Advice to live by (hear that, Karen! This is for you! )

The Thick Skinned
It's not all about you. How becoming less self critical can help boost your confidence.
By:Lybi Ma

.....

Here are a few tips to developing a thick skin:

• Don't take things personally. Sometimes you may need to reframe a person's bad behavior by remembering that it's not about you.
• Don't let others get to you. Refuse to get overly responsive to the negative feelings and provocations of others. Adopt strategies that regulate emotional arousal; otherwise negativity hijacks the thinking brain. Try simple deep breathing or declare time out.
• Remember that everyone gets rejected sometimes. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. Don't be discouraged if it takes a few times to get it right. Successful people are rejected over and over, but never stop trying.
• When you're rejected or something doesn't go your way, counterpropose a new solution. Often, the person declining your offer is not rejecting you. He may even want to hear another idea. Successful individuals come back from rejection with new proposals. They're creative at coming up with additional ways of looking at things and solving problems.
• Don't hesitate to unstick sticky situations. If you're discussing an issue and the conversation is going off track, stop it and restart it on the right track. You could say: "This isn't going productively. Let's reshoot this scene from the beginning" or "Can we take it from the top?"
• Don't be self-focused. If you do focus on yourself, you'll likely dwell on your shortcomings. Instead, think about your goals and what steps you need to get there.
• Stop the self-talk. Counter self-defeating self-talk with truth talk: "You can be your own worst enemy, so give yourself a break."
• Don't worry about looking stupid. If you are asked a question and you don't know the answer, you can simply say, "I need to think about that and get back to you later."
• Learn to be patient. Don't be impulsive or react to a situation without giving yourself time to cool off.
• Don't be quick to blame. Recognize that other people have their ups and downs.
• Think about others. Enter social interactions with this thought of making the experience itself enjoyable. Ask yourself, "What can I do to make you feel more comfortable."

You know it's going to be one of those kind of days when....

• Daughter wakes up in the middle of the night with night-mares about monsters under the bed.
• Husband wakes up in the middle of the night to cat throwing up on bed.
  
• Wife takes husband's cell phone ... husband takes wife's cell phone by mistake.
• Big diggers and dump trucks wake wife up at 6:30.

alive

It's been a busy few weeks at the House of Eck.

We had a party and witnessed the unveiling of the "LAMBEAU-LANCE". Seriously crazy Packers Fan.






We started Hill #2.


Maddy is doing great.


Joe is stressed out, but does his best to chill out.



I'm trying to be patient.


A chipmunk absconded with the top of my new birdfeeder. Honestly! This is what it started out:

This is what it looks like now. How the hell?

life

And so it goes....

It's been a hectic week. Isn't that always the case? Here's a list of things on my own to-do list for the next few weeks.

• Start preparations / cleaning lists for the House of Eck Fest 2007 next weekend.
• Clean bathtub.
• Vacuum & sweep.
• Weed gardens.
• Harvest food out of vegetable garden.
  
• Go to the bird-seed store for sunflower seeds for the new birdfeeder.
• Purchase more "good-girl" incentives for Madeline. (I'm not above giving out bribes.)
• Send out email notice of committee meeting I'm the chair for.
  
• Create End-of-Summer and Fall "Garden-to-do" lists.
  
• Contact insurance company about upcoming pulmonary test to find out if bronchitis is actually something more like asthma.
  
• Make arrangements with friend to have her kids frequently over the next few weeks to play as she recovers from viral meningitis AND lymes' disease.
  
• Validate and make more clear the plan for the new website design to deliver next week.
  
• Keep smiling cuz life is good.
• Keep smiling cuz the only thing that is consistent and constant IS change.
  

8 things

I've been tagged. Thanks, Heather.

The Rules:

Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.

The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.

At the end of the post, the player tags 8 people, posts their names, and leaves a comment on their websites to let them know that they have been tagged.

1. My dessert of choice lately has been vanilla yogurt sprinkled with chocolate chips. Go figure.
2. I love taking naps. Especially in my own house. With my daughter sleeping in the other room. With my cats snuggled next to me.
   
3. I'm an avid gardener, both flowers and vegetables. I love the feel of the dirt between my fingers - the smell of the earth as I dig a whole for new seeds or new plants. I particularly enjoy being able to immediately transpose a section from a weeded mess to a clean and beautiful area.
   
4. I'm an avid photographer, especially with our new Fujifilm FinePix F20 camera. I put most of our pictures up on Flickr.
   
5. I don't like pickles, not even when I was pregnant.
   
6. I find Holly-weird, well, weird, as in a gawking at the horrible car crash weird.
7. I miss pottery. I took classes for 2 years and loved the zen of the wheel. 2 weeks ago, I went up to Egg Harbor to meet a friend of a friend. Renee, as it turns out, is living a dream - creating art on a 100-year old farmstead. Beautiful. Inspiring.
   
8. I haven't always followed the Packers. It's kind of hard not to, living with a GB native and whose family has been been employed, in years past and presently, by the Packers. It's ok. I'm not a psycho-fan. I didn't even get to one game last year. Not that I'm counting or anything.

There. Done! I tag Annie and Jamie!