A bucket List for Your 30s

We are officially old. John and I are now both 30 years old. A house, 2 kids, and a career path… we are grown ups. Doesn't really feel like it, but there is no denying that we are all grown up now. Instead of settling into a life of monotony, I've come up with a list of 30 things I'd like to do over the next 10 year. TRAVEL

1. Travel to Italy. 
2. Visit Asia. I'd love to go to Japan or China, but it is more realistic that I will fulfill this goal by visiting South Korea again. Still counts in my book and this time I'll get to experience SK with my daughters.
3. Attend the Taping of a Show. Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show would be nice. I'd also settle for SNL - maybe when Justin Timberlake was on. Please and thank you very much.
4. Visit Africa. Any country within the continent will do.
5. Go on a Safari in Africa. Number 4 & 5 can be knocked out in one trip if I'm lucky.
6. Visit the Grand Canyon. More specifically, I would really like to cross over the skywalk! Now, that would be one incredible view of the Grand Canyon.
7. Visit the Sequoia National Forest. And stand at the base of the amazing redwood trees.
8. Fly in a Hot Air Balloon. Silly, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. It would be an awfully romantic date, but I'll have to find a friend to fly with me because there is no way John will do this.
9. Go Surfing. I don't really want to 'learn' to surf, just want to try it out. Double points if it's somewhere fun like Hawaii.
10. Visit the Galapagos Islands. I don't think this one needs any explanation.

LEARN

1. Learn another Language. In my case, Korean. I have been putting it off for way too long. It's time to really learn the Korean language, so I can actually have a conversation with my in-laws.
2. Take a Photography Class. 
3. Learn to Solve a Rubik's Cube. I'm a big puzzle lover and I've actually solved a Rubik's cube before, but I had the help of the internet so it doesn't really count.
4. Learn about Wine. I'm a little embarrassed to say out loud that I normally pick my wines by how cute the label looks. I know, I know - don't judge a book by it's cover. I'd really like to learn how to pick out a nice glass of wine without resorting to looks.
5. Learn How to Garden. Successfully. I do not have a green thumb, sadly. I can't even grow a chia pet. Someday, I'd love to actually grow something.
6. Take a Cooking Class. Future date night?
7. Learn to Sew. And actually sew something worthy of gifting. I have a sewing machine, but I am horrible at sewing (can't sew a straight line).
8. Drive a Motorcycle. I have always had a fascination with Harley Davidsons. I don't want to own one, just take it for a spin.
9. Learn to do my own Makeup. I'm 30. I should know how to do makeup by now, right?
10. Learn to Reupholster. Lame, but very useful. Plus, I have a ton of really comfy furniture that just needs a little updating in the fabric department. Doing the reupholstering myself would save much dinero!

OTHER THINGS

1. Run. I've done two half-marathons, but I think it would be absolutely amazing if I could check marathon off my list in my thirties.
2. Eat something out of my comfort zone. I'm a picky eater married to a man who will eat anything. He would love it if I adventured out a little, so we could share more foods at restaurants… I'm not thrilled about this one, but it's all about pushing boundaries and living without regrets.
3. Build a Habitat for Humanity Home. Always wanted to, always had an excuse to delay signing up. In the next ten years, I'd really like to do this.
4. Find my Style. As one of three girls and a stylish mom, I've mostly relied on hand-me-downs to bulk up my wardrobe. FREE= awesome sauce, am I right? Except, I am wearing a mix of everyone else's style and have yet to discover what looks best on me.
5. Be Completely out of Debt. I'm talking no house payment, no car payment, no student loans… I'm realistic so I know this is a tall order, but I'm also an optimist.
6. Leave a Significant Tip. We've all heard those stories of someone leaving a $100 tip on a $20 bill. Well, I'd like to be that someone. Maybe more than once if we have the money to spare.
7. Find a Job I Love. Isn't this everyone's career goal?
8. Pay for the car behind me. You know those chains of pay-it-forward backwards? You are in the drive through at Starbucks and pay for the car behind you - that car pays for the car behind it - and so on and so on until the chain is broken. Yeah, I'd like to start one of those.
9. Throw a Surprise Party. And make sure the guest of honor is completely surprised!
10. Go Vegan. Just for a month, maybe.

