This week, I am detailing 13 things I want to learn more about. This was prompted by our recent viewing of Turn back in January. I think I have at least 13 things I am interested in learning – I think you’re never too old to learn something new!

1.  About the American Revolution. I would love to watch some documentaries and read books about our founding fathers. Ash took a free online class that detailed some of the ways that our early colonists felt and the tenets upon which they stood. I may eke out some time to work through the course myself.
2. That one being said, our Constitution. Think about how little they tell us in school about this. My formative years were from about 1983-1993 – that being the time from Kindergarten to 8th grade. Oh, how little we learned about the actual words of our Constitution and what they meant. Though as a child, it is hard to grasp these lofty concepts. I want to understand it much better so I too can be a better Patriot.
3. Canning/jarring food. We have some friends with an immense garden and they make all kinds of stuff: picked vegetables, jams, etc. I think my trepidation comes in when they discuss the sanitizing part. Funny though: we sanitize our beer and containers so this may not be as complicated as I am thinking. I simply have never done it.
4. I want to learn to play the guitar. I have mentioned it on here before because I play Guitar Hero but a video game guitar with buttons is a whole lot different than real strings. I know I’ll need to harden my fingers and learn the basics. We have a guitar so the excuse lies solely in myself, not making time.
5. I’d love to learn some new tactics for talking to my oldest son. I know that sounds silly, perhaps, but he and I have always butted heads and though we have good days, he’s entered into a phase where he has a hard time behaving or being nice when he isn’t getting to play his comp games. Of course, we take a very balanced approach. He has to earn his time and he doesn’t spend every waking moment (when not in school) in front of a screen. Lately, he’s been losing his ever-loving mind over what he considers a great injustice. It’s infuriating but as the parent, I have to hold strong.
6. I’d like to make some time to do some professional development when it comes to organizing my time as a – now – solely work from home instructor. I know some folks are doing this still due to the pandemic but I will be doing this for the foreseeable future anyway.
7. I’d like to explore some sort of religion again, though I’m wary. We have a friend who is a pastor of a Lutheran church and reading their website, it seems welcoming. I look at it as one of those things that might present itself some day and I will know it’s the right time.
8. I want to know more about the stock market. Prior to all this GameStop nonsense, we’ve been thinking about buying in. My father-in-law does it and I just want to do day trading. I think that’s about the extent of what I can handle.
9. Learn to use Photoshop. I was into it for a little while, especially when I was bigger into using my big DSLR camera but lately, I’ve fallen off. This is something on my long-term to-do list: be a better and more attentive photographer and then edit well.
10. I want to know how to be a better brewer. We have certainly improved over the last four years we’ve been doing this but I am always trying to find new ways to improve. We tapped a beer last night that I thought we did particularly well on. The one before, however, was off. It could have been that we didn’t mill the grain correctly or enough or maybe the sparge water was not the right temp. We adjusted that all on the next couple beers – including using the sous vide to keep sparge water at the exact same temp – so who knows? We may be improving.
11. I’d love to read more about the history of where I live. I know people have written books but I feel like there’s always some additional tidbits out there, you just don’t know where they will surface.
12. I want to make salsa. Sure, this sounds kind of, well, easy, but when I look at recipes, I get nervous about roasting peppers. And I don’t own a good food processor so I think that’s something I need to look into as well.
13. The benefits of Infrared saunas. We actually purchased one but won’t have it until probably July. We did a lot of research and ordered from a Canadian company and it takes weeks for it to be built, tested, taken down, then shipped to us. I know it can improve circulation and that’s my main goal!