Home Life

Posts about home life.

Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is on avoiding gaining the weight that you might otherwise pick up in college. They traditionally call it the “freshman fifteen” but I didn’t find it until graduate school.

You know how it goes- you are busy working and studying; shopping and preparing nutritionally-sound food seems out of reach for your hectic schedule. Or perhaps you are busy studying and trying to stay awake, so you reach for the goldfish or Twinkies. Stop right there, my friend! Hold it!

When you go to the store, please buy apples or oranges or something that will give you the immediate gratification of eating, without the calories. Yes, the local food store on campus has shelves and shelves of candy and chips and ice cream treats and a myriad of other delectable goodies, but what will eating them do to your shape?

Instead of indulging while studying and adding on the pounds, take the time to get healthier snacks. It would be ideal to not eat in between meals at all but I know that, when you are reading a particularly dull chapter in a textbook that bores the daylights out of you as you study this lower level core class that you never wanted to take, it can be soothing to eat something, but try to not eat excessive calories. After all, reading is not an active sport! Reading one chapter does not immediately equate to burning the bazillion calories that the treat you are looking at in the school vending machine will add to your diet.

In other blogs, I have talked about using note cards to study. If you have some prepared, take them and go out for a walk rather than reaching for the gummy bears or pizza. I prepared for my qualifying exams for months. During that time, I printed out a 16 point font copy of my notes and taped it to the wall in front of my treadmill. That allowed me to study, stay awake, and burn calories rather than consume them. Food for thought, my friends.

I would love to hear from you as you share your ideas on this topic. Please use my name in your comments, so that I will know you aren’t spam and can pass your wisdom along to others.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

How grocery shopping is like writing essay transitions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

How in the world are transitions in an essay like grocery shopping???? Believe it or not, they are alike.  Work with me here!

When you go shopping for food, you put a lot of unrelated items in your cart. Maybe you get some bananas, a container of cinnamon, and some nonfat yogurt. While you are pushing them around the store, they are three separate things. After taking them home, however, you can combine them in your blender (with a few other things) and make a wonderful smoothie.

It’s like that with essay transitions. You see, your goal is to take three different thoughts and combine them into one essay. You do that through transitions. You will use four different transitions if you have three main points.

Your first transition will be between the introduction and the first main point. You need to go from getting our interest and telling us what your essay is about in your introduction to the first point; you don’t just start in. That would be like holding up the banana in your cart and declaring that it is a smoothie.

Nope, you have some work to do first. Your introduction has told me what to expect in the following pages, so now it is your job to start the first point by telling me that you are telling me about the first point. If you are a freshman, you might say something such as “First, this is abc because of xyz.” More advanced writers will use a more profound sentence, but this works for newbies.

The next transition is between points one and two. Perhaps you will write “not only do we have point a but we also have point b.” Again, this is very basic. As you become a stronger writer, you will write a more complex sentence (but you will still need to be concise).

You will then write a transition between points two and three and another one between point three and the conclusion. It is transitions that make your essay come together; it is the work of your blender to make the banana, cinnamon, and yogurt work together (along with other ingredients) to make those random purchases into a wonderful drink.

(By the way, in case you haven’t noticed, I have been using transitions throughout this blog posting. I hopefully got your attention by making the outrageous statement that grocery shopping is like writing transitions for essays. Then I talked about your first transition, went onto the next transitions, and then the last transition. That’s how it works!)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Just for fun: Death by Porta Potty

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I told this story to my face-to-face classes yesterday and they suggested I share it with you, so here goes. BTW, the situation is true and just happened to me yesterday morning.

I was on my way to Prince Frederick yesterday morning, driving down the highway, when I noticed a flatbed trailer holding 8 Porta Potties right in front of me. We were going 55 miles per hour, and I could not get around him, so I stayed behind his vehicle almost the entire way to campus.

Then I started to notice some things about the flatbed. It had no lip that would have kept the toilets from flying off of the back of the trailer, should they become loose. Then I noticed that there was only one rope holding them on the flatbed trailer.

My imagination began working overtime, as I realized what the next day’s headlines would read, if they hit my car: “Death by Porta Potty!” I could just picture myself walking around heaven for all eternity, with folks coming up and asking me, “So, Sister, how did you die?” My reply? “I got hit in the face by a toilet!”

When I was finally ready to leave the road and turn into campus, I felt very relieved that the toilet-toting-trailer continued down the road. My face was flushed with happiness as I realized that no headlines would be necessary. Have a great day!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Learning to say “no”

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

One of the hardest things for a people-pleaser to do is to say “no” when someone makes a request. If you are serious about your future, sometimes you have to turn down a request to do something.

When starting college or a new job, this is something you need to be able to say pretty quickly, or you will miss deadlines. I used to be very active in my church, but taking on home schooling and a double major in college made it so I could no longer be at church every time the doors opened.  The amazing thing is that they replaced me pretty quickly. Ladies’ banquets still got planned and thrown, missionaries still got treated to a home cooked meal when they arrived, and children still got babysat in the nursery. And this happened all without my showing up to open up and set up and staying to lock up the church at the end of the event. What an eye-opener!

While I did enjoy continuing my involvement with the adult choir and Passion Plays, everything else could wait until I finished college. It took 14 years for me to complete my education, but the church is still running. The good thing about saying “no” is that you give someone else the opportunity to serve. You can still support the ministries through prayer; you can still support any causes you believe in through donations or encouragement. The bottom line is: You don’t have to do it all yourself! I have found that, if the cause is worthwhile, 100% of the time someone else steps up and does the job you felt you absolutely had to do.

