Taking a Break from Serious Stuff



Clean Refridgerator - Just Like New



I'm taking a mental break from the very important, serious, controversial stuff going on all around me with Governor Scott Walker's proposed budget repair bill to say that I accomplished something very important. Something long overdue. I cleaned my refridgerator. I will spare you a "before" picture -- just trust me -- this cleaning was badly needed.

Although I didn't specifically articulate this as a goal in my previous post about goals--this dirty, rotten, stinking refridgerator has been vexing me for quite some time.

Every time I opened that stinking refridgerator I was increasingly annoyed. Crumbs. Stains from old food spills. Shelves filled with expired condiments. Dirt in the produce drawers. This was utterly unacceptable!

I procrastinated on this because I was overwhelmed. Until I decided it was ok to complete this project over several weekends. This became a multi-weekend project. I tackled the expired jars of condiments and the resulting recycling avalanche on a few previous Saturdays. This past weekend I removed every shelf and drawer and piece of glass and washed every last crevice.

Then, I put all of our food back in and re-organized everything. No more half-eaten cardboard circles of frozen pizza, I told my husband. He agreed. It was dirty, and it sure looks good now.

Having done this, I'm now much more motivated to eat healthy. I can actually see and find everything we have and I feel much more in control of our food situation. I feel clean. I love feeling clean. I feel like I can accomplish another goal, should I set one.

And that reminds me...goals. I finished my KSurf writing class, three days prior to my deadline. I have a non-fiction book and a novel roughly scratched out in my head. I just can't decide which form to tell my story in. That's another post.

Also, spring is almost here...we've had a few days of 40-degree weather, and I've been out walking every day. I finished Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" and loved it. I saw the movie Sanctum (it was ok) and made muffins. Hello goals and good bye winter funk!

Some Unexpected Good News for Limited Term Employees on our Campus

In light of all the controversy about Governor Walker’s budget repair bill, and the upcoming cuts to our salary and benefits, I was elated to see the following in my email today, a memo from our HR Director, on behalf of our Chancellor, initiating a committee and other initiatives to represent “limited term” employees. This is a milestone!

In November 2009 I published an article about the inequities surrounding limited term employment on our campus. Soon after, I was asked to join the Commission on the Status of Women. I brought this LTE issue to the Commission and we spent all of the 2010 academic year preparing and drafting a proposal that we recently sent to the Chancellor with specific recommendations, including the need to employ limited term employees at a living wage.

It was a slow and tedious process—and just recently I had begun to believe the proposal would sit somewhere on someone’s desk and fade into oblivion. I was even more disturbed when Governor Walker’s budget repair bill was released, which will cut health insurance and retirement system benefits for all limited term employees.

Then, in an email to campus yesterday, the Chancellor said the following:

There are many misperceptions about state employee and specifically university employee salaries and benefits as being significantly above those in the private sector. We all need to be aware of the facts and make sure that we communicate them to our legislators and fellow citizens. Here, for example, are the median annual base salaries of our employee categories:

Classified employees (419 employees) $31,540

Unclassified (810) $53,217

LTE (88 who are in the WRS) $25,140.

Since the governor’s announcement on Friday, I have been truly impressed by our campus community’s response. I share the genuine concern for those most affected by regressive elements of this proposal, namely LTE and low-salary employees. We have been working with the Women’s Commission to see how we might address the difficult status of LTE employees, and this bill will make that task even more urgent.

I was impressed by the sensitivity and awareness of how devastating this budget repair bill is for limited term employees. In my eight years here, I've never heard anyone at the administrative level even approach the topic of "limited term" employees or their rights. I couldn’t help but feel that in part, our work on the Women’s Commission had played a vital role in spreading awareness of this important issue.

Then, today, I saw the following from HR. To have this equity initiative, backed by HR and the Chancellor, complete with a committee to represent LTE issues, and tasked with the objective of securing a living wage, is monumental! LTEs have never had any representation on this campus, and I would go as far as to say it has been somewhat taboo to even talk about it.

