Do I Smell Fresh-Baked Bread?

Submitted by Dianne McD.

Call me a rebel without a cause, but I don’t do new year resolutions.  I do, however, like setting goals for myself.  Potato – Potata?  Maybe.

About three years ago, I started keeping a Bullet Journal.  (You can Google “bullet journal” and find a myriad of sites to learn about them.)  As I was setting up my journal for 2019, I had an extra page towards the front.  So I wrote, “this year, I will…” as a heading.  I’d never included a page like that in previous journals; and it was dangerously close to becoming a page for new year resolutions.  But it still seemed appropriate at the time.

Here’s what I wrote:

• learn to bake bread
• finally spend my days pain-free

Random, right?  They were the first things that popped into my head!  Because I wasn’t in very good shape at this time last year, the pain-free bullet was a no-brainer.  But bread?  All I can say is, I come from a long line of good bread makers and all I’ve ever been able to produce are yeasty bricks.  (In fact, my husband once offered to keep a loaf under the bed instead of a baseball bat.  He figured it would be just as effective.)  Last year seemed as good as any to finally get the bread-making thing figured out.  Can’t disappoint the ancestors, after all.

I dedicated a whole page to this goal setting.  If one bullet got accomplished, I could add another one if I wanted. Throughout the year, I’d occasionally come across the page and think, “Oh yeah….I wanted to do that in 2019”.   The reminders didn’t give me any angst; but they did keep the goals from disappearing into the wasteland of busy schedules and unplanned events.

What about you?  Do you have something niggling at you from the back of your mind?  Is there something you haven’t been able to get quite right and it’s been bugging you for a while?

Tear a page from your notebook, grab a scrap of paper from the recycle bin, or find an old napkin and jot it down.  Then stick it to the fridge, tape it to your window, or tack it to your bulletin board.  Just put it in a place where you’ll see it once in a while so it can serve as a reminder of the thing you’d like to accomplish.  Here are a couple of guidelines:

1. Keep it real.  Don’t try to climb Mt. Everest if stairs are a problem for you.
2. No stress allowed!  Life is full of things you must do, whether planned or unplanned.  If you don’t get it done this time, add it to your list for next time.

I think I’ll add a similar page to my 2020 Journal.  At this point, I don’t know what I’ll write down; but it will probably be just as random as last year.  I might include something more quilty this time.  And I might let you know what I decide in the comments below.  You could, too.  A little mutual encouragement never hurt anyone.

So how did I do last year?  With some physical therapy and regular trips to the gym in 2019, the pain is well managed.  Things are getting back to normal.  And after some intense consultation with Betty Crocker, I’m happy to report that on December 18th, I pulled some pretty decent loaves of bread from the oven.  They aren’t blue-ribbon quality.  But they aren’t being stored under the bed either….