November 30, 2012: House Video!

I have a bunch of cool stuff to cover today. First things first, though, it sounds like my remote troubleshooting of the computer yesterday ended in success! I finished off by doing a repair install, which disconnected TeamViewer when it got to the first reboot, so I didn't know for sure what was happening until today. Hooray for my computer skills! Total time to fix: probably four hours, though I'll charge for three just to be nice.

Second big news for the day: we had our home inspection, which went quite well. Funny enough, the guy doing the inspection is actually LDS and is in our stake, though I don't think I've ever met him before. There were some minor things that need to be looked at but nothing major that would stop us from buying; the foundation looks good, the roof is generally in good shape, and about the worst thing was the toilet: all three had some minor issues, like the gaskets need replacing or reseating on two, and one is missing the flapper valve that stops the water up top -- probably taken by the people who went through the foreclosure. But more important than all that stuff for the readers of my blog -- all five of you -- is that I made a video showing the various areas of the house, outside, etc. This will be something for all my friends and family to see, though note that this is the "before" sequence and as you'll notice several of the rooms are in desperate need of a paint job.

That should give everyone at least a reasonable idea of what our new house will be like. It's about seven years old and in reasonable shape, but with some areas that need work (particularly the yard). And sorry mom, but the vine by the front porch has to go! No way am I letting that thing get any larger and take over the side of the house!

On with the quotes from my readings today. I have two from the Book of Mormon, mostly because I really like the psalm of Nephi and so it needs to be in here, plus the second one seems like a scripture mastery -- and if it's not, it could be!

2 Nephi 4: 28: "Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 64)

2 Nephi 9: 28-29: "O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 75)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: "As individuals, groups, and businesses, we're often so busy cutting through the undergrowth we don't even realize we're in the wrong jungle. And the rapidly changing environment in which we live makes effective leadership more critical than it has ever been -- in ever aspect of independent and interdependent life."" (Pp. 101: Begin with the End in Mind)

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: 2 Nephi 3 - 2 Nephi 9, pp. 60-77)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: Yes (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 4, pp. 96-122)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (Raked heavy, wet leaves in yard and hauled them to the green belt for about an hour)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One (Brendan)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No, around six (House inspection)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (1:30AM to 6:30AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No

November 29, 2012

Last week I had computer virus issues with my mom; this week, my brother-in-law's brother's daughter is having computer problems. I don't know if it's a virus or simply a file that got corrupted, but the laptop is seriously having issues. How bad is it? Well, I can't install most programs, including Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. But, I can use TeamViewer, which is enough access so that I can see something is really wrong. It doesn't appear to be a virus, but it's a corruption in Windows that apparently runs deep. Sadly, TeamViewer isn't the same as sitting in front of a PC and working on it, so I haven't been able to fully repair the laptop -- yet! I'm going to try an in-place upgrade of Windows 7 to see if that will do the trick, as soon as her Dell Win7 ISO finishes downloading.

With all the time spent working remotely on a laptop, unfortunately I missed working out/exercising today. I had good intentions, but before I knew it, the day was gone! Ugh. And I spent so much time trying to help a friend (relative) fix their laptop that I didn't finish all the work I had planned. It's always something I guess. :-\ But I did good on my reading, so here are my spiritual thoughts/quotes for the day.

But before I get these out, let me say that I had a hard time finding a really good quote from the 5 Love Languages of Children; I understand and agree with much of what is said in this chapter, but some parts of it I disagree -- e.g. the idea of "Godly anger"; I think when we use words like wrath and anger in regards to God, we are putting our own emotions into it. Justice, mercy, love, and forgiveness are the words I think of with God, and the "wrath" that leads to the destruction of people and nations I generally see as God protecting the unborn spirits from being sent to a world with no hope. Anyway, I digress....

