Solution based therapy: applications to everyday life

I read, during my period of tennis elbow, a chapter in Clinton and Ohlschlager's book, Competent Christian Counseling, on brief solution-based therapy. While I will write more about this later, I found it quite instructive because it's philosophy is one I never thought of before. The idea behind solution based therapy is that no one does the undesirable behavior 100% of the time. For instance, someone who is often depressed still has times when they are not depressed. The key to this method is figuring out why they are not depressed when they are not depressed. Perhaps they have stopped ruminating for a short time. Perhaps it was because they exercised. So, the key to this method is to expand the desired behavior until it becomes the dominate behavior. Doesn't this sound like it could all of us?

My husband's weight loss!

My husband has lost about 9.5 INCHES around his waist in 3 months! IT is AMAZING and I am so proud of him! I know it's been a struggle but it is so nice to see him getting healthier and feeling good most of the time. His weight issues have always been difficult on our relationship but I am hoping we are finally turning a corner... I love him so much!

His family saw him a few weeks ago and they couldn't believe the difference! It was so exciting to see them be excited. He loves it when people ask him if he lost weight (duh!) or ask how he did it. I hope Type II Diabetes (non insulin dependent) has finally given him the kick in the ass he needed. I love him but am still figuring out the best way to help him along and not just nag him to death...

A Classical education is better than TV

I'd like to homeschool my daughter in a few years when we get out of debt so I can stop working. For now she is going to a great private school and learning like crazy! I've got her doing Singapore Math because I think American math is way too far behind... don't let me get started on that. Anyway, most of the time she loves it! She's taken the word workbook on the book and crossed it out and written in playbook instead!

So, we watch too much TV in our house and too much of the time I want to play with her, but.... this or that happens. So I am wondering about replacing some of the TV watching, and some of my reading, with a classical education. I can't do it all and work, obviously, but I am thinking about a foreign language and grammar. I'll keep you posted once I order the book to get started...

On writing...

It's been awhile because I took some time off because I have had tennis elbow and I figured I'd better give it a rest. As you can tell from the title of this post, I like Stephen King's book On Writing. I haven't liked much else of his, though, because I'm just not into it. To each his own. I am also busy taking a class in counseling right now and learning about ethics and stuff... it has really re-vitalized me!

But back to writing. I've set myself a goal of having a publishable manuscript by end of December 2009, but I'm not sure how to get there with a child, trying to get pregnant, going to college part time, and working full time.

But I've got about 50 thousand words. I've cut out about 10 K words to get down to what is really important. I've also eliminated a few extra characters to center in on the important characters and ideas. So I have to figure out how to meet the goal. Guess it's like getting a PhD part time: the way you eat an elephant is one piece at a time... perseverance is important...