Favorite time of year!

Today marks one month until Christmas!

I love Christmas! I love the lights, the music, the cheesy movies, Santa, the increased focus on giving and loving, the time with family and friends. I love the focus on Christ.

I am pretty sure I have more to say about this favorite time of year, but it can wait. For now I'm just feeling happy that it's nearly December.

Amazing smoothie

So, I've been craving smoothies lately. Lots and lots. Even though it's cold.

So for lunch today I decided to make a smoothie. And it is so good! I didn't measure things, so I don't have the precise recipe, but I wanted to write out what I did so that I remember. Also, I never understand why people must put sugar in their smoothies. Fruit is sweet and wonderful and sugary on its own. Who needs additional sugar!? Ok, I'll be honest, I love sugary things. But I just feel like it's very possible to make amazing smoothies without sugar.

So, here's the recipe:

Simple and Amazing Smoothie

Ingredients:
Plain greek yogurt- A few big spoonfuls (I would imagine it was about half a cup)
Frozen strawberries- Probably about a cup or a little less?
Frozen mangoes- Probably about 3/4 cup
Frozen banana- half
Water- maybe a cup? I just added it in gradually to give the smoothie enough liquid to blend (Maybe that's weird to add water, but I didn't have juice, and I kind of didn't want to add any other flavors)

Blend!


If I had any spinach in the fridge, I probably would have tossed a small handful in too. But that would have maybe changed the taste, and it's kind of amazing as it is. I'm sipping it and feeling really happy!

On Grace and Setting Goals

So, sometimes I get these ideas of things I want to do in my life, and I get really excited about them. I think, I should write this down and make it a goal! And I fully intend to make this cool thing a goal. (As a side note, I often get this goal-setting motivation on Sundays. Church does that for me--motivates me to become a better person.)

So anyway, I start trying it, and then it starts feeling hard, or I feel like I can't do it perfectly, and I give up. Goals are intimidating to me; I feel like I have to do them perfectly. I have been thinking about goals because I set two this month that feel important to me. I haven't written them down yet because that makes them feel official, and then What if I FAIL!!!!!!???? Basically, I think I'm scared of failing.

But then this morning, I was thinking about how even if I set these goals and try to do them, aren't I accomplishing more than if I don't even attempt the goal? The answer is yes. With the goals that I have for this month, I hope to do them every single day, but if I mess up and miss some days, I'll still be doing things that will be beneficial on the days that I do complete the goal. I think it's probably ok to be imperfect in accomplishing my goals. I still will progress at least some. 

Interestingly, I decided today on my lunch break that it had been a while since I'd listened to a past BYU devotional and I randomly decided to read this talk: His Grace Is Sufficient. In this devotional, Brad Wilcox talks about how in life a lot of us feel like we have to live life perfectly or else we have completely failed. But then he talks about how that's not how it actually goes. Because of grace, we can keep going and keep trying. It's like learning to play the piano. We have to practice to become good at playing. We're not just going to magically be able to play the piano perfectly. I want to go over the talk a couple more times because I feel like this concept is something I really could better comprehend.

It was pretty lovely that this morning I was thinking about how I need to not worry about failing at goals and how working on goals will still help me progress and then I came across this talk. I like it. 

So, with one of my goals, I don't want to share it quite yet, but the other goal I will now share. So, I read about this great thing where you collect all your spare change in the month of November up through Thanksgiving and then donate that money or the equivalent of what was collected, and I'm going to do it! I think I'll do half through Pioneers of Peace and half through Community Action Services in Provo. Over the past few months, I have learned a lot about poverty and hunger, and I feel so blessed in my life. There are so many people, so many children, even here in Utah, who go hungry on a regular basis, and I just feel so sad about this. I want to help, but it's hard to know how. And I am a huge fan of donating food to the food bank, but they also have the resources to make donations go so much farther than I could. So, this is one of my goals for this month. I know I can't statistically change the world, but I want to do this out of love, not statistics (see Elder Holland's wonderful conference talk).