors, friends, and family.

I don't know if The Watchers will merit an award, that's up to the judges to decide, but I do know that I would feel like I put in the effort to get it. I would also really like it. It'd be a little more bling to add to my running medals.


P.S. My husband and I almost signed up for a half marathon this weekend (Baker's Dozen Half Marathon) that would have been completely out of the way, a lot of hassle, a four loop course (repeating the same course 4 times sounds awful), and would require us to eat a lot of pastries while running (also sounds awful). Why did we almost sign up, you ask. For the bling!

Now that's a medal!

Eat Your Way to Immortality, or at Least Longevity

A new study led by Immaculata De Vivo, an associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School found that women who ate a mediterranean diet had longer telomeres. What does this mean? Basically it means that eating a mediterranean diet can lead to a longer life.

I did quite a bit of research on telomeres for my book, so I'm always interested when they come up in articles. Here is a part of the article.

"Telomeres are part of your chromosomes, the thread-like structures that house your DNA. At the end of these chromosomes are telomeres, a kind of protective "cap" that keeps the structure from unraveling. It thereby protects your genetic information.

Even in healthy people, telomeres shorten with age. Shorter telomeres are associated with aging, lower life expectancy and age-related diseases such as artherosclerosis, certain cancers and liver disease."

"This study's results provide "some insight into the underlying physiologic mechanism behind this association," indicating that greater adherence to this diet is significantly associated with longer telomeres, she says. Because of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of the Mediterranean diet, following this diet "could balance out the 'bad effects' of smoking and obesity," De Vivo says.

These findings further support "the health benefits of greater adherence to the Mediterranean diet for reduction of overall mortality, increased longevity and reduced incidence of chronic diseases, especially major cardiovascular diseases."

None of the individual dietary components was associated with telomere length. Researchers suggest that means the whole diet is an important element, rather than one item being a kind of superfood."

The full article and a video can be found here: http://www.ksl.com/?nid=1010&sid=32606031

Book Spotlight

Check out a book spotlight on my book by Bookworm Lisa at http://lisaisabookworm.blogspot.com. 

Bookworm Lisa is a book reviewer and blogger who focuses on family-friendly books. She is also a Goodreads librarian with 1,215 ratings and 1,072 reviews.

All In Knots

I've finished up my outline and, because I have an incredibly Type-A personality, it's pretty in depth. I've basically written a brief synopsis of what is going to happen in each chapter and whose point of view it is going to come from. The entire book is plotted out and now it is time to jump back into the actual writing again. Tomorrow I begin writing the first chapter.

To tell you the truth, I'm a little hesitant and slightly nervous about it. It's been a while since I was just doing that type of writing and I feel a little out of practice. Plus, it's just that feeling that I get when I have any type of big new project. I'm hesitant to start it, but once I get going I can usually get into a rhythm and all those feelings of hesitancy fade.

But right now I haven't started it yet and my stomach is in knots.

Kindle is on Fire!

I worked for quite a few hours yesterday to get my book formatted for kindle. But it is now out there and I'm pretty excited about it. Being on kindle means that more people will have the opportunity to read it.

Find it for Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Q14LJIQ.

P.S. Nobody tells you how much work goes into all of the little things we take for granted. Also, I'm pretty sick of formatting at this point but give me a few weeks and I'm sure I'll get over that.

Finding the Kid in You

Being an adult can be so boring sometimes. Most of my day is filled with one task after another. I need to do this and then I can do that after which I can do that. And so on and so on. And sometimes I just don't want to be the responsible adult anymore and want to be a kid again...when I had all the time in the world.

I also wish that I had that kid magic again. I wish that I could believe in fairies, magic tricks, cartoon characters, and St. Nick. I wish this so much that I do everything that I can to keep the magic for my kids as long as possible, sometimes going to great lengths to do so.

Some people think that this is lying to your children...and it definitely is. But I think that the purpose behind the lies is what is truly important. I want my children to have a magical childhood. I want them to believe that anything is possible. I want them to believe that magic is possible.

But what about us boring adults? What can we do to have that magic or at least share in that magic? Here is a small list of things I came up with (you can easily take this list and add it to your own):

• Play pretend with your kids (or someone else's if you don't have any) - I mean really play with them. Fully invest yourself in the characters and try to dive in that world.
• Play dress-up with your kids. My daughter loves to put me in all kinds of stuff. And while I don't always enjoy the process, I'm definitely laughing at the result.
• Get outside and be active.
• Make life magical for your kids.
• Play really hard in the snow. Have a snowball fight, build a fort, make a snowman, make snow angels, etc.
• Go to amusement parks.
• Play on playgrounds. Really play on them. If you aren't huffing and puffing after a few minutes, then you need to play harder.
• Find reasons to dress up. Halloween always works, costume parties, cosplay events, etc. My husband and I dress up for themed running events (see picture below). For some reason, this is a blast.
• Play with toys.
• Watch a movie that you loved as a kid. You may not still love it, but you'll definitely get a lot of laughs out of it and some good memories. One of my favorites was The Last Unicorn. Man, that movie was crazy.
• Jump on a trampoline. I did this with my kids the other day and it was awesome!
• Get dirty and try not to care about it. This is a hard one for me.
• Get over your adultness. By this I mean to abandon all of that embarrassment that is stalking you and preventing you from doing these fun things.

