Chinese New Year 2021 – the Year of the Ox – was on Friday, February 12, 2021. As I write this blog post, it’s Saturday, Feb 13, 2021. It’ll be published on Sunday, Valentine’s Day.
Firstly, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Next, Happy Chinese New Year!
New Year Coffee Cake
On Chinese New Year’s Eve, Thursday, February 11th, 2021, I made ahead homemade NY Style Crumb Cake by Sally’s Baking Addiction. Her name is Sally. My name is Sally. What more of a Universal sign do I need to know this was the recipe to try today?
Then first thing on Friday, as soon as I woke up, I popped this puppy into the oven.
Grade on the cake: tasty – 4 stars (LOVE THE CRUMB TOPPING)
I highly recommend it. The reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because I make it a day ahead and baked it the next day. What was supposed to take an hour to bake actually took thirty minutes. And it wasn’t as moist as I’d thought it’d be.
This just means I’ll have to try the recipe again and bake it the same day. Then I’ll see if it’s moist as the recipe promised it to be.
Year of the Ox Weekend Breakfast
Zen Mum wanted waffles and bacon for breakfast on Sunday. Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned it, but we indulged and purchased a mini-waffle maker from Amazon. It’s perfect for small portions and for single servings.
And the enclosed recipes with the maker are quite tasty.
So today, I spiced things up by making chocolate waffles instead of our normal plain vanilla ones. Chocolate waffles with chocolate chips.
Pretty yummy!
Chinese New Year’s Resolutions (Thoughts of them, anyway)
Now let’s chew on New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve actually been thinking about it – albeit for just a few minutes because making New Year’s resolutions isn’t a thing that I invest too much time into.
Because resolutions are mere promises made to yourself whenever appropriate and truly meaningful – not solely an annual event.
Does it sound like I poo-poo New Year’s Resolutions? Why yes, yes, I do.
Anyhoo.
So in my little cartoon, I wished for abundance and prosperity. And then I wished for happy and healthy days.
These aren’t new resolutions that I have. They’re existing and perpetual promises that I have in my little chest of open promises.
To me, promises, especially ones that I make to myself, are more meaningful when it’s something I really, really want.
And also promises are things that aren’t just going to happen by magic. Abundance and prosperity, happy and healthy? Promises without action behind them are nothing more but wishful thinking.
I’m execution-oriented, and I like planning and organization. And I like using my brain and my two hands to plant seeds that bear fruit in the future. Let’s get philosophical for a few moments.
Because I’m Zen Buddhist, after all, and I don’t do this often.
Life is about the journey, not just the destination. I’m woke to that. At this stage in the game of my life, I’m down with it. And really looking forward to it. I’ve spent the first 25 years of my life wandering around without a path or purpose.
Not doing that for the next 25 years.
Life’s Game Plan for the Next Chapter
Let’s break down how to get and keep abundance and prosperity.
Define what abundance and prosperity mean to me.
- Abundance: the lack of
- Prosperity: fruitfulness in life
- According to Dictionary.com: “Prosperity often implies success in terms of wealth, health, and happiness.”
All of this begins with mindset. Seeing the world as half-full versus half-empty. Believing in possibilities and letting go of limiting beliefs. Believing that… I. can. do. this.
But these aren’t supposed to be such lofty goals that ultimately I fail to achieve because they’re unrealistic and unattainable.
It’s actually about clearly defining them into SMART goals.
Exactly like how I plan to get us to Mongolia.
Dreaming of Mongolia
I’ve said this before on this blog and on my podcast: it all begins with planning and of course, money.
Since I’ve been laid off since November, 2020, it’s set us back a bit. But I’m not complaining because that’s just the Universe saying it’s not time yet. And it’s given me more time to save up for the once-in-a-lifetime trip.
So what’s the game plan?
- Get a job
- Save money like a squirrel with its nuts. I can’t find my preliminary chicken-scratching back-of-a-napkin calculations but I vaguely remembered that for round-trip first-class airline tickets for the three of us went something like $10,000.00.
Just. the. plane. tickets. (Because we’re not going Economy class on a crazy long trip like this. For this bucket list destination, it’s either go big or stay home.
After I get a job and save enough money, only then will I start to sketch out the actual plan on how to get to Mongolia, when, sites to see, etc…
The cool thing is that the hard part’s already done.
- Get a job – ✅
My start date on my new job is Monday, February 22, 2021.
Sally in the Zen