2 Nephi 2:27: "Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil." (The Book of Mormon, pp. 59)

The 5 Love Languages of Children: "It may surprise you that the primary lifetime threat to your child is his or her own anger. If your child does not handle his own anger well, it will damage or destroy him. The mishandling of anger is related to every present and future problem your child may have -- from poor grades to damaged relationships to possible suicide. It is imperative that you do all you can to safeguard your child now and in the future." (Pp. 160: Anger and Love)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: "Proactive people make love a verb. Love is something you do: the sacrifices you make, the giving of self, like a mother bringing a newborn into the world. If you want to study love, study those who sacrifice for others, even for people who offend or do not love in return. If you are a parent, look at hte love you have for the children you sacrificed for. Love is a value that is actualized through loving actions. Proactive people subordinate feelings to values. Love, the feeling, can be recaptured." (Pp. 80: Be Proactive)

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: 1 Nephi 20 - 2 Nephi 2, pp. 46-60)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: Yes (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 3, pp. 76-96)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes (Chapter 10 of The 5 Love Languages of Children, pp. 159-174, Anger and Love)
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: No (40 push-ups before bed)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes (Two)
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Computer virus fun!
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (2AM to 7AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No

November 28, 2012: We bought a zoo..er...House!

What a day! We got the papers from our lending bank to go through and sign this morning (all 40+ pages!), and we also got the papers back from the selling bank. So, everything is now proceeding and we will have our zoo (house) in the next month. Yay! I also gave our landlords notification that we're leaving; I'm still a bit worried that they're going to try and cause us problems, keep our deposit, etc. -- even after five years of never being behind or missing a payment, I just don't feel like they appreciate us or want to help us in any way, which is sad.

After a long day of paperwork, editing articles, and running tests, I finally got around to getting some exercise by going on a walk with Becky and the boys...at around 9PM. Yikes! But it wasn't raining and we bundled them up and they were happy. Corbin also liked seeing the houses with Christmas lights, and we even saw a few real (rein?) deer out and about.

Final thing for this check in: I'm going to start giving one good scripture from the reading each day that I liked, and one quote from the other book(s) that I'm reading. So here we go with today's spiritual thought and uplifting material!

1 Nephi 19:7: "For the things which some men esteem to be of great worth, both to the body and soul, others set at naught and trample under their feet. Yea, even the very God of Israel do men trample under their feet (...) -- they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels." (The Book of Mormon)

The 5 Love Languages of Children: "The key to motivating a child is to get her to take responsibility for her own behavior. A child who will not or cannot take this responsibility cannot be motivated. A child who is taking responsibility for herself is motivated." (Pp. 152: Learning and the Love Languages)

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: "Our unique human endowments lift us above the animal world. The extent to which we exercise and develop these endowments empowers us to fulfill our uniquely human potential. Between stimulus and response is our greatest power -- the freedom to choose." (Pp. 70: Be Proactive)

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: 1 Nephi 15-19, pp. 30-46)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: Yes (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 3, pp. 66-76)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes (Chapter 8 of The 5 Love Languages of Children, pp. 145-156)
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (late walk around the neighborhood)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One (Rick)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No (20 minutes yard work instead?)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Not really (House prep issues)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (1:30AM to 9AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No (Edited article for Zach: AMD Trinity Buyer's Guide)

November 27, 2012

Today was another good day, other than the fact that I got to bed late and consequently got up a bit late (late being 8AM these days, thanks to Corbin). I didn't have nearly as much energy as yesterday, and I didn't get out on a walk until the evening, so maybe that's related. Reading is still on track, and I'm about 2/3 of the way through 1 Nephi in just two days, which is cool. I also got some good work done -- well, at least I got a lot of work done; I was about ready to beat up the one laptop I'm testing, but that's a story for another day.

Daily Check Up:
1) Scripture study: Yes (15 pages per day through the end of the year: 1 Nephi 9-15)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15+ minutes good book: Yes (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 2, about 20 pages)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes (Chapter 8 of The 5 Love Languages of Children)
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (Walked to Wendy's for dinner/exercise, about a one hour 4.5 mile walk)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: Yes (S. and V. from church -- neither is really interested but we chatted a bit at least)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Yes
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (1AM to 8AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No (Had serious issues with MSI GX60 -- ended up doing an upgrade to Windows 8 to fix the problem; took many hours of troubleshooting)

November 26, 2012

Today was a really good day, and I feel like I accomplished a whole lot. Of course, considering I got up at 6AM and am going to bed at 11PM and pretty much had no "down time" all day, that's to be expected. I started off by reading the introduction to the Book of Mormon, along with the first 15 pages in 1 Nephi—about 20-25 pages total, taking an hour or so, but I wanted to read the Introduction before starting into the main book. After breakfast, I walked/jogged Becky over to our friend's house, Meagan, which is about 2.3 miles each way, and then I walked home pushing the stroller with the two boys. I also listened to the two doTERRA calls at some point and did my usual oil pulling routing while reading the BofM.

