Girls in sports...benefits in the workplace

I read a very interesting article about the benefits of sports participation for girls and women. Why Sports Participation for Girls and Women

Research shows that between ages 6-9, boys and girls are equally interested in sports participation, but by the age of 14, girls drop out of sport at a rate SIX times greater than boys. Even though our daughters are not as likely to be discouraged from playing sports as they were 10 years ago (thanks to Title IX), they aren't encouraged to the same extent as little boys. We need to encourage our daughters' sports participation, so they can derive the psychological physiological and sociological benefits of sports participation that boys and men have received for years.

We've all heard about the benefits for girls involved in sports:

*they're less likely to have unwanted pregnancy
*more likely to get better grades in school
*higher levels of confidence, self esteem, and lower levels of depression
*more positive body image and higher states of psychological well-being

and yadda yadda yadda...

But, the interesting thing in this article is the fact that women entering the workforce, who don't know the written and unwritten rules of sport are at a disadvantage in understanding business models of organization.

For example:

1. Teams are chosen based on people's strengths and competencies rather than popularity
2. Successful players are skilled in practicing the illusion of confidence
3. Errors are expected of people trying to do new things. Just don't make the same mistake twice
4. Loyalty to teammates is very important
5. "I will" equals "I can"
6. In a hierarchical organization, your boss (coach) gives the orders and the employees (players) follow the instructions.

Sport is where boys have traditionally learned about teamwork, goal-setting, pursuit of excellence in performance and other achievement-oriented behaviors--critical skills necessary for success in the workplace. It's no accident that 80% of female executives at Fortune 500 companies identified themselves as former "tomboys"-having played sports.

Which Presidential Candidate would you pick?

Very interesting...take this quiz to see which candidate matches up to your preferences:

Presidential Candidate Quiz

Before I was a mom...

I can't take credit for the following...it came from someone else, but the part about feeling your heart outside your body...I've never heard it expressed that way before...

Before I was a Mom -
didn’t know the feeling of having my heart outside my body.
I didn’t know how special it could feel to feed a hungry baby.
I didn’t know that bond between a mother and her child.
I didn’t know that something so small could make me feel so important and happy.
Before I was a Mom -
I never held a sleeping baby just because I didn’t want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces when I couldn’t stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.

I never knew how much my mom loved me, until I was a mom myself.

H is 14 1/2 years old, going on 21, but I still feel the wonder and awe of being her mom.

Hummus with Sun-Dried Tomatoes...awesome!!!

Oh my God!!! I try new recipes all the time, and most of the time they don't taste nearly as good as they sound, but this recipe for Hummus with Sundried tomatoes was so good I almost ate it all by the spoonful. I'll serve it to friends tomorrow, if it lasts until then...

SUN DRIED TOMATO HUMMUS

1 cup dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil)
salt and pepper
2 cloves garlic, more to taste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon pimenton, (spanish paprika), more to taste, optional
lemon juice to taste
Pita chips or raw vegetables, for serving

If time allows, soak chickpeas in water to cover overnight, if not, boil in water to cover for 2 minutes, then soak for 2 hours.

In a pot, combine chickpeas and tomatoes in water to cover and simmer, partially covered, until chickpeas are very tender, adding water if necessary. Drain, reserving a little cooking liquid.

Combine in a food processor with salt, pepper, garlic, oil, pimenton if using and reserved cooking liquid as necessary to get machine going. Puree, then add lemon juice to taste, along with more oil, pimenton or salt if desired. Serve with pita chips or raw vegetables. (This will keep, refrigerated, for about a week).

Roasted Butternut Squash...YUM!

J was out of town earlier this week so H and I had our favorite dinner. It's not really a recipe, per se, but anytime we serve these everyone wants to know how to make it so I thought I'd post it. When I was growing up in the south, we only had vegetables slow cooked with butter or bacon fat, or fried, so this whole concept of roasting fresh vegetables is new to me. I think using this method you can roast anything and it tastes good. We usually do butternut squash, onions, asparagus, and ,maybe potatoes or sweet potatoes. I've done it with carrots, sweet peppers, green beans, and just about any vegetable in the pantry. I use a convection oven so that I can roast multiple pans (they shrink up when cooking, but take up a lot of space at first). If you don't have a convection oven you can just put in multiple pans and rotate them periodically. When I set my oven to 425 degrees in the convection mode it actually cooks at 400 degrees, so adjust accordingly.

