30 Before 30 Journey in a Year

The Bible....how can I write a succinct blog post about The Bible? A book that's both deeply dividing and immensely unifying. A book that has more books written about it than probably any other book. A book that anchors the Christian and my personal faith. Well, I'm not sure I'll even know by the end of this post, but I'll try. The impetus for this list item was simple. I couldn't without a doubt say that I had read every word. And as I viewed what were major milestones before my 30th, making sure I could definitively say this was both important and discouraging. Why have I waited so long? Setting out in a hunt for a reading plan, I knew there were a variety of options . You mostly come across The Bible in a Year versions. And while I support any plan that you can commit to when it comes to scripture, I knew that was too long for me. I went with a 13 week/3 month reading plan that of course I cannot find the link to anymore to share with you :/ I printed it ...

"Find something you're passionate about and keep tremendously interested in it." What better words could come from a zany, enthusiastic foodie like Julia Child, right? While I wasn't around for the heyday of Julia's The French Chef , my first trip to Paris in 2008 confirmed how easy it was to fall in love with this city and its superb culinary pursuits like Julia did. And while I sampled some incredible food (and not so incredible) both in the original trip and a follow up in 2009, replicating French cooking is intimidating. Overall, standard meals aren't necessarily complicated as they are involved. Many steps, components from scratch and an emphasis on sauces and garnishes are French recipe staples. Kudos to Julia Child for her work making this intimidating French cooking process feel more approachable and doable for American cooks.  While baking and cooking are areas I already feel pretty skilled in, I wanted to try one of Julia's standar...

When I started making my 30 Before 30 list, a random act of kindness was one of the first things I wrote down. Having experienced many times in the past that giving is truly more satisfying than receiving, I wanted to do something on a large scale for someone else. I like to think that I am kind in my day to day interactions and routinely try to do for others. But for the list, I was hoping and praying for an opportunity that was a little more meaningful that paying for everyone's coffee in line at Starbucks- so in came The MOMentum Network . The MOMentum Network is a newer, faith-based Chattanooga nonprofit that offers practical help to single mom families interested in building a better future through higher education. Being that I am a huge advocate for education, a former university adjunct instructor and firm believer that an education is the best form of self improvement from both a personal and economic standpoint, this was were I felt my act of kindness would be best spe...

Holidays are the time for family, friends, Jesus and lots of sugar. But, it's taken me almost thirty years to have enough culinary courage to attempt peanut butter roll by myself. The backstory on this one comes from many Christmases growing up, and the multiple unsuccessful attempts to make peanut butter roll with my mom and sister. Every December, we would gather in the kitchen to make a multitude of holiday fare, but we could never get peanut butter roll to come out successfully. Either it was too sticky or came out as hard as a rock. My sister and I would always eat whatever concoction came forth because it was basically straight sugar and what kid passes on that? Until finally, my mother, who is a wonderful cook and baker, gave up. Since then, the delectable candy has been intimidating, and I've never attempted to make it until this year. So interesting story that I've ran into when this initially was published as a list item and more recently when I've been ta...

Push ups.....does anyone else feel like a deformed, broken worm doing these? Push ups bring back old elementary school PE class trauma because I've never been able to do an actual, on my toes push up until this past year. So why this year? The hubs and I decided to be more active. Go to the Y, take hikes, bike around town and try to do these things together. And a big part of this for me was to work in strength training in addition to cardio and running. I just don't see any positive changes in my body (i.e. increased endurance, clothes in the closet fitting) unless I'm lifting weights which is the reason I can now do these stupid, wonderful, frustrating things called push ups. Back to PE class, I remember being about seven or eight and performing group exercises with my class. Our PE teacher would call out different exercises, and I loathed when he said push ups. This is where the deformed, broken worm analogy came to me. After that, I've always just completed...

Every time I think about changing a tire, I think about this classic movie moment.... A Christmas Story treat!  A pretty basic skill to know, changing a tire has never been something I've completed until now. While I've gathered the basic process from watching my husband do this countless times, the old "what if's" always came popping into my head. What if you're alone on a dark, scary road and you get a flat tire? Would you be able to change it? What if you came across a van full of children, puppies and the elderly with a flat? Could you help them? Yes - I know some of my "what if" scenarios are a little more plausible than others, but this is something I need to have confidence in doing so I don't send that car full of puppies, kiddos and old people down the road with a loose lug nut. So with the assistance of a few Youtube videos and some oversight but not direction from the hubs just to make sure I was doing things correctly, I star...

Solheimajokull....that's the name of the glacier that provided more clarity for me than I expected. Seeing this glacier was on the itinerary for Day 3 of our week long trip in Iceland. And before arriving at the glacier, we had just checked out the incredible Skogafoss waterfall. Chance and I stood at the base of this aqua monster and all it's glory. Skogafoss...we were drenched at this point. Well, that probably wasn't the best idea with my DSLR camera huh? To my credit, I babied this camera throughout our trip and had a great plastic cover that kept my Canon nice and dry for the majority of the trip. The problem I didn't think about - residual condensation. So as we were heading to the glacier after the waterfall, I was so worried that I just wrecked a $500 camera because the lens and inside the camera were super foggy. In addition, I'm a little bit of an anti iPhone picture taker. While it's incredibly useful and I do take iPhone pictures like anyon...