Monthly: Stretch my boundaries through one new and challenging experience.

Become a better housekeeper. This is actually one of my 43 Things as well, but I need to get on it. It’s just been sitting there in my goal list collecting dust. I got two books to get me started, because I am a woman who cannot do anything without a book to guide me. I got Organic Housekeeping and Martha Stewart’s guide to taking care of your house or whatever it’s called. Don’t laugh; it’s a very helpful book. So, my specific goal for this month (April) is to implement three key suggestions from Organic Housekeeping to dechem (i.e., my word for removing the toxic chemicals from) our home and lives. Also, I want to make a yearly schedule for maintenance for our home and large appliances based on guidelines Martha gives. I’ve never had to take care of things like this before because I’ve always rented and who cares about increasing the life span of a refrigerator not your own? I think if I can get these baby steps done, I will be well on my way to godliness.

I have never been good at cooking Chinese food. It is a cuisine that has simply escaped me. By “Chinese food” I mean any style of Chinese food – I sucked at them all. I never developed a real enjoyment of Chinese food until I was in college and frequently going to Seattle for fun, and there is some Chinese food there the likes of which I had never imagined in my previous life. Of course, my exposure to Chinese food prior to that was mostly at the Super Great Wall of China Shanghai Buffet kinds of places, and that is some greasy s*it there.

Anyway, then, in Japan, we had a couple of excellent Chinese restaurants nearby, and we went frequently. There was no special need for me to try to learn how to cook it for myself.

And now here I am, a good hour away even from my nearest Gigantic Chinese Buffet of Death and starving for some sui mei dumplings. So, I got a cookbook, took a deep sigh, and am learning. Slowly. But I am trying and making some progress.

I don’t know why Chinese food should be so hard for me. Apparently I have no natural wok hei. This is an area where I am going to have to keep stretching myself. Fortunately, it is a tasty exercise.