The Me Monthly - Volume 11

ME THIS MONTH
Oh look, I'm a week late! First time in almost a year of doing this, so I'll let it pass. If you read the last sentence of my last monthly update....yes. I did jinx myself. May was SO BUSY. It was mostly a good busy - we spent a LOT of time with friends and family, as the wonderful Sara and Garrett moved and we needed to stock up on good times!! Also my in-laws are moving (next week!) and we've been trying to be with them as much as possible too. The bad busy: I also procrastinated work (and just worked slowly/got too distracted) so I always had stuff to do.

The other big thing - I started an elimination diet on the 1st called the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) to see if it will help me heal my gut and manage my UC symptoms! I'll be doing it strictly for 30, 45, or 60 days and then start adding things back in to see how they affect me and what I should keep out. Currently I can't have: dairy, nuts, seeds, eggs, grains, nightshades, refined sugars, and some other stuff. Basically anything that can cause inflammation. I can have: most vegetables, fruit, meat, coconut products, maple syrup/honey, and some random health stuff I never knew existed. I have had to do a lot of prep and pantry-stocking, so it took up most of my spare time (and money) these past few weeks. It's been an interesting experience. I think my body is still kind of adjusting, but I've been really surprised and impressed with my self-control. I was so attached to milk, bread, cheese, and sugar and I thought that I would just be DYING or unable to hold back. My mind and body have proved me wrong! If I've been making something for Daisy and something gets on my fingers I don't even lick it off! Doing lots of prep - looking for recipes, having stuff on hand, knowing basic nutrition info - has really helped too. AND Jonathan is the sweetest and has been helping and supporting me through all of it, even eating some of the stuff I'm eating! AIP also includes things like good sleep, exercise, meditation/spiritual time, spending time with friends/family, being outside, etc. and with a week of managing diet under my belt I feel a lot more able to focus on those now. We'll see how I feel at the end of this month. Eventually I get to start adding things back in, but until then lots of the food I've made and eaten is really good. And I've liked way more fruits and veggies than I ever thought I would have. A whole new world of food has opened up to me! (notice the pun? whole? whole foods? is that a pun? whatever just think it's funny or clever or something.)

One other big thing!!! In May I got to pass off an item that was on my LAST list: I FED A GIRAFFE. We went to the zoo and it was only $5 to hand lettuce to a big giraffe's hecka long tongue. So obviously I did it and it was great and its head was the size of me and its tongue was longer than my arm and I wanted to pet it but they said no. So yeah. Quite an eventful month! We'll see what June has in store!

Drinking: Water. And that's it right now. I need to start drinking bone broth though...it's just expensive :/
Loving: AVOCADOS. They are my new favorite food. Also sweet potato hashbrowns. Combine the two? And add bacon?? Best breakfast ever.
Listening: to Emotionalism by the Avett Brothers. Such a good album! They announced it had been 10 years since it was released so I've been listening to it like 10 times a week since then.
Missing: Toast and eggs. They're probably the hardest things I had to give up.

Some list updates!
I have decided to make some changes to a few list items!
44. Go visiting teaching 6 months in a row - Visiting teaching doesn't really exist anymore...so I'm going to change this to "Contact, visit, or serve ministering sisters 6 months in a row". I might change it again if this doesn't have the right feel to it...we'll see!
34. Buy new white and black flats - I'm changing the black to [other color] because I don't have anything that matches black flats, but I could use some new cream flats or maybe I could get a funky color? I don't know. I just don't want to limit it to black if I don't have anything that will match!
85. Watch 51 new movies (at least 15 award-winning) - I'm going to change this one to 101 movies, with 20 award-winning. I'm just going so quickly and I know that I'll watch lots more movies before list is up. Might as well document them!

THE FOCUS GROUP
29. Learn some knife skills, especially for cutting onions
Because I'm cooking a lot more with this diet, I'm naturally using a knife more! I think I've almost got cutting an onion down! I watched a Gordan Ramsey Youtube video to help me too haha :) And I'm getting really good at cutting green onions, celery, and garlic really small. I'm sure by the time my diet is done I can pass this off.

53. Learn the health benefits of different fruits and vegetables
Been learning stuff, but kind of slowly. With this new diet I am eating LOTS more fruits and veggies. So I'm going to keep this one open for another month or so as I learn from experience!

