Well I guess I’m not hiding how old I am anymore. This September I’ll turn 30, and I’m actually pretty excited about it. After the year that I had last year, I’m honestly just grateful for the ability to have another birthday and to continue to watch my family grow. I’ve done a lot of great things in the last 29  years, but there are still lots of things that I’d like to do in the next 6 months.

1. Get back to my teaching roots (this is part of my big business plan for this year that I’m still keeping secret for now)
2. Bake more (my husband’s office will probably benefit greatly from this)
3. Complete a 10k (I haven’t run since I got sick last year, so this is a big one.)
4. Go on a California road trip
5. Have a girls’ trip with some of my friends
6. Enroll Henry in preschool (this will actually help the rest of my goals get accomplished)
7. Visit Hawaii for the first time ever
8. Learn to hand letter for real
9. Take time each week to craft
10. Have more Google Group Chats with my college friends
11. Schedule a legitimate date night once a month
12. Finish my family yearbooks for 2017, 2016, and 2015 (yes, I’m a little behind)
13. Finish the Winnie the Pooh quilt I started for Henry before he was born…
14. Take Henry on his first camping trip
15. Volunteer with Will
16. Send one snail mail letter a week
17. Build my vegetable garden and learn to rotate the crop
18. Photograph a super special and secret session (I promise I’ll share once it’s happened)
19. Journal every day
20. Read the entire Harry Potter series again
21. Visit a national park I’ve never been to
22. Host more summer patio parties
23. Take one day a week for legitimate rest (no work, no email, no editing, nothing)
24. Meal prep on Sundays
25. See one movie a month
26. Learn how to do basic maintenance on my bike
27. Build a “learning tower” for Henry
28. Share my full mental health story
29. Take Henry to downtown Chicago for the first time (we have always left him in the suburbs if we go)
30. Take more photographs of our daily life

I hope to accomplish as many of these as I can before September 4th! However, I’ve learned not to push myself to exhaustion. I need to find balance and listen to my body. With that said, I’ll be working hard to make these 30 things happen and I’ll check back in September!