If I'm Improving...

 It's March...I can't say finally, because I wasn't particularly looking forward to it (if I'm looking forward to anything, it is June 😘) (if you get me?). I can't really think of any clever cliches for this month that commemorate the beginning of Spring (at least where I live) like "April showers bring May flowers" or aaacho! (I have allergies that annoy me in April-specifically the week of my birthday...not the best way to recognize, but it is one way to remember it...) I got it! It is the month that includes St. Patrick's Day, but I recently read something on how fake that holiday is (just a day for Americans to feel Irish), and not a bit of my blood is Irish (if that counts...pinch me) (sorry, but that is a stupid tradition). In other words, I prefer treating that holiday just like any other day, although my older brother, Ty served part of his mission so perhaps I should ask him how to celebrate once the day comes since he actually lived there for a bit. Not that I'm meaning to sell short any birthday that happens to be at the beginning of spring either, because my older sister, Bree, and two of my nieces, Hadley and Claira have birthdays at the beginning of Spring too this month. (Perhaps one of my goals should be looking on the bright side more...) (I personally think that I am just having a difficult time transferring from lethargic February to springy March, please forgive me, it is only March 6th when I am writing this.)

1) Set aside one hour every day to do something creative. I am not acting lethargic, I promise you. This goal is just spring to get me going with writing again in March (kind of like the Energizer Bunny...is that comparison correct?). I recently started a new story in my free-writing that explores ideas that I'm new to, at least in writing about, so I need a friend to a friend. Its setting lay in the future, in the land that used to be America that is called Ruosdilxm. Countries are always taking over countries, and I fear that will happen to humble (ha!) us again sometime in the future. I recently did a study of the Aztecs, which really got me thinking, what if somebody takes over people again taking things that aren't theirs just like we did to them (same thing with the Native Americans, though I didn't look that deeply into who used to inhabit my country in my research) (I know, you don't know where you are going until you know where you have been). So, I am telling a story from the perspective of this new, future country's future ruler, Natasha Skinner, and even though we all dream of an easier future, at least I believe, it isn't any easier for her to rule over a nation becoming more and more rebellious each day. Some of her prisoners (we all are prisoners to humanity when you think about it, Natasha just brings it further) are pretending to side with her, like the mischievous scientist, Amor Cherith plus the person that she overtook, Elijah Peake. So far I only have about one page written down in my writer's notebook but so far, I am seeing lots of potential and different ideas creating themselves off of this idea, that is why I need to be more diligent in developing a free writing time in which I just let ideas flow from pen to page without hesitation. I hope I can, though I love to write, I also have a job and schoolwork which I intend to take care of first. The world would be so much easier if I were more diligent in scheduling each of my days, and still left time for dreaming...wait, I think I have an idea there.

2) Bake two new recipes. Just in case you have been living under a rock for some time, here is a little "me fact": I love baking, or more of I love dreaming (how different can the two ideas be, really?). I love watching the baking channel and continue to dream, though I admit I like the outcome far better on shows like Great British Baking Show than the ones on Nailed It! The most recent thing that I allowed myself to learn was how to bake (or is it make, since there is absolutely no oven involved?) a salad. This recipe I can give to you in a sentence: find vegetables, whoop them together, and add a special dressing or vinaigrette to improve the flavor (I've always been a Ranch girl, myself, but they are several things in my fridge which I have the possibility of trying in the future). True, a salad is a smart meal to prepare if you have to leave in half an hour for your evening shift at work, which I did, but what about if I have time to make something bigger and better? (I make myself laugh.) I'm still dreaming on cloud 9 with this perspective, but you never learn (or know), unless you try something. I have quite a few recipes that I would like to try, that I either saw on television, saw somebody else make (I believe in myself way too much...if that is even possible), or fished from one of my own cookbooks (that I either got from my Bree or my old ward) (okay, they aren't exactly my cookbooks!). Included in this list are a Peppermint Oreo Milkshake, Fruit Cobbler, Pumpkin Banana Bread, and many others (and people say I have a bad memory!). I know, I know, none of those are good, healthy main dishes. You always have to start out with training wheels (unless you are Hadley) when you are learning to ride a bike, so these recipes are my training wheels more of. I have even talked to my fiancee, Michael about this goal (promising him dessert after every meal if he bakes something too). He laughs as he agrees resolutely. A lot of his blood is Italian so he is really good and used to cooking too, maybe he is even better than me (scratch that, I know he is better than me 😋). (I love this picture!)

