Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back To School Meanies

 Letter From the Nest August 15, 2025 https://open.substack.com/pub/lettersfromthenest/p/back-to-school?r=48qui&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web One August, more than twenty years ago, at an evening book club discussion, my “older” friends (now I look back and know those women were the age I am now), were discussing the woes and triumphs of back-to-school season. One woman was anticipating her youngest child’s senior year of high school. She said, “For more than two decades, our lives have revolved around the school district’s academic calendar. I don’t know how I will plan my life without knowing about school breaks or holidays.” I remember her bittersweet tone as she anticipated freedom from school schedule constraints but also mourned how those constraints guided her choices. What would she do? Other women joined the discussion, wondering if their kids would have good teachers, if they’d be able to balance volunteering in the classroom, how to streamline school supply pu...
Post a Comment
Read more

My Legacy Stinks

 Letters from the Nest https://lettersfromthenest.substack.com/p/my-legacy-stinks Lately, I have been asking you, “What will you do to make Sunday special?” This is me encouraging you in your worship without giving you a prescribed list of things to do. One thing I do differently on Sundays is that I read a Sunday book that’s “different” than the fiction I read during the week. Usually, it’s a religious book, but sometimes it’s an inspiring biography or narrative nonfiction with an uplifting theme. My Sunday book for the past few months has been “Both Things Are True,” by Kate Holbrook. This collection of essays explores a range of topics, including faith, forgiveness, women’s roles, trials, history, and more. Each chapter contains a dichotomy that fuels the discussion. For example, the chapter on forgiveness explores both the concepts of forgetting and remembering. Last Sunday, I began reading the chapter entitled "The Weight of Legacy," in which she discusses the dichotomy ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lyme Disease??

Let me just preface this by saying that I am soooo grateful for good health insurance. I have been to the Dr. for the kids lately so often, that I am embarrassed that they recognize our family when we walk in the door. So, here's Ricky's story. A couple of weeks ago he was extremely sick. He had a fever for over a week, complained that he couldn't move his legs, and ended up with an awful looking rash all over his body. We went to the Dr. 2 times for this. The first time, she said, it was a virus and it should run its course. When Ricky was getting worse, instead of better, we took him back in to a quick clinic where the nurse diagnosed him with strep (even though the short test was negative). Well, after a priesthood blessing and antibiotics (which we discovered later that he didn't even need to take--and in fact they may have made him feel worse), he got better. Then, last week, I discovered a new, crazy rash on his legs which continued to grow, turn purple on the in...
5 comments
Read more