77. Shoot an arrow
I miiiiiight be able to do this on Monday. I'm heading to Day Camp with the Webelos and Archery is one of the classes we're doing. I hope they let me have a turn! Otherwise I think we'll just have to take a trip to the archery range up the street!


LONG-TERM BEGINNINGS
58. Learn what all the tools do in Illustrator and Photoshop

Been awhile since we saw this section! I've been working on a logo for someone and found 3 new tools that I never knew existed! I'm going to count that as a start to this one and make an effort to look at one thing I don't know about when I'm working, or watch tutorials while I'm doing laundry or something. 

75. Read all the General Conference talks that come out during the course of the list

So I started this one in May, and then realized I was reading talks that came out BEFORE my list. I've read 2 October talks since realizing my mistake (not that those other ones were not good...haha) and plan to keep reading at least one every Sunday from here on out! I plan to keep notes and highlight parts I like so I can compile a big list of good things at the end!

1 YEAR - 12 PROJECTS - 30 DAYS

57. 1 year of 30 day projects

New section! (May have a new title next month haha) With my diet having to last at least 30 days, I'm going to start this goal! I was a little apprehensive about it this one because it takes a lot of commitment, but with my new-found self control ability, I think I can do it! Gonna stretch myself a bit :) I plan to explain the new one here and report on my success of the previous one as well. If I miss a day, I will carry over into the days after the 30 days (might be doing two things at once). Because I wrote about my diet a lot in the "Me this Month" section, right now I'll just share my project brainstorming list! 

▪ Healthy eating (AIP diet for this one!)

▪ Positives about myself

▪ Haiku

▪ Cross-stitch

▪ Lettering

▪ Sketching/Doodling

▪ Yoga before bed

▪ Reading

▪ Outside for 15 minutes

▪ No phone before 10am or after 9pm, and no phone on Sundays

▪ Service

▪ Gratitude

▪ Sincere compliments

▪ Budget

▪ Put things away right away

▪ New skill

▪ Learning

▪ Work on list items

If you have any suggestions or think I should definitely do a certain one, please share! I'd love to hear from you :)

KEEPING YOU POSTED
15. For one year go to the temple once a month
I didn't make it to the temple this month!! :( :( I didn't remember until the last few days and it just didn't work to go. Because I'm so close to finishing, I'm just going to add another month onto the end. We're working on planning a day for this month already!


NUMBERED NEWS
67. Go to 3 plays
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Grassroots Shakespeare (5/19/18)
This play was SO FUN. This company tries to do Shakespeare the way it was done originally (no director, actors buy own costumes, outside, audience interaction, not much rehearsal, etc.) and they were amazing! I enjoyed every minute and am still thinking about it weeks later. I've also never read or seen this play before and it was a great first experience. Reading it will definitely be more fun now, but I don't know if I'll be able to watch it any other way!

85. Watch 51 new movies (at least 15 award-winning)
33. Napping Princess (5/20/18)

86. Go to 15 new eateries
4. Asa Ramen (5/19/18) I got Tonkotsu/Shoyu Ramen and tried the Chashu Bun - SO DELICIOUS.
5. Demae Sushi (5/29/18) I tried so many different kinds, but I bought the Philadelphia and Vegas rolls. Very good stuff! And you can't beat $3.50 for any roll on Tuesdays & Thursdays!!


DAISY'S BOOK OF THE MONTH
So I might be doing something a little different from here on out. Well, I just won't be actually purchasing books. We inherited a TON of books because my in-laws are moving. I put a bunch of them up, but I'm pretty sure I have enough for the rest of the list. I might still buy one here and there, but I think I'm just going to use our reserve of children's books from Nana. When we first got the stack of books, this one was definitely Daisy's favorite: Bark, George!

George doesn't bark - he meows, quacks, oinks, and moos. Turns out he has different animals in his stomach. How? I have no idea. It's honestly a little weird. But Daisy loves making the animals noises and being shocked when the vet pulls the other animals out. She even attempts to say the title! Her reactions make me not hate it haha :)

Well, this update was incredibly long and if you made it to the end - whew, good job. Because that's how I feel finally being done writing it.