Positive Feedback - Reinforcing Loops

One of the earliest concepts in my class has been the concept of "reinforcing loops". Referencing back to the bathroom example , time spent in the bathroom could allow damage to occur outside the bathroom which could in turn lead to one spending more time in the bathroom....and then more damage, etc. What is interesting is that these loops generally do not go on forever. At some point, some "balancing" occurs in order to slow or stop the growth process (one will have to come out of the bathroom sometime...). Balancing loops will be a topic for the next post.
I have been looking around my world for positive feedback loops and decided to take one very general one to model and run with it- the performance/motivation loop. This is one I will expand on in the upcoming posts. It can apply to ourselves (the more motivated I am to work, the better I will do and the better I do, the more motivated I am to work, etc). It can also be observed in our children (the more motivated child is- say, to behave - the better they will "perform" and the better they "perform", the more motivation available, etc). I find that adding candy (literally or figuratively) to the loops makes this pretty effective :-).

I thought this was general enough to start with and capable of expanding enough to help with my motivation to blog :-) and get the performance/motivation loop going in my own life.

Giving credit where credit is due

I want to make the point early in this blog that I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father, the Master Engineer Who decided to share a snippet of His wisdom with me. I do not think it is a coincidence that the best training I have had in problem solving has come from motherhood and this is the great task that He has given me to do. It is a privilege and honor to serve Him. I wanted to clearly and openly make it known that everything I do and everything I try to be is all about pleasing Him. Amen!

Just for Laughs: Bathroom Trip Risk Analysis

The amount of time I spend in the bathroom exponentially increases the amount of damage that can potentially occur in the rest of the house and/or to any children that are outside the door.

In my experience as a Mom, there is a common situation of having to use the bathroom several times throughout my day...and sometimes, I just need a moment to myself. However, I have learned that while these times provide wonderful relief, I do indeed run the risk that some "damage"will occur as a result of leaving my creative children unattended while I am...in the bathroom. There is a critical point where the damage potential really increases as one takes longer than 30 seconds. Once you reach a full minute you may want to consider staying inside to "hide"...

Momgineer Introduction

I am a Mom. I am an Engineer. When asked "What does an Engineer do?" the answer that follows is usually something like, "Engineers use scientific and mathematical theories/concepts to solve problems and improve the quality of life." Well, what does a Mom do? Solve problems and improve the quality of life. Therefore, since the similarity between the two are so great, we can combine the two and get "Momgineering". I don't turn off engineering to be a Mom and I couldn't stop being a Mom even if I tried. So, I have decided to embrace and combine these two major components of who I am.

More about me:
I am a currently full time home managing while in graduate school for engineering part time. I have been told several times that I should blog about my experiences, but time and energy have been pretty scarce resources in my environment these days. I decided that if this was ever going to happen, I better just dive right in. Pick a Saturday night when I didn't feel like doing the reading for my class and just blog! I was also encouraged by a wise friend when we were having a discussion about a dissertation that I will eventually write that I should see that dissertation as my "first work" as opposed to my "life work"- as the document is the beginning of my career writing as a professor. She also reminded me that the best dissertation is a "done dissertation!" That said, I am applying that to this blog and getting it done.

Even more about me...the Mom part:
I am the mother of three BEAUTIFUL children who I will refer to as the Schooler, the Preschooler, and the Baby :-). I have a wonderful husband who has supported me in my school endeavors while working full time and pursuing his own degrees. We have been married for about 6.75 years (see, I just can't help myself!) and so far still doing well. I have found that the best training I have had for being both an engineer on the job and an engineer in the classroom came from my family life. Truly, there is no job on the planet that is tougher than Motherhood.

Even more about me...the Engineer part:
I have an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering and I am working on my graduate degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering. I chose my undergraduate program because I am a math junkie and I was told that this was the discipline with the "most math". I was more careful about the decision with my graduate degree and I truly believe that Industrial Engineering is the right fit for me. I have truly enjoyed the content in all the classes I have taken. I am still in the early stages of a PhD process so I am trying to find an area of research to run with. My biggest personal goal is to find a topic that is directly relevant and beneficial to some organization(s).

Introduction Summary:
My plan (because I always have a plan...) is to apply the class topics to family life and blog about that. The course I am currently taking is a System Dynamics class where we are modeling system dynamics in order to see what adjustments might need to be made to a system for an organization to function better. Sounds pretty exciting, I know! I am about a third of the way through my class and I already have several things to post. I hope to share a mix of humorous, yet insightful blog entries. Thanks for reading!