What have you learned about saying “no?” How did you get over your feelings of being the only one who could do or run something? I would love to hear your thoughts!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Homeschooling tips

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

When I home schooled the younger of my two sons, there were several things that we did to make the day go more smoothly. Here are the issues that we faced and how we handled them;

Having a schedule was very important, so that he knew what we were going to do and when we were going to do it. For the first year, we kept to the same schedule that he had been on while in a private school. For example, we began with pledges and prayer and worked our way through the day, just like he had been accustomed to. There was one notable exception: he was working at three times the speed of the traditional classroom. As a result, he finished the school year one month early, having completed all of his books. We spent the rest of the year studying anything he was interested in, such as space flight and marine life.

Next, I found that visualization was important. As such, I began each school day by removing all of the books from the home school cabinet and then stacking them according to subject. As we  completed each subject, I put the books back in the cabinet (this included my teacher’s version of each book, so the stacks were quite high). When the table was empty, we were done for the day.

Third, we took a break each day about mid-morning. He could play outside while I walked around and enjoyed the day. We both “got the wiggles out” by doing this. A little fresh air really revitalized us. After the school day was over, we also walked three miles together for PE class.

Finally, we made a point of eating out for one lunch per week, so that we felt like there was something to look forward to (we were very involved in two home school groups where he visited with other kids once a week and he was active in our church youth group, but this was something that just the two of us did). While in the restaurant of his choice, we talked about what it cost to start a restaurant of that type. This continued the learning experience, while also stopping people for turning us in for truancy, since my son was obviously healthy but not in school.

Hope this helps!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Planning for Your Financial Future Starts Now

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

You may be a young person who is just starting out in life and planning for your financial future may seem like something to put off for a lot of years……don’t do it.

I recently spoke with a dear friend whose parents did not plan adequately for their retirement years. She and her husband are now responsible for helping them out. It has been a financial strain but, if they had put away some money as they worked, they would not be destitute now.

What plans have you made for your future? How will you avoid being a financial burden to your children in the coming years?  I would love to hear your ideas!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

What constitutes beauty?

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

What do you think makes someone beautiful? Is it the inner glow or a well-turned makeup and hair job? Do you think it is the combination of these internal and external things?

Recently, I attended a conference where a friend of mine was going to give a presentation. Someone else had the room right before she did, so we entered and sat in the back, waiting for her turn. As it happened, the previous speaker was a radical feminist who was sharing her view of the world.

When the workshop was over, my friend and I headed for the front of the room, to get things ready for her presentation. The feminist cornered me and said, “I just want you to know that you don’t need to dye your hair anymore. You can stop curling your hair and you should dump that silly flower. You can stop wearing makeup and you don’t need jewelry or fancy clothes anymore. Wear jeans and T-shirts and be comfortable.”

Before I could respond, she went on her way. Now folks, your author is someone whose theme song as a child was “I Enjoy Being a Girl.” If you have ever seen me, you know that I do not go out of the house without my hair done, my makeup on, and my “silly flower” firmly planted in my hair. I wear jewelry, though not to excess, and try to always look my best. Why? Because I feel better about myself when I do it.

What do you think about the feminist’s comments to me? How would you have responded? I look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

P.S. Yes, I dye my hair. My former pastor always said, “If the barn needs painting, paint it.” I chose to use brown paint.

New Year’s Resolutions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? I conducted a very informal survey today and here is what some of the folks told me:

A very hard-working (and very slender) friend said that she resolves each year to “see more movies, eat more chocolate, and have more fun.” Life is short!

An elderly gentleman at the mall said he resolves to “stay alive.” A noble thought, there!

His wife said she resolves to “be happy.” She always seemed happy to me, but perhaps not.

Their coffee-drinking companion said that he doesn’t have any resolutions but that the additional walkers at the mall and at his health club apparently did. He wonders how long their resolutions will last. Things will settle down, he said, and in a few weeks he will have better access the to machines at his club.

My banker said she resolves not to resolve anything. She doesn’t like the idea of being stuck with resolutions only once a year, as if you can’t start any new lifestyle change at any time other than January. She said that if you want to do something new, just do it. Sounds a bit like a Nike ad!

Whatever your resolution, or lack thereof, I hope that 2017 is a great year for you and yours.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Keeping family stories alive and well

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Let me tell you a story. A friend of mine had an uncle and aunt who owned a farm. They loved to make ice cream, so they opened a small store in front of their farm and sold their ice cream, which was made from the milk that their cows produced. Everyone loved the dessert, and business was great.

One day, the uncle learned that he could make a lot more money selling booze from the back of his store. He started his new economic endeavor, to the chagrin of his sister. One night, the store burned down. He could never prove who did it, but it certainly appeared that his sister had put him out of business.  To her dying day, she never confessed…….

Family stories are such fun. I hope you will take the time to chat with your older relatives and find out what interesting experiences they have had. You never know when you might find a bootlegger or two in your family tree!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

The importance of watching out for drug interaction

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog may seem a bit unusual for Christmas Day but I wanted to share with you a recent experience with an elderly relative. He lives alone, following the death of his beloved wife two + years ago. He was put on Flomax three months ago, but unknown to his other relatives, he did not tell them that he also started taking a “vitamin” for sleeplessness at the same time.

Sadly, the “vitamin’s” side effects mimicked the side effects for Flomax and he ended up catatonic. Fortunately, his daughter was with him when his problem emerged and she was able to call 911. He recovered completely, after almost two days in the hospital.

The lesson here is: let your family members and your doctors know everything that you take. We wasted valuable diagnostic time by not knowing until day two that he was taking a sleep aid. He could have died, but we are very thankful that, once we realized what the problem was, he could be treated.

Best,

Dr. Sheri