As we’re nearing the end of 2010, a lot of people are thinking about their new year’s resolutions for 2011. I very rarely participate in the new year’s resolution craze—this coming year I’m not going to have a new year’s goal considering I have a list of 27 things to do before I turn 27 next November that I haven’t yet put much of a dent in. But over this past year, on top of my weekly goal list, I made a lengthy resolutions list, and I thought I should update on how I did this year in making these things happen.
1) I will write more.
I feel like I accomplished this. I didn’t put any specific measurements to it, but I’ve been journaling consistently once a week this year, sometimes twice, with an occasional miss. I’ve also blogged some, so I’d call this a success. The next step is to get back to creative writing, my real desire, something I haven’t done in a long time and feel drawn to do.
2) I will read more.
This one is also a success. I did manage to squeeze in 12 books this year, one being the NCV Bible which I completed reading in November (it took me two and a half years to read the whole thing!). I re-read all the Harry Potter books in preparation for the movie last month, and I also established one night a week as reading night, which I’ve been able to stick to on most weeks.
3) I will honor the Sabbath.
Like I said in my original new year’s resolution post at this time last year, for me, this is Sunday. That may change—I’ve started reading the Bible over again and this time I’m studying it, not just reading, but for now, I’m trying to get into the habit of taking a day of rest. Obviously there were quite a few weekends when I didn’t succeed at this, especially because it’s a habit that I have to form, but I’d say more weekends than not I did take Sunday to rest, so I’d call this one a win, too.
4) I will find a home church.
I was most worried about this one, but I did it! Fortunately for me I mentioned my church hunting woes at work one day and a lot of co-workers had some great suggestions, and I found a church as a result of that conversation. I really love it—I love the music, the atmosphere, and the teaching. It’s been really great.
5) I will take better care of my body.
This goal has definitely been my biggest challenge this year. I still haven’t successfully found a workout routine, but I haven’t given up. I have, however, made a lot of good choices when it comes to the food that I eat, so at least I’ve made some progress there! Hopefully into 2011 I can really tackle this.
6) I will be more loving.
This goal happens to be the least quantifiable, but I think I met my own expectations of what I wanted to do. My goal was to train myself to think more about others and less about myself—I’ve made a lot of progress in this and it’s something that I’ll continue to work on as life goes on. There’s always room for improvement here, especially because people are generally selfish by nature, including myself.
All in all I’m really happy with my progress over the last year, and I’m determined to carry the good habits and thoughts into 2011.
Happy new year! :)
Cookies and I have a love-hate relationship…I love them, but they hate me. Okay, the cookies probably don’t hate me, but I am notoriously terrible at making cookies unless I buy that pre-made cookie dough that’s already cut into perfect little disks. Hence why I chose sugar cookies for #1 on my 27 before 27 list: make a dessert from scratch.
Step 1 – make a mess of the kitchen
Step 2 – mix, roll, and cut
Step 3 – make an overdone batch
Step 4 – make an underdone batch
Step 5 – make a batch that’s juuuust right!
Mission #1 complete (12/07/2010). :)
I love chocolate. I love peanut butter. And, let’s face it—I love powdered sugar and butter, too. This is probably one of the unhealthiest treats you could possibly make, but it is delicious. Readers, meet Betty Crocker’s peanut butter bars.
Ingredients:
Cookie Base
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® peanut butter cookie mix
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon water
1 egg
Filling
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
2 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
Frosting
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup butter
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray.
2. In large bowl, stir all Cookie Base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press dough in bottom of pan using floured fingers. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely, about 1 hour.
3. In small bowl, beat all Filling ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth. Spread mixture evenly over cookie base.
4. In microwavable bowl, microwave all Frosting ingredients on High 30 seconds; stir until smooth. Cool 10 minutes; spread over filling. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until set. For bars, cut into 9 rows by 4 rows.
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Now I realize this is coming a bit late for this year’s Super Bowl, but you might want to reserve this idea for next year. You simply make the pb bars per the recipe above, then you get out your (AKA hurry to Hobby Lobby the night before to buy a) handy-dandy football-shaped cookie cutter, and cut the bars out (each batch will make 12 bars). Then just pipe on some white frosting in the shape of stitching and, voila—
peanut butter bar footballs!
These were a smashing success! Did you make any creative dishes for the Super Bowl festivities?
It’s been one week since I posted about my goals for this new year, but I feel like I’ve already made strides to achieve all of them. Here are my updates:
1) I will write more. Well, for starters, I’ve written 7 blog posts already (not all have posted), including this one. I’d say that’s more than I was writing. I’ve also committed to writing at least 2 posts a week and have scheduled this writing time in my planner (Sunday and Monday). I scheduled time to write in my journal every Wednesday and I managed to accomplish that this past week. I also created a bookmark folder in Firefox for “things to post about” so when I see something online that makes me think of a post I can write, I have it saved. I’d say I met this goal this week.
