I’ve been pretty successful with the whole weight loss thing, but it’s incredibly complicated and time consuming to attempt to be frugal and healthy. Worth it, you understand, but definitely time consuming. I probably spend 3 hours every two weeks going through grocery sale papers, coupons, and recipes trying to find a combination that is healthy and reasonable from a cost perspective—and it must also not be boring. I have no desire to make the same 10 recipes over and over again. Oh, and did I mention that my nine year old son must also be willing to eat whatever it is?

Yeah.

Okay, so I’ve been on WW twice before. Lost about 40-45 pounds each time. I have gained it back both time, and then some.  Though the “then some” this time was a result of quitting smoking as opposed to just going completely off the reservation.

Anyway, I started exercising at the end of March and lost 5 lbs. before I went on WW again on May 1. I’ve now lost a total of 14.5 lbs. I have about 8 smoking lbs. left to lose.

Apparently I am not alone as I found today a blog dedicated to the subject: Challenging Boys.

Logan is a lot like me in some ways.  His face is the very picture of an Ostroth. As such, I have a pretty good sense of what he will look like when he’s grown.  Probably a lot like this:

All of the Ostroth boys look a lot like that.

But his personality is a lot like Eric’s. And that is not a bad thing.  Eric is strong-willed, has a wicked strong sense of fair-play, is stubborn, and is inclined toward leadership, even though he says he doesn’t like it or want it. When he is happy, Eric is a joy to be around—funny, intelligent, and entertaining. Logan is all of those things as well.

The difference between them, I hope, is that Logan has better parents (and a better family, generally) than Eric did. And I believe Eric is part of that equation, because although it is too soon to be absolutely certain, I believe that Eric is a better parent to Logan than his parents were to him.

My fondest wish and greatest hope is that I will be the kind of mother that Eric should have had, but didn’t; that I can take those things that are the most challenging (and frustrating!) about Logan and teach him to use them rightly.  Being a leader who is stubborn with a strong sense of fair play is a wonderful thing when you are advocating for those who are less fortunate than yourself.  Being witty and entertaining is also a wonderful thing when it is used at the appropriate time and in the appropriate place.

What Eric didn’t have is parents to teach him how to use his strengths correctly, how to be disciplined and a hard worker. His parents didn’t teach him that there are consequences and that your strengths can also be weaknesses when they are taken to the extreme.

Logan will have something else that Eric didn’t have: a sense of security and unconditional love.

If I were the praying sort, I would be praying that those differences will make all of the difference in the world for my challenging son.

I am not about to apologize for it. I am not sure why I should. 

I am proud to share a political philosophy with the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and yes, Barack Obama.

I am proud to support equal voting rights for women and minorities, reproductive choice for women, gay rights, civil rights, education, health care, and the environment.

Like JFK, I try to be “someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people — their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties — someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad.”

I do believe in a fairer distribution of wealth and power,  but not to the point that the government should take over everything. I am NOT a socialist. I don’t think the government controlling everything leads to fairness in anything.

While I do believe in a strong central government, I don’t believe in big government.  I do think the government has a responsibility to look after the welfare of all of its citizens, particularly those that are less able to do that for themselves like the poor, children, the handicapped, the discriminated-against.

I think welfare, as an idea, is a good one.  There will always be those who will take advantage of government entitlement programs and that while we should do all we can to prevent that, it will be a necessary evil if we’re to take care of those who are less able to take care of themselves. And I’d rather not punish children, for example, because their parents are lazy.

I think the government should be very careful of making social policy.  It should stay out of my bedroom and out of my body and out of my church if I have one.

I don’t think that I have a right to tell people how to live their lives and I don’t think that I should be obligated to live my life by someone else’s standards.

Most importantly, I think that life is not black and white and what may be a clear issue of right vs. wrong to you, may be a clear issue of wrong vs. right to me.  Consensus and fairness are what’s important and sometimes that means you’re going to be on the losing side.

Or at least 10 things I love about my life.

1. I have a job that I actually like—at least most days.
2. I am financially secure enough to pay my bills and not be afraid of the occasional extra expenses.
3. My child is healthy.
4. I am smart and well-educated.
5. I live in a safe, small town.
6. My carport. No, seriously.  No frost. No need to get wet with rain or snow when I get out of the car.
7. My extended family is pretty damn awesome. You can never have too many people who love you in your life.
8. I love my DVR. No need to watch ridiculous commercials. I can’t even watch regular TV anymore.
9. I can take care of myself. I don’t need to rely on others to take care of me.
10. I know how to cook and doing it makes me happy.

Sometimes doing the right thing isn’t easy. But here’s something that is part of what I would call my rules for life.

You should always do the right thing, even if you’re afraid of what the consequences of that action might be.

That is, I realize, not always an easy thing to do—both because it’s hard to not be afraid because sometimes bad things happen even when you do the right thing, and also because it isn’t always easy to know what the right thing is. The right thing is frequently not a black and white issue; this thing is right and that thing is wrong.

But there are times when it is obvious.  And often, the potential negative consequences of such an action are also obvious.  But when the right choice is clear, you must do it, regardless of consequences.

It is possible—perhaps even likely—that I have drunk the Koolaid, but I don’t think everyone gets the importance of private philanthropy at Virginia Tech.

We’re getting ready to start a mini-campaign in which we will ask faculty and staff to contribute to The Campaign for Virginia Tech and we’ve gotten some pretty negative responses from a few people.

Now, let me begin by saying that this is not an ideal time to make this ask and that fact is not lost on anyone who works in this office, I assure you. The original plan was to do it earlier, but it never seemed to be a good time, and while we waited, the economy got worse and now the campaign is almost over so it’s a now-or-never kind of thing.

Having said that, there perhaps has never been a time when private support could make such a difference to people here.  And yes, I know that the employees here haven’t had a raise in 4 years.  Me neither.  And I know that people are having to do more work in spite of that.  Me too. And I know that programs are being gutted and in some cases cut.

But no one is asking the faculty and staff at Virginia Tech to give back part of their salary. No one is being asked to do something they wouldn’t do anyway. If charitable giving isn’t part of who you are, then don’t participate. But if you regularly make donations to good causes, then all we’re asking is that you consider Virginia Tech as worthy of some of those donations.

I hope that if you work here, you understand the value of a college education. And that Virginia Tech provides one of the best educations to be found anywhere.

We’re not asking you to pay the rent or keep the lights on. We’re asking that you support the things that make this university special—hands-on research projects, financial aid for students who are just as strapped financially as we all are, top-notch faculty who provide necessary knowledge to our students, and laboratories and equipment that are so important to what we do here.

Private philanthropy is making a difference here every day and if you believe in the university you work for, all we ask is that you support it the same way you might support the other organizations who do good work throughout the region and the nation.