Lesson learned: It's possible to be happy now

I do not like raw carrots. I never really have. It hasn't been an issue ever since I got to be in charge of my own grocery shopping, but then I married Trevor and he likes carrots and so now carrots are an issue again. At first, my plan was to leave all of the carrot consuming to Trevor. But then one day I had the random idea to try dipping an icky carrot into yummy hummus. And an amazing thing happened... I love eating carrots now.

Well, love might be too strong of a word, but I strongly like the carrots and hummus combo. If you give me a bag of baby carrots and a thing of hummus, I will go to town on it. I now always make sure that carrots are on our grocery list and I'm bummed when the carrots are gone.

My point: There may be ways to enjoy the icky things in life.

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As Trevor and I got married, moved to Arizona, and began medical school and a new job, we heard a lot of things along the lines of...

"If you can just make it through July and August, then you'll love Arizona."

"The first two years are rough, but then medical school gets a lot better."

"Just stick it out the first month at your new job, then you'll like it."

"There will be a lot of adjustments the first year of marriage, but then things will be good."

Basically, it felt like they were telling us, "Life will probably be a little poopy right now and there's not much you can do about that. Bummer."

I know that people were trying to be helpful and encouraging, but it kind of wasn't. It felt like I was getting sucked into the mentality that I couldn't really be happy right now in this stage and I've got to wait for the future to be completely loving life again.

And I don't think that I'm the only one to have fallen into the "I'll be happy when..." trap. You know. The trap where people say things like I'll be happy when I'm married. I'll be happy when I've graduated and start making money. I'll be happy when I'm thinner. I'll be happy when I have a baby. I'll be happy once my baby is older. I'll be happy once I get a new job. I'll be happy once I'm healthy again. I'll be happy when I overcome this weakness. I'll be happy when the carrots are gone.

Yes, sometimes we get dished up a whole lot of carrots at once, but I think it's possible to find some hummus for those carrots. The carrots won't magically disappear and we will still taste the carrots from time to time but it'll be a lot more bearable if we surround ourselves with good things, things we love, and things that make us better. This strategy is how I'm staying happy even though it's still ridiculously hot outside at the end of September, my husband has to study a lot, and I am the new girl at work.

Right now my life hummus consists of:

• Doing fun things I love, such as blogging, baking, listening to my favorite song over and over again, eating fruit snacks with reckless abandon, and watching episodes of Boy Meets World
• Praying for tender mercies and the ability to notice those tender mercies
• Striving to remember all of my blessings and all of the things that are going right, instead of focusing on the hard things
• Zooming out and looking at the big picture; remembering why this will all be worth it
• Going to the temple
• Doing something nice for my husband and noticing the nice things he does for me
• Texting someone each day to try to brighten their day
• Exercising
• Listening to general conference talks on the way to work
• Picking up chipotle on the way home from work to get their yummy chips and guacamole

Some of these ideas are silly, some are imperative. Some may work for you, some probably won't. But it's what I'm trying to do. I want to stay positive. I want to take to heart Sister Hinckley's wise advice: "Don't wish away your days waiting for better ones ahead." I want to be okay with my carrots. I want to be happy now.

What do you guys do when you have a lot of carrots on your plate? What's your hummus? (Post a comment below to share your ideas.)

Lesson learned: Stick with it

My brother gave us a waffle iron for a wedding gift. Waffle irons are great. They assist in creating wonderful waffly goodness for us to enjoy. But new waffle irons are also a tricky thing. I am usually overeager the first time and I pour too much batter and it oozes all over the sides and I end up making a waffle with a tu-tu. So then I make an adjustment the second time but end up pouring too little which results in the fun-size waffle chip. Then it's (hopefully) by the third time that I finally get my act together and pour the right amount of batter for the perfectly filled out, well-rounded waffle.

Sometimes in life, apart from waffle-making, I am tempted to give up after the first try. After the first week of classes in a new semester, after the first day at a new job, after the first month on the mission, after the first Sunday in a new ward. I feel like it's too hard, it's not like what I'm used to, I'm never going to get the hang of it, it's not what I expected, and I want to go back to where everything was familiar and where I knew all of the answers.

But just like with the waffles, I'm learning that if I stick with it, I generally figure things out and things get better. A lot of the time, for me, it's the fear of the unknown and the discomfort of new-ness that makes me want to quit. But if I can have faith and hang in there long enough to learn from my mistakes, make adjustments, include the Lord in the process, and try again, the skies the limit and I can do anything. I just need to give it a chance. Give it one more day, give it one more try, give it one more transfer, give it one more Sunday, give it one more go. And then it will get better or easier or more comfortable or I will know more.

Right now I have a lot of new in my life. I have a new job, a new husband, a new apartment in a new state, a new temperature outside, a new ward, and a new way of living. Most of the time I'm happy. Most of the time I love it and feel blessed beyond words. But sometimes it feels like a lot. Sometimes it feels like I used to be able to make wonderful waffles but now I have a new iron and I won't ever be able to figure out how to make that perfect waffle again. But then past experience tells me that I need to stick with it and give myself a chance to figure things out and give the Lord a chance to work things out for my good.

Because that's what we do. We sign up for hard things or we have hard things put on our plate, and then we stick with it. And eventually, with the Lord's help and some patience and maybe some mistakes, things get better and we figure out how much batter to pour in our new waffle iron.