2) I will read more. I finished reading my 9th book of 2009 just before the year was over (Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fford; book banter post to come). I’m already reading quite a few books (you can see the list of my current reads on the right side of this page), and I’ve started reading two more books this past week, Severance and The Big Over Easy. I’ve designated every Thursday as reading night, and I’ve been keeping up with reading all the blogs to which I’ve subscribed. I didn’t read this past Thursday (it was New Year’s Eve so I was busy), but I did read a lot this past week. I feel like I’ve accomplished this goal this week, too.
3) I will honor the Sabbath. I thought this would be a lot harder for me than it has been. I usually have a slew of chores to do on the weekend, so this week I wrote them all in my planner on Friday and Saturday, and that included prepping tonight’s dinner yesterday to minimize the work I’d have to do today. We’re having slow-cooker pot roast, so there’s minimal hands-on time anyway (I planned this on purpose). I’ve written all my recurring weekend chores on a post-it that I will stick on every Saturday so I make sure I get them done that day (laundry, grocery shopping, giving the house a quick tidying up, etc.). The only thing that some might consider “work” that I’ll be doing on Sunday is writing my resolutions update post, but I don’t consider that work. Writing (anything) is something I enjoy. I realize the day isn’t over yet, but I think I’ve succeeded this week at honoring the Sabbath.
4) I will find a home church. I’ve written it in my planner every Saturday to decide where I’m going to go to church the next day, that way I’ve committed before my alarm goes off the next morning that I have somewhere specific to be. I attended church this morning and I’m keeping a list of all the churches I’ve been to with some notes about my experience there to make it easier to track where I’ve been. This week, I’ve done as much as I can toward this goal. This one will just take time.
5) I will take better care of my body. Late last year there was a solid 5-week time period when I was working out every weekday, and I hope to get there again, but I’m not going to dive right into that just yet. This past week I only worked out once—I know I could’ve done better. This coming week I’m going to work out 3 days, and late in January I’m going to resume the 5-day routine. In the meantime, I’ve found some workout videos to stream on Netflix, and I’ve been writing out some small workouts I can do here in the house as well as some ideas about outdoor workouts so I can choose from a list what I’d like to do that night rather than get stuck in a rut like I usually do. I was also a lot more conscious this week about my food choices, trying to work in more vegetable servings (you’ll find in keeping up with this resolution that vegetables and I have a hate-hate relationship), and I’ve been consistent about getting at least 8 hours of sleep every night. All of these will prove more difficult this week as work is resuming tomorrow. I think I could’ve done a little better this past week, but I have made improvements and plans toward getting better, so I’d say I met this goal.
6) I will be more loving. This one is a little hard to track. I can think of many times this past week when I consciously stopped my thought process to insert positive thoughts of service—I had to make myself stop internally complaining and start volunteering my time and energy (especially to my coworkers) with a happy heart. This was hard for me last week because I had a specific set of tasks I wanted to accomplish and I didn’t because I was busy helping others. But it isn’t about me, it’s about other people. This will take some time too, but I feel like I accomplished this goal this past week.
To help me achieve all of these goals, I’ve put an extra piece of paper in my planner on every Sunday so I can jot in notes and keep track of my progress during the week. And perhaps the biggest stride I’ve taken to achieve all of these goals is adding them to my daily prayer list. “…With God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26
Overall, I’ve done well. Here’s to continued success!
How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions so far?
I know it’s a little early to even have thoughts of New Year’s resolutions, but something about tidying up after Christmas—putting the gifts away, throwing out all the crumpled wrapping paper, and doing all those dishes—makes me want to jump start the new me…or, the chance at a new me, anyway.
I’ve not really been serious about blogging before. I’ve always wanted to do it consistently but I’ve had two fears: 1) that I would neglect my daily journal, which I don’t want to ever give up and 2) that I wouldn’t find time to keep blogging and that I would quit and feel like a failure.
But I’ve realized that 1) I don’t have to give up my journal to blog. There are many things I would write in my journal that I would never post to the internet—and vice versa. And 2) being afraid of failure has stopped me many times in the past from doing things and I’ve got to get rid of that habit.
The beginnings of this blog will be based on this time of New Year’s, a time when so many people set new goals for themselves. They feel as though the slate has been wiped clean come January 1 and now they can actually do all those things they’ve been promising themselves they’d do for months now.
I’ve never been a fan of New Year’s resolutions. I’ve always been of the persuasion that there is no time like the present, and it’s silly to wait until January 1 to start exercising, quit smoking, write a novel, be a nicer person, or whatever the goal might be. If you realize there’s something you need to change in life, just change it. Stop waiting for January 1, or next Monday, or even tomorrow. Time isn’t going to wait on you.