After all of the above, I got started on work, and before sending back a laptop I wanted to do one final round of testing with the latest driver updates. Some of the tests I can start and walk away for a bit, so I did some packing/cleaning of the office while they were running, as well as finding The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People out in our storage shed in a bin. While I continued running tests, I read that for a while—I love multitasking! Besides breaks for dinner and putting the kids to bed at night, work and writing blogs was the order of the day. Only drawback? I'm tired and my back is a bit sore from hauling all the heavy storage bins in from the shed.

Great quote for the day: "How can we remember our ignorance, which our growth requires, when we are using our knowledge all the time?" —Thoreau

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Restarting and doing 15 pages per day through the end of the year: Intro through 1 Nephi 8)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes (read The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, chapter 1 plus intro, while testing laptops—about 50 pages)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Not yet, though I overdid the other readings.
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (Walked Becky to Latimer's this morning, about a one hour 4.5 mile walk)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes (Two)
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One (Cherie—Becky)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes (Pulled boxes out of storage, prepping for moving)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Yes
12) Early to bed, early to rise: Yes (11PM to 6AM)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: Yes

November 25, 2012

I'm not sure why Sundays always seem so stressful in the morning. We have 1PM church right now, so getting up, getting ready, and getting to church on time should be easy, right? Except, it never seems to work out. Becky let me sleep in (far more than I deserved -- thanks honey!), so that didn't really get me going in the right direction. Even so, the clock seemed to just catapult from 11AM to 12:30PM and as usual I barely made it to church in time to direct the opening hymn (okay, maybe with two minutes to spare).

Besides the rough start to the day, though, things went well for the most part. I finished reading the Book of Mormon tonight, and now I've set up a new challenge for myself: read it again before the end of the year! There are 36 days left in 2012, and the Book of Mormon is 531 pages, so that mean 15 pages per day will get the job done. That's totally doable, so I'm going to do it! Anyone else want to join me? I think it's always an awesome experience to read through the whole book quickly, as everything starts to flow together and you get a better feel for everything that happens, start to finish, that way.

We also read some of the Discipline chapter in the 5 Love Languages of Children tonight, which prompted some discussion for about 30 minutes -- which is sort of the point of reading books like this! One funny thing (well, to me maybe) is that Becky noted during our reading, "They make is sound as though everyone only has one child to worry about!" That's not entirely true -- there are areas where stories discussed parents with two children -- but most of the content definitely focuses on the singular homes. I admit that most of my thoughts with the book have been oriented towards Alana so far, but my wife kindly noted that we have two other boys that need love just as much. It can be a bit overwhelming at times when you're trying to juggle the responsibilities of so many people. But as the saying goes, nobody every said it would be easy!

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Mormon 6-10)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: No
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes (5 Love Languages of Children)
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: N/A (I did do a 1.5 mile walk to pick up a dish from someone with Becky, though)
6) One doTERRA blog post: N/A (Sunday)
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): N/A
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: Yes (Heather and Joe)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: N/A
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: N/A
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (Late to rise, on time to bed)
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: N/A

November 24, 2012

We had nice weather for a change today, and while I got to bed way too late last night (and hence slept in this morning), we did make some good use of the day. Becky made some yummy German Pancakes for breakfast, then we all got changed into exercise clothing and walked/biked over to the bank to get our Earnest Money check for the home purchase (couldn't do that Thursday or Friday since the banks were closed). It's a 2.5 mile walk each way, and the sun was actually out most of the time, so we enjoyed the weather.

