It has been a busy beginning of the year! Mostly, I have been fighting this ridiculous flu/cold thing. I got sick the day after Christmas, saw the peak of my symptoms that Friday, but have maintained this damned cough and sinus congestion since then. That's right, I still have a cough and sinus congestion.. *grr face*
Oh well! I am feeling better overall and I think the cough is finally beginning to ebb. *fingers crossed*
I thought I'd post real quick about my plans for 2013. Posting it here will probably give me more motivation to keep up on my plans - even if the readers of this blog are few and sporadic. :) This year, I have made a few resolutions. I do most every year and last year I kept the one that I made - to begin journaling again. My calendar journal was a yearlong endeavor to personalize and create. Granted some of the cards have yet to be stamped with their dates, I was able to write a little bit about each day of 2012. I am back to doing something I used to love to do - keep a daily journal. I have to say that with a calendar journal it really does get better with the years - I can already tell that I am really going to love looking at the previous entries every day when I go to write a new one. :)
So for this year, I am being a little ambitious and I set a few resolutions - not just the one. This year, I have the following resolutions (bear with me, one of them is pretty cliche):
- Let go.
I have held a.... I don't know if the word "grudge" fits it quite right, but for lack of a better word , we'll go with it... grudge. During the majority of 2012, I experienced a lot of injustice on the friendship front. It was unjust, unfair, and, frankly, immature what some people have decided was appropriate to do and say. I have held on to the anger that I felt at the time these events occurred for much too long. I held on to it and let it fester long enough. So I told myself in December, that I could indulge in this nonsense only until the end of the year. In 2013, I will let it go. I am currently sketching a song lyric to commemorate the letting go of this anger and frustration. Once it is complete, I will not hold on to the anger any longer. Those people don't care, so I shouldn't either.
- Learn more about personal finance.
I have really good money habits - I don't spend much and I save everything. I'm frugal, always looking for the better buy. And I never make impulse buys. If I'm buying something, I've thoroughly thought through buying it. The more expensive the item, the more thinking occurs. I also don't go out drinking (SUPER expensive & completely frivolous in my eyes...) and buy inexpensively when I go out to eat. So I have a great foundation for ensuring that I have money when I need it most and ensuring that I make my money work for me. I am already saving a good portion of my paycheck into my 401K, I've got a $10,000 "emergency" fund saved up (in case I lose my job and need to live off of what I have, in case I get seriously injured, etc.), and I've got another fund building for my big buy (probably a down payment on a house). BUT I need to learn more about how to have my money grow - investment and other sources of income, etc. Thus, this resolution. I have already borrowed a book on personal finance from the library and begun to read it. Onward and upward!
- Be more active.
So here's the cliche. Everyone and their dog makes this resolution and many of them have not kept it, even already. I am a healthy person. I eat healthfully and do my best to keep my health in check. But I recognize that I am not as active as I should be. I have used the excuse that I am at work for 9.5 hours a day and drive to and from work for 2 hours a day to avoid trying to find a fitness routine that suits me. There's always time for health, so I'm making the time. I have purchased a jump rope and have found a routine that I can do most days of the week, even those days that I work. When Kyle and I are reunited later this year, once everything from the transitions settles down, we're going to go to a gym class. Maybe spinning, maybe kickboxing - those are the two that I want to do. :D I enjoy being active, as long as it's not just running.
So there you go, those are my resolutions. I have other things that I want to improve as well - I always do. But I think it's better that the most urgent things be my resolutions and the other less urgent things be amorphous goals that I keep in mind as I tackle everyday life. I will make them resolutions at a later date if that's what it takes to get me to keep up on them.
On to the yummies!!
The first weekend that Kyle and I were back at his apartment from his winter break - I decided that I wanted to make bread, because who doesn't love homemade bread, fresh from the oven?? I'll admit that on some matters - I'm not too big a fan of bread. Like sandwiches - too much bread on a sandwich is a bad thing. Same thing with pizza - too thick of crust can ruin a pizza for me. But bread for the sake of bread - that's a different story. I looooooovvveeee bread for the sake of bread! So here's the bread that I decided to make for the sake of that delicious baked good, bread.
Cinnamon swirl bread!
I followed a recipe I found here via bakedbyrachel.com.
It was easy, albeit a little slow given the two rises it goes through, but I think it's not a problem at all on a day that you're going to be around the house most of the day. Little effort goes into making it and it's delicious! I loved this bread and Kyle ate what was left after I left for the week in about a day. :) This one is definitely staying in my personal recipe book.
I hope you're enjoying your twenty thirteen so far and that your resolutions are holding up! Don't give up! Even if you falter, just keep on a-plugging!
Stay excellent!
- Jenny -