This time last year I decided I would do something about changing myself and becoming a better person, despite my opinions about the “new year” being the time for it. But I had many things I wanted to accomplish this past year, like volunteering more, like finding a home church, like being more positive, like checking up on my Grandma more often. I didn’t feel like the massive list of goals could be tackled without a plan, and I’m a girl who loves a plan.
So I made what I call a “Weekly Goal Planner.” I made a giant calendar in Excel that shows every week of the year. I numbered each of those weeks, and I put one goal on every week. It’s easier to train yourself to pray every day or be a better listener if you give yourself an entire week to focus on that one goal. I found that by giving myself that entire week, things became much more habitual and I didn’t have to think about them as much (if anyone wants to see the Goal Planner, just let me know and I’ll post it). In the middle of the week, if I thought of something I’d like to do, like workout more frequently, instead of beating myself up about not doing it now, I assigned that goal to a week in the future and let myself forget about it for the time being.
Growth and change are just as difficult as they are important, so I found by breaking up my little goals, they were much more attainable and as a result of achieving them, I gained more confidence in myself. It’s a lovely little cycle.
I’ve already made my 2010 Weekly Goal Planner. Of course it isn’t completely filled out but, as the year progresses, I’ll think of more things to fill in the blanks. But it occurred to me today that there are some big goals, some long-term goals, that I want to accomplish, and I don’t think they can be contained on a weekly basis.
Since I’ve always wanted to blog, I’m going to do it. And since I’m going to do it, I’m going to use this blog for accountability. Every Sunday, I’m going to post a resolution update—I’m going to re-list my resolutions and give the world a status update on each one. This is the one thing I’ve never tried, and I’m a little scared to (there’s that fear of failing again), but I’m going to do it.
Here is my list:
1) I will write more. Whether in my journal, whether snippets of poetry, or whether I somehow start writing fiction again, I am going to write. I love writing—I’m just lazy. Playing video games is easier than writing. Doing the dishes is easier. I can come up with a million excuses and things to do instead of writing, but I’m not going to anymore. I am going to write.
2) I will read more. This year, I’ve read only 8 books (one of which I finished reading today). The year isn’t over, and there is at least one more book, possibly two, that I hope to finish by 2010, but my unspoken goal has always been at least 12 books per year. Now the goal is spoken. I will read at least 12 books in 2010.
3) I will honor the Sabbath. For me, that’s going to be Sunday. I realize there’s a lot of cross-denominational debate about what day of the week constitutes “the Sabbath,” but honestly, I don’t think that God’s going to be pointing fingers on judgment day saying, “Shame on you for honoring my day of rest on the wrong day of the week.” Seriously? Some cultures don’t even have days of the week. It’s all semantics. Anyway, I’m going to obey that commandment. All the others are obvious and easy (don’t steal, don’t cheat on your spouse, don’t murder, etc.) but for some reason, I’ve always neglected this one. I’m not sure what exactly this will mean, but I am going to honor the Sabbath.
4) I will find a home church. This was actually one of my goals this past year, and I failed. I certainly did try, but I could’ve done a much better job. I’m not going to let my discouragement keep me from continuing the hunt. I’m not a “churchy” girl, but I know I need a church family. God has a place for me, despite my pickiness, and I’m going to find a home church.
5) I will take better care of my body. I realize this is a loose goal. I don’t want to say, “I will work out X days a week” or “I will lose X pounds” or “I will eat more vegetables.” There was a time in my life, during college, when I was routinely working out, eating well, and getting plenty of sleep. I never quantified those things, but as soon as I was “healthy” I knew it. It’s physical and mental. When I’m finally taking care of myself again, I’ll know that I’m doing it right. At the moment, I’m not. I feel sluggish and disappointed in myself. I will take better care of my body.
6) I will be more loving. This isn’t to say that I don’t love people. I love my husband and do my best to take care of him. I love my parents and call to check on them frequently. I love my friends, my family, even strangers! But I’m talking about a conscious and quantifiable love. Conscious in that I want to do what’s best for others before I do what’s best for myself. I want to help others with the right spirit. I want to do my husband’s laundry without thinking the entire time about how it would be nice if he would help me more around the house. I want to check those proofreader marks for my coworker without thinking that I’m above the task and that they could do it themselves. And I want to shower people in love rather than judgment. That will be the hardest part for me, because I’m very judgmental. But I want to be more loving, with a pure heart, and I will.
All of these things require time, but mostly they just require time management. I’ve got to be smarter about managing my time so I can stay committed to the goals that are important to me.
Besides resolution updates, I hope to use this blog for other things, things I’ve always wanted to blog about but never have! I think the resolution updates are going to keep me coming back to the blog, and the rest of the posts (crafts, recipes, book reviews, etc.) will keep others coming back.
Happy 2010 everyone—may it be full of blessings!