I don't do any of these things on my list often enough but when I do, I really have a lot of fun...and I can almost feel the magic.

P.S. The Avengers run was awesome! Nobody does magic better than Disney.

Stephen King is a Man

I was reading Stephen King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft last night. In the book he mentions that one of the ways to improve your writing is to read a lot. He mentions that he is a slow reader and still manages to read 70-80 books a year. And he then explains how he is able to read that many books a year. He takes a book with him wherever he goes and reads whenever he has a moment of spare time.  He reads in waiting rooms, theater lobbies, in checkout lines, in the bathroom, etc.

This all sounded great to me and I started thinking about how many books I'd be able to read now that I knew his secret. Until it dawned on me that Stephen King is a man.

Why does that matter, do you ask? Because in all of those places that he mentions are good places to read because he has a spare moment, I do not have a spare moment. I have children.

In waiting rooms I'm constantly searching for one thing after another to keep my kids entertained and reasonably quiet. In theater lobbies I'm making sure none of them get lost. In checkout lines I'm constantly fielding questions about the many things they want me to buy for them and preventing full-blown meltdowns because we've been shopping for the past hour. And I can't remember the last time I went to the bathroom when I wasn't followed in, had someone loudly knocking on the bathroom door, or could hear a fight getting underway.

And I know what you're thinking, men have children too. And they do. But it's not the same. If my husband is thinking about running to the store to buy something, he just grabs his keys and his wallet and goes. If I have to go to the store, I have to take my youngest to the bathroom first to ensure there isn't an accident at the store. I have to bring a diaper bag just in case there is an accident. I have to tell my other children to go to the bathroom so that I don't have to visit the one in Walmart. I think about whether or not my kids need a snack because they might not have eaten in a while. I have to ensure that they all have coats and shoes. And then I have to grab my keys and the diaper bag and load all of the kids into the car making sure that they are all clipped in. And that's just to get into the car to go to the store.

My children are attached to me. They will come and ask me to help them with something if I'm in the shower and they'll walk right by my husband to do it. My husband is more than happy to help them, but they don't even think of asking him. It's just not the same.

And because I'm a mother of small children (and desperately love those children), I don't think I'll be reading 70-80 books this year. Sorry Stephen.

Suicidal Crickets

I was listening to a Ted Talk this morning and came across the following interesting fact about crickets.

Occasionally a cricket will become suicidal and jump into a body of water and drown itself. This weird behavior has an even weirder cause. There is a parasite, Gordian (or Horsehair) worm, that lives in crickets. This parasite grows inside the cricket until it is of a mature size.

However, the worm has to be in water to reproduce so it has found an interesting way to do that. The worm releases proteins into the cricket's brain which causes the cricket to behave erratically. And as soon as that cricket comes near a large body of water, they jump right in and drown. At which time the worm crawls out of the dead cricket carcass to go and reproduce.

The Gordian Worm uses mind control to force the cricket to kill itself, which is a pretty cool concept if you really think about it.

Now I'm just trying to think how I can use that information in my next book. :)

Getting Started Again

My book, The Watchers, came in the mail and made me absolutely giddy. I actually achieved that goofy, grinning ear-to-ear, dopey face that only happens once in a great while, especially on me. But having the actual book in my hands means something. It means that my book is finished. It also means that it's time to start the second book in my trilogy.

Before I wrote The Watchers I did a basic outline of all three books and how they would fit together and I'd like to say that my outline was awesome and that I didn't need to deviate from it whatsoever, but that would be a lie. The Watchers was fun to write, but I learned a lot while doing it and the book itself went through many changes in the process. Needless to say, my overall outline needs tweaking.

So the first step in writing Book 2 (that's the book's name for now, which I know is incredibly awesome and I might even end up sticking with it) is creating an outline and then really fleshing that outline out. I've been working on that for a few hours over the past few days and really like how quickly everything is coming together.

I've created the basic outline and have done a lot of fleshing out. By the end of the outline process I hope to have each chapter listed and a summary of what happens within that chapter. After that, the actual writing process will go a lot smoother. I'll still need to do some research and a lot of playing around with dialogue, setting, character development, etc., but it will seem a lot more doable.

Baby steps, it's all baby steps!

So Now I'm an Author

My first book is now available online, so I guess that makes me an official author. The last few months have been kind of crazy with formatting my book, working to get a cover designed, and figuring out all of the ins and outs of publishing it.

And now I'm supposed to market my book. Marketing is the hard part. Most of us writers are total introverts and are happy with our personal hovel and a computer. I definitely fit this criteria.

I'm frequently telling people that I'm a hermit. I enjoy being at home. I work from home, exercise from home, eat at home, and would prefer that all of my socializing occur mainly within my own four walls (meaning that I would talk only to my husband and kids 99.5% of the time).

And now the hermit has to market, which brings me back to this blog. I was looking at the different suggestions for marketing and was beginning to shrink back into my shell. I don't want to do television appearances, radio show call ins, or book signings. They go against my hermitness and I don't like it.

Then I saw that creating a blog was recommended and I thought to myself, "I can do that at home!"

So, here we are.