variety

Since January 5, I have been working between 30-50 hours per week to prepare for my students, respond to administrative matters, and teach. I try to start work at 8:00 a.m. and usually finish at about 7:00 or 8:00 at night. And I always have things I need to do on Saturday.

Yesterday I took some time in the afternoon to do more than simply prepare for teaching classes. I took care of other necessary items (e.g., renew car insurance, renew car registration, balance budget), but it helped me. I was a much happier person when Matt came home.

So here's a shout-out to creating variety in our life--and taking time to unwind and relax, even if that means crunching numbers instead of working on grammar.

But that doesn't mean you should procrastinate your work day (as I am doing right now)...

2008 in review

For Matt and me, 2008 was a year of growth. We grew intellectually (Matt finally finished reading Truman while I taught at BYU for the first time); spiritually (we re-memorized D&C 4 together); culturally (together we visited two continents, swam in four seas, and ascended 4,000 feet in a gondola); and, apparently, physically (after spending most of the year below the picture line, I am now in the full frame).

Here’s to more growth in 2009!

Church basketball is back

A few thoughts about church basketball after our first game of the season this morning.

-The bad thing about 8 AM games is that no one answers their cell phone when you call them at 7:45 AM on a Saturday to remind them to come.

-I love that our league is giving one point for a win and one point for good sportsmanship (both teams can get that one) to determine who advances to region play. Sports are more fun when everyone is a good sport.

-The best way to use athletic talent (at least in this setting) isn't to try to dominate the game, but to help your team.

-Basketball can be one of the quickest ways for men to bond.

The Anatomy of Peace

Trish and I are currently listening to the new audiobook The Anatomy of Peace by the Arbinger Institute (Terry Warner) in our evening.

It's hard to stop listening and go to bed (as proof, Trish is asleep by me on the couch after asking for "one more chapter..."). Terry Warner teaches about self-deception, but this isn't a dry philosophical treatise, it's an engaging *story*!

I've really enjoyed Warner's other books, Leadership and Self-Deception and Bonds That Make Us Free, which teach how to discover self-deception in your own life and how to overcome it and make peace with yourself. It looks like this new book teaches how to help others overcome self-deception--we're about halfway done. I'll put a review on this blog or my other blog, mattsederberg.com, when we're done.

Grilled pizza

I'd heard about grilled pizza but couldn't figure out how to do it. I hoped that if anyone knew how to do it right, Curtis would. Yep! We made pizza on the grill last week. Here's how:

1. Shape your dough. Luckily Tim worked in the Chuck E. Cheese kitchen for four years and is an expert.



2. Cook the dough right on the grill. Once one side is browned, turn it over with a pizza paddle and quickly add pizza sauce, toppings, and cheese. Close the lid and the pizza is done in a few minutes! (Warning--this will expose any hot spots on your grill, so you may need to move the dough around.)



3. With Tim and Curtis ably manning the first two parts of the pizza creation, my main role was to give their work the appreciation it deserved by sampling each variety. Grilled pizza tastes healthier than baked pizza since it's less greasy. This is a spinach pizza I'm eating.