25x25 (Revisited)

If you've spent any time hanging around these parts you may have noticed the little '25x25' tab along the header. You might have even taken a minute or two to read though the list. It occurred to me this past week that I have a little over three months until I turn 25 so I thought I should revisit my list and make some appropriate updates & progress reports.

Be in a committed relationship with someone I could potentially marry. Unless God has some seriously big plans up His sleeves this isn't something that's going to happen any time soon. I wouldn't say I'm 100% okay with the situation but I'm 90% okay with the situation.

Host a dinner party. I'm calling this a win. I guess I could have  should have blogged about it but I made the staff banquet meal this summer, wasn't exactly a dinner party, but it involved preparing salad, chicken, corn on the cob, rice and death by chocolate triffle for 20 people so I think it counts. 

Open an Etsy shop or sell something on eBay. This is one of these things that goes on a list because you need 25 things and it sounds like a good idea but then after the fact you realize it's not something you actually want to do. So I'm not going to do this.

Read 150 books. This one I should have kept better track of. I need to go through my GoodReads account and bookshelf and figure out how many books I've read in the past two years. This is an attainable one though!

Become a regular volunteer with an organization. I was really involved with Girl Guides but work made weekly meetings impossible. I still help out at camps & special events when I can and eventually I'll have my own unit again but it won't be this year. I guess that's a half-accomplished goal?

Complete NaNoWriMo.  Everyone keep your fingers crossed that this happens next month! I'm pretty determined and I've started thinking about story lines and characters. It is well within my grasp as long as I stay motivated and excited.

Complete at least a week of the 100 Mile Diet Yeah…I forgot this was on here. Really should have done this in the summer…

30 Days of Yoga Challenge. I have completed about 10 days of yoga in a row…several months ago. I really enjoyed what I was doing though so I should totally make myself do the full 30 days.

Reach 100 blog followers. The last time I checked my Bloglovin' followers were somewhere around 50. Realistically I probably won't reach 100 by the middle of January but I'm 100% okay with that. If I really wanted to get aggressive about it I could sponsor a bunch of blogs and sign up for giveaways but that it's my style. 

Go on a mission trip. Still something I would like to do, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't think the opportunity for it to happen will present itself anytime soon.

Complete a 365 Day Photo Challenge. Maybe in 2015.

Complete a Sims Legacy Challenge. I got close enough, I don't have the hours of time to devote to playing computer games to follow this one by the book.

Plant a herb garden. I am really glad I specified 'plant' and not 'grow' or 'harvest', because I planted and then watered a dish of soil on my desk for over two months before I accepted the fact nothing was going to grow. This is a success! (Sort of.)

Send 25 Christmas cards via snail mail.  By the time Christmas rolls around this year I'll reach my 25 goal. I've sent quite a bit of snail mail over the past year and now that H. & R. are so far away my mailing as only increased.

Be part of a church community with other young adults. Sadly, this isn't something that's happened (yet).

Try 10 new foods. I have tried quite a few new foods and even discovered I like some of them! I'm sure I'll try one or two more things over the next few months and this goal will be totally accomplished.

Watch a sunrise. Well…there was the one time I saw the sunset during a laundry emergency at camp and another time when I was awake all night with a camper, and a third time when I was dealing with another camp situation. I haven't "watched the sunrise" in the traditional/romantic sense that I'm sure I had planned when I wrote this but I have definitely watched the sunrise!

Answer 25 of the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind I didn't blog about all of them because some of them weren't very blog worthy but a friend and I passed away an evening discussing our answers to a bunch of these questions.

Keep a notebook of favourite quotes & verses. This is totally done. It's one of my favourite things. 

Go TV Free for a week (including Netflix and YouTube). Done. I think I may have went even longer than that but there may have been a movie involved during that time so it evens out.

Read the Bible cover to cover in chronological order. I've read the Bible and I've completed a couple of Bible studies focused on books that I really hadn't paid much attention to before but I just can't seem to make it through starting with Genesis and finishing with Revelations. 

Bake homemade gingerbread men. This will get done, just closer to Christmas. 

Go camping with friends. We didn't end up doing the traditional camping in tents thing but we did go away for the weekend and stay at my families bungalow. The only thing that made it not a camping trip was we didn't sleep in tents. 