I'm not sure what our pace was, but "slow and steady" would be an apt description; I think we left at around 1PM, and after the bank and a stop by the library (with some crazy lady following us muttering about calling the cops, how we were Canadian dogs and the IRS car was coming for us, and I don't know what else -- I mean, seriously crazy talk!), I think we got back to the house around 3:30PM. Then we had some food, I took a bath with Corbin, and we got ready to head to a baptism for a couple young girls (the Walker family).

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Ether 13 through Mormon 5)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: No (Read extra from the Book of Mormon with Alana, though, so that counts!)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (5+ mile walk, some push-ups as well)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): N/A
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One (friend from church at the baptism)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: N/A
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: N/A

November 23, 2012

Today was Black Friday, and do you know what I did? Well, I didn't shop -- not one whit! Down with Black Friday (and the shopping on Thursday night as well). I mostly spent time with the paperwork for closing on the house today, along with some minor cleaning up around the house and taking care of the kids. Alana and I also played some of her Lego games in the evening, as she hadn't had a chance to play them until now. We also watched a movie as a family -- Brave -- which was fun if a bit scary for Corbin. Mostly, it was an uneventful day.

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Ether 9-12)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: No (Still need to dig out a book from the shed)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: No (Did some pull-ups, push-ups, and sit-ups but not for 30 minutes)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: N/A (Holiday break)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No

November 22, 2012: Happy Thanksgiving!

It's national Dad's a Turkey Day! Or something like that.... Anyway, we started the morning off with a Turkey Trot: around the block and then some. Alana was on her bike, I jogged, and Becky had the double stroller with the boys. Alana did crash while we were heading through LBA park (hit a pothole and lost control), but she managed to shake it off and finish the ride. Total distance for me: 4.85 miles, which is good because I have a feeling I more than ate those calories today!

When we got home, I did the honors of brining the turkey (started yesterday, actually), prepping it, tossing it in the oven, and setting the timer. Becky kept the kids busy (or tried to) and prepared the mashed potatoes. Then we packed up and headed over to the Conrad's for Thanksgiving. Lots of food, plenty of good company, and an enjoyable time for all who were there!

I fell asleep in a chair after dinner (much to my wife's dismay), but that's a Thanksgiving tradition as well, right? :-) With everything else going on, my daily tasks slipped again, but I'm okay with that: sometimes you need a small break, and big holidays are always crazy.

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Ether 5-9)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: No
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (4.85 mile jog/walk)
6) One doTERRA blog post: No
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): No
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No
14) Happy Thanksgiving? YES!

November 21, 2012

Happy birthday to my darling daughter Alana! Ten years ago, this little bundle entered my world. We've had lots of good times, along with the usual hard time as well. I'm grateful for all the opportunities I've had to learn and grow by having her around. I brought her cookies for her school class (Becky made the chocolate chip cookies, which Alana and the class apparently thought tasted like they had eggnog), ran to the store to get some stuff for the party, and also made BBQ ribs for dinner. I did a dry rub and cooked them all day in a crockpot, and then added BBQ sauce and finished them on the grill, 15 minutes per side. They tasted really good! Becky made some homemade bread, and we had apple cider and roasted mixed vegetables as well.

With all the other stuff going on, I ran out of time to make a cake, so we went to Costco and I bought a large chocolate cake. It was good, but it also cost as much as the ribs! It was also way too big, and by the time we finished with dinner I don't think anyone had room for cake and ice cream -- but we shoveled it down anyway!

Presents were a bit sparse this year, but Alana did get a nice hand-carved storage box from her Oma filled with Hershey Hugs, and a handmade pink "A". Her grandma Sherry sent a nice card with a check. And I bought her a couple Lego games (Harry Potter Years 5-7 and Batman). Funny thing is that I couldn't find any local stores with the games in stock, and so I looked online and found that they were half off on a Steam sale. Except, how do you wrap a Steam game? So I found images for the two boxes and printed them up.

Needless to say, that kept me busy today so I missed many of my daily tasks. But, tomorrow is another day! Actually, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so it's another day off I suppose, but I'm still going to get more of my tasks done!

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: No
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: No
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: No
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: No
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: No
14) Successful birthday? YES!

