It’s the last day of my favorite month… sniff. April was pretty great, and I admit that I want spring to stretch on for as long as possible. I’m hoping that May continues with beautiful spring weather and doesn’t hurry too quickly to summer. Because tomorrow is May first, I’m joining in Anne’s monthly Currently link-up, as well as sharing how I did on my 35 at 35 list I created on my 35th birthday last year.
{currently: almost May}
{admiring} front yards. Our poor front yard is in need of a major makeover, and it’s been long neglected because of other, more pressing issues (back yard flooding, sewer pipe break, HVAC replacement… good times). However, Aaron and I have finally had enough and we are hoping to make some improvements this year. We have a beautiful tree out front, but it makes it very difficult for anything to grow (even shade grass!). We’re hoping to make a few subtle improvements this year, and eventually add some landscaping, although that may not happen this year. I’ve been looking around at other tree-heavy front yards for inspiration whenever I drive through neighborhoods.
{playing} outside! Jona started baseball last month, so that’s been a nice outdoor activity to count on each week. On top of that we’ve been playing with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, bikes and trikes. This spring weather sure has been wonderful!
{borrowing} lots of library books of course. Our current stack includes There There by Tommy Orange, Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler (my current read), The Case of the Halloween Ghost (Hank the Cowdog #9), Here We Are: Notes for Living on Planet Earth, and The Monster Who Lost His Mean.
{remembering} special moments of 2018. Last month I finished up our Shutterfly album for last year, and although I haven’t ordered it yet (I’m waiting for a photo book sale and haven’t checked lately) it was so fun looking back on our year. Violet was only one for most of 2018, and she looks so little! Now her hair is SO long and she seems like such a big girl. And Jona had just started Kindergarten in August and now he’s finishing out the school year. How fast it all goes.
{finishing} my 35 at 35 list! My birthday was last Thursday, so I wanted to share how I did on the list I created last year when I turned 35, of 35 things I wanted to do in my 35th year. I didn’t complete the list, and a few things I snuck in post-36th birthday, but overall it was a really fun bucket list idea. Here’s my update for what I accomplished.
1. Get at least 2 pedicures. If you count last Friday (the day after my birthday), I got 3! So nice.
2. Make homemade ice cream. Jona and I made Chocolate Cookies and Cream No Churn in June.
3. Try a new (to me) ice cream place nearby. I’m going to count this as done, because we visited a place that we had only been to one time and one that it’s been years since we’ve been to.
4. Go to breakfast or brunch somewhere we haven’t been. We visited Urban Table for brunch at the end of April and went to Ignite for brunch for a day date in February.
5. Visit a baseball stadium (other than our own Kauffman stadium). We went to Globe Life Park to see the Texas Rangers in June.
6. Buy new sunglasses. I bought some cute rose gold aviators at Loft in June.
7. Find a red lipstick I love. After much trial and error I learned that I’m more of a lip crayon person, and that I like a more sheer, glossy finish rather than a super-pigmented matte. My current favorite is Revlon Balm Stain in Romantic.
8. Paint my nails regularly. STILL struggling with the regularly part. It’s just not something I’ve been making time for.
9. Clean out my closet and make it pretty. While I did do some major closet decluttering in January, my closet is far from pretty. I have a bag of clothes to either consign, send to ThredUp, or donate, among other random items that don’t really belong there. Luckily, my focus for the month of May is on my closet, so I hope to check this one off soon, albeit a bit late.
10. Buy a “mix a 6” pack of beer from a liquor store to try some new beers. I did that a couple of times last summer.
11. Go to my favorite local coffee shop for some me time on a weekend morning when Aaron can stay home with the kids. I went to Pour Coffeehouse, one of my favorites, in September and had a nice leisurely morning there.
12. Complete my 2018 photo album. Like I mentioned above, I did finish the album. I just need to order it. I’m still counting it though. 🙂
13. Have a girls’ day with my mom. We went shopping and out to lunch in June, it was a blast!
14. Buy a really great pair of shoes. Okay, so I actually bought several pairs of shoes, but when I made this list I had in mind kind of a “splurge” pair that was either a statement shoe or something classic I’d wear for years. Instead, I just bought lots of shoes at Target. Oops?