3) Workout at least three times a week. Maybe I should correct this goal, or had been more specific. Let me explain: I do some yoga almost every day, it helps in the lifelong goal to relax my body but seeing that that goal is already met (at least in part, I'm not dead yet) I'm referring to more physical workouts, like biking, running, or playing a sport, seeing that it is March, the beginning of Spring, and the beginning of the part of the year that is more for outdoor sports. Admittedly, when I was younger, the sports I enjoyed doing the most were sports designed, or played during different seasons. I liked playing basketball with my friends, and basketball is a winter sport (since it is played indoors most often unless you have a basketball hoop set up outside (my family used too, but let's just say it been a while since anyone played with it, or was interested in doing so). Also, when I was younger, I was at the top of my swim lessons class (and no one could mock me for how short I was there, since we were in the water and I knew how to tread water at an early age, so it was kind of like we were the same height, as long as I stayed in the water). This was before I could really get into the sport, or even knew that there was a swim team at my school (thinking about it, I probably wasn't even that good), but life still went on and I received a TBI in my car accident mishap and I forgot everything that I knew about swimming. Before I make myself even more sad, let's talk about something else. The sports are minimal that I can participate in now, but I can still walk, bike, or maybe learn to swim again (I have heard of special lessons for people like me) so I need to keep up and keep happy at least three times a week with these. (Also, on a sort of related note, I am trying to eat no sugar for at least 21 days...with three birthdays coming. Wish me luck!) One of the first dates (I think the third...) Michael and I went on was a walk (me in my Run Across America t-shirt and his that has a joke on it, so this picture sort of applies.)

4) Be noticeably grateful (blog, Instagram about it) four times. I didn't know just how much I needed a goal like this one until today. It is easy to be down in the dumps, counting your problems instead of celebrating them (how deep of a thinker are you?) especially if it is not a month like November...or June (just thinking out loud). Recently, I was challenged to be more grateful than usual and post about it on Instagram or Twitter every day. Since I am not the type of person that posts necessarily every day, I was resolute (or thought I was resolute) in my response of "no." But then, I got the dastardly chance to think about it. I was not pleased with the outcome of the recent election, I still have to work every day, and I have a million other problems (a million, that's why I don't blog about them all that often). I tried to let that thought of "you had a chance to be grateful and you just let it pass you by, for some reason or other" but it kept coming back, for one reason or another. I decided, finally that someone was trying to put their foot down with me (perhaps God) when I looked at ways to prepare for General Conference (coming the first week in April, read all about it here) and included in that list was the simple, yet not so simple at the same time act of being grateful for all that you have. When I read that, I was reminded of my friend's challenge to me of posting what I am grateful for. Since everything happens for a reason, no matter how much I like to pretend that that isn't so, I accept her challenge (sort of). I am going to post one thing that I am grateful for every week on my Instagram. Got to start somewhere, and as long as you are reading this, I put forward that challenge to you also. (As long as we're talking about it, Bible verses help my sense of calm also.)

5) Have a book club meetup at least once. Gosh, this quarantine, am I right or am I right? True now, I am grateful for things that I discovered staying home all the time (slipping slowly into madness...okay, I'm done) that were more than a dead rat under my bed (just an idea, there are no dead rats in my house!). For one, my book club grew into something that I thought was bigger than it ever would or could grow to be. A grain of rice is much larger to some people, and this is my grain of rice. This goal may be a particularly crazy one because as of now, my book club is not made up of members that are even in the same country as me...but some of them are in the same town as me, or just the next town over from mine, so maybe we could do something one night. For one, we could watch that "Spiderwick Chronicles" movie together this month since the book we are reading together happens to be by Holly Black too. I don't know where we would watch it yet. Does anyone have it, because I don't? This goal is still a tadpole, but I am making and writing it anyway. This goal is crazy at this time, but not as crazy as some of Rowling or Beethoven's ideas, and look where they are now? I think too much, but to anyone who would like to know more about it, just look here. ✌

6) Take a calligraphy class. My handwriting is an interesting story, since I don't have that much longer let me summarize it for you. I learned to handwrite the same way as anyone would, I guess. When I was in my elementary school years, I learned where to curve the letters and where to keep them straight and I aced every single worksheet that I was given. But there is more, my primary handwriting lessons occurred while I was right-handed when the left side of my body was injured so the right side didn't work near as well and had to be in a cast near all the time, it was a different story. Now, I had to relearn everything with my non-dominant hand. Not cool. It is just as hard as it sounds, if not harder. My first year back at school after receiving my injury, I had a para help me take notes that I could read. (Hi, Ms. Wible!) Though it was only a year and I'm grateful that I had the help, my handwriting only became a little more legible in that time. I still cross my t's way too close to the top and you can't really tell my c's and my e's apart (sorry, to all my teachers!), but that doesn't mean that I have given up. My mother tells me that the person she knows with the best handwriting is my Aunt Diana (one of her sisters) and that she got it right after taking a class on calligraphy. That is why I found some classes on calligraphy online, to help me improve my natural handwriting. (If Michael happens to be reading this, I still bet my handwriting is worse! 😉)