Productive Ways to Procrastinate

Everybody (well, almost everybody) has had an experience where they were given an assignment (or two, or three, or a hundred) and just couldn't bring themselves to do it. That happens to me fairly often. On the occasional day, I can make myself sit down and do it right away, but most days, that is not the case. Let me show you.

• Spend some time talking to your family! It is always good to know what your siblings are doing all the time in that place called COLLEGE or ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, and telling all your stresses to your parents is a great way to let it out.You may also find that your family has lots of friendly or sarcastic advice for you.
• Find something to take a picture of and take lots of pictures, and then edit them. That can take as much time as you want it to!

• Organize your closet (or any awfully messy space you have)- who would stop you?

   

• Start pounding out the latest song you have been trying to learn (this is Levi's favorite).

 CAUTION: May make other, more studious, people a tad bit angry...

• Do other, less intimidating, easier homework.

• Research something you have never heard of- preferably an animal or carnivorous plant. For example, I bet you've never seen this before! This animal is called a pika. It lives at really high elevations and is a pretty tough critter. Pikachu was derived from it, which is why this one looks like- guess who- Pikachu!

• Bake a yummy something. Preferably something like...this! Yes, this is a cake, done by the Cake Boss). Did I mention that it is taller than me? It is.

• Do the dishes. Nobody else wants to do it; your mother will love you more than any of her other children, and you will have clean dishes to eat off of the next day.  On a side note, the less people there are at home, the more time it takes to do dishes because there are less people to help.

As you can see, I have plenty of ways to avoid homework when I want to. Don't worry, I still get the assignment done eventually, but you have to admit it- these temporary alternatives (you still have to do it sometime) are all pretty great!

Your Favorite Procrastinator, Tess

Siblings are Super Cool, and so are Family Traditions

In the case that you are an only child, I am sincerely sorry. Having siblings is so much fun! Yeah, sometimes they make a lot of noise and try to get on your nerves, but they are just some of the best people to hang out with! My siblings are particularly cool, because when we all get together, we can be super silly- just ask Mom and Dad, they'll tell you. Right now, with just Levi and I at home, there's not as much silliness, but...when Mom and Dad leave us for too long, we still have the occasional fun. :)

Notice that it isn't me with whipped cream on my face- that's Levi.

Basically, Levi, well, let's just say he could be my brother- oh wait, he is! Isn't that quite the coinkidink!

So, every year, we have a family competition. Since we are all swimmers, we compete via the pool. Also, our family isn't really a sprinter-type family, so we like to do a distance race. 500 yards? Nah, that's not long enough and that would be a guaranteed win for me (Tess). 1000 yards? Well, that is not really a commonly done race, so we'll veto that as well. How about a mile? Yes! A swimmer's mile (at least where we live) is 1650 yards or meters. The two missionaries couldn't compete this year, and Mom opted out due to some back/neck problems from last September, but the rest of us have done or will do it. Dad swam it on the 25th and went a 24:29- which was a solid improvement for him. I swam it on the 31st and went a 21:58, which is...well, let's just leave it at that. Levi swam it on the 1st and went a 22:40, which is super good for him, and last but not least, Marta is going to swim it sometime this week and will then let me know so that I can let you know.

Tess