23 things for 2016

Cheers and an abundance of praise to another year of good health, happy memories, blessings and delicious food! I picked 23 things because I'm 23 years old. So here's my list of 23 realistic goals:

1. Memorize scriptures; I have a few favorites but want to add more to my memory to fall back on for encouragement, praise, peace of mind and strength.

2. Pray more; whether it is for praise, family, my congregation or big things that are going on in our country, I need to be praying more.

3. Commit more time to studying the bible; whether it’s in a group setting or on my own time.

This past year, I wrote a short list of things that trigger my anxiety and rated them on a scale of 1-10; 1 being very mild anxiety and 10 being “!!!!” anxiety. I got the tip when I was searching “how to overcome anxiety” and found it to be extremely resourceful. I decided the two that I wanted to overcome this year had to do with everyday encounters.

4.Get over my fear of calling people (that aren’t family) first, and not feeling like it is the scariest thing in the world.

5. Saying what’s on my mind (within context, of course), share my ideas with others and do it all without the fear of sounding stupid. And if I do sound stupid to them, then oh well! I may think I’m going to die from embarrassment but I haven't died from it yet.

“The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” –Julia Child

6. Hone my knifing skills… Relearn how to debone chicken, segment citrus, filet a fish, etc. 

7. Improve my pie/pastry and cake decorating abilities; I got the taste down, but presentation is where I lack and want to practice.  

8.Try to make more foods from scratch. Pasta, bread, stocks, and maybe even goat’s milk yogurt and ricotta cheese just to name a few...

9. Invest and use a kitchen scale for more accurate baking measurements.

10. Learn the basics of building delicious cocktails.

11. Throw dinner party or two! 

12. Take more pictures because there is no such thing as taking too many, and I did't take that many in 2015.

13. Develop recipes, perfect them and post them on this blog with confidence.

14.Create something lovely out of all the wine corks we’ve collected over the course of a year.

15. Learn a new creative skill. Perhaps sewing, pottery, or dancing? Decisions, decisions.

16. Seek out a hobby that Michael, Lydia and I can all do together. And also go on more dates with Michael, and be more present with each other.

17. Walk the Miss Zoe more. Poor thing is getting fat again.

18. Paint and decorate Lydia’s bedroom, and successfully wean her out of our room, have her sleep in the crib, peacefully and without force. Tell me, am I being overly ambitious with this one?

19. Organize the cabinets, closets and dressers. Make this the year be the year, I don't lose any important papers because they are neatly put away in their proper place! 

20.  Similar to the one above, organize the abyss  basement, get rid of the things we truly don't need and then figure out what we can do with the space.

21. Visit my grandparents in Puerto Rico sometime in the spring or summer.

22. Start a garden behind the shed in our backyard, know my plants and treat them with much love.

23. Create new traditions with Michael and Lydia for next Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

I'm feeling more inspired already!!

PS: Those are Michael's beautiful shelves in the photo above, and yes I am obsessed with them.