Mochitsuki

Last week, the Japanese ward that we share our church building with, invited us to join them for mochitsuki!  Mochitsuki is the pounding of rice until it turns into mochi, and  it's done at the beginning of every year.  It was really fun to participate in such a classic Japanese tradition!  We had a chance to pound the rice into mochi--which was surprisingly tough!  And then Peter and Will helped to roll the mochi into individual sized balls.  

Once all of the mochi was pounded and formed into balls, we were able to eat it!  The cute kids from the other ward were there to serve us; they offered chocolate pieces, peanut butter powder, nori (seaweed), lima bean powder (I have to admit that I didn't try that one . . . ), and an (sweetened red bean paste).  It was all so delicious!

On Resolutions

With the New Year comes new goals, resolving to be better, and a new determination to become the person I want to be. I LOVE setting goals and making New Year's Resolutions. I think it started in my youth, growing up with a goal-setting dad. Every year, we would have a Family Home Evening around New Year's where we would set personal goals for the upcoming year. I don't really even remember any specific goals I set in my youth, or how I did at accomplishing them, but the habit of making resolutions for the new, upcoming year became ingrained in me and I think it helped me to become a more goal-oriented person in general. I work harder and better when I have a goal in mind. I know a lot of people don't like to make resolutions because they feel like they put too much pressure on a person, but I personally feel more motivated, and tend to not get too discouraged if I am not able to accomplish the goals I've set. Life happens to all of us, and it's hard to know what the future year will bring when we're setting our goals. So, with that in mind, I think it's a fun and positive tradition to keep and work towards!

One thing that my husband and I do each year, that I feel helps keep us focused on our resolutions throughout the year, is to keep a list of our goals in our Notes section on our iPhones. This way, periodically throughout the year, I can pull up my list of goals to check in, and mentally track my progress. Sometimes I'll have forgotten about one, and then am able to reset and get going on it, and sometimes it will just re-motivate me to keep working on what I've started.

We also like to keep our family's yearly resolutions as a keepsake to look back on throughout the years. My husband has drafted a cute format on Pages software with pictures of each family member, along with their goals for the year. Then at the end of the year, we go back in and update the document to show which goals we've completed. This is just a fun form of journaling and keepsake for us. I plan on printing them all out to keep in an album for our future family to be able to look back on.

But . . . back to my dad. Growing up, he would print out a simple document with four categories under which we would create our goals. These categories were: Spiritual, Mental, Physical, and Miscellaneous. I appreciate dividing my goals up in this format, and still do it this way today. Luckily, we're not the only ones that do this! My cousin's wife, Chelsey, of West Coast Capri and an interior designer, came up with a super cute, free template in a similar fashion for goal setting! Get it here.

Picture via West Coast Capri

Happy goal setting and here's a wonderful to a 2014!!!