30 Before 30 Update

Shortly after creating my 30 Before 30 list, I made a list of 10 things I planned to do to get started. Here’s an update on how it’s going just over one month later.

1. Learn to sew and wear something I made in public 
   Dexter’s mom Linda showed him how to thread the bobbin on the sewing machine she gave us, so the “machine not working” can no longer be an excuse. We’re in the process of turning the basement into a multi-purpose room with an office/art area, so when that’s done, hopefully I’ll be inspired to create…or practice sewing straight lines.
2. Run a 10K 
   I don’t remember the last time I ran. Hopefully, I’ll be disciplined to restart my training on the treadmill this winter.
3. Do 200 consecutive crunches
   Remember the first day of the 200 sit-up challenge I said I did? I forgot about that every day until today. Oops.
4. Create the perfect veggie burger
   I modified a recipe from Vegan on the Cheap (by Robin Robertson who blogs here) to make a delicious “Very Veggie Burgers” with a butternut squash twist. (We’ll pretend I did this to be innovative. In reality, I just had stuff I needed to use up so it went in the burgers.) They were very sweet and much more interesting than your run-of-the-mill frozen veggie burgers. They contained onion, carrot, mushrooms (that weren’t too prominent), ground oats, and ground cashews. They were very moist, but imperfect because they weren’t very sturdy–probably because I used butternut squash instead of potato like the author suggested. However, I think they were a good first try! I’ll have to try them again being faithful to the original recipe.
5. Read the Bible in 90 days
   Instead of starting this at the first of the year, I’m considering starting the first day of winter break. That way, I’ll have no excuse not to finish those first fourteen days. I plan on using this schedule (pdf).

   

6. Watch Dexter’s top 7 favorite movies without multitasking
   On November 5 (Remember, remember the fifth of November…) we threw a Guy Fawkes Day party. Actually, our friend Luke wanted to throw a last minute Guy Fawkes Day party where we’d watch V for Vendetta–one of Dexter’s top seven. So, I made Nigella Lawson’s Easy Sticky Toffee Dessert for a British themed dessert, and Luke came over and watched the movie with us. (That’s what comes of not planning ahead, I guess. I didnt’ mind, though, because there was more sticky toffee dessert with vanilla ice cream for me.) I did multi-task a little bit by moving sugar cookies in and out of the oven, but overall, I paid attention to the movie. I’d actually “seen” it twice before but didn’t actually watch it. I liked it a lot, which was an unexpected perk.
7. Do a blog giveaway
   You’ll find out about this on Tuesday!
8. Memorize 120 verses (2 verses a month for 5 years)
   Let’s just say, I’ve got some catching up to do.
9. Take a cake decorating class
   I haven’t done this yet, but I can say that my taste for canned frosting may have been ruined forever because of delicious, easy recipes like this and this. Thanks a lot, Ina.
10. Take good pictures with a nice camera
    You can expect to see a significant improvement in picture quality around here thanks to Dexter’s and my early Christmas present to each other. I think we’re in love.