February 10, 2011

To: All Classified and Limited Term Employees

From: Donna Weber

Director, Human Resources

RE: Promotion of Equality

Chancellor Levin-Stankevich has asked me to lead our classified staff, limited term employees and academic staff in identifying perceptions of, and actual inequities across campus employee groups. I am honored and pleased to lead this “Gold Arrow Project Charter,” which is the first of its kind on this campus, and a direct result of the Strategic Planning efforts.

Although we have limited authority to adjust salaries, we pledge to do whatever we can to ensure a feeling of inclusivity and equality for all employees.

I am working very closely with the Chancellor, Teresa O’Halloran and Jack Connell, and they are committed to this important effort. This project is supported by the Women’s Commission. I am also working collaboratively with the Student Affairs Leadership Fellow (Christopher Buckley) to enhance our new employee orientations.

One of the first things I want to do is establish a Staff Council that would be willing to work with me by supporting the effort and providing a voice for all classified staff and limited term employees to provide important and valuable input to the UW Eau Claire administration. This council could bring forth recommendations, ideas for professional development, etc.

The current classified committees (scholarship committees, professional development committee, etc) would be folded into this larger committee.

Following are some ideas that I (and others) have for the committee’s charge:

• Explore options for professional development

• Plan and prepare for a professional development day/s for ALL Employees to be held in August (between summer session and the onset of the academic year)

• Find new ways to reward employees for excellence in service

• Provide a collective voice for the administration

• Enhance new employee orientations

• Encourage the administration to have classified representation on more administrative search committees

• Provide LTEs a living wage

If the budget repair bill succeeds at stripping limited term employees or their health insurance and retirement benefits, I’m not sure how much this campus initiative will realistically help them…but it gives me hope that with persistence and passion you can bring an issue to the table and make something happen. Hopefully we can continue the work, even if we must wait until we have the leadership of a new governor.

How To Beat Your Winter Funk

For weeks I’ve been completely unmotivated. It happens to me every January. The weeks of sub-zero temperatures wear me down. Eventually I find myself on the couch every night, watching way too much of my favorite programs, like TrueBlood or Dexter or Californication or whatever I can get my hands on.

I haven’t even cooked an actual dinner in weeks. I don’t feel like eating…nothing sounds good…I have no motivation to prepare anything. It is the time of year when I fall into my most unhealthy habits, and I feel like everything I love doing so much, like having a garden, canning/preserving food, cooking, eating healthy, exercising, is all so far out of reach.

How can I break out of this funk?

We all know the common things that we should be doing….exercise, get eight hours of sleep, eat vegetables, meditate, whatever. I know what I should be doing, I just don’t do it. It’s dark all the time. It’s cold. I’m always tired. And cold. I go home and put my pajamas on.

One night this week I did manage to pick up the book I’m reading, The Year of Magical Thinking, by Joan Didion (which, by the way, I am enjoying quite a bit…her story is about grief and hope and strength and reminds me of my experience with my mother and her stroke) instead of turning on the TV. I guess that is one step in the right direction.

How do you get out of your funk?

I’m reminded of a post this week on my friend’s blog, Fat Girl Fed Up, about setting goals. Maybe that is what I need to do. A weekly goal for blog posts. A weekly goal for reading. A weekly goal for the draft of my novel……I am going to start small so I don’t get overwhelmed, and then keep setting goals. Notice I am mixing business and pleasure for motivational purposes……..

Starter Goals:

• Make healthy Pumpkin muffins for our “breakfast theme” Superbowl party
• See a movie (I am REALLY intrigued by the preview for Sanctum)
• Finish KSurf Fiction Writing workshop assignments by 2/14. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. This weekend, catch up on lessons
• Finish my office…l’ll post some pictures in an upcoming post…finishing my own personal writing space is related to my writing goals!
• Finish “The Year of Magical Thinking” by the end of February and start a new book
• Paint my bedroom by the end of February

Walking Through Illusion...Five Lessons Of Spirituality

Betsy Otter Thompson asked me to review her book, Walking Through Illusion. I have to preface this by saying I’m really not one to read religious books.