November 20, 2012

Happy birthday, Cade! It's my brother's birthday today, and while he probably isn't reading any of these blogs, at least he deserves a shout out. Other news: apparently no one in my family is reading my blogs, or else they didn't notice the 13th line yesterday where I mentioned accepting the bank's offer on a house. To put it more bluntly: we're buying a home! Yay! This is the first home I'll actually be buying instead of renting; it's about time.

I'll have to take some pictures of the house and yard and such at some point. The short synopsis is that the place needs a bit of work, but nothing major -- repaint a couple rooms, maybe do something for a couple carpet stains, and the yard needs some TLC. There's also a creeping vine plant of some sort planted next to the front porch that has to come out -- it's already taking over and it can't be more than six years old (the age of the house).

With that out of the way, today was a pretty successful day. I did my readings, calls, and exercising. I posted a short article about a new LCD that seems at least nice if not exceptional (AOC i2367fh), I went for a 3.5 mile jog/run with Scott Latimer in the afternoon (31:22 was our time, so just under a nine minute mile pace), and I made some headway on the office. On the other hand, we're missing our mail keys. Five years of living in this place and if figures I might have lost the keys just a month before we move! We'll find them I'm sure -- it's just a matter of figuring out where Caleb/Corbin put them I think.

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Ether 2-5)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes (Slight Edge chapter 13 through the end)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (jogging and pull-ups)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: One person
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes (Packed up one AVADirect laptop; other still running a few quick tests)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Yes
12) Early to bed, early to rise: Yes
13) One AnandTech pipeline or article: Yes

November 19, 2012

I didn't get to this yesterday, so here's a quick morning update:

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: No (Just read a couple verses of the Book of Mormon)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes (Slight Edge chapter 12 -- nearly finished!)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Not really (did some push-ups and sit-ups)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes (Need to ship AVADirect laptops off today!)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: Not quite, but close
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No
13) Accept bank's counteroffer on house: Yes

November 18, 2012 - End of Week

Some of you (if you were really paying attention) may have noticed that I didn't post anything yesterday, on Sunday. I've decided to try to keep Sunday clear of blogging and focus on family, church, and otherwise spiritual things, so I'll do the weekly wrap-up and daily summary on Monday morning. First, let's talk about the day.

I've decided to not try reading my "good book" on Sundays, focusing on scriptures instead, so yesterday I did plenty of scripture reading (around 10 pages, going from Mormon 7 through Ether 1, plus some reading with the Sunday School class at church). That changes the list of daily tasks quite a bit, so here we go:

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Mormon 7-9, Ether 1 with Becky)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: N/A
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: No
6) One doTERRA blog post: N/A
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): N/A
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: N/A
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: N/A
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: N/A
12) Early to bed, early to rise: Close (got out of bed at 7:30AM and went to bed at 11:30PM)

This is the first weekly summary I've done, and overall it was a decent start to my Slight Edge list. I read a significant amount of The Slight Edge and should be done with that in the next day or two. I also read about 30 pages from the Book of Mormon (give or take), but didn't do so well at reading the parenting/relationship book with Becky. I did listen to all the doTERRA calls, I got my home teaching done last Sunday evening (before the middle of the month -- how's that for overachieving?), and we did a good clean up of the house on Saturday (though the yard still needs a lot of help). Here's the overview:

Weekly Check Up:
1) Family Home Evening: Yes
2) Attend church: Yes
3) Check weight on scale: 206.4 lbs. 22.4% BEI
4) doTERRA weekly call: Yes
5) doTERRA blog week-in-review post: Not yet
6) Call home teaching families: Yes (home taught)
7) Family Council: Yes
8) One hour house cleanup: Yes
9) At least one full review posted (for my regular job): No
10) Call mom and at least two other siblings: Yes

November 17, 2012

We had the O'Dells over for dinner tonight for pizza night, and that was a lot of fun. Alana had a great time playing with Brooke and Kaylee, and Corbin had a blast with Jacob -- he kept giving him tackle hugs and saying, "I love you!" Besides that, we cleaned up the house, I tried (unsuccessfully so far) to help my mom get rid of her computer virus, and we did the various other Saturday chores.

