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Do Something Active

 How's your summer going?

Summer in Pennsylvania is soooo green and warm and lovely, but no matter where the Mergenthalers live, a phrase the young Mergs hear often is, "Do something active."

They have heard it so often that it has now become a justification for screen time: "But, Mom, I did something active." As if we need a carefully calculated ratio of active to non-active pursuits. For example, if you eat vegetables (ewww), you can have a treat (yay). I have heard that justification around here, too.

There is a theory in psychology called the compensation effect, which refers to the tendency for people to assume they accumulate moral capital. In other words, performing good deeds balances out the bad, or it's appropriate to give ourselves "breaks" from goodness, like a piece of chocolate, as a reward for completing undesirable tasks.

I'm afraid something about my parenting patterns over the years has instituted this sort of transactional behavior in our children. This is not to say that activity is "good" whereas inactivity is "bad," but there are adverse effects on our bodies, minds, and spirits when we are not anxiously engaged in vigorous pursuits.

Some worthy pursuits do not require much physical activity. Reading a good book mostly requires a sedentary position (unless, of course, you are playing an audiobook on headphones as you take a brisk walk around the neighborhood, which is one of my favorite pastimes).

Still, I'm afraid our family might have a few things mixed up. I'd love for a way out of this push and pull. Of course, life requires balance, but must movement or the lack thereof be morally justified?

Anyway, you will see that we have done plenty of active AND inactive things this summer, and we're working on doing a little more to be a little better each day.

My phone is full of funny selifes and full-length movies from Brooklyn and Gavin. They're creative and funny.




Brooklyn and Sean have been at basketball camps in Utah. They have loved seeing family and traveling with Dad.




Ricky is loving life as an FSY counselor. He likes travelling, meeting interesting people, and experiencing new adventures.







We have done a lot of yard work. I used a chainsaw for the first time, so trimming our trees is quite satisfying.






We go to swim team practice almost every morning and loooong meets about once a week.

And we have watched some shows, played some games, and read some books just to keep it all in balance.


Oh, and a couple more things I found on my camera roll. Mama Andrew with his baby at Chik-FilA
And celebrating the 4th of July with fire.

Gavin as tried baseball for the first time (pictures soon!)

That's our summer so far. We are looking forward to visiting family in Colorado and Utah in a couple of weeks.

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