Beaner Baker

You are all invited to visit my new blog: Beaner Baker (http://beanerbaker.blogspot.com/) I love cooking and talking about food and learning new things myself - so I wanted to share what I know with all of you in hopes of you gaining something new, finding a new recipe you may like, or getting feedback from you on things that you know. Hope you Enjoy!

The Three C's

Susan Kobasa is a psychologist who observed groups of people going through the same life situations - some thought their situation was horrible and life became horrible because of those things, others would find their greatest life successes from going through the same situation. What made these people different was that they had the following three qualities. I've seen this in a lot of you, even my own family members. I admire it and am excited to practice it now with more awareness in my own life. (each of them starts with a C, so it's easy to remember)

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1) Control - realize what you can and cannot control - you can't always control your circumstances, you can never control others (even your own kids or spouse or roommates), you can't control what goes on in the world - the only thing you can control is yourself and if you are making a positive impact.

2) Commitment - you are involved in your own life, not a spectator waiting for something to happen.

3) Challenge - make lemonade with rotten lemons - consider that the things appearing to be stumbling blocks in your life can (with a change of attitude) be stepping stones. (I think this is what it means to become stronger because of your weaknesses).

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This is Susan Kobasa's definition of Hardiness - the three C's. I learned about this in my stress management class and the following was an activity our teacher had us do =>


Make five personal life goals, but they must be things you have control over - this can help you realize what you really have the potential to do in your life and the changes you can make.


Next, write down five things that you are grateful to have experienced in the last 24 hours - this gratitude leads to Hardiness.

Beautiful North Dakota

This is my tourist promotion post for Nort Dakota - I really love having grown up here and love the Great Plains! Here are a few pictures I caught while I was home and was able to get quite a few while driving on the highway on our way back to Utah. Enjoy! This is the town of New Salem. The had some funds that the town wanted to use for the community, their options of how to put the money to use were to either build a public swimming pool, or a statue of a cow - they decided on the cow! They have lovingly called her Salem Sue and it's a highlight when you drive by on the highway.

Christmas in North Dakota

For Christmas, my brother Jesse and I drove home to North Dakota. We had a lot of fun staying at our parents apartment in Mandan, driving home to the old farm house in Tuttle and visiting with family and friends. My trumpet has been missing for years and my mom was very happy to find it for me, so now I have a trumpet (but no mouth piece). So maybe you will see me soon playing for a hot rock trumpet band (but don't count on getting an autograph). :) I hope you all had a great christmas and appreciate so much the chance to hear from so many of you.
Grandma Hazel Hagel - my dads mom - we had dinner with her christmas day.
After dinner Roger and Norene Sandberg came to visit with all of us, it was fun to hear all of their jokes and travel stories.
Norene is one of my dad's older sisters.
The day before we came home we were able to spend time with our Uncle Johnny Patterson, my mom's younger brother. It was fun to visit with him, hear how he is doing, and see the projects he has done around his home. He LOVES to remodel.
After visiting with Johnny, we went to visit the Riskedahls. This is Linda getting caught by the camera. They are my second parents. We are very close friends with them and all of their kids. Grandpa Geitzen, Linda's father, was my Santa Clause growing up - he would dress up and I had no idea it was him, until he would give me a kiss, then I knew exactly who it was - I didn't believe there was a real santa, but I loved playing along pretending there was one. All of us Danielson's grew up thinking that we were cousins with the Riskedahl kids, because we spent so much time together. We couldn't figure out why we weren't going to their house for Christmas, so we decided to ask mom why. She said that Christmas is aways spent with our Relatives - we thought it was rediculous to have to remind mom that the Riskedahls were our relatives - but she laughed and said we aren't related to the Riskedahls, they are just our friends. All six of us kids were floored - and we started crying. Now we just have to pretend we are related and call them our second family.