Johnson Family Dish

It’s Our Favorite Time of the Year…

…to enjoy the outdoors!

We purchased a new patio set for our newly extended patio (patio cover coming soon! Randon has the plans all drawn up).  FYI, it is hard to find a set that will seat 7 people at one table!  So, for our Sunday dinner yesterday we enjoyed the weather on our new back patio. 

(Morgan) Shish-kabobs, rice, rolls and strawberry lemonade, yummy.

Some friends of ours suprised us with a pecan tree too.  Randon and I had a tradition in the first decade of our marriage to plant a tree in honor of that event every year.  It was our aim to have fruit bearing trees for our children to graze as they got old enough to do so.  Well, when we moved to this house we lost that tradition (we just plain forgot about it, probably because this house came with adolescent fruit trees).  But, when our neighbor gave this to us, it reminded us of this tradition a new.  They had no idea how symbolic their sweet gift was, thank you for reminding us of that goal, and for being fantastic neighbors!

I Can’t Help It, I have to Share Them!

I found a lot of really terrible advertising.  We kind of expect the bad advertising that we see from the dark ages (the 50’s and 60’s) like this one:

However, there is a shocking quantity this stuff being produced currently by ad agencies world wide!  There are so many which I will not post here but, there are many web sites which do.  Here is one of them: http://jezebel.com/tag/badvertising/  I really wanted to post more of the truly terrible but, this is a family site and I don’t want any of my children’s friends to be banned from this site. 

This is my favorite terrible ad.  I have to admit that this one is a borderline brilliant sales pitch, and also that it is really funny.  However, it is an excellent example of modern sexism.

The caption on the bottom says: “No need to be ugly to save the planet.”  This is an ad for environmentally safe make-up.

Shockingly (probably only to me) the 2009 Superbowl was FULL of sexist ads (commercials).

Stravinsky’s Enigma

While reading about Igor Stravinsky, one of the major inovators of classical music as we know it, I read a personal thought of his which moved me.  I think that so many of us have felt this way, not with music but with other people’s disapproval of our choices, or process of evolution.  I want to share his feelings (he expresses this so perfectly to me):

“At the begining of my career as a composer I was a good deal spoiled by the public.  Even such things as were at first recieved with hostility were soon sfterwards acclaimed.  But I have a very distinct feeling that in the course of the last fifteen years my written work has estranged me from the great mass of my listeners.  They expected something different from me.  Liking the music of L’Oiseau de feu, Petroushka, Le Sacre, and Les Noces, and being accostomed to the language of those works, they are astonished to hear me speaking in another idiom.  They cannot and will not follow me in the progress of my musical thought.  What moves and delights me leaves them indifferent, and what still continues to interest them holds no further attraction for me…I believe that there was seldom any real communion of spirit between us.  If it happened–and it still happens–that we like the same things, I very much doubt whether it was for the same reasons.  Yet art postulates communion, and the artist has an imperitive need to make others share the joy which he experiences himself.”  (From his autobiography.)

The lonliness that this man must have felt from the coldness of disapproval and other people’s unfulfilled expectations for him.  I am not sure why we feel we must approve or not approve of the actions of others?  And why must we burden them with our expectations?  Why can we not sit back and enjoy what we and others are becoming?  I realize that not all of humanity becomes something we can take pride in, but I am not talking about that.  I am speaking of the little things that others nit pick at and put under a microscope, I am speaking of when we do this to generally good people.  Why?  A part of our human nature I suppose, though I do not believe it is a part of our nature which pays in positive dividends.

Real Power

I am pondering today the power of just one person in the world who believes in you.  Who sees all of your flaws and fallibilities and loves you the more for this humanity in you.  That kind of unconditional love is so rare in this world.  It is a miracle when you find that; it becomes even more miraculous when you see how that love has shaped you; when some one believes in you.  There is real power in gentleness and love.

You can sense that kind of love, especially when you spent years without it.

15 Years and a Movie Review

Randon and I had a great weekend away to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary.  Our actual anniversary is not until the 26th (Thurs.) but, with spring break this was the best time to get away. 

I have been thinking of words to describe my feelings, and feeling profoundly in awe of those before me who have managed to articulate their feelings for their lover and life partner, which are alluding me right now, and which I so want to express in terms that are accurate; that is true and honest, not sticky sweet but not void of emotion.  So, I have come to a truce with myself: I will write this poem one day as an expression of adoration for this man for whom I have chosen to share my life with, who has made me his most beloved friend, and in whom I have found shelter from the most bitter of storms; during which, he has managed to give me sunshine.  And with whom I have experiened the happiest days of my life, and has been the basis of of them.  It will take time to frame the words perfectly.  For now, my life will be my poem to Randon.  From him I learned what Love is and what it is to be loved.   For him I want to be Love.  To borrow his words “[he is] my eternity one day at a time.”

