Dedication 2012

So I just wrote this whole thing out, and my computer decided to spazz out on me, so now I have to sit here and write it all again… So hopefully it’s as good as it was the first time!

I was out walking with a good friend the other day and she was mentioning how her sister always toasts on New Year’s Eve to a word. Words such as: love, connection, communication, hope, etc. As she was mentioning this the word that popped into my head was “dedication”. For the past couple of months I’ve been pondering upon the New Year’s Resolutions I always make, and how they always seem to fall by the wayside around March/April, and I have been trying to figure out how to keep them going - how to stay motivated for my ‘goals’. At this time a couple of things came into play that helped me figure out how to accomplish this in this year of Two-Thousand and Twelve.

One, was the reading of an internet friend that I have followed since before she had a blog over on SparkPeople. She blogged about her new years resolutions and her monthly goals for January. What a great idea! Make a spreadsheet for your Resolutions to help keep track of them, and to stay accountable. I love spreadsheets and being able to see my goals reach the end destination before my eyes. This still, however, did not help with my problem of losing my motivation throughout the year. In 2012 I want to become a better person - not just resolutions that end at a certain time or have little simple ‘goal checking off’ meaning. I want to grow, and create new habits. Become dedicated to my life and not just let it pass me by.

Two, the conversation I was having with my friend and the word Dedication. How could I make resolutions that would help me in the long run? I needed to decide what I wanted to dedicate my time to that would be worthwhile in the long run, habits that I always wanted to have. Things that would help me become the person I want to become. So I set out to figure out how to do this. I have another friend whose family every New Year had them sit down as children and write down a goal in each of three categories that they could focus on throughout the year:

Mental

Physical

Spiritual

What a great plan! Three areas that I (and probably everyone) could improve in! So this is what I came up with for my three areas, and the habits I wanted to form in each:

Mental

Read 24 Books in a Year
Journal Weekly
Blog Weekly
Weekly Photo

Physical

Drink 72oz Water per Day
Juice Once a Day
Walk 2 Miles Daily
Do 50 Crunches per Day

Spiritual

Read 10 pages of Scriptures Daily
Read Complete Ensign Monthly
Prayer at least Once Daily
Attend the Temple Monthly
Attend Church Weekly

I created a spreadsheet that would reflect this for a month at a time. I’ll keep all the same goals for the entire year, but adjust the numbers after each month to be able to complete something reasonable that I can turn into a habit. Some of them definitely need more determination and dedication on my part, but these are the things I want to keep in my life daily, forever.

So here’s my toast to the New Year (yes, I’m 6 day's late). To DEDICATION, to creating habits that will be with me forever. To making myself the best person that I can be!

Happy New Year

Catch - Up

I should be tending to the boiling potatoes on the stove that I will be making potato salad with this afternoon. We are having a little get together of some of my husbands friends. It takes me off-guard when he says that he invited some of his friends over to play. I figured since the potatoes are cooking I’ll post to my blog since it’s been awhile, as for a quick summary since my birthday.

Nothing is new.

See how simple that was?

I am, however, trying to decide if I’m a laptop work station traveller or a have it all in one place all the time type of girl. The past couple of years I’ve just been hauling it all over the house to work - living room, living room floor, bedroom, kitchen, office, the “man cave”. Recently, I have acquired a beauty of a ‘computer screen’ - the term computer screen is to be taken lightly. I’m using our 32” Samsung LCD for my ‘monitor’. So I have my desk cleared off (that’s a story in itself) and have everything set up and I have to say I really like just having it in one place. My only new task is to figure out cord management - I have WAY too many things plugged in, ie: Garmin Watch Receiver, TV, Keyboard, 1TB HDD, Silhouette, Garmin Watch Charger, iPod cable.

So, now I’m kinda stuck at always using my desk, my laptop doesn’t have the greatest battery power but it’s still a great machine - it just doesn’t travel well without it’s power tail. So I have to say, all in all I really like having a permanent work station.

Now shall we catch up in pictures since July? Alright. Prepare yourself for image overload.

We went on a picnic on an extremely hot day. It was a lot of fun, my sister didn’t go with us as she was already committed to something previous. It took stomping through multiple mud puddles, kicking water on each other, and dumping a 5lb bucket of cheese balls all over the car to get to the most perfect spot we could find but the cool river  that was freezing from the melted snow that was coming down the mountainside.

I love my mothers face as soon as she put her feet in the water, it was quite humorous, it was so hot outside - but you couldn’t utilize the river water because it was so super cold. Too hot and too cold.

I loved these trees by our spot that had many carvings in them from over the years.

There were quiet moments at home.

There were goofy moments out doing family activities.

There’s been cupcake making.

Family Shooting Outings.

Long drives home with interesting traffic travelling our same direction from the Burning Man thing - whatever it is.

So from this little ‘update’ I’ve learned I seriously need to pull my camera out more! I also did a couple of photoshoots as well over the past couple of months - one for a wonderful family, and another for a precious little girl for her baptism.

That’s all I got. I promise I’ll pull my camera out more, and be better about documenting more of my meaningless days, and that moments that inspire me to be better, along with the little gems that are hidden throughout my day that makes them less meaningless and more special.

It’s Never To Late

I’m 28. I’ve been 28 for 5 days. I’m 28. For the past few days I’ve been asking myself what did I do with my time, where did it go? Who am I? What have I become? Have I accomplished anything I’ve wanted to do? In high school everyone asks, “Where do you see yourself in 10 years?” . My answer was the same every time because I KNEW what I wanted to be and who I was.

I’ll have at least 3 kids. Have my Master’s in Education (possibly Special Education). Be a 2nd grade teacher. Be married. 28 will be the best year of my life.

