The Creative Mind

The following is from "The Scientific Mind" magazine, June/July 2008 edition. I found it very interesting, and wanted to share:

"Creativity is not a gift from the muses only granted to certain people. Rather, it is something that anyone can cultivate, using a variety of methods."

From Robert Epstein, author of "The Big Book of Creative Games" and more:

"There are 4 different skill sets, or competencies that I've found are essential for creative expression. The first and most important competency is "capturing" -- preserving new ideas as they occur to you and doing so without judging them. Writing them down in a journal upon wakening, using a voice recorder. There are many ways to capture new ideas.

The second competency is called "challenging' -- giving ourselves tough problems to solve. In tough situations, multiple behaviors compete with one another, and their interconnections create new behaviors and ideas.

The third area is "broadening." The more diverse your knowledge, the more interesting the interconnections -- so you can boost your creativity simply by learning interesting new things.

And the last competency is "surrounding" -- which has to do with how you manage our physical and social environments. The more interesting and diverse the things and the people around you, the more interesting your own ideas become."

1. Capturing
2. Challenging
3. Broadening
4. Surrounding

AMEN to THAT!

Help, Shawpy!

That Obama is getting closer! He's already picking out someone to be his running mate, which is extra amusing since Hillary still has not conceded she can't win. She just wants that White House back so bad, she's probably willing to do anything. And now it's too late for her to make nice with Obama to see if he'll let her run on his ticket. But, here's my question: is he a black man or is he a white man? The media keeps calling him a black man, but Opus was in the Sunday comics a couple months ago asking this very question. They resolved the answer by going for a swim in the local river. Now that Hillary is almost out of the way, the next division will have to be race in this race. How does a racist country reconcile the ethnicity of a politician who is of mixed ethnicity? Help!

Wheeep, whheep, wheep, WHEEP!

The language of a guinea pig! Lucky, the tri-color boy, does most of the talking. Lisa, the red one, is learning now. They are self-refrigerator trained, which means that everytime the fridge door is opened, they start their talking, or maybe it's just begging!

My favorite noise they make is a purring-like sound that Lucky makes. He started to make the sound before he was neutered, back when the world thought he was a she, but he quickly proved us wrong! So, now we'll be sitting in the evening chilling, and then we randomly hear this purring sound, like the rolling of r's on your tongue. He just struts around his play yard singing, for no particular reason.

Funny how the latest animals that have "found us" are tri-color and match each other (Lucky and Maya, that is)! Lucky was found by a guy in Albuquerque under the car in his driveway. No one ever claimed him, so he made it to the home of the guinea pig rescue, just the same week we were looking for a "girl' playmate for our little Lisa. Well, they do play nice together, and now we don't have to worry about any little ones appearing in their cage.

Here is Maya waiting diligently for Chris to accidentally drop part of his dinner. She's very patient when it comes to dinner time.

Anyone thinking about getting guinea pigs? They are fun little pets, but make sure you do your research BEFORE you get them. Them, because they are meant to be in at least pairs, or in threes. And, they do better in a larger play yard. The ones you are advised to buy in the pet stores do not work, they are way too small. There are instructions for really neat housing units on google.com if you look.

Awwwwww....it's a baby pinecone!

We had our landscaping done on paper before we moved into our house, a requirement to have done before we could close on our home loan in 1998. Then, when we saw the final product, we discovered that the landscaping company didn't tell us that we made some poor decisions, namely we inadvertantly put a pine tree next to a pine tree, bush next to bush, tree next to bush, way too crowded. Then, our pine tree started to bend, so it's not even straight. But here we are 10 years later and it started to produce pinecones just last summer! Now when I was checking out the pinecones that are finally getting bigger and are still green, were surrounded by little purple buds. It looked like little flowers, but pine trees don't flower. Upon closer inspection, we discovered they were the beginnings of new baby pine cones! They are so cute! I think in all these years that we've loved the beauty of nature in pinecones, I don't think I've ever seen one so tiny. Enjoy!

