Enrichment Night / Goals for 2015

Sometime in my life they changed the weekday Relief Society gathering from being called "Homemaking Night" into "Enrichment Night."

Probably because "homemaking" implies that all members of the relief society are homemakers, or are striving to be homemakers. I can see that. I agree that not all women are homemakers or that they even want to be.



Anyway, I went to "Enrichment" night for the first time (in my current ward).


I strongly dislike social situations when have no idea who will be there, who I will sit by, who I will talk to, or what we are doing. But, one of my goals for this year is to attend Enrichment night every month.

I had a good time. I talked to a few ladies. I said some stupid stuff that I'm playing over and over in my head. I had some awkward conversations.  And I snuck away before anyone else left.  In my defense I had to work. I had asked for permission to be late, but I didn't want to be later than an hour and half.


First off we played Two Truths and a Lie, to get to know each other a little better.


Of COURSE I thought about not participating. But I participated anyway.  My statements were:

I have had my hair every color of the rainbow.

I had braces for 6 months.

I've known my husband for 14 years.



If you're reading my blog, I assume you know me, and the lie is probably obvious. But, no one there really knows me, so I think it was a pretty good introduction of myself.


By the way the lie is the braces. I've never had braces.



Our activity was making simple calendars using things we found around the house.  My friend Jill is in the Relief Society presidency, and she was in charge of the activity.  She brought a lot of cute stuff.

I got teary eyed though, when she showed us a strand of crystals and talked about how she remembered buying it for her wedding.  They had vases filled with water, and floating candles in them, and the crystals were wrapped around the vases.  Jill got choked up, and I did too.


Jill's husband suddenly passed away almost 5 months ago.



Anyway, I think if I go more often I'll be able to open up and be myself.  I'm not an awkward babbling idiot when I'm comfortable around people.


I think next month I will take advice from Kid President.  I'm going to walk in, find someone I've never seen before, and say, "Hello person I have never met before. Here is a high five!" *slap*


Now that's bad A.


But what if they're in shock and don't lift their hand to reciprocate my high five?  That could be awkward.  I'll have to think of a way to get out of the awkwardness.  Maybe have glitter in my pocket and throw it in the air and walk away.  Something epic like that.


You know, so I can make a really lasting and awesome first impression.


I'm totally off track.


Here is a picture from my first Enrichment night!

From left to right: Becky, Gisela, Jill, and me!

I really like Becky.  She's a little outspoken. She says what comes to her mind, and I really love that in a person.  At one point in the eveing she was talking about a movie, I think it was My Fair Lady, and I said something about Bette Middler.


I know, I'm so embarrassed.


I was thinking about Hello Dolly (And Barbara Steisand, don't even worry).


Anyway, Becky was like, "WHAT?!  Bette Middler, NO WAY!"


I just laughed and I was like, OMG I'm so embarrassed.  And we all kind of laughed.  It was fine. This didn't bother me at all.


Then I went to go get some cake and Becky came up to me and said, "Hey, I'm sorry."  I was like, "For what?! I'm not offended!"

I know Becky from primary. Her youngest son is in the CTR 4 class.



I also really like Gisela.  She is the bishop's wife.  She is pregnant with her fourth child.  I think Gisela is the same age as I am.  Four babies at 26!  What a lucky girl!  She has her hands full, but her kids are adorable.  I also know her from Primary.  She was also the Nursery leader for a while, and Lily really loved her.  Gisela's family watched our dogs when we went to North Carolina for Christmas.  She said her kids had a lot of fun with our doggies.  Gisela is really upbeat, and she makes you feel special and important. And she's hilarious.



Then there's Jill.  Jill was the first woman I met in the ward. She immediately invited me to her Christmas party at her house.  She made me feel so welcome and special!  She truly has an amazing spirit about her.  I'm probably a totally creepy stalker, because I'm just drawn to her, but I never know what to say around her.  I want to blurt out, "By the way Jill, you're probably the hottest woman I've ever seen in my life."

After Jill's husband, Jim, passed away, I took Jill a couple of meals. That's really the only one-on-one time I've had with her.  But for some reason, I still consider her a friend. We barely know each other.  I just like her.


I didn't fully participate in the craft.  It was mostly because I'm really... how do you say... stubborn about crafts, and I really like to spend a lot of time and effort on them. I knew if I fully dedicated myself to doing the craft, I would not be making it home in time to work at all.  So, I just cut down a 12X12 page of pretty paper, and put it in a picture frame.  I'm using that picture frame in Lily's room to write notes on.  I might add stuff to it later, but, that's a project for another day.


So there you have it.  There's me, putting myself out there.



I'm contemplating sharing my blog with more people.  It's not that I necessarily want more readers, but I want more people to be able to get to know the real me.  And I think I share the real me on this blog more than anywhere else in my life.

I feel like if you read my blog, you know me better than most people in my life.  There's something therapeutic about typing out my feelings and impressions.


Not to mention I'm much less awkward behind a computer.

Because backspace.

And I can put time and effort into what I want to say.


And I can delete things that come out wrong, or sound weird.


But sometimes I WANT to sound weird.


So, I dunno.


Here are some of my other goals for the year:

• Cook dinner 3 times a week.
• I used to cook 5 nights a week, but I got out of that, and I've developed some terrible habits. So I'm going to slowly ease back into cooking. 3 times a week seems decent enough to start.  We'll go with Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday.

• 52 Week Money Saving Challenge
• This is more of Lance's idea than my own. But we are BOTH doing it.  What you do is you put $1 in savings the first week of the year, the $2 the second week of the year, until on the 52nd week you put in $52.  So since Lance and I are both doing this. We put in $2 the first week, $4 the second week, and we'll put on $104 on the 52nd week.  Should be interesting.

• Monthly date night
• This includes finding a babysitter.  Yes, I've lived here for over a year and I've never found a babysitter.  If I go to Enrichment, I can get to know the moms, and I can find a mom who has a daughter who can be my babysitter. Right? ...Right?

• Weekly crafts with Lily
• Nothing fancy, just simple things like... out of paper plates, or whatever.  I think Lily would really enjoy that.

• Clean something (in my house) every day
• Seriously, I am the worst homemaker.  The worst. I don't cook, don't clean, don't do laundry.  Do I feel guilty? Yes. I want to change.  This week I've deep cleaned the kitchen and Lily's bathroom. Lily's bedroom is next.  Her bedroom isn't really messy. In fact, it's the cleanest room of the house, because Lily insists on cleaning before bed. It's an awesome thing she was just born with, and it's something I need to learn.  I've started doing it with dishes. I have to have no dirty dishes in the sink before I go to bed. That's my new rule.  Anyway, Lily's room just needs her clothes gone through, and the ones that are too small to be donated.  I need to get rid of toys she no longer plays with. I need to organize the toys she does play with. And I need to sanitize some things.

• Remember friends' and family members' birthdays
• This means without Facebook. I want to remember their birthdays in advance. I want to send people cards and maybe a little something. Nothing fancy, nothing expensive. Just something to show them I'm thinking about them and I care about them.

Ok, this post has been long.  So.... bye.