However, I have read books on spirituality, such as The New Earth by Eckhart Tolle, and I find Walking Through Illusion to be similar. For example, it is not an easy read. It is full of so much information that often you have to go back and re-read the sentences several times over. Having said that, if you are up to the challenge, it’s worth it. These books are full of nourishing, enlightening, soul-healing lessons that will leave you feeling enriched. Walking Through Illusion reminds me of the healing power of faith and spirituality, which often starts with things as simple as changing your attitude and paying attention to your inner thoughts.

The book’s title is explained in this passage: “See success differently, I told Bartholomew, and instead of insisting it’s something you see with your eyes, see it as something you feel in your heart. I called this process walking through illusion.”

Getting in touch with your heart, your inner self. This is one of the lessons in this book…lessons of spirituality that are useful no matter what your religion. I’m going to summarize five of these lessons here.

*Live in the present moment.

Ch 1, Reform, discusses Bartholomew and how he was always unhappy, especially in his profession. He blamed his unhappiness on his job and other people when in fact his attitude was the problem. By complaining and blaming others, he missed the point of life: “The good life was one in which the heart found love. Love was found in the moment. When the moment was denigrated, he missed the love it had.”

*Take responsibility for your life and focus on internal (not external) change.

In the author’s reflections at the end of Ch 1, Reform, she takes responsibility for her life by focusing on herself: “Not until I realized that no amount of reform on the outside would solve my problems did I take responsibility for all that I had created. That was my turning point. I knew that if I’d created the mess I was in, I could create something else.”

*Accepting what is creates happiness; resisting what is creates needless suffering.

Ch 2, Gifts, is summarized in the following quote: “Disappointment comes from thinking that life should be different. Enjoyment comes from thinking that life is wonderful the way it is.”

This chapter reminds us to accept what we have, and whatever challenges life brings. If you’ve had a family crisis, perhaps it will take you years to come to terms with the changes it brings and also to realize all you’ve learned from these challenges.

You also have to find acceptance in your daily life. My husband and I went to our local parade of homes the day I read this chapter. Walking into new, enormous, immaculately decorated homes with features like enormous workout rooms reminded us just how modest our home is. When we got home, my husband said he felt very inadequate, and I couldn’t agree more. But then I thought about acceptance, and I realized that we have everything we could ever need. A bigger home and a bigger mortgage payment will not bring us more happiness. I want to break free of the thought pattern that having the biggest, latest, best of everything can buy happiness. There is so much fulfillment in complete acceptance of what you have.

*The world mirrors what you put out into the world; you have to live what you want the Universe to mirror back to you…

In Ch 3, Obstacles, Peter the Fisherman has trouble with the success of his business until he learns there is more to success than catching fish. “When he believed that being the best meant having the biggest catch, the buyers didn’t bite. They knew their reward didn’t come from the size of the catch, but from the size of the heart offering it. Therefore, they zeroed in on warmer hearts regardless.”

This reminds me of Eckhart Tolle’s discussion of attitude and the importance of remaining in the present moment so that you can bring peace and gratitude to whatever job you are doing. Put out what you want to get back.

*It’s all about your inner state; inner, not outer transformation is the way to create change

Attribution: David F. Fry
http://www.ideas.wisconsin.edu/

Ch 4, Morality, again discusses Peter the Fisherman who “began finding the highest form of nourishment in the heart,” rather than in the number of fish he could catch or in attaining the approval of others.

Jesus says, “I was gathering people together to encourage belief in self. Self was the only place I knew that God could always be found. Peter was thrilled to be included and, just as he’d been finding the highest form of nourishment in the sea, he began finding the highest form of nourishment in the heart. But wisdom from the former held him in good stead with the latter.”

News flash!! Your perceived challenges are not everyone else’s fault!! You are the only thing that you have control over, the only thing that you can change. So work on yourself, your own heart. I used to agonize over my perceived problems—work conflicts, family challenges, etc. This just creates suffering. Now I just pray to the Universe to help me let it all go, move on, and do better next time. You’d be surprised how much baggage you’re holding on to if you start paying attention.

