Yesterday’s article on The Secret is in the Sauce was about forming your own blog tribe.

This week’s challenge is: Be Part Of Someone Else’s Tribe. Identify five bloggers this week that you really connect with. Then make an effort to give to them. Here’s what to do:

more…

Did she just ask me what’s next?

Leave it up to TJ to leave a comment asking “what’s next”.  It was a good question though because I’ve been struggling with that myself.  I don’t remember if I blogged about it or not but I’ve lost my balance.  Balance makes me happy and I realized (while writing in my journal) that my balance is way off right now.  My conscious balance.  Where am I spiritually?  What am I doing that makes me happy?  I remember reading Eat, Love, Pray 2 years ago and feeling balanced.  That’s one of the reasons I picked up Woman to Woman when it was suggested to me.  I thought that maybe it would open my eyes to where I lost my balance so I could get back on the tightrope at the correct place.

You see…I have a life now…..but I’m off balance.  That’s how I describe it.  So one day one of my sister circle says that this is going to be her year of self discovery.  SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!  I’ll come along….in a moderate way. LOL  I’ve already self discovered once.  I just want to get back to doing new adventures that make me happy.

So in keeping with the “back to basics” idea I have a list of things I want to try!

What’s Next:

I am going to create 5 new dishes.  Now when I say new I don’t mean that they will have never ever been made in the history of man before.  But they won’t be dishes that I go online and find a recipe for……or something that my grandmother passed down.  No.  This will be me in a kitchen with things that I think will go well together and trying em out.  There will be more than 5 dishes attempted because not all of them will be good. LOL  But at least one of them will be vegetarian, one will be seafood, and one will be of a different ethnic culture.  YEP!

I am going to perfect my 5 signature dishes.  These won’t be new.  These will be 5 things that I already make and am pretty well known for.  I’m going to PERFECT them so that when you think of pecan sandies thumbprint cookies with a maple center….you’ll think of me.  That will be on of them.  The other is my butter pecan pound cake.  The BP cupcakes rock….now to fix that pound cake recipe.  Another will be meatloaf.  My meatloaf is NOT the hotness. LOL  But I keep making it. LOL  MY SEAFOOD QUICHE FROM 2007!

What I didn’t tell y’all back then was that there wasn’t a big egg or cheese taste.  More than anything I tasted cream and pie crust.  Going to work on that!  The fifth dish will either be my seafood lasagna or veggie lasagna.  I’m not sure yet.

The Wilton school is HERE.  The end all be all of Wilton….is IN ILLINOIS!  I’M GOING!!!!! Before 2010 is over I am going to attend a master decorating course about fondant.  I personally hate fondant….but it’s too pretty to pass up!  I am also going to fork over the bucks to attend a chocolate boot camp at the French Pastry School.  An entire weekend of chocolate.  I’m going to be up in the place learning all I can.

I started working on the family tree aggressively 2 years ago and I want to finish it this year.  I have been trying to put together a family reunion since last year as well.  I want this year to be the year and I want to surprise everyone with the completed tree and a family scrapbook.

You see that post it note for stories at the top?  Those are two stories that are supposed to be in an anthology.  I have a plan for those stories.  This year I’m going to finish them.  Don’t look for a book announcement either.  I’ll leave publishing to the pros.  But I’m going to finish those stories so everyone can know about Tia and Josephine and Blu (the secret to the whole story).

I started scrapbooking a couple of years ago.  This year I’m going to attend a scrapbooking convention/expo.  The CKC is in Tulsa in August and Seattle in November.  The problem is, if I go to Seattle me and TJ will be at Salty’s instead of in class. LOL

So there you go….a glimpse of what’s next.  Now let me tell y’all something.  I get scared easily and I will convince myself not to do something.  So keep me accountable when you think about me okay.

A couple of posts ago, kisz4tj asked me what I did to “get a life”……how did the manifestation go.  As soon as I read the comment I knew that I’d make a post about it.  In 2005 I was on the verge.  You see, I was so heavily involved in organizations and work and school and helping others that I had no life!  I was quite miserable about it too.  My weekends consisted of sorority meetings and community service.  After work I was in school.  All of my friends were either classmates or lived in other states.  I didn’t have a life!  Going back to school was a personal goal.  I kicked it so much in undergrad that I wanted to prove to myself that I could be a good student.  So I went to grad school.  In December 2005 I became Original Diva, MBA and something changed. I changed. I decided I didn’t want to be the same person dealing with the same stuff anymore.  I wish I had some blog posts from back then but I deleted them.  Okay so here we go…..how Original Diva got a life.

First I decided what I wanted to try that would make me happy.  I had dedicated entirely too much of myself to my sorority and volunteering at Planned Parenthood.  So I quit!  Both of them!  I gave my notice to every branch of the sorority that I was involved in.  I let the organizations I was involved in know that I would still support them by serving on their boards and participating in fundraisers….but no more Tuesday and Thursday nights checking patients in or answering counseling calls.  Now I had some free time to spend on those things that would make me happy.  And I’m not talking about life changing things here….no…..I started small!  I wanted to take classes on decorating cakes and arranging flowers.  I had been in the catering business so long that my cakes were really good and my flowers were even better.  Think I’m exaggerating?  The governor saw some 5 foot floral arrangements that I did and hired me to be his personal designer for her special events.  I was good.  But I wanted to learn more!  I wanted to spend time doing things that I enjoyed.

I made a list of about 10 things that I thought would make me happy and I went after them.

Cake decorating

My first cake

My last class cake

The first cake I ever tried to “decorate” was for my uncle’s birthday.  It was also my first sugar free cake and they loved it so much that they told me to never tell anyone in advance that it was sugar free because you couldn’t tell and they were surprised.  It was also VERY THIN because I was still learning how to level a cake. LOL  You see the skills got better right?

I moved through my short list having fun.  I took a floral design course at Michael’s and it was a waste.  Hands on experience was so much better for me……cause I have a natural love for flowers I suppose.

Floral centerpiece

I remember driving down the road one Saturday morning TICKLED FRICKIN PINK that I was doing something I hadn’t done in years…….nothing on a Saturday. I was still afraid to do certain things…..but I did it in fear anyway.  I would take weekend trips to Dallas just to go shopping and to church and then come home.  I used to be so afraid to do things by myself because I didn’t want to look like the pathetic single woman.  There were things I didn’t want to miss out on though…..so I had to get over that!  And the crazy part is that when I went out by myself I met people.  All those years of hanging with my girls and those heffas were holding me back. LOL

The next thing you know I had quit my job and was packing my house to move to Dallas.  I didn’t have a job yet but it was definitely time to go.  Before I could get moved….I got an offer in Oregon WITH RELOCATION.  I went on a girls weekend trip to Chicago with my cousin to see The Color Purple (I always wanted to see it and she realized that I was doing everything I wanted to do…..without her……so she tagged along).  Well hell……now I’m moving AND I have a man.  When we went out on that weekend….that’s when I decided I liked him.

There was still some fear.  I even cried in the closet one day in Oregon. I was unpacking and had trapped myself in the closet and just broke down.  It was so new and strange!  But that was me getting a life…..not letting fear stop me from dong the new and strange.  I drove 4 hours through the mountains in the fog to visit TJ one weekend. LOL I visited Seattle one weekend.  I went to Vegas for my birthday!

2006 was a great year for adventure…..2007 ties with it because that’s when I got married.

I guess if I had to sum it up…..that’s how I got a life…..I started being selfish and doing what I wanted to do.