*******ABRUPT CHANGE OF SUBJECT*******

Randon and I went to see “Duplicity” with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen yesterday.  I really liked it.  I have not seen a movie I really liked for a very long time (I did like “Yes Man” too, although this is not about that and it is an entirely different kind of movie).  I find that movies lately are really shallow and a waste of time.  So, I was really relutant to go see a movie but, we had time.  I thought this movie was great because it was a good love story but also challenged you to use your brain and keep up.  It was not a cheap (emotion ladden) shot at a movie.  I thought it was smart, funny and happily lacking violence and TMI sexual scenes.  Yet, it has plenty of action and moves quickly.

My favorite line in the movie was at the end when Clive Owen’s charater, Ray, and Julia Robert’s charater, Claire are sitting together degected and he says to her “well, we do have eachother” to which she replies “it really is that bad, isn’t it?”  LMBO!!  Great movie, I highly recomend it if you are sick of movies which they make too many of (and which I will resist naming because I don’t want to offend anyones taste in movies).  This one suited our tastes well.

A Spring Break “Tea Party”

I love little girls.  Charis planned a tea party for her friends Maddison and Gracie.   Kelcie and Morgan loved the idea too and got in on the action of helping to set up for the party.  I love seeing 6 happy little ladies playing together in my backyard, this is living!  Yeah for Spring Break and lots of friends.

I couldn’t resist posting the “after party” pictures.  I guess you’re never too old to enjoy a tea party.

(Scott was next door playing with our neighbor so he wasn’t tortured by all of the girls.)

Flow

Is it March 9th already!  Time has lost meaning, it is flying by so quickly.  We have definately found our “flow“ at the Johnson house.  I have been reading a lot about this concept of “flow”  (pioneered by phychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Ph.D.) for my research on happiness, I am sure many of you are familiar, since this concept has been around a while, it is a basic thoery of being challenged and engaged to the point where one loses track of time (and that is a very rudimentary definition of flow there is so much more to it than just that).  That describes our situation here very well.  So, here is a basic update on everyone here:

Kelcie is trying out for soccer today, we are hoping she makes the team because she has been looking forward to this all year long.  Besides that, she had a very fun weekend with her girl friends going to a movie with them and spending some girl time with a bunch of them.

Morgan is working on a science project involving plants and music, Morgan is a last minute kind of gal and so she will be completing this project, no doubt, with a surge of adrenaline (that is just her way).  She also had some girl time with her friend Brianna.

Scott is doing well.  He is working hard on his spelling and math facts.  He spent some time this weekend with his buddy Braden.  He is looking forward to a school field trip to a flight simulator (somewhere) with his Daddy soon.

Addi is working hard to read her first chapter book.  She and Charis had some one on one Daddy time this weekend.  I hear they even pushed him to the very bottom of his bed each night while I was gone.

Charis is bright and happy and working on her reading skills as well.  She loves challenging words and gets very upset with anyone who tells her what a word says before she has the time to sound it out on her own and come up with it.  It is a cardinal sin to do that here so, everyone is trying to learn to just let her figure it out, she loves the challenge!

Randon is also doing well.  Please excuse my speaking for him, he could post if he wanted to, he saves that joy for whatever he deems worthy, so far he has only posted once.  (I know you read this my love so please excuse my speaking for you and do feel free to add your own take on the state of affairs here on the home front or elswhere.)  He, being a most wonderful husband and father, sent me off to an Honors Conference in Washington State this past Thursday.  Before that he has had some monumental issues at work to deal with, and some great sucesses there too. 

And finally myself, my Honors Conference was very informative.  I learned a lot about how I should/should not present my research and I met some very interesting people from Universities throughout the West (it was a western regional conference).  I was excited to see and meet lots of BYU students and hear about their research projects.  But it was so cold in Washington, snowing too.  It was 17 degrees one day with only a 10mph wind, I can’t even describe what that arctic air felt like!   I pretty much stayed in the hotel in which we were arranged and luckily the conference was held at.  I did venture out a few times with fellow students for meals but I did not go on the art walk or stay outside more than was absolutely necessary.  I am a true child of the desert.  (I handled the cold so much better when I was a child, I have no tolerance for it now.) 

All of us are anxiously awaiting spring break next week!  I have a lot of homework planned for spring break but no classes, YEAH!  We are planning to hike up the Superstitions to Battle Ship Point and Randon is taking me away for the weekend to celebrate our 15th anniversary. 

For those of you who are waiting for your hair to be done, I will be doing hair on Tuesday, come on over.