The Marble Jar Channel

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share the rules that I developed to determine what information I can tell other parents while being careful not to break the expectation of confidence with my kids. I have teenagers -- and they are great kids.  But they ARE teenagers, which means, by definition, that they push the boundaries of what is allowed -- as do their friends.  Our code word for this is "risky behavior."  This is an umbrella term that covers everything from breaking major rules, to use of elicit substances, to pushing sexual boundaries, to straight up criminal behavior.  As much as I would like to just shut down all of this talk with a "never do that!", I know this isn't really realistic -- and would totally end any meaningful conversations that I might have with them about decision making and peer pressure.   I'd like to stay engaged with them so that I can contribute to the con...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today's video, I'll show you how I record my weight every day using my Apple watch and then export that data to a spreadsheet. I'm a big fan of recording your weight daily as a way to provide yourself with good data to figure out when you need to cinch in a bit and when you can let a little loose.  I have a video on regulating your weight with MyfitnessPal if you are interested in that.   When I was much younger, I didn't have the healthiest relationships with my weight, but after many years I've come to the conclusion that weighing yourself daily (in a non-obsessive way) helps to desensitize you to the fluctuations in your weight that are totally normal AND makes you more accepting of the weight range that you fall into.  So that means weighing yourself the night after eating Chinese food when your body is retaining 4lbs of water from salt intake AND weighing yourself when you ha...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll make the case for why you need a junk email address. You have a personal email address, right?  And probably one for work?  You also need a junk email address.  Why?  Because every time you sign up for ANYTHING on the Internet these days, you have to provide an email address.  And why do they want your email address?   To send you email -- generally emails asking you to buy things.  These emails are distracting, time-consuming, and potentially budget wrecking.  There is NO REASON that they need to be showing up in your main inbox that you use to organize your life, read news, and catch up with friends and family. So, create a junk email address.   Mine is with Yahoo mail.  It is free -- obviously.  Every time I am asked for an email for something that is not essential, I give them this email address.  So that ap...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video, I'll share how I use Toodledo to remind myself to schedule outings with family and friends on a regular basis. How many times has this happened to you?  You are with people you really enjoy, but see infrequently.  You've just had a great time together and at the end of the evening, you all say "We should really do this more often!"  That used to be a recurring refrain in my social interactions.  Almost like a goodbye greeting.  Or, the analogous hello greeting would be, "It's been way too long since we got together last!"   So, it occurred to me that perhaps in some cases this was just social niceties, but in many cases, we actually  WERE unhappy that it had been so long since we had gotten together.  And we really DID want to get together more often.  In those cases, I decided I could make that happen with a reminder system. So, I ...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll tell you how I read and take notes on non-fiction books.  This method helps me read faster, retain more information, understand the topic better, and gives me notes to come back to later.  How do you read nonfiction?  Do you read one page at a time starting at the beginning — the way you read fiction?  If so, you are probably doing it wrong.  I wish I could find the article that I read many years ago that changed my thinking on this.  Generally speaking, the point of fiction is to entertain and transport — to tell a story.  Also generally speaking, the point of non-fiction is to convince you of something, present a perspective, or educate you.  Now, in some cases, you WILL be reading non-fiction for enjoyment — like memoirs or history — in which case, use your best judgement and read how you want.  But AGAIN generally speaking, the purpo...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you how I “take away” my kid’s phone without actually taking it away.  Sometimes parenting can feel a bit like an operant conditioning experiment. You reinforce good behaviors with rewards and discourage bad behavior with punishments. The trick is figuring out what rewards and punishments work for your kid. My son does not have a ton of “levers” that work for conditioning his behavior. He doesn’t seem to be motivated by money, purchases, or curtailing activities. BUT there are 2 things that motivate him: his phone and socializing. I really try not to take away socializing since I feel like it is integral to being a teen and important for their identity development. So that leaves his phone as pretty much my only lever for molding behavior.  This is problematic. First of all, if I take away his phone altogether, it also serves to cut his sole means of communicating with ...

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you how you can use the Notability app to draw a visual representation of concepts with a mind map. First of all, what is a mind map and why would you use one?  A mind map is a visual diagram of a topic showing its interactions with other concepts. That just sounds like blah, blah, blah.  So, here’s how I’ll explain it. Sometimes, you'll have a topic which you can immediately put into linear form, which is how we are forced to present things when using text-based applications like word processors.  I consider an outline to be linear. Let me use an example of a book I’m currently reading. The topic is sleep and the author has outlined four parts to the book. Sleep: What is it? Why do we need it? How do dreams work? How to handle sleep problems Then you can group smaller topics underneath each of these broad categories to create a detailed outline....