15. Take a creative class (photography, hand lettering, etc.). Yeah, I didn’t even try to do this. One day it would be fun!
16. Start a “day by day” book. Last year I read Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections by Madeleine L’Engle, which shares excerpts from her works every day of the year. I enjoyed that for the most part, and this year I started 365 Daily Do-Its, which has a daily task for decluttering or home organizing. I quickly found that it felt like a chore, and that realistically I wasn’t able to do the daily tasks most of the time. So instead I plan to start You Are a Badass Every Day by Jen Sincero soon. I know she’s not everyone’s jam but I just love her.
17. Spend the day with Jona before he starts Kindergarten. School started for him on his birthday, but it was only a half day. So I picked him up and we got ice cream for lunch (of course) and then we went to Target so he could pick out some new Legos since he had some birthday money to spend. We hung out at home while he happily built his new set.
18. Get family photos taken. Nope, I totally dropped the ball on this. I’m planning to do this in the summer or fall though!
19. Splurge on luxurious hand cream. I actually planned to do this for Christmas, but “Santa” found a gift set of hand creams at Aldi and decided to put those in my stocking. I’m still using them, even though no, they are not the best nor the most luxurious hand creams out there.
20. Watch the first few seasons of The Great British Baking Show. I had a lot of fun watching this show during the winter. I didn’t finish all of the season but I watched the first two or three.
21. Try Trunk Club. I got my first Trunk in May (review here) and just ordered another one for fall. I only kept one item in my first order, a pretty floral tie-front blouse, but I love it! I doubt I will get another one because it’s so dang expensive. But it was fun to try!
22. Go to the farmer’s market. I can’t believe we didn’t do this. Usually we go a few times!
23. Have a picnic. We had a picnic in the park over the weekend, and I’m totally counting that even though it was after my birthday.
24. Go to an event hosted by a local bookstore. I really hoped to go see an author speak live, but timing never worked out.
25. Go to a Royals game. I went to a couple of games last year. One last April with my girlfriends, and another in September (a cold one!) with Aaron.
26. Complete a reading challenge. My Goodreads challenge last year was to read 50 books, which I accomplished in July. I actually read 89 books last year! Whoa.
27. Make a recipe that came from my mom that I don’t usually take the time to make. I made homemade chicken and noodles with my mom last fall. It was delicious, and so comforting. I also made Swebach, these rolls that come from my mom’s side of the family, at Christmas.
28. Take the kids to story time at the library. I took Jona to several evening story times over the summer. I hope to take Violet one of these days, but the ones for her age are during the day when I work.
29. Read You Are a Badass. Done. I read that in July (and you can find my review here). I also read and loved You Are a Badass at Making Money, and just got You Are a Badass Every Day.
30. Buy a lottery ticket. I won $4. Woohoo!
31. Take a day off and do ONLY fun things. No to-do list checking. Technically I’m a day late on this, but I took the day after my birthday off this year and had a relaxing, fun day of just things I wanted to do.
32. Add to my Nickel and Suede earrings collection. No trouble checking this off! Since my birthday I’ve added a blush pair, a navy pair, a mustard yellow pair, and a leopard pair to my collection. And I just hit “order” on a coral pair as well. I may have a problem.
33. Try sleeping on a silk pillowcase. Checking this off but I just bought it and have only slept on it a few nights.
34. Do an out-of-the-ordinary date night with Aaron (so not the usual dinner out). So this wasn’t that unusual for us, it still involved going out to eat (pretty much both of our love languages), but we did a brunch day date in February.
35. Find a new job. I did this twice over! First I changed positions within the company I was already with, and started as a Communications Specialist last August. Then, when the company was acquired by Quest Diagnostics, I started on their Marketing team in Health and Wellness in January. It’s been a long time coming, but I can finally say that I am doing a job that I truly love.
This was such a fun thing to do! I didn’t check everything off, but I enjoyed looking at my list for inspiration for making plans.
Are you doing any bucket lists or a 19 for 2019 list right now? What are you up to so far this spring?
