Good Food – Good Times – Great Company….Ooops What Happened To My Last Year’s Resolutions?
What did you set down in stone last year as your New Year’s Resolutions? I don’t know about you, so far my stones have had a tendency to turn to mud and wash away. I have tried to make colorful notations of my resolutions in my daily journal. However, I have found myself not wanting to open my daily journal! Somehow I need a way to keep and be mindful of my resolutions. They say simple daily readings will help. I found some great books for short readings!
As I looked at the first book, Making Every Day Count by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick, the first entry mentions to forget about any idea of setting resolutions. (That sounded great!) Painting your hopes, dreams and goals on a “canvas” or actually making lists of your goals you would like to accomplish this year is much easier to actually accomplish than a New Year’s resolution according to the authors.
Wanda Brunstetter writes many fiction books describing the life of an Amish community. She has also written a book called The Simple Life: Devotional Thoughts from Amish Country which has short daily readings of ways to make your life focused around your goals and dreams. It also has simple recipes for simple food.
The Way of the Wizard: Twenty Spiritual Lessons for Creating the Life You Want, by Deepak Chopra, first describes that a wizard is “someone who can cause transformation.” As we find the wizard within us through these twenty lessons, you will be working to attain that inner joy and fulfillment. Chopra describes each lesson and how to live with or within that lesson. This is a more spiritual awakening and goal setting book.
In setting some of my goals for the year, I would also like to de-clutter my life of paper and things. I found a few books that looked interesting as I pursue a de-cluttered life and home. Give It Up! My Year of Learning to Live Better with Less by Mary Carlomagno. In giving up one desirous thing each month that she thought was important to her, the author , Mary Carlomagno, was able to recognize what really was important and to find an appreciation in activities and other people.
From de-cluttering comes organizing oneself! The Art of Organizing Anything by Rosalie Maggio and Knack Organizing Your Home by Emily Wilska are two great books for finding out what you need and where you can put your valuable items. Sometimes this task of organizing will need initiating with a change of thought processes and breaking the total project into smaller projects. Emily Wilska has some great ideas on how to go through the process of getting rid of items no longer needed and then how to store your items that are left that you do use.
After all that thinking and working to organize your life, one should reward themselves with a great dessert! Right? Well maybe. Actually, now would be a great time to get back to some basic cooking and enjoying the taste of your food. Yes, there are some great recipes in a multitude of cookbooks from each branches’ shelves. The Good Housekeeping Cookbook (2010) has pictured great ideas; some a little more healthful besides the classics.
The Williams-Sonoma Cooking at Home only has 1000 recipes that one should be able to jump start any fabulous tasting. Ina Garten also has a wonderful cookbook, Barefoot Contessa at Home, that has great down home recipes with luscious looking pictures.
What will you read to fulfill your New Year’s resolutions? Or What ‘cha Reading?
