A Very Happy Day for the Santinis

JD PASSED THE BAR!!!! One of the most difficult bars in the country- just so you know... Woot! Woot!

Brain Training

So, I work for the company LearningRX. I am a brain trainer and I work with students to help them get smarter. We are able to increase a person's IQ by rewiring his/her brain through targeting weak cognitive skills and training them until they become stronger. The program averages an increase of 15 points in a participant's IQ. How do we know? Students are tested before and after the program using the standardized assessment that is used all across the country by clinical and school psychologists. An average of 15 points is quite a claim, but it's been amazing to see with my very own eyes the results of brain training- and our center has seen much higher improvements than 15 points.


Why do I bring this up? Not to brag about my super cool job, but I had an Aha! moment recently. 


The secret sauce to really make lasting and significant improvements in cognitive skills is loading. When a student is working on improving a weak skill through our procedures and games, we load on distractions and mental tasks. We try to throw the student off. We may distract through making obnoxious clicking noises with our pen, singing, insulting the student's favorite sports team, yelling out the wrong answers, etc. We also layer on additional mental tasks. So if a student is working on a difficult procedure, we will ask him/her to perform math facts or call out 5 candy bars (or something like that) at the same time that s/he is working on the procedure. This is effective because it pushes the skill you are trying to improve to an automatic level. It's too difficult to perform the procedure along with the additional mental tasks unless the skill is automatic. It's how we know the student has really conquered the procedure.


Sounds a lot like life to me. Don't we all sometimes feel like the Lord  "loads" on problems and trials? Don't we sometimes say, "when it rains it pours"? Do you ever wonder how on earth you are going to be able come out the other side?


Maybe the Lord is using trials to push our weak spiritual skills to become stronger and automatic. Maybe we are just beginning to understand this concept in the context of brain science, yet it's really just a manifestation of universal truth. 


As a brain trainer, I sit across the table from a student and I know that if he will stick with it, he will get smarter. I have no doubt. If my tasks are at the cognitive level where he's falling all over his answers, having to start over, and struggling, I've got him right where I want him. I know that is where growth occurs. It's an incredible experience to see the twinkle in the eye of my students when they can see for themselves their improvement. They change. 


So- note to self: When I feel like the Lord is "loading" on the trials as I work through this earthly "procedure", I can know He's got me where He wants me. He knows I can do it. He knows my potential. And as the ultimate Teacher and Trainer, He can change my soul to be better, stronger, and His teachings will become my automatic response.

Being Vulnerable

I saw this video on a friend's blog and had to post it. I'm curious to hear your reaction. Do you agree with her conclusions? Disagree? It's about 20 minutes long, but well worth the time.

Favorite Websites

As promised, here is the list of websites that you sent me. Not all of them are on the list because I edited for the sisters in our ward, but there's a lot of good stuff here! Maybe you'll find a new favorite!

For Free E-books:

• www.pagebypagebooks.com 
• http://www.feedbooks.com/publicdomain
• www.classicreader.com
• www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page

For Finding Good Deals:

• Mr.Rebates.com
• www.groupon.com
• livingsocial.com
• google.com (before you buy something online, google a promo code for that item...enter that code when you are checking out...its awesome!)

For Recipes:

• http://smittenkitchen.com/
• http://thepioneerwoman.com/
• http://www.pbs.org/everydayfood/
• http://allrecipes.com/ (I especially like their ingredients tab...put in the ingredients you do have and see what recipes come up...great for using up miscellaneous ingredients)
• http://www.ourbestbites.com/
• http://www.thecrockpotblog.com/ (a blog devoted to crock pot recipes)
• http://www.elanaspantry.com/ (for gluten-free, refined sugar-free recipes)
• http://www.thespunkycoconut.com/ (gluten-free and refined sugar-free recipes)

For Fun w/ Kids:

• http://familyfun.go.com/
• http://makingmemorieswithyourkids.blogspot.com/

For Family:

• http://ayearoffhe.blogspot.com/2010/12/lesson-plans-for-2011.html (for FHE lesson plans)
• http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/forums/list.page
• http://blogspot.sharedbook.com/blog2print/googleblogger/index.html (easy way to print out your blog into a book)
• http://cleanmama.blogspot.com/ (cleaning and organization tips)
• http://tipnut.com/ (full of tips)

For Church:

• http://www.sugardoodle.net/joomla/
• http://www.familysearch.org/eng/default.asp (for Family Search Indexing)
• http://www.ldsphilanthropies.org/humanitarian-services/patterns/service-project-guidelines.pdf (for humanitarian guidelines)

 
Food Storage, Gardening and Deals on Food:

• http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/ (nationwide deals, great for 3 month supply foods)
• http://thefoodstorageshopper.net/ (tips on buying your food storage for less)
•  http://www.thegrocerygame.com/index-no-hot-deals.cfm (save tons of money on your groceries!)
• http://everydayfoodstorage.net/ (recipes for food storage)
• http://www.grocerysmarts.com/ (for grocery coupons)
• http://www.simplylivingsmart.info/
• http://www.gardengirltv.com/

Crafting:

• http://www.u-createcrafts.com/
• http://kimboscrafts.blogspot.com/
• http://www.makeit-loveit.com/
• http://www.theidearoom.net/

Miscellaneous:

• http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/ (for mapping out runs)
• http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/ (for listening to music for free online- not to download/purchase)
• http://www.pandora.com/ (a radio station that plays music based off of what kind of music you like. You input a song you like and the site designs a station around the properties of the inputted song.)
• http://radio.lds.org/programs/conversations?lang=eng (conversations with interesting members of the Church. Download and listen on ipod)
• http://www.pluggedin.com/ (for rating movies so you know what your kids are watching- or shouldn't watch.)
• http://www.picnik.com/app#/home/welcome (for photo editing)
• craigslist.com (sell/buy items here and look for rentals) 
• http://naturesknockout.com (for learning about personal care and beauty products that don’t contain harm