Also, the butternut squash, potatoes, and carrots take the longest time so I put them in the oven first, then cut up the rest and put them in a few minutes later.

H and I aren't really vegetarians, but this is a wonderful, filling, healthy meal.

Roasted Vegetables

*Any variety of vegetables, but the following are my favorites:

Butternut Squash
Sweet onions
Asparagus
Potatoes
Carrots
Sweet Peppers (Red, Green or Yellow)
Sweet Potatoes
Olive oil
dried basil
kosher salt

Wash, peel (if necessary), and cut into 1" chunks the squash, onions, potatoes or sweet potatoes. Trim root end of asparagus, and cut carrots and peppers into thick strips.

(Butternut squash is very labor intensive to peel. The easiest way I've found is to use very sharp chef's knife and cut ends off, then cut bottom (seed end) off and peel that, scoop out the seeds, then peel the long end and slice and cut into chunks. Some people just cut in half and cook, but I like exposing the cut ends while roasting to give it a little crispness)

Place vegetables in large bowl and sprinkle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Use hands to toss with the oil so it's distributed evenly. You don't have to use much. Spray large roasting pans (I use those large flat pans with about 1/2-1" sides) with cooking spray to prevent sticking. Spread vegetables so that they're separated, sprinkle with kosher salt and a little dried basil. Roast in convection oven set at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes or until cooked and a little crispy on the edges.
The different veggies cook at different speeds. The onions and asparagus cook pretty quickly, should only take 20 minutes or so. Squash and potatoes take the longest. Roasting brings out the sweetness and the kosher salt just makes it delicious!

Credit cards are BAD!!!

This is too funny! I bet there are lots of adults who act much worse when they find out they should give up their credit cards. Way to go, dad!

Super Bowl...is it just all about the party?

Sure, it was exciting. Parties everywhere (I'm told, we didn't get invited to any!). But celebrity sightings were common. Terry Bradshaw, Chris Rock, some other sports broadcasting dudes that J recognized.

Shopping in Scottsdale...awesome.

Restaurants-thank goodness we had reservations. We had a couple of great meals, all leading up to the very nutritious peanuts, popcorn and pretzels at the game.

Jordan Sparks singing the national anthem...the highlight of the day.

Tom Petty singing his old standards live...he even looked like he had his hair blown out. It wasn't sticking to the side of his head!

On the other hand:

Standing in line for 45 minutes just to get IN to shop for souvenirs that were cheap, overpriced, and picked over.

The first hotel we checked into-a $750/night "suite" that was about 200 square feet, with 7 foot ceilings, smelled bad, and had NO CLOSET WHATSOEVER. When we called to ask if there was a secret door to the closet, they brought us a luggage rack to hang our clothes on. (Needless to say, we left shortly thereafter).

Traffic.

No commercials (Normally a good thing, but not on Super Bowl Sunday).

VERY FEW instant replays. Hard to really know what's happening down on the field.

Traffic. Took us almost 2 hours to get out of the parking lot after the game.

Flying home-flights were backed up for hours due to all the celebrities' private planes at the airport.

The restaurants at my concourse ran out of food on Monday. I found this out after I drink a glass of wine at the bar. So I ordered another one. Not a good thing for me on an empty stomach. In the middle of the day.

So...in retrospect. We were very grateful to our hosts for letting us join them for a fun weekend. But we like watching from home. No traffic, tivo, commercials, and lots of analysis.

Super Bowl Shuffle!

Since we're super bowl bound, I was thinking about the first year that I really started watching super bowls. I was always a football fan...even had a sports broadcasting class at UT Knoxville, where a big grade came from doing a research paper on the Super Bowl in 1983, but in 1985, The Chicago Bears swept onto the scene with the best group of characters ever seen on one football team! William Perry (the fridge), Walter Peyton "sweetness" (rest in peace), Jim McMahon (and his ever changing headbands...so 80's)...and a little music video called "The Super Bowl Shuffle"

Wonder if this is where rap got started? Oh my God, those white boys are cute, but they can't dance or rap worth a crap!