What about you? Do you have anything you would especially like to do in your thirties?

Making Lists + Getting Things Done

For a second, I thought that my wishes for warmer weather had worked since it was sunny and in the 60s all day today. Then I turned on the news and caught the tail end of the weatherman forecasting 3-8" of SNOW tomorrow! Pure craziness!
While we are probably set to stay inside for the rest of the week, I'm going to put my to-do list out there and hopefully become disciplined enough to check everything off:

• Edit + Upload Winsley's recent weekly photos
• Finalize plans for Winsley's birthday party (see my inspiration board here)
• Contact a few people about blog collaboration projects
• Finish Installing Blog Designs (talking to you Sarah)

Not a whole lot on my list, but these are all things that have to be done sans kiddos. Late nights and busy nap times are in store, but I will be so relieved when everything is complete at the end of the week.

Happy Monday!

Linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes today.

Weekly Wishes | Faith List

Paper Bead Jewelry sold by Ekubo Ministries here.

I love the idea of a faith list. Christie and George from Ekubo ministries have created a faith list of all of their needs and wants for their sweet community in Uganda. I am especially in love with the fact that Christie would love to have this list fulfilled each year by the Ugandan community that she serves. 
My wish this week is to help Christie and George obtain that goal of a self-sustaining community. I'm not sure how yet, I just know that something is moving my heart to help figure this all out and support Ekubo Ministries.
Linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes.

Weekly Wishes | Running

Before I get into my wishes for this week, let me give a little update on last week's weekly wish. No, I didn't exactly accomplish this goal, but I did get a kid break that helped to recharge the batteries. My incredibly helpful mom took care of the girls for a few hours while I attended a bridal shower and continued to keep us all entertained on Saturday (even though she wasn't feeling 100%). I love my girls, but sometimes a few hours away from them can do amazing things for my energy levels.  I'm still sleep deprived, but it's getting better and I know that this will not last forever.  This week, my wish is to get running! John and I are both signing up to run an 8k in November, so I really need to jump on the workout train. The plan is to run three times a week without the kiddos. A little mommy break + workin' on my fitness = win win, right?  Gotta run - literally. :) Linking up again with The Nectar Collective's Weekly Wishes. 

Weekly Wishes #5?

I'm not sure how many weekly wishes I've done at this point. To be honest, I'm not even sure what week it is anymore - my brain is all mushy at the moment (one of my excuses for my absence from blogland last week). You see, I have a 5 month old and she is no longer sleeping through the night. 

... No big deal. I've been through this before with my older daughter. In fact, my 2 ½ year old continued to wake up once during the night until a few months ago. Just a few minutes during the night to sing a little lady back to sleep and I'd get to climb back in bed to sleep the rest of the night away… or so I thought. 
Turns out, no two kids are the same. Even if they are remarkably similar looking sisters. Winsley has spent the past month waking me up at 11 to eat, 2 in pain from teething, 3 to eat again, 4:30 to show off new skills for an hour or so, and 7 or 8 to eat / wake up. Each time she wakes up, I am up from 30 minutes to an hour feeding her / getting the tylenol / soothing her back to sleep. And because of her no-napping older sister, I no longer have the luxury of 'sleeping when the baby sleeps' as all of the baby books will advise. 
I have been walking around in a foggy monotonous mess for the past month. Just doing enough to get through the day and pining for a night of uninterrupted sleep. My husband will agree that I have not been fun to live with, although he is surely suffering from the same sleep deprivation that I am at this point. 
I love that my littlest girl is growing + learning and I fully appreciate her need to start the day at 4 am with an hour long practice session of baby crawling 101, but I NEED SLEEP! Let's hope my little one reads my blog because my Weekly Wish this week all depends on her… Sleep! I need it. 
Would it be weird to hire a babysitter during the day while I'm upstairs taking a nap? Just kidding - maybe. But it would be a little weird, right?
Linking up with one of my favorite bloggers Melyssa from The Nectar Collective again this week for her amazingly supportive Weekly Wishes series. 

