New insight- cooking calms my nerves

I just realized today that cooking helps me relieve stress, although the previous post should have given me a clue. I know this is true for lots of people (Tiff loves to cook and makes brownies when she's stressed), but I never thought I was one of those people. I like to cook, and I have found the process of chopping vegetables to be therapeutic, something about taking a bunch of ingredients and making something wonderful. I also like being able to make a meal for my family that is really delicious.

A while ago Mandi led me to Our Best Bites,(see button to the left) they have such good recipes. They are all tried, and perfected, easy and so yummy. I have made lots of their recipes, but this week I have been obsessed. It started with making the Asian BBQ chicken, and then taking the leftovers to make pizza on the grill (which btw was easy and so fun). Friday morning Darren worked from home and I got up to look for a yummy breakfast, and made breakfast taquitos -so good! Plus, this summer I have become obsessed with wanting to own a small, counter top ice cream maker. Especially when OBB had a snickerdoodle ice cream recipe (I LOVE cinnamon, and really LOVE snickerdoodles). After searching my local Target, and Walmart for ice cream makers I turned to the internet and good old Amazon came through. My ice cream maker was set to be delivered on Thursday. I planned my whole day around it! I even made sugar cookies (our best bites, of course) to put in the ice cream. When I saw the UPS man leave without delivering my ice cream maker I wanted to eat a bag of M&Ms I was so upset. Lucky for my waist he came back, and ice cream making was back on. I made the custard, which had to cool overnight, put the ice cream freezer in the freezer, and I was set to make snickerdoodle ice cream Friday night. It did not disappoint- so good that when I woke up this morning I grabbed a spoon and headed for the freezer.

What does this have to do with stress relief? I'm getting to that. Since yesterday's ice cream was so good I decided I needed to try another flavor. I was torn between blueberry cheesecake and caramelized banana. I chose the banana because I have some bananas that need to be used.

Today we went shopping to get Shelby (and me) ready for girls camp. We only needed to buy a few things, but it was stressing me out. We still need to get her secret sister stuff. Plus, since I'm going too, and being the planner that I am, I've been trying to figure out: 1)what snacks I need to bring, so that I can eat healthy,2)what is the best way to get my trailer to girls camp, 3)Darren is coming for the first night as priesthood, so what does he need to bring, and 4)what do we do with Sarah while we're all gone. I finally have that all figured out, but when we got home from shopping I was feeling a little fried, so I decided to caramelize the bananas and get my custard for the ice cream chilling so I can make it tomorrow. That did the trick, totally helped me unwind. Who knew? I didn't have to eat a thing, just cook. That is a revelation.

Finding Joy in January

I've mentioned this before, January is my least favorite month. The main reason is that January is so gray, the sky is cloudy and days of blue sky seem rare. So this year I have had this idea of finding joy in January bouncing around in my head, and as I've thought about this past week I've realized that so far so good. Let me share why.

First, in our Relief Society our ward is focusing on making "Home a Heaven" each month has a room for you to work on in spiritual, physical, financial, and emotional ways. There is a scripture that goes a long with each month and a FHE to have to work on that room. This month the room is the bedroom. This week Target had a 3-shelf bookcase on sale for $16 dollars I went a picked one up; and now it serves as my night stand, but clears all the books that I'm working on reading right now, that I have stacked throughout my room, into one place. I love it! I have also decided that I am going to finally get Shelby's room done. Do you remember that quilt I started a year and a half ago? Well, I'm going to finish it, get her room painted, paint the picture frames and shelf in her room, and get new ribbon for her mirrors, and get it done. I am working on binding her quilt and I have two sides completed, so I'm almost done. Sarah's room has also gotten some attention this week. I rearranged; hoping to make it easier for her to make her bed; I also realized her room could use a new coat of paint, that will have to wait-one project at a time.

The next thing bringing me joy is reading. I have always loved reading. I haven't set some great New Year's resolution, I just want to be healthy -physically, spiritually, and mentally. I have found some books that I am really enjoying that are helping me on that journey. I have been kind of a snob about what I will read; trying to stick with classics (not just old books, but books that have something I can learn) I'm starting to see how broad the definition of a classic can be. I was inspired by Hayley and her list of books she read last year, and I have decided to copy her and make my own list, so that I can look back at the end of the year at what I've read and hopefully what I've learned. I signed up on Goodreads this week, and like having a list like that of books I want to read, and I also like being able to get recommendations from people I know and trust, because there is a lot of garbage out there. Be prepared to hear more about the books I'm reading.

Blogging is giving me joy. I have found some blogs that I really enjoy. I have added the links or buttons on the left. I have made so many yummy things from Our Best Bites, and I love the Fashion Blog (sometimes she talks a little strange, but I found some great tutorials and tying a scarf), reading Nie Nie keeps me humble, and I love Pioneer Woman, and I love reading updates from my friends and family too. I check the blogs in the morning; its my little minute (that can turn into 30 if I'm not careful) that starts my day happy before we jump into school. I know that facebook and twitter are more popular, but I love the blog.

Finally(I know this has been long, thanks for sticking with me), last night we took Shelby to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. What an experience. The spirit I felt last night as I was there with her was such a boost, such a confirmation of the truthfulness of temple work. The temple workers were so sweet to her, knowing that it was her first time; taking every opportunity to explain to her what was going on, why they did things a certain way, and where she should go next. Darren got to baptize and confirm her, I was so happy to be there. We learned that only the youth can do temple file names, we adults need to bring family names, just a little info for those of you that haven't done this before. I didn't know that, so I didn't do baptisms, I just watched. But, it did not diminish my experience at all; plus it was great to be able to just be there for Shelby and help her through her first time. It was a great night. I left feeling a desire to be more diligent in my temple attendance. Thank you Shelby, for getting us to the temple last night.

There it is, my Joy in January. There are also some great things to come this month that I am looking forward to. Tomorrow is Ward family FHE, and I'm really looking forward to seeing my family; we really do have a great time together (I'm using the word 'really' a lot). Sarah gets to go to 8 is great next Sunday-I can't believe she is getting baptized this year! We have Christmas Jammie pictures on the 18th, that is always chaos, but the pictures are sooooooooooooooooooooo stinkin' cute! We also get to go to New Beginnings with Shelby, having a Young Woman is a new experience; we are having a lot of firsts right now, maybe I should write about that someday.