Lesson Learned: It's all about tenacity and perseverance. In rats and people.

Well, another Sunday. At least I actually lost weight this week! Down one pound! WooHoo! The WeightWatchers site has been a bit understaffed lately, so they have been training me to weigh-in other people. I'll admit, I was intimidated by this awesome responsibility at first. I mean, we (meeting members) tend to give the scale a lot of power over our lives--it influences how we eat during the week, how we feel about ourselves that day and the next, how we think others see us, measures our worthiness, etc. But I think it will be good for me. Part of your responsibility at the scale is to talk to others and be encouraging, especially when they have gained. By saying those positive things to them (ex: "What was gained in a week can be lost in a week," "Who do you trust, the scale or yourself?" "Now you know what you did, it is what you do next that counts"), in a way I will be saying them to myself, and so try to take back some of the hold the scale has over me.

OK, you might be wondering if I did the rice thing with my kids, and yes, I did. 5th period didn't buy into it. All they saw was a lot of math. So I presented it in a better way to 6th period, and they seemed to get more out of it. I introduced it as an exercise in extrapolation, which is a valuable tool in science. No one has ever sat down and counted the stars--it would take some 80+ years to count to 200 billion, and I don't even think they have computers do that. But they do take small areas of the sky and count those stars, and extrapolate from there. That made a big difference. And, they were all soooo good!

Can't wait to finish astronomy, though. Chemistry is next. In the 7th grade, we are wrapping up classification and are going to enter the realm of THE HUMAN BODY. They are going to have a butt-load of questions, which should be fun!