Oh, and here are some pics where we don't have to cut grass but have to pick weeds. The first one is of our only hedge-like bushes, honeybees love it.

Cactus bush getting blooms ready, will open in about a month.

Our cactus has babies, starting last year. They are about 3" tall now, and more are starting to come up around the momma.

Our yucca plant finally died last year, July 8th. That was the start of a week of major life transitions, maybe it was a sign. Well, we didn't replace it yet, so Christopher put the garden gnomes and wind pinwheels there to hold the place until we plant a pinon tree in the next week or so.

Haircut, All the Curls are Gone

Okay, this first one is not a haircut, but you can see his beautiful curls! This has been a week of milestones for the family. He lost a tooth the first week of preschool, and now he lost his 4th tooth the last week of school! This time, you can see the hole on the bottom

left when he smiles big:

So, we have spent the last few days telling Chris that he was going to get a haircut, to which he replied, "I don't want my curls cut off!" We worked on him, for he'll be much cooler in the summer with shorter hair, AND, his bathtime will be more pleasant for the entire family.

This is only his 2nd haircut by a stylist. I've actually used the clippers and scissors to keep his hair cut and trimmed the past 4 years, and it's been working great. But, it's good that Kinsey cut his hair, she did a great job. So, picture below is BEFORE the haicut, still not sure he's gonna like it, but he did like the lift chairs that swivelled.

Half way through the haircut, enjoys watching the job on the mirror ahead. He actually looked down when she said to do so:

My favorite part of a haircut is having someone else wash your head and massage your scalp during and after. It's a small part of heaven, for sure!

His 1st haircut appointment that came with a wash:

All this hair from that little head!

Awwwww, he's still so beautiful, and we compromised, so he still has curls on the top.

Friends are like balloons

Received the following from my youngest sister, and liked it a lot. Really, it sounds like something I would say myself. Thought I'd share it and the picture she sent:

"Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the one's who don't. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands. If it changes your life, let it. Nobody said life would be easy, they just promised it would be worth it. Friends are like balloons: once you let them go, you can't get them back. So I'm gonna tie you to my heart so I never lose you."

Happy Wednesday!

Happy Mother's Day!

Dedicated to Mom and to all the wonderful moms out there!





I thought today would be "the hardest day" but really the days last week leading up to the weekend proved to be much harder. I felt "the crazy" creeping up on me many times, usually at odd and unexpected moments. It resembled, well, it was like those times when you just want to reach out and slap the other person, for no particular reason, but mostly because they didn't "get it" about just about anything. Or they were being ridulously difficult. Or, they didn't have as good of a solution as you. Could have been anything, but that's not very nice, now. Sorry, to whomever I may have entertained the idea of slapping silly. Just appreciate the fact that I gave up hitting other people when I was a teenager.




Not a day goes by when I am not reminded of my Mother. And yes, she was often in my thoughts before she died. The difference is that I used to be able to call her up and talk for short times or much longer, and plan visits in person. The difference is when a mother passes, it shifts the paradigms for others in sometimes healthy and sometimes dysfunctional ways.




No matter, I feel I can still talk to her, and I often do, which is something I appreciate knowing about and participating in. I remember when she called me the first time I was an "official" mother myself and got to celebrate my own Mother's Day (in 2004) how excited she was for us when we got our baby in the fall. How she held and cuddled him in her arms when he was only 6 months old. How we now ask her each night when our soon-to-be 5-yr older says his prayers, for her to watch over him. How sometimes I just want to laugh or cry when he now asks questions about her, depending on my state of mind and the type of question(s) he asks.