I also read the "Turning your dreams into reality" chapter of the Slight Edge, which was about making good goals. Here's my resulting dream sheet, which is not tacked to my wall

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Alma 55 and 56 with Alana)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes (Slight Edge chapter 11)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Not really (did some push-ups)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): N/A
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No (unless we count the O'Dells, but they're already signed up)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Sort of (preparing for visitors meant moving a table out)
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: N/A (Saturday)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: Not really (got out of bed at 7AM but then fell asleep on couch; up a bit late writing blogs)

November 16, 2012 (FHE)

Today was another busy day; take my daughter to/from school, breakfast/lunch/dinner, walking/exercising, doTERRA calls, oil pulling, etc. I loaned Making the First Circle Work to a friend, which was the doTERRA book of the month last month. It's a good book about network marketing, and how the best way to lead is by making sure the "first circle" is working properly. The first circle of course is you: you can't expect others to do what you are unwilling to do. I need to get in a better habit of "leading".

Work was another rough day for me; I'm having serious writer's block. I also got a new Dell XPS 12 Ultrabook for testing, which is in many ways superior to the Acer Aspire S7 -- just not as thin and sleek. One major advantage is that it can actually flip the display over so that it's a true tablet; the other big advantage: it's about $200 less than the S7 for otherwise similar specs. But, I still say the S7 is the nicer looking laptop, even if it costs more. Besides playing around with the XPS 12 a bit, I ran a few more tests on the S7 and continued typing out my review. At this point, it's about 80% done; I need to put together all the graphs, which is always a pain for me for some reason, and then just write up a bit more analysis and the conclusion. Spoiler: the S7 is an awesome looking laptop and perhaps the best feeling laptop Acer has ever shipped -- certainly it's one of their best offerings. The price is still higher than I'd like, but even some Apple lovers would be impressed by the profile and looks of the S7.

The real issue with getting work done today was other people calling me for help with computer issues. My mom, who doesn't know much about using a computer beyond basic email and web surfing, managed to get a nasty FBI Moneypak virus that tries to extort $200 from you for removal. It does it's best to lock everything up tight, to where a non-technical user will have to get help. Needless to say, trying to help my mom resolve the problem over the phone was a nightmare. Her laptop is about 90% clean right now, but I'm going to need to do something more than running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to fix the rootkit I think. Ugh.

After dinner, we had our first real Family Home Evening in a couple months. As noted in the "Manifesto", I'm going to make sure we do these every week, as it's really important for building our family unit. I taught the lesson, doing a blend of The Slight Edge tied into Elder Holland's talk from early 2009, The Best Is Yet to Be. After the part towards the end where it says, "Keep your eyes on your dreams, however distant and far away. Live to see the miracles of repentance and forgiveness, of trust and divine love that will transform your life today, tomorrow, and forever", I went into a section where we all discussed some of our dreams (i.e. "big goals") as a family, and we came up with a plan of action for getting there.


Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Mormon chapters 5 and 6 with Becky)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes (Slight Edge chapter 9)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: No, but FHE counts right?
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (2.5 mile walk with wife)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No (one person)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Not really
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No (around six hours again -- have to make some time up tomorrow)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: Yes, mostly (11:15PM bedtime)

November 15, 2012

Today was a busy day, but I'm not sure busy is always such a good thing. I was stupid last night and stayed up until about 1AM, first working and then just spending some time with my wife vegging in front of the TV to unwind. Like I said, stupid, but there you have it. The good news (sort of?) is that my little boy was still right on cue for waking me up this morning at 6:30AM. So I got up and got going with the day, listening to the two doTERRA calls (Leadership and Mentor calls). I ate breakfast (bowl of cereal), went for a walk with my wife and kids, and then cleaned up (showered). That was all good, though it took about an hour longer than it should have, and from there I sort of got off track.

I read up on the latest posts to our website, and tried doing some work on my own article -- which is woefully late by now! I decided to try out Windows 8's speech recognition support to see if it was any better than in Windows 7. Short answer: no. Long answer: it works okay for basic stuff, but it has a habit of almost always using the long form of certain things (e.g. "windows eight" instead of "Windows 8", even though I corrected this about ten times), and the overall UI just pales in comparison to Dragon NaturallySpeaking -- which I need to reinstall on my PC and start using again! After a couple hours of this, I gave up and went back to the keyboard, but by this point it was time to eat lunch and then run off to pick up my daughter from school.

