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MYOF Goals #41-50

#41- Go Camping.

I love to smell a campfire and eat s'mores.  I love the smell of the 

outdoors and the sounds of the birds as you wake up in the morning.

And what about bacon cooking on the Coleman stove?  I mean, what

is it about being outdoors that makes bacon smell so heavenly?

These are all the things that make me want to go camping.  I tend to forget 

however how hard it is to crawl out of that tent after sleeping (and I use that

term loosely) on the ground all night.  Camping gets harder as you get older.

But in my year of fifty, I went camping twice.  Once when I went backpacking

with Jantzen and then again when we had the Sturdivant family reunion.  I'm

glad I went and I'm glad I have time to forget how hard it is before I go again.

Because when summer rolls around, I just can't help myself.  I want to go camping.

# 42-Memorize 50 scriptures.

I've used the scripture memorization method that I described here to help
me achieve this goal.  This little black box sits in my bathroom and each
morning while I get ready for my day, I work on my current scripture
while reviewing a few I've already learned.

Some of my favorite scriptures that I now have committed to memory are:

Psalm 62:1-2

Ephesians 4:29

Mosiah 3:19

1 Timothy 4:12

Psalm 84:1-2

Psalm 139:23-24

1 John 1:9

Revelation 3:20

2 Nephi 4:15

2 Nephi 32:3

Helaman 5:12

Psalm 19:14

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Proverbs 31:10-15

Luke 2: 1-20

Articles of Faith 1 - 13

Five to ten minutes in the morning is all it takes.  I love this method. It works!

#43- Expand my vegetable garden.

I planted asparagus,

cauliflower

acorn squash

potatoes,

and a lot of tomatoes.  I tripled the amount of garden space I had the

year before.  Lots more work...but lots more good food!

#44- Give 50 hours of service.

I didn't actually count the hours of service I rendered this past year.  The

purpose of this goal was to keep me focused on reaching out and serving

others.  I serve many hours in my church calling with these fine ladies.

This year I'd like to get more involved in my community.  There are so many

worthy causes, I just have to decide which one.

#45- Take a weekend trip with Kenzie.

Kenzie and I had a great "mother daughter" getaway.   We decided to spend

our money close to home, so we didn't go very far, but boy did we have fun.

We ate lots of wonderful food.  We started out with sushi.

We had french cuisine for dinner. Yummmm!

We indulged ourselves in a day at the spa. Massages, mineral pools and 

saunas.  My new favorite thing- iced peppermint scented wash cloths.  I

could make these at home, right?

I really didn't want to leave this beautiful place.

But we had other things to do... like more eating.

This time we had Mediterranean food at Jerusalem Garden.

I love that my daughter is so adventurous when it comes to food.  You

think she got that from me?

We had a lovely hotel room.  This was the view from our window.

We shopped.  Oh, yes. I've found a local store to buy Ahava products.  I

discovered these in Israel and love them!

And I finally found a new jean jacket to replace the one I left in Egypt.

I liked my other one better, but this will have to do.

Kenzie treated herself to a mockingjay pin.  If you've seen Hunger

Games, you'll know all about this popular item. 

Shopping makes you hungry, so we had ice cream and chocolates.

No picture of the chocolate, but you can use your imagination.  I took

Kenzie to the Chocolate Lounge, her first visit, but surely not her last.

The ice cream was banana pudding and Kenzie had avocado and mixed 

berry. Like I said, that girl has an adventurous palate.  

Two days of all this good food and hedonistic activity was all we could

handle...but we're already thinking about next year!  It's sad when you're

little girl is no longer a little girl, but it's also fun to enjoy her as an adult.

I hope this "mother- daughter getaway" can become a new tradition.

#46- Read National Geographic 

         magazine each month.

I love National Geographic magazine and each year I take part of my 

Christmas money from my Dad and resubscribe.  I think that would make

him happy, because he loves to travel as much as I do.  I set this goal to 

actually read the magazines, rather than just flipping through looking at

the pictures.  The articles are usually long and that can take some time.

I wish I could say I had accomplished this goal, but unfortunately I still

mostly looked at pictures.  I did read some of the articles, but darn there's

just not enough hours in the day to do all the things I want to do!  I'm

still going to subscribe though, because just "looking" at the world around

you can be enlightening.

# 47-Play tennis.

I didn't play tennis once all year.  Bummer.

I'll try again this year.  If you're very patient ('cause I'm not very good) 

and would like to hit some balls around on the court, give me a call.

#48- Learn to sing alto.

This didn't happen either.  Like I said, not enough hours in the day.

#49- Have 50 romantic interludes with

                 my husband.

 After thirty years of marriage and twenty five years of raising a family,

we find ourselves rediscovering our love for one another.  It takes consistent

effort to make your marriage a priority and to work through all the ups

and downs that are a part of life.  I set this goal to help me remember that

after my relationship with God, this man is more important to me than 

anyone else.  I want him to know that, by my actions day in and day out.

So did we have 50 romantic interludes?  At least that many!!!

#50- Ride my bike.

Riding a bike isn't the easiest thing to do when you live on top of a

mountain, especially if your a bit of a wimp like I am when it comes

to riding up hills.  I love to ride my bike...on flat land.  This year I

enjoyed a nice ride with my dear friend Shannon in one of the most

beautiful places I've ever been - Mackinac Island.  You can read about

that day here.

Ok, so that's it.  My Year of Fifty project has come to an end, as has my

year of fifty.  What a great adventure it's been.  I've learned new things,

met new people, nurtured relationships with family and friends, pushed

myself to do hard things and have constantly been trying to prioritize and 

find balance in my life.  Having these goals before me have kept me focused 

on doing those things which are most important to me. It's also helped me 

realize what I want to spend more time on in the future.  My husband says,

"you need to pick your passions".  I have so many things I want to do, that

I don't always stick with one thing long enough to become accomplished 

at it.  I'm going to work on that in my year of fifty one.  One thing I've 

learned for sure is that growing older isn't something to dread.  Each 

season in life brings new opportunities and I'm loving this one.

This will be my last post on this blog.  I've enjoyed blogging and have loved

the comments from my readers.  I feel like we've gotten to know each other

better as we've shared this year together.  I have a new blog under

construction and hope to have it up and running in the next week.  I'd love 

to see you there.   Stay tuned.

*MYOF Goals #41-50