Compile a recipe book. This is in progress. I think a recipe collection is something that's always in progress but I would like to add in a dozen more recipes or so before I consider it a true success. 

De-Clutter donating/throwing away at least 5 large bags of 'stuff'. Done & Done. And if we're being honest I could probably downsize by another 5 bags. 

That makes 9/25 things on the list totally completed and another 7 that are on track to be completed by my birthday. 16/25 is far from perfection but when I look at that list I realize there are a number of things there that I really have no control over. Making it less of a  goal list and more of a "things I would like to happen by the time I'm 25" list. 

All the same, a lot can happen between now and mid-January so we'll see where life brings me.

Food Friends

One of the things I want to do before I'm 25 is try 10 new foods. This may not sound like a huge feat so some of you but like I've said before I'm a "picky" eater. So trying new foods can be a source of anxiety for me I've been doing really good though! I wish I'd been keeping better track of it but in the past few months I've tried (and even embraced) four new foods.

Zucchini 

Pinterest

I didn't have any strong feelings against zucchini, but I just couldn't imagine it tasting any good. It doesn't have a delicious smell and people seem to spend an awful lot of time "hiding" it in recipes. I was at a friend's house for supper though and she made pasta with roasted zucchini so I bravely tried some and was pleasantly surprised! Since then I've had it roasted a few more times and as a topping on greek pizza!

Black Olives

Pinterest

Again, a food I just assumed I didn't like. And they haven't made in on any favourites lists but I've had them on pizza a couple of times and in small quantities (i.e. Greek pizza) I can tolerate them. I think I could also eat a few in a salad but I haven't actually done that yet. 

(Roasted) Red Peppers

Pinterest

I hate green peppers. They are the worst. And up until recently red peppers were just as bad. The thing is though I love all things chipotle and the manufactures and recipe makers of dips, sauces ect. have decided that roasted red peppers and chipotle need to be together. So I've learned to tolerate it. I still don't think I "like" red peppers (especially in stir fry or as a raw veggie) but I can handle the taste of it if it happens to be paired with something I really like eating. 

Tomatoes

Pinterest

I've never had a problem with ketchup or tomato sauce and even salsa was on the eat list.

What new foods have you tried lately? Any recommendations?

December Goals

I'm a few days late but I wanted to make sure I linked up with Erica to blog about my November goals and make a few December goals.

November Goal Recap: 

Blog 20 Times.

Check! I published 25 posts in November!

Read 3 Books.

I didn't read a single book this month. I picked up a few and read the first couple of chapters but I never got around to finishing them!

Do Yoga 4 Times.

I did probably did a full yoga work out once or twice this month. I have been doing really good with stretching and doing a few poses either in the morning or the evening before bed. I'm going to give myself half marks for this one.

Make progress with 3 of the things on my 25x25 list.

I published one post about the 50 Questions to Free Your Mind and wrote another one that hasn't been published yet. And I got rid of one bag of clothes in preparation for the new clothes I know I'm getting for Christmas. So again, half points. 

Not as big of a success as my October goals but even if I didn't fully complete them all I did make progress on each of them so that's something. I'm going to go pretty easy on December goals, it's a busy time of year and I know I'm probably going to set some more long term goals in January. 

December Goals

Make 5 Blog Related Goals for 2014. 

I'm not sure what this will entail yet, it might be related to posts or followers or link ups or something totally different. I just want to identify a direction for the blog. I've never been good at directions though so maybe that's not the way to go.

Christmas Shop without breaking the bank. 

I don't have a whole lot of Christmas shopping to do, just immediate family and a few close friends, but I don't want to go overboard on anything. I'm a big believer that you don't have to spend piles of money to give nice/meaningful presents. I picked up a few things on sale and have some DIY projects planned so I should be able to get it all done without spending a small fortune. 

Different

This is the first post as I work my way through 25 of the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind as part of my 25x25 list!

What would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you?

Dress however I wanted and not worry about where I'm going and who is going to see me. 