Tuesdays and Thursdays have been hectic for a while, as we signed my daughter up for swimming classes, so that meant another two hours running her over to the YMCA. Come home, eat dinner, get the kids to bed, and the day is done. Whew! But I'm done as well. Rather than staying up all night trying to write when I can hardly think straight, I'm going to go to bed and work on finishing the Acer S7 review tomorrow.

Daily Check Up:
1) 15 minutes scripture study: Yes (Mormon chapters 4 and 5 with daughter)
2) Morning and evening prayers: Yes
3) 15 minutes good book: Yes and then some (reading Slight Edge while at swimming)
4) 15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book: Yes
5) Exercise for 30 minutes or more: Yes (2.5 mile walk with wife)
6) One doTERRA blog post: Yes
7) Use doTERRA oils for something: Yes
8) doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri): Yes
9) Talk to two people about doTERRA: No (one person)
10) 15 minutes organizing office area: Yes
11) Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job: No (around six hours so far)
12) Early to bed, early to rise: No (up too late last night)

My Slight Edge Manifesto

While reading the book The Slight Edge, I decided to come up with a list of daily small things that I can do to give me a Slight Edge. The idea is that small amounts, compounded over time, create big changes. I'm working on a separate blog about my experiences with doTERRA essential oils, but this blog will be purely focused on my day-to-day activities. I'll start with a list of things I will do each day, week, month, quarter, and year. In this blog, I will use it as a diary to list what I accomplished each day. It will be my way of taking a look in the mirror each night to reflect on what I've done. So, with that said, here's my (initial) Slight Edge Manifesto of things I'm going to do in order to start moving upwards in life.

Daily
1)    15 minutes scripture study
2)    Morning and evening prayers
3)    15 minutes good book (e.g. Slight Edge)
4)    15 minutes of parenting/relationships/children book
5)    Exercise for 30 minutes or more (walk, push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups)
6)    One doTERRA blog post (at least) (Mon-Sat)
7)    Use doTERRA oils for something (e.g. apply oils for Carpal Tunnel, oil pulling, etc.)
8)    doTERRA Leadership and Mentor calls (Mon-Fri)
9)    Talk to two people about doTERRA
10)    15 minutes organizing office area
11)    Solid 8 hours (M-F) working at my job
12)    Early to bed (by 11PM), early to rise (by 7AM)

Weekly
1)    Family Home Evening
2)    Attend church
3)    Check weight on scale
4)    doTERRA weekly call
5)    doTERRA blog week-in-review post
6)    Call home teaching families
7)    Family Council
8)    One hour house cleanup
9)    At least one full review posted (for my regular job)
10)    Call mom and at least two other siblings

Monthly
1)    Home teaching
2)    Fast, fast offerings, and tithing
3)    Date night with Becky (twice per month!)
4)    Pay bills and go over budget
5)    Monthly council
6)    doTERRA Meeting at our house
7)    Month-in-review doTERRA blog post
8)    Pictures of body for fitness
9)    Individual date nights with children
10)    Call dad at least once
11)    Find a small service project to help with

Quarterly
1)    Attend temple at least once
2)    Attend a doTERRA conference
3)    Find a large-scale service project to participate in as a family
4)    Family activity
5)    Find some fitness event (e.g. triathlon, Turkey Trot, bike ride, etc.) to participate in

Yearly
1)    Anniversary celebration
2)    Family reunion/vacation
3)   Go somewhere I've always wanted to visit
4)   Do something I've always wanted to try

Seriously, if you haven't already read this book, I highly recommend it. It's down to earth and helps put all those other self-help books into perspective. What I also love is that there's no "secret" to making this stuff work; it's things we already know at some level, but most of us just don't bother to do them. So join me in reading the book, and then let me know what you think!

My updates from this point forward are going to be a list of things I accomplished each day, as well as any other thoughts for the day. I'll simply update once each evening and we'll go from there.