Often you can start just by tweaking your attitude a little. From the author’s personal insights in Ch 4: “I went from wishing people were different to welcoming their uniqueness.”

Overall Lesson: Knowing God—or your higher power—is about knowing yourself…The higher power that created us is inside of us and everything on Earth is connected. So act accordingly!

Homemade Christmas Exchange

A couple years ago we decided to try something different for Christmas...abandon all the stressful, superficial Christmas shopping in favor of something a little more meaningful. In my family, we decided to forego the gift exchange altogether. No one has to shop or stress or rack up their credit cards. Instead, we each agreed to make a donation to a charity or a cause that we wanted to support.

In my husband's family, we decided to do a themed gift exchange. Last year we did a “buy local” theme…this year we did a “homemade” theme. Both were equally fun. Each person brought one gift to exchange. You had to make your own gift. We knew about it a year in advance so we had all year to work on it. During the gift exchange, we drew numbers and made a game out of it…you could steal gifts from each other, steal them back, etc. I discovered that it is a lot of fun to put time and thought into creating your gifts, and even more fun to see the unique talents of the family emerge in a showcase of all the different gifts.

I decided to put together a collection of some of my canned goods, and add some different jar mixes for soups and cookies. I found some recipes for chunky chocolate cookie mix, rainbow bean soup mix, and love soup mix. The following is what I started out with.

Ingredients for Jar Mixes

JAR CHUNKY CHOCOLATE COOKIE MIX

3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup chopped pecans
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup jumbo chocolate chips

Mix together the flour, baking soda and baking powder and salt. Set aside. Layer ingredients in order in a 1 quart wide mouth canning jar. Use the bottom of a small clean juice glass and press each layer firmly in place. It will be a tight fit. NOTE: Wipe down the inside of the jar after you add the cocoa powder. Use scissors to cut a 9 inch-diameter circle from calico. Place over lid and secure with rubber band. Tie on a raffia or ribbon bow to cover rubber band. Label and store in a cool dry place away from a heat source so condensation and clumping does not occur. Attach this recipe to the jar:

CHUNKY CHOCOLATE COOKIES (attach this recipe to the jar)

Empty jar of cookie mix into a large mixing bowl. Use your hands to thoroughly blend mix. ADD:
3/4 cup butter or margarine softened at room temp. DO NOT USE MARGARINE
1 egg, slightly beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix until completely blended. The dough is sticky. you will need to finish mixing with your hands. Shape into walnut size balls and place 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. DO NOT USE WAXED PAPER. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 11 to 13 minutes . Cool 5 minutes on baking sheet. Remove to racks to finish cooling. Makes 3 dozen cookies.


Love Soup Mix in a Jar
"Makes a wonderful gift for a new bride-to-be, a friend under the weather, or just to say thanks! And it tastes great, too! Decorate the jar with a fabric lid and/or a bow tied around the neck. Be sure to attach the cooking instructions to the jar. "

18 cubes beef bouillon
¼ cup barley
1/4 cup dried minced onion
½ cup dry lentils
1/2 cup dried split peas
1/3 cup long-grain white rice
1/2 cup uncooked twist macaroni
1 cup uncooked tri-color spiral pasta

Use a canning funnel or any funnel that has about a 2-inch neck. This will make it easier to fill the jars with the ingredients. Be sure to use a wide-mouth, 1-quart canning jar. Layer ingredients in the order given: bouillon, onion flakes, split peas, small shape pasta, barley, lentils, rice, and enough tricolor spiral pasta to fill jar.

Attach tag with cooking instructions: In large kettle, brown 1 pound ground beef or stew beef cut into bite-size pieces in a little olive oil. Remove tricolor pasta from top of jar and reserve. Add the rest of the jar contents to the kettle with 12 cups water. Let come to a boil and simmer 45 minutes. Add tricolor pasta and simmer 15 minutes more. Serve with your favorite bread or rolls and a tossed salad.