So, here was my mother's day, today. Got up early, to the sound of my text messaging going off by a friend sending wishes at 7:30 AM. Called a few friends before the guys started to wake up, including Grandma in Indiana. Called Grandma in Down County last night, since I figured she probably had plans and would either not be home or would have company at the farm today, and had also called one of my sisters yesterday. Of my 9 siblings from down county, I heard from 3, one yesterday, one by text messaging today, and one called. I will admit that while I sent messages to all but one of my 4 sisters (well, that one does not want anyone, or at least me, to contact her, making it hard to "leave messages") and also a sister-in-law, it was disappointing to only hear back from 2 of them. One hasn't called for YEARS, but yet she will send a random text message. Nothing today, won't answer a direct question or comment on her text msg on her phone, but will sporadically send odd messages at other times. I don't understand.... BUT, I "get it" that I will leave well enough alone and not stray where I am not welcome, regardless of the logic or reasonings behind the actions or reactions. I just cannot allow myself to spend any time worrying about the "funnies" of other people, I will not let it irritate me or drive me nuts.

Here's the Mother's Day card and poem that Christopher made for me at school, I love it!

Digressing over.... Mike fixed us all breakfast, including grits with scrambled eggs and cheese, green chile, and apple struedel that he had to let rise overnight and bake this morning. It was very nice, indeed! Then, we went outside with two big plastic trash bags and filled them up with weeds and leaves from about 80% of our rocked-in yard. For those who don't know, we don't cut grass out here in Albuquerque, we pick weeds. Best to do it with gloves! (1) because the cactus droppings have LOTS of microscopic needles, and (2) some of the weeds that blew in, including the tumbleweeds, have prickly parts that will cut you or puncture you. No fun. The two gigantic tumbleweeds that had blown into our yard in one of the last wind storms temporarily ended up over the fence and into the neighbor's yard. I'm sure they won't notice, since they don't do any yard work, and probably never go in the back yard (and we just need to pull them out again anyway). Usually, we take any tumbleweeds and throw them over the back fence, because the wind will carry them back out in the direction from whence they first came to us.

Our front hedge bushes. They have grown in the past 10 years, just slowly.

Did showers and headed to a friend's house about 25 minutes away, the extended family here that we fondly refer to as our "New Mexico Family". These folks are good people, will do anything, and are just really nice and honest people. They are from the area, and have taught us much about the southwest culture over the years. We do a lot of family events with them, which includes the mom and dad, Angie & Leo, and all their three girls and their families: Lee, Alice & Luisa. It was mellow and calming to spend the afternoon with them, no pressure, no expectations. The kids played on the trampoline outside (complete with safety net) and played "alien ship" where they used their squirt guns to spray water on any aliens who tried to steal their trampoline spaceship. I had returned a barely used container of "sugaring" solution to Lee, who does massage, facials, and body sugaring. So, she did everyone's eyebrows and whatever other body parts that we wanted sugared. She even fixed the unibrow on a couple of the guys.




Back home, time to get the little guy ready for bed.


This is when "something happened" -- maybe someone has a theory?




I was in the kitchen fixing a sausage burrito for Chris, he was in the small bathroom TCB (taking care of business), Mike was in the other end of the house. Then I heard a rather loud double-thud sound, and it sounded like it was done on the hallway wall, perhaps the front door. Which was odd, because people at the front door usually ring. Well, next thing I knew, here comes Chris half clothed, all concerned, calling "Papa, Papa?" as he looked for me. I asked him if he knocked the wall, and he said no, Papa did it. Well, I looked into the bedroom and saw the light under the little room door, so he wasn't roaming about. Then I checked outside to see if someone had come to the front door. There was no one outside, no one around the side of the house or walking down the street. So, I checked where Mike was again, and he was still on the other end of the house, and when I asked him, didn't even hear the knocking/thuds.




Perhaps it was Mom, making her presence known? Perhaps it was a bird that hit the front window, but it was a double thud this time, not something I've heard heard here before (unexplained, anyway), and the last time we heard a loud noice, it was one really loud single thud when the bird hit the front windows and then immediately fell down, stunned.




Hmmmm.... very peculiar.




So, I checked all the rooms, the garage, outside again. Of course, if there was something, Maya would have either eaten it or let us know we had company.




So, maybe it really was Mom, on Mother's Day, coming to visit. If so, then I thank you, Mom, with all my heart.