I also wonder how the 1985 Bears would do against the 2007 Patriots? They beat them back then, but now? Perry was considered huge by NFL standards in 1985, now it seems like every team has a few big boys like that. They did have a good defense...could they stop Brady?

Phoenix Super Bowl Bound!!!

Yes, we have tickets to the Super Bowl! Although the Titans aren't there, and never really had a chance to be this year, the Patriots are (instead of the Colts-yeah, baby!), and J and I are so excited. I've been to one other Super Bowl...when the Titans played the Rams, and lost by inches. I don't know if I can really count that one, though. I had the flu, and dragged myself there, through the crowds and the smells to the absolute BACK row of the stadium, and never stood up for the entire first half (trying not to throw up). J looked at me in the 2nd quarter and said, "If you're going to have to leave, I want to leave at halftime so I can at least watch the last half on TV." So sadly, we left. I missed the halftime show. But THIS year, it's Tom Petty! I wonder if he's going to do any Traveling Wilbury stuff...

Anyway, J and J have been going back and forth, planning the hotel stay, the Nike party, maybe meeting Dick Butkus (I don't know how to spell it), bringing some special bottles of wine to drink, but we just realized we don't have dinner reservations anywhere. With the Super Bowl and some big PGA tournament all going on this weekend, we might have to eat at McDonalds... maybe popcorn and hot dogs at the game. Oh well. J's working on it. More to come.

Heart of the Game

We just had a basketball pizza/movie night for H's basketball team. It's a great bunch of girls. Mostly 7th graders, and 3 8th graders. They have a huge game on the road tomorrow against a team that is 17-0. We played them at the beginning of the season and only lost by 5, so they're anxious for another chance. We watched the documentary "Heart of the Game" which is an incredibly interesting movie about Bill Resler, a girl's high school coach in Seattle, and his team over a 7 year span. Very motivating. He picks a "theme" every season for the team. One year's it's wolves, other years it's a Tropical Storm, Piranhas, etc. Then they use words like kill, annihilate, etc...very aggressive, but it works! You can see the fire in these girl's eyes, and it's very contagious. Hopefully it will fire them up for tomorrow.

Dropping teenagers off at the movies...

Took H and a friend to the movies tonight. Actually, we dropped them off an hour before the movie started, because we had a fundraiser to go to for H's school. They were going to eat, shop, then go to the movie. Being the overprotective mom that I am, I have H call me when she leaves the theatre to walk to the mall, and when she leaves the mall to walk to the theatre. They were being picked up by our long time babysitter/friend (it's not cool to call her a babysitter when you're 14). H calls her after the movie, and she picks them up outside the theatre.

Well, J and I got out of our thing earlier than we expected, and it was around the time H was supposed to get picked up...so I called her cell. No answer. Hmmmm. I called babysitter's phone. No answer...so I called H again. TWELVE TIMES. No answer. By this time we are home, and it's 45 minutes after their movie got out so I'm trying not to panic. I called babysitter's home (she is married now, and her husband is watching their child) NO ANSWER. I'm trying harder not to panic. After calling H and babysitter a couple more times I finally break down and call friend's MOM to find out friend's cell number. So now her mom is aware that the girls are not accounted for.

Long story short...friend answers her phone, H apologizes profusely, forgot to turn her phone back on, babysitter took them to get ice cream and left HER phone in the car, and they're in line for ice cream.

My heart is just now calming down. What am I gonna do if they really get in trouble?

Running again...I hope

I've had to take a week or two off from running, because I've been under the weather, and I thought it was a good time to rest my weary(old) legs/hip/knees/body. I'm hoping to get back to it next week, but in the meantime I found this hilarious video that reminds me of some of the people I see in marathons who somehow carry their weight in accessories, yet still run faster than me!



I saw this on another blog that I enjoyed so I wanted to give him credit...

