i can't believe i'm doing this again

last sunday i had to speak in church. you guessed it, the topic was goals and resolutions. i read a quote by spencer w. kimball that said we need to set goals that require us to "reach and strain". he also said "growth comes from setting your goals high and reaching for the stars". so ... as i thought about my goals for 2012, i decided to change some of them to star-reaching goals ... things that would require thought, effort, and planning to accomplish. so here it is. the list of goals i'm committing to this year. i better get started:

1. try a new recipe every month. find recipes that are worthy of making again. i did this last year and it worked out pretty well trying new recipes, but i want to start a good collection of recipes that i've tried and like.

2. read the book of mormon. it's been too long since i've read the whole thing straight through.

3. make a new craft every month. anything goes ... i just need to make house decorations and thought this would be a good way to do it.

4. clean up my credit report. now that i've paid off my credit cards and my car, i think it's time to pull my credit report and make sure everything's showing cleared off. i've been afraid to see my credit report for a while ... i'm going to have to get over that.

5. do one act of service every month. i consider donating platelets, working at feed my starving children, food bank, etc an act of service.

6. take a cooking class. i've looked at quite a few classes and am not sure which one i should sign up for yet, but i loved the knife skills class i took and i want to take another.

7. attend the temple twice a month, including going to at least one new temple this year. i figured attending once a month would be good but twice a month will require extra effort. and i'm hoping that my work travels take me somewhere that i can go to a different temple but if not i'll be doing that one on my own.

8. take a sewing class. i can't even sew a straight line on a sewing machine. i need some basic training.

9. become CPR certified. i think this is a good skill to have ... that's really the only reason i want to do it this year.

10. learn how to make & perfect two kinds of frosting: fluffy cupcake frosting & royal icing. i've been watching cupcake wars and always wondered how their frosting stays so pretty on a cupcake. and i just want to try royal icing on sugar cookies ... they're so pretty!

11. run a 10k. i think i'm crazy. i think i could have done it last year, now i feel like i'll be back to square one. this one's here because of peer pressure ... hope mia is ready to run with me!

10 out of 11 isn't bad ...

talk about bad ... i haven't blogged since june?? it's hard to believe. oh well ... maybe one of these years the goal will be to blog more often. until then, you get what you get. so i've been thinking a lot lately about the goals i want to accomplish for 2012. before i start that though, i should probably follow up on the 2011 goals. i feel pretty accomplished ...

1. lose weight - was it as much as i wanted? no. but i did lose some, so goal accomplished. here's to a better next year.

2. save money for a down payment on a house - plans changed. i don't necessarily want to buy a house this year, so the savings plan was reduced. but i did save some, which is better than last year.

3. run a 5k - accomplished and one-upped. i ran a 5k during a little weekend church conference. i was pretty proud too. i wasn't fast and certainly wasn't the best, but it felt like a million dollars when i didn't stop at all during the 3 miles. and then, i officially ran (with a timing chip and everything) an 8k a few weeks later. now that felt good. 5 miles around gurnee mills and key lime cove. to be honest, i didn't think i would be able to do it. i'm glad i did.

4. go through the temple to receive my endowments - i did it. and i feel pretty great about this one too. i had the chance to visit a few temples on my travels this year and love being able to spend time at every one!

5. take a knife skills class - done! we went one night and took a class at the wooden spoon downtown. it was fun, the little store was great, and i feel like i can chop vegetables like you wouldn't believe.

6. take course 1 of the wilton cake decorating classes - uh ... not so much. i started looking into the classes in september and with the travel i had planned it didn't work out. lesson learned though, start working on my goals early. 4 weeks of classes doesn't come together as easily as i thought it would.

7. write a business plan - i did do it. i'm not sure when i'll get to use it, and it'll probably take a lot of work once i seriously sit down to present it to a creditor or something ... but for now it's there. and it's a good jumping off point for when the time comes.

8. get a foid card, go to a gun club or shooting range and look into buying a gun of my own - check and check (to obtaining the foid card and going to a shooting range). i did not buy a gun. i thought about it, but at the end of the day i decided to save the money for other things. though now that i'm NRA certified i'll definitely be checking out the shooting range more often and testing out some different guns.

9. try cooking/baking a new recipe once a month - you know, i think i missed a month. in september i was home for about 6 days total. and i'm not entirely sure that i made a new recipe in those days. but i did make at least 12 new recipes this year and found some really great ones. i think two of my favorites were layered pizza salad (which ended up looking more like a pasta salad with pepperoni and string cheese in it) and a hot pizza dip (which was delish). of course my love of pizza would dictate the two favorite recipes for the year.

10. pay off car - yes i did! and i felt pretty good about getting it done in september (thank you vacation payout) until i spent the equivalent of 3 car payments in october on repairs. but, it's paid off and running perfectly now. yahoo!

11. look into lasik surgery - i definitely talked to my eye doctor about it. and she said i'd be a great candidate to do it. i need to call and make an appointment for the people who'll actually do the surgery. now to find that number ...

so ... all in all it feels pretty good. and even though i didn't accomplish everything i set out to do, i feel like i learned a lot and made pretty good progress. now ... on to next year!

goals. there's not telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. there's no telling what you can do when you believe in them. there's no telling what will happen when you act upon them.