Birthday Musings

Today is my birthday. My thirtieth birthday. It's strange how when you get older birthdays become less of a thing. I'm just excited to enjoy my free birthday Starbucks, Red Robin, Culver's, etc. Yesterday I was able to sleep in and woke to two very excited school aged children that had created special birthday cards just for me.
Gabriel's was so typical Kindergartener. There were phonetically spelled words, backwards numbers. Seriously y'all swoon town.

Julian was a little more serious with a drawing of Angry Birds in a heart. (Can you tell what he's into these days?)

Barry brought me one of my favorite Christmas/winter treats, Panettone in bed with a diet pepsi. He knows me or something.

I've been thinking all week on the whole age of 30. It feels so big. So accomplished. Like such a milestone. I feel like I haven't accomplished a whole lot. (Before you say it, I know. I have 4 amazing kids. They are wonderful. I love them more than pecan pie.) I could write you a laundry list of things that I haven't accomplished by age 30, and it would seriously probably take years to read and write. However that would be pessimistic and frankly extremely depressing so I'm going to go another way with it.

I'm going to write a list of 30 things that I hope to accomplish by the time I'm 31.

1. Be kind. (I realize this isn't something measurable but it's something I want to do every day, all day, my entire life.)
2. Create.
3. Run or workout at least 3 days a week.
4. Wear a bikini and not feel ashamed of my stretch marks.
5. Really & truly love myself.
6. Read more.
7. Publish my novel.
8. Blog more. Because Facebook isn't the same.
9. Run a half marathon. (I'm giving myself some leeway here. I want to be able to run 13.1 miles. I understand that I might not be able to participate in an organized half due to Barry's crappy schedule.)
10. Get a tattoo.
11. See Justin Timberlake in concert on July 30th with Nicole!
12. Go on vacation.
13. Learn to bake a pecan pie. Baking pies scares the bejesus out of me.
14. Be present.
15. Read the entire Harry Potter Series. Again.
16. Read the entire Twilight Series. Again.
17. Wear red lipstick more.
18. CC&J
19. Bloom.
20. Take more pictures.
21. Bathroom reno.
22. Hallway photo display/arrangement?
23. Sew my Harry Potter quilt for sofa.
24. NaNoWriMo 2014.
25. Visit Washington.
26. Learn how to take care of my skin. Hey I'm 30 now it's no time to slack.
27. Do something amazing for my husband.
28. Go to a game- football, baseball, soccer? Whatevs.
29. DIY my bathroom.
30. Stop biting my nails.

I don't think that accomplishing this list will make 31 seem like less of a big number. I'm not delusional. I feel like accomplishing this list will make me feel like I've done something. SOME. THING.

I'm surprised that turning 30 isn't causing as much of an emotional freakout as I was anticipating. Be prepared to see this list-hopefully with lines crossed out- as I accomplish my 30 things at the age of 30.