You might assume what I'm getting at is a desire to just wear jogging pants all the time, and while I would definitely make some trips to Wal-Mart wearing my favourite jogging pants I would also grocery shop in my prom dress. I hate worrying about being over dressed or under dressed and if we all just wore whatever we wanted to when we wanted to with the understanding that sometimes you need to dress up and other times putting on real pants is just too much to ask. 

I get a taste of this during the summer. After a week of wearing neon Nike running shorts, baggy t-shirts, jogging pants and hoodies you just want to wear some real clothes. I have made more trips to the Camp Town Wal-Mart wearing cute sundresses, perfect make up and hair than I can count. And I've never made the trip alone, Wal-Mart and Subway have seen some of the best summer outfits from the female camp staff. 

On the flip side as AD sometimes I will have to go into town to run an errand during the middle of the session. I once wore leggings, knee socks, pink rubber boots, tie-dye, a winter hat, no make up and my hair in two braids into Sobey's. I got some great looks. Although they could have been because I was buying 20L of olive oil, birthday candles and a bag of Twizzlers for the drive back to camp. 

Back in the real world though people are excepted to dress a certain way to go certain places. And if nobody was going to judge me then I'd wear whatever I want where ever I wanted to wear it! 

What would you do in a judge-less society? 

Check! Check! Check!

I just love the satisfaction of checking things off a to-do list and this month I got to make lots of check marks! 

Last Months Goals: 

Blog 15 times in October

I blogged a grand total of 22 times this month! I am quite pleased with myself. 

Participate in 2 new Link-Ups/Blog Hops

I actually lost count of how many new link-ups I participated in this month. It feels like a lot, and some of them I enjoyed more than others. I did find some great new blogs to follow by joining in link ups of bloggers that I don't usually follow, which is always exciting!

Try 3 new recipes

I tried exactly 3 new recipes this month. Gingerbread Syrup to use in coffee, a teryaki chicken marinade and pumpkin spice muffins!

Read 2 books

I read 3 books this month! 

November Goals

Create a Blog Binder. There are so many awesome free printables and suggestions for how to organize posts, I want to figure out which ones work best for me. 

Blog 20 Times. Self-explanatory. 

Read 3 Books.

Do Yoga 4 times.

Make progress with 3 of the things of my 25x25 list. 

I'm also participating in NaNoWriMo this month...but that's a whole other goal...and I have written a total of 8 words so far. Ideally I would like to complete a novel, but I think aiming for 50 pages of writing will be my bare minimum goal. 

I'm linking up my november goals here & here. 

25x25

I've been thinking about doing this for a while now even before I started blogging I thought I should come up with a list of things I wanted to do before I turn 25 but I kept putting it off and honestly wasn't sure I wanted to commit. But I was browsing the October Daily posts and noticed that the topic for today was sharing goals and dreams. I took it as the final kick in the pants that I needed and got started on making a list.

I decided to do 25 things by 25, which by my calculations (i.e. the app on my phone) that gives me 460 days to accomplish everything. Some of the things on my list are totally out of my control and I debated whether or not to include them because I am potentially setting myself up for failure. I decided to go for it anyway, call it "The Secret" or public prayers, I'm putting it out into the universe and we'll see what happens.

So without further explanation my 25 x 25 List!

1. Be in a committed relationship with someone I could potentially marry.
2. Host a dinner party.
3. Open an Etsy shop or sell something on eBay.
4. Read 150 books.
5. Become a regular volunteer with an organization.
6. Complete NaNoWriMo.
7. Complete at least a week of the 100 Mile Diet
8. 30 Days of Yoga Challenge.
9. Reach 100 blog followers.
10.Go on a mission trip.
11. Complete a 365 Day Photo Challenge.
12. Complete a Sims Legacy Challenge.
13. Plant a herb garden.
14. Send 25 Christmas cards via snail mail.
15. Be part of a church community with other young adults.
16. Try 10 new foods.
17. Watch a sunrise.
18. Answer 25 of the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind
19. Keep a notebook of favourite quotes & verses.
20. Go TV Free for a week (including Netflix and YouTube)
21. Read the Bible cover to cover in chronological order.
22. Bake homemade gingerbread men.
23. Go camping with friends.
24. Compile a recipe book.
25. De-Clutter donating/throwing away at least 5 large bags of 'stuff'.