The MS Runner

Getting kids to eat right

I just read an article on the kidshealth website about Kids and Food:
Kids and Food: 10 Tips for Parents

There are ten things parents can do to help their kids eat right and maintain a healthy weight. I wish I had learned these lessons earlier. When H was little I made all the classic mistakes. She was picky, so I fed her whatever she would eat. For several years I played the part of short order cook...Meat and potatoes for J, salad for me, and the "White Diet" for H. You know the white diet: Cheese pizza, plain pasta, bread, macaroni and cheese, applesauce (the one semi-healthy approximation of food that she would eat, and still eats to this day), apple juice, scrambled eggs, toast. Just goes to show you that kids really don't need that much nutrition to grow when they're little. The problem is, bad habits become entrenched and get harder and harder to break. Most of my friends' kids ate the same things, so I didn't realize the problem. We could eat out anywhere, because restaurants always had plain noodles, or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I could go about my life like I always had and five minutes before dinner think, "Oh, I didn't make anything for H! No problem...the most difficult thing she ate was scrambled eggs and that took, what?...five minutes? Dinner's on the table!

I can now say that H will eat almost anything at least once. The turning point for us came on a dream vacation. We had chartered a sailboat with a captain and chef. They sent us a long questionnaire about our food likes and dislikes. J and I filled ours out completely, and all we put for H was that as long as they had peanut butter and jelly she would be fine. The first day we boarded our beautiful boat in Tortola, sailed out for half an hour to a beautiful, white sand cove, with turquoise water and blue skies and sat down for an incredible lunch of a homemade quiche (**blue cheese, almonds and cranberries, recipe below), salad, and fresh fruit. H immediately asked for PB&J. After lunch I took her aside and pointed out that Chante, our chef, (who we all fell in love with) had worked very hard on lunch and that H should at least try whatever she made so as not to hurt her feelings. Being the sensitive (although picky) child that she is, H agreed. From that point on she never asked for another PJ&J sandwich, and proceeded to eat and enjoy lobster, lamb, red snapper, tuna, butternut squash, quiche, omelettes, egg tarts, and even salad!!! I don't know why, but for some reason her palate was ready for new foods, and she became a different type of eater.

J and I try to eat healthy, but do enjoy good foods. What works for us, most importantly is PORTION CONTROL. We limit the amount of fat we cook with, try to include a variety of vegetables, and have tried to reset the portion scale that can send most diets over the top. I don't believe in eliminating foods that you love, just because they're "unhealthy". We try to fill up on dense, low calorie foods, and still eat small portions of the foods we enjoy.

Recipe for Cranberry, Almond and Blue Cheese Quiche

1 pie crust -- baked
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large diced onion
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cranberries -- fresh or frozen
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/3 cups slivered almonds
2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
2 ounces chunky blue cheese

Preheat oven to 350.

Saute onion with salt in olive oil until clear and caramelized, about 10
minutes. Add berries & sugar, stir in nuts and thyme, set aside.

Combine eggs and cream with whisk. Sprinkle the nut mixture into baked
crust, sprinkle blue cheese on top, then top with egg mixture. Bake 20
minutes.

New Watercolor Painting

Here's my newest art project. This is day 2...I still have a few finishing touches but it's almost done. I painted it from a photograph. I like this better than doing the still life vegetables. This morning I did not want to drive all the way across town for class. It was cold and rainy, and I was working the crossword puzzle while drinking my coffee, and I had to make myself get dressed and go. But, like every week, once I got there, three hours flew by like three minutes and I was the last person to leave. It's weird, I get started and it's like I disappear into the painting and forget all about where I am. But I never paint during the week at home. There's always something else to do-meals to cook, laundry to put away, blogs to write...

Text Messaging Language

WU?
NMU?
JC
HEY, DUHAB?
NN
Y? URSS!
THX...WAYN?
@MALL. WFU!
BRT...CUL8TR!

Having a teenager in the house has introduced me to the gibberish above, but I still have to look up some of the acronyms that they use like a second language. I wish French or Spanish came as easily to them as this language does! Here's a link to a website with some translations for those of us who don't speak the language.

SMS Lingo Dictionary

BTW (by the way), here is the translation of the above conversation.
What's up?
Nothing much, you?
Just Chilling.
Hey, Do you have a boyfriend?
Not now
Why? You are so sexy!
Thx...where are you now?
At the mall...waiting for you.
Be right there...See you later!