I found the rainbow bean soup recipe here: http://www.food.com/recipe/rainbow-bean-soup-mix-in-a-quart-jar-107349

I assembled the jar mixes using the instructions in the recipes above, then wrote out and attached the instructions and decorated the jars:


Soup Jar Mixes



Decorated Jar Mixes



My Homemade Christmas Gift: Jar Mixes Plus Peaches, Salsas, and Jellies



Magnetic Spice Rack

There is a spice rack on amazon.com that I once showed my husband, and he took the idea and crafted his own hand-painted, wood-framed magnetic spice rack. It is a masterpiece!

This spice rack went home with my brother-in-law, and my canned goods went home with my sister-in-law.

We left our Christmas gathering with some beautiful gifts. I got a basket of my sister-in-law’s organic vegetable-enriched pasta sauce, raspberry chardonnay salsa, spicy pepper pickles, multicolor durum wheat semolina pasta, and a bottle of white wine.



My husband got his brother’s masterpiece...a framed collection of nature photos, each photo depicting one letter from their last name, matted and framed by my husband’s brother. Even the wood frame was homemade. This was the most popular present.

The Collection of Nature Photos

Other homemade gifts included quilts, blankets, beef jerky, cheese, ice cream, furniture, and more. Everyone used their unique talents and materials available to them. For example, my sister-in-law, who runs a dairy farm with her husband, used the milk from their farm to make a collection of cheese and ice cream.

For me, these gift exchanges have been much more meaningful than going to the mall and buying a gift. You put some thought, time, and talent into your project and you get all that in return. I think everyone else would agree with me...since we decided to do that homemade gift exchange again next year.

Open

I haven’t been writing a lot lately because I’ve been busy working on my writing…I’ve been sending out a lot of query letters for articles I’ve already written and for article ideas that I have. I usually never hear anything back but I’ve been getting some amazing tips by following some freelance writing blogs: http://www.thewmfreelanceconnection.com/ and http://writetodone.com/ and http://www.makealivingwriting.com/

The result? I feel enriched. And inspired. I am feeling excited, rather than overwhelmed, about the possibilities. Based on these blogs, I’ve decided that I need to create an “author website” that shows some of my work and some testimonials from clients…and I’m going to start working on that right away…

And just as I’d been settling this in my mind, a good friend of mine from college messaged me and said she’s been doing some writing for http://madisonconsumer.com/ -- a great resource that offers money saving tips for people in the Madison, Wisconsin area -- and that she suggested me as a writer should they consider starting a similar resource in my area. Wow. The timing on all of that was incredible.

It reminds me of a line from The Alchemist:

"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

— Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)

(On that note, check out these inspiring quotes from The Alchemist. I also enjoyed A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle for its similar themes).

I’ve also enrolled in a fiction writing workshop at KSURF http://ksurf.net/ and I plan to do the memoir writing workshop next…I subscribed to a fiction writing newsletter, and here is the quote I got today:

"Even if what you're working on doesn't go anywhere, it will help you with the next thing you're doing. Make yourself available for something to happen. Give it a shot."

- Cormac McCarthy

I recently read The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I felt like this quote was speaking directly to me. Maybe this is a new way to think about all those articles I’m sitting on that no one apparently wants! I need to change my mindset, and keep working on things…keep myself open to the possibilities of the universe.

Presents!!!

I just love getting presents! I sure wasn't expecting it, but presents at work have been coming in steadily this week. It's sure nice that people show their appreciation for each other.


My Green Tea Sampler and a Storybook

My Beautiful Green Tea Sampler



A Bottle of Wine



Snowman Doorknob Hanger & Homemade Plum Jam

And here is a photo of a gift I gave to a co-worker who has been especially helpful and supportive as I began a new job this fall. I decorated two cans of my homemade rhubarb jelly. I also gave her a jar of freezer jam but I didn't decorate that one because it was still cold. I love receiving homemade gifts as much as I enjoy giving them (the plum jelly above is one of my favorites).

My Homemade Rhubarb Jelly