60 Before 30

Saturday was my birthday and now that I am 27, I feel...older. This is the first birthday where I truly feel like I am older and more adult. Maybe it is because my students spent all last week making me feel old (I had to explain what Total Request Live was and we had an in-depth discussion about the merits of the Spice Girls) and while feeling older is not a bad thing at all, I am now realizing that I am no longer in my mid-twenties. Nope, 27 counts as late-twenties and I can actually see 30 on the horizon.

I have been thinking about this birthday for awhile. On New Year's Day, while the husband was working in the home office, I sat and reflected on 2014 (Got married! Bought a house! Started a new job!) and what I wanted to accomplish in 2015. I have never really been one for goals, but I was inspired by Emily on Em for Marvelous who regularly blogs about her monthly and yearly goals. I like the thoughtful deliberation that goes into creating the goals and I feel like she is really holding herself accountable by putting them out there for the world to see. Last year, when she turned 27, she created a list of the 60 things she wanted to accomplish by the time she turned 30. I LOVED that idea and I was actually really happy to see that we had some of the same goals. Her post stuck with me and on New Year's Day of this year, I began crafting my own list. I did not actually have all 60 things until the last week or so, but I found myself checking a few things off here and there over the last four months and I felt so great about that (it is not cheating and I did not replace the few things I completed). A lot of my goals are home-related, but I think that just goes along with the point I am at in my life. 

State Date: January 1, 2015
End Date: April 4, 2018
Items Completed: 11

1. Cultivate a strawberry or raspberry bush
2. Grow a small cutting garden with roses, hydrangeas, or peonies
3. Start a small vegetable and herb garden in the backyard
4. Order an heirloom quality wedding album for our home completed January 2015
5. Celebrate our one year anniversary completed June 2015
6. ...and our two year!
7. ...and our three year!
8. Expand our family
9. Host a themed party
10. Make our front porch comfortable and inviting
11. Renovate the backyard so it is a great place to gather--this includes adding a deck or patio completed April 2015, post here
12. Go to a flea market--and buy something
13. Make a will
14. Transfer car title from parents
15. Create a drop zone or mudroom area near the garage door completed January 2015, post here
16. Add curtains to the family room and dining room
17. Paint the downstairs (kitchen, family room, and dining room) completed August 2015
18. Install a backsplash in the kitchen
19. Add some sort of organizational system to the kitchen that holds the pots and pans to make things easier to find and more accessible completed April 2015
20. Paint our bedroom
21. Hang the gallery wall over the sofa in the family room completed January 2015, post here
22. Buy a headboard/frame for our bedroom completed March 2015, post here
23. Learn to French braid
24. Make a quilt
25. Crochet or knit a blanket
26. Get in shape and to my goal weight
27. Save money
28. Pay off credit card
29. Visit three new cities  in progress...San Diego in October 2015
30. Make at least one friend in the neighborhood completed August 2015
31. Join or start a book club
32. Install a rain barrel
33. Attend a Broadway show with David
34. See more of New England--beyond just Boston
35. Start a blog completed February 2015, post here
36. Begin creating yearly family "yearbooks" to capture our lives together
37. Wake up earlier (regularly at 8am or before) and establish a consistent morning routine that energizes me
38. Send someone flowers out of the blue
39. Learn some photography skills beyond just "point and shoot"
40. Organize the books in our home library
41. Begin working towards (or even complete!) an endorsement to my teaching license in administration, library and media studies, or reading
42. Get certified to teach AP English Language and Composition completed July 2015
43. Make a presentation in an English-based, educational setting
44. Visit Aunt Babe in Wisconsin
45. Go to a Patriots game in Foxborough with David
46. Gather and display frame family photos from both sides of the family (parents and grandparents)
47. Host either Christmas or Thanksgiving with both sides of the family--or at least both sets of parents
48. Go to Europe with David--or at least begin planning the trip
49. Donate/sell old clothes and shoes I no longer wear
50. Take a new-to-me class, such as an exercise class, cooking class, art class, etc.
51. Learn how to ski-- or at least attempt it
52. Learn how to drive stick shift
53. Take a sister-only weekend trip somewhere with Rachel 
54. Go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando
55. Join and semi-regularly attend church
56. Plan a fun surprise date for David
57. Get my pearls and wedding ring insured
58. Go back to Phoenix and hike Camelback Mountain
59. Visit Colonial Williamsburg at Christmastime
60. Make homemade jam

While I may not be able to complete all 60 items on my list, I am really looking forward to trying. :)