Weekly Wishes #4

It turns out I am kind of failing miserably at sprucing up my etsy shop because I didn't do anything with it again last week. This is good news though! I know what you're thinking. . . failure = good news? Yes. Through another week of failure, I have realized that I am seriously lacking inspiration right now. I didn't really realize how much this short season of baby-induced sleepless nights has zapped my creative brain until I tried to sit down and put together a few prints for my sister. My brain couldn't put together fonts or colors. I was even struggling with word arrangement. 
So, this week's wish will be to get creative!
I am determined to do something each day this week to get creative and hopefully get inspired by some of this creativity. Last week's wish (and the week before that) has now become my month of August wish. I'll accomplish it - little by little. 
Now, I just have to rest my brain enough to figure out what creative things I can get my hands dirty with this week. Linking up with the lovely Melyssa from The Nectar Collective again for Weekly Wishes. 

Weekly Wishes #3

Unfortunately, I did not accomplish my weekly wish from last week. Heck, I didn't even blog the rest of last week and I'm way behind on responding to your wonderful comments. My excuse is one that many mommas out there can relate to - I'm a little bit sleep deprived lately. To say that I am tired, is an understatement.  My four month old is not sleeping well, which means the 2 year old is the only one who really gets any sleep in this house right now. Teething + a new skill (rolling over) + shots at her doctor's appointment last week = Winsley is waking up at all hours of the night and not napping like she had been. Of course, we have been spoiled by her great sleeping schedule up until now and had forgotten all about this season of sleeplessness.  We will survive. Sleep will come to us again. And life will eventually return to normal. So, my weekly wish this week will be a repeat of last week: Spruce up my Etsy Shop + maybe get a nap or two in this week.  On the more caffeinated side of sleepy, I managed to write a guest post for an amazing blogger friend (who is also starting a new link-up on Tuesdays, so be sure to check back in with her blog).  Linking up with The Nectar Collective for Weekly Wishes again this week. :)

Weekly Wishes #2

On last week's weekly wishes post, I was blown away by all of the support I received in the comments + twitter from this community on the internet. Seriously, I needed the village to help out raising my two little ones last week. I was just off my game all week and, as a momma, you normally don't get a break to recompose yourself. 

Thankfully, I had you guys and my momma made a trip up here to save the day on Thursday. It was an amazing, family filled weekend with no time to rest, but it was just what I needed to recharge the batteries and keep myself from overreacting to the little stresses of mommyhood. Not overreacting is something I need to keep in mind on the daily since I'm currently the stay-at-home to two very independent little ladies. 

Last week started out rough, but it was definitely a success!

This week, my weekly wish is to get my behind in gear and spruce up my etsy shop. It's pretty much bare bones right now. Unfortunately, I've been neglecting my poor little shop for the past couple months. This week though, that will change! I am determined to add many more prints and start taking things a bit more seriously. 

Now I'm off to go make this happen! Happy Monday!

Linking up with The Nectar Collective today for Weekly Wishes. 

Weekly Wishes

With 3 weeks of nonstop rain and now unbearable heat, it has been a rough month in mommyhood. Entertaining a toddler comes pretty easy to me, but I have been getting stressed and frustrated with the everyday monotony of entertaining a toddler without stepping foot outdoors for a break. There is no playing in the rain or fun with mud because all of the recent storms have come with lightning and heat + babies do not exactly make for a happy outing.

I may or may not have had a mini tantrum of my own when I struggled through the day on little sleep and one too many toddler tantrums. These two little ladies fill my entire heart with joy, but lately I have been losing my patience way too easily and not handling each situation with care or understanding.

So, my weekly wish is this: Don't overreact. I wish that I will take each stress filled moment in the day and take a step back before acting. I just need to take one moment to breath and I will realize that a toddler covered in ink is not the end of the world and that she is truly doing her best to 'help' mommy with her sister everyday - even if most of her helping ends up disrupting a baby's nap. If daddy happens to come home to a wreck of a home and dinner still uncooked, we will all survive.

Also, wine doesn't hurt.