So far, I’m married. I’ve been married for 5 years. Married to the most wonderful man I could every have the opportunity to be married to, and that’s it. I started to get a little down, a little depressed, a little ‘my life isn’t what it’s supposed to be’. I didn’t finish school. I don’t have children (yet), and other things that I thought I would be I’m not. Then I took a good hard look at myself and realized that although I’m not what I wanted to be, or what I thought I would be - I am me. People know what I like, they know who I am. I realized I would be turning 28 soon, and everyone says it’s their magical year - at first I thought it wouldn’t be mine - because I’m not where I wanted to be when I hit 28. Then after talking with a good friend I realized - I can make my 28 the best year I’ve ever had. And that means stepping up and taking control of my life and becoming what I thought I would be and who I want to be.

So instead of New Year’s, I’m using my birthday calendar year. I will become stronger and better. I will become more dedicated to bettering myself, more dedicated to the church, more dedicated to being a wife (I’m still figuring that out) - it doesn’t help that we’ve only lived together about 25 months out of 5 years. It’s never too late - even though I feel like I ‘wasted’ the past 10 years - I have learned lessons, I have grown, and I have become more me. Now it’s time to let the inner me shine through - be strong and stop letting my life pass me by. Here’s to my 28th year, a year of changes and a year of growth. Everyday will be better than the one before it, and I choose to make it that way.

Enjoy everyday to it’s fullest, and push yourself to be the strongest and best possible version of you that you can be.

When people try to excuse themselves by saying, “That’s just the way I am,” I say, “That’s not who you are. That’s what you have chosen to be. What do you believe you could become?” With the power of the Holy Ghost, you can become whatever you want that is good and right in God’s sight. We can become what we should become. It’s about enduring. It’s about deciding what you want to be and working for it. -Don Clarke

Accomplish Something Each Day

I was watching a video from Drew Canole at fitlifetv on YouTube. He started a video with one question, “Give me one thing that you will have done by the end of the day”. After his workout one morning in the gym he went around and asked people that same question, the result? Most people had no idea what they wanted to get done during the day. He then proceeded to say, “That is deadly”. Talk about something really striking me. How many times do I go throughout my day not knowing something that I want to accomplish? What does not knowing what you want lead up to? A whole lot of never getting anything done, not knowing what you want, and wasted days. It truly is deadly not knowing what you want. I don’t want to be one of those people who doesn’t know what she wants, I want to know what I want, and I want to know how I’m going to accomplish it. If you don’t know where you’re going, you won’t go anywhere.I just purchased an Erin Condren planner (I am so excited to get it that I’m going crazy!) and I am hoping that every night I can plan my next day, when I first thought about how I would utilize the planner I thought about a simple to-do list, you know chores - appointments - meetings - doctors - travel - birthdays, you know the usual. But now I will implement on each day something I want to accomplish that day. I know a to-do list might count, but I want it to be more meaningful, goal oriented, and something towards self-betterment. I want to start making the better and best choices over the normal mediocre, everyday - not knowing where I’m going choices. 

Life isn’t going to last forever. The days aren’t always going to keep coming. I want to be productive. I want to grow. I want to become the best me that I can. It’s time to stop going through the motions, and start living and loving my life - making it the life I want it to be. I might be a little late, but it is truly better than never, right?

So starting tomorrow wake up knowing what you want to accomplish tomorrow, make the day important and meaningful, no matter how mundane, repetitive, and mediocre it may seem. This is your now, so live it up and enjoy it to the fullest.

Luscious Lemon Cupcake Love

I’m not, nor ever have been a “trendy” person. In fact when there is a trend I usually steer clear until the trend is all over, and if I’m still interested I might stick my toe in to see if it was really worth the hype. I’ve been interested in taking pictures of food lately, food styling, etc. It’s a world that fascinates me - I know I am not the greatest right now but I would like to learn about it, and maybe start doing it more often. So I decided that I could make cupcakes/cookies/brownies to learn new recipes, utilize my kitchen more (which has been very neglected lately), and it’s something that I can easily bundle up and give away since I’m not eating it. Out of the whole batch of peach cupcakes I had 1 regular sized one, and out of this new batch of lemon ones I made myself a half sized cupcake. It’s great service, and it gets me to do something that I enjoy - so I have apparently jumped on the cupcake bandwagon, and I’m enjoying it completely. So here is another cupcake recipe to enjoy!

Cupcake

2 1/4 cups flour
1 TBL baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
4 large egg whites
1 1/2 cups sugar
lemon zest from two lemons
8 TBLS unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3/4 tsp pure lemon extract

Center a rack in the over and pre-heat to 350.

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl
Whisk together buttermilk and egg whites in a medium bowl
Put sugar and lemon zest in a mixer bowl and rub together with fingers until the sugar is moist and fragrant
Add the butter and beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, until the butter and sugar are very light
Beat in all the extracts
Alternate between 1/3 of the flour and 1/2 of the milk until all is incorporated
Beat for 1 minute to ensure it is completely mixed
DON’T OVER BEAT -  this recipe will get dense quickly
Bake for 20 min or until cupcakes are well risen, springy to the touch, or a thin knife inserted in center comes out clean

Icing

1 cup softened butter
8oz softened cream cheese
3-5 cups of confectioners sugar
1 1/4 vanilla extract
juice of one lemon

In mixer mix butter until it is softened and uniform
Add cream cheese and beat together until it is well blended
Add vanilla and mix
Add lemon juice and mix
Add 3c of sugar to the mixture and mix
Continue mixing until mixture is the consistency you need it
Add more sugar if needed according to taste

And now I leave you with some cupcake eye candy!