Changing My Blog Address

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Chasing My Passion

I started reading a new book Woman of Influence by Pam Farrel and I already found the first chapter very interesting. It is called Impassioned Finding Your Unique Calling. Does that sound like something I need or what?
So here are the questions that the author presents in order to help a person find what their passion is:

• When the house is quiet, where do your daydreams take you?
• What was the last issue that made you righteously angry, or brought you to tears?
• When you read God's Word, are there common themes in the verses you mark?
• What breaks your heart?
• What do you talk about the most?
• What truths would you die for?
• What principles or beliefs would you go to jail to protect?
• What people would you place your neck on the chopping block for? And why would you do it?
• Who and what would you be inconvenienced for day after day?

I found these questions to be very interesting in considering what to do with my life. As of right now, I can't really answer these questions with any certainty.
Jon and I have been talking about this kind of stuff a lot lately. We've been talking about our strengths and what things get us excited. Crazily enough I've learned that I actually get excited about the thought/process of organizing things. Well, not things exactly, but events and people. I was never stressed about planning my wedding and unlike a lot of people I actually enjoyed it. Also, I thrive in high pressure situations. When other people tend to get stressed out, I buckle down and perform better than under normal situations. Now on to figuring out my passion and how to utilize my strengths.

Plans for 2011

Well, I've procrastinated enough in posting my resolutions for 2011. It feels like there's more to add, but I suppose there's no reason I can't add more later. So, here are my plans for 2011.

• Continue decluttering the house. 
• I just made some progress on this last night by making this crazy pile of pictures... 

  and turning it into this.

Apparently I'm not very sentimental once I actually start clearing stuff out.

• Cleaning on a regular basis or having people over more, which will force me to clean more.
• Continue working on my style book. 
• Start an herb garden in the kitchen.
• I already purchased oregano, cilantro, basil, and parsley. They are sitting on my kitchen windowsill waiting for some creative potting.
• Taking time for me.
• Already scheduled a spa day with my gift certificate from Mom and Dad.
• Getting out of the house and attending activities with Jared, especially free ones.
• Meeting new people through things I enjoy, which means attending activities that I enjoy.
• More consistent grocery shopping and cooking. 
• Develop a go to list of recipes, instead of always making something new.
• Continue trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.
• Any ideas for using my organizing skills? Planning/organizing really gets me excited.
• Get more active.
• Ideas include a class at the gym and running (yes, running).
• Setting aside time to spend with old and new friends. 
• Continue attending Mother's Club activities.
• Going on 1 date a month, alternating who plans.
• Work on budgeting.
• Random acts of kindness/finding ways to bless those around me.
• Getting out of credit card debt by the end of the year. 
• A job during nights and weekends.
• Attending small group through church. 
• Catching up on my Christmas scrapbook.
• Home improvement projects.
• paint cabinets
• shelving for living room
• paint trim
• teapots
• new towels
• new shower curtain
• chalkboard paint on the pantry door
• kitchen floor
• overall decorating asthetic

All of that should keep me busy for the next 11.5 months!

