Blogworthy Discoveries.

Frequently, I find new things to obsess over. Sometimes healthy, usually unhealthy. Oh well. Today's two new obsessions are totally healthy and totally blog-worthy. I spent a good chunk of this morning trying to think of ways to boost morale for the girls for their first game today! A frequent issue I have with them especially my varsity girls is how quickly they put themselves down when they're losing or not performing as well as they would like. It's really REALLY hard to bring them back up after they've knocked themselves and their abilities down. Today could go one of two ways: really well or really bad. I'm pushing for really well, but I can't guarantee that, so I wanted to prep them in a fun way. Back when I was a Mini-Town counselor, our discussion group relied on these amazing phrases called affirmations. Ours were two pages of sentences we said out loud always starting and ending with: "everyday in every way, I am getting better and better." It was a real spirit lifter then and I thought what a great way to get the girls in a positive game mode. I found these adorable little notes here and printed out 6 copies and wrote a personalized affirmation for each of the girls, folded it up, stuck a cupcake sticker on it, and put it away. I'm going to give each one of them out on the bus on the way to the game and have them read it, hoping that it sticks with them through the game even when things aren't going their way.

My second obsession is really heart wrenching and intense, but something that shouldn't be ignored. It's dolphin hunting. Yes, I said dolphins, those super smart, adorable, playful mammals are being hunted in remote areas of world specifically in the South Pacific. After watching the documentary, The Cove, I became more aware of this atrocity occurring in this village called Taiji in Japan. Between September and March, a group of about 26 men are rounding up dolphins by throwing off their ecolocation and then bringing them to "the cove" where they stay over night. At sunrise, they are being slaughtered by having their throats slit leaving a sea of blood after being dragged through the waters. Seeing the gutrenching pictures of something I never knew existed I was horrified. I want to do something, I want to help these creatures being killed for their meat that isn't even safe for humans to eat anyway. It's horrifying. I'm planning to hopefully sell cupcakes with dolphin shaped foundant where 50% of sales will be donated to Save Japan Dolphins. I know most of you were never even aware of this, but it's good to become educated. There are many resources online because education about these things is always a good place to start.

I hate to end my post on such a somber note, so I won't. Because of awareness and the movie, The Cove, and now Animal Planet's TV show, Blood Dolphins, there has been at least one village that has stopped the atrocities of dolphin hunting which is such an awesome thing. Even the smallest efforts help in most cases.

I hope you have a good Monday everyone...wow such an awkward ending anyway.
I'll have some happier stuff tomorrow, I PROMISE.