Year in Review

Well, it's been a tough year overall. I've been fighting some demons, but I figured that a review of the year would be nice and an update on last year's resolutions. Some of you may remember that I decided to make a list of things that pointed to who I wanted to be in 2010. Here's the original post.
I'm pretty proud to say that I stuck with the resolutions. There are some things I decided I don't want to do, gardening. Some things that just aren't working for our family right now, cloth diapers. And several things that will be moved onto my 2011 list, which you can look forward to soon.
Before I review all the good stuff, here's how I did it. I had a notebook and wrote down everything that I wanted to do in 2010. Then at the end of each month, or as I thought of it, I kept track of the things I did towards my goals. It really helped to keep things moving along and it reminded me to continue thinking about everything.
So, here is my progress in 2010:
I did a good job of decluttering some rooms and closets (my clothes, Jared's clothes several times, living room, & pantry), but there is still much work to be done. I still don't understand how we have so much stuff. Although I managed to declutter, I didn't get into a good routine for cleaning. Still working on that.
My favorite goal and the one that I most thoroughly completed was figuring out my style. I created a style book (same notebook that I kept the goals in) and am still adding to it. I can now walk into a store and know which pieces are me. Additionally, I can see cute things, but now that they don't really fit into what I'm going for in the overall look.
I wanted to start a garden in 2010, but I attended a workshop at the library and figured out that gardening probably isn't for me. It felt good to be able to say that. It's a part of really getting to know myself. I feel like I'm better able to recognize the things that are and aren't me. I would still like to start an herb garden inside, so that'll be on the 2011 list.
This year I took a cooking class, which was fun and informative. I've learned all about how to use a knife to correctly cut. I'm not fantastic at it, but it's good to know the correct ways to do things. One of my hopes was that I would meet some people while doing some of these interesting things, but it didn't quite work out with the cooking class. I was also planning to take another cake decorating class, but the original one I signed up for was cancelled because I was the only one who signed up and I decided that I have all the cake decorating skills I want for now. Another decision. =)
One big thing I wanted to have figured out was what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Well, I feel a little closer I guess, but I still don't have any firm ideas. Yes, I was thinking about neuroscience, but I feel like I can talk myself into and out of just about anything at this point. I feel okay with putting off the decision for right now, but I know I can't wait forever. Hopefully this year will bring some more pointed direction in this regard.
Here are some other fun things I did this year: tried and found a good red lipstick, started taking Jared to the storytime at Barnes and Noble, attended Kindermusik with Jared, joined the Mother's Club and did some volunteer work through them, started collecting teapots for decorating the kitchen, and attending a Girls' Night Out sponsored by Go West Young Mom all by myself without knowing anyone there.
Well, that's my year in review. Look for the 2011 list coming soon.

Creating Cookies

During birthday celebration time this year I was enjoying a delightful Ferrero Rocher chocolate and I decided that I wanted to create a cookie that tasted like a Ferrero Rocher. I didn't want to find a recipe and make it, I wanted to create a recipe. Now, I'll admit that I didn't start from scratch. I don't know enough about baking to do that, but I did take a base cookie recipe and make some changes and by the second batch I thought that I'd succeeded.
Here's the recipe:

Ferrero Rocher Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 cups granulated sugar

½ cup (1 stick) butter or margarine

4 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened baking chocolate, chopped

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

2 teaspoons Kahlua

4 oz hazelnuts toasted

Topping (Ganache)

2 cups milk chocolate chips

¼ cup butter or margarine

½ cup hazelnut flavored nondairy liquid creamer

Directions:

Combine flour and baking powder; set aside. In saucepan over medium heat combine sugar, butter, and chocolate, stirring until butter and chocolate are melted; remove from heat. Gradually stir in eggs and Kahlua. Stir in flour mixture until well blended. Chill 2 hours in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 350˚F. Roll dough into 1-inch balls with a hazelnut inserted in the center. Place about 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 12 minutes. While cookies are baking, put chocolate chips and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Stir constantly until melted and remove from heat. Stir in creamer. Once cookies have been removed from the pan pour the ganache over the top of the cookies and sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts. Do not package until ganache is set or you can put the cookies in the freezer to speed up the process.

They are a little time intensive compared to chocolate chip cookies, but they are yummy if I don't say so myself.

Party Spread

I hosted a Lia Sophia party this last weekend and was super excited to plan the spread. I absolutely love doing that and there aren't always a lot of opportunities. Here's what we ate and the recipes:

 The menu consisted of:

Cranberry Bog Gorp

Veggies

Jack-O'-Lantern Cheese Ball

Pumpkin Bean Soup (which I served in the martini glasses)

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

Close up of the pumpkin cheese ball.

Cake.

Halloween

 Here's my cute little lion on Halloween. He did awesome! I'm so glad we did some practice runs with the costume beforehand. He didn't complain about it once the whole time we were out and he only came back 5 or 10 minutes before the older kids.

"Mom, look what they gave me!"

 Jared was so funny. We had worked on saying "trick or treat" but he wasn't very interested. I thought maybe we'd get a growl out of him, but no luck there either. He got super shy once we got up to the doors. Always the polite boy he told everyone "thank you" though. After he figured out that he was going to get candy at each house he had a death grip on his bucket. He wasn't going to let that thing go for anything.

Such a fun group.

Our little family after trick or treating.