Happy Birthday to Me:) II

Last year on my birthday I blogged about what I wanted to accomplish/change/strengthen in my 31st year. I hang my head as I say that I haven't looked at my list in many, many months.

Today, the day after my 32nd birthday (thanks for all of the comments BTW), I am sitting down to take inventory of how I did on my 31st list. I will come up with a 32nd list on another day...

The following is the list from last year with my current thoughts in italics/bold behind it:

* I know that I want to get into shape and STAY in shape this year. I can officially say that I worked really, really flipping hard on this. Harder than anyone I know. I am in good shape. Decent shape - the best shape of my life? Not yet.

* I know that I do not want to get pregnant this year (or any other year for that matter;) This has permanently been taken care of;)

* I know that I want to live a consistent life - I don't want to say things are important to me and then not show it with my actions. This is, honestly, an ongoing battle in my life. I try really hard to be a consistent person - and I think I am for the most part - but there are stretches of time where I lack motivation and I lack energy and I just don't follow through on things as I should. Consistency in character, though, is a continual thought in my mind - this is definitely not something that I wrote last year and never thought of again - it is a daily thought for me because it is very important.

* I want to remember other people's birthdays. I don't know why I'm so bad at this now that I'm older - I used to be really good at it when I was in school... I remembered my dad's birthday this year and got a card in plenty of time and had the girls make him cards in plenty of time... and then I forgot to mail it on time and he got it several days late... Why is this such a battle for me?

* I want to write more thank you notes. I think I wrote an adequate number of thank you notes - in other words, I wrote notes to the people that clearly needed to be thanked for something. What I did NOT do is write thank you notes to people who impacted me in some intangible way or in some way that was unintentional on their part (like a testimony at church for example). That, I believe, was my original intent of this item.

* I want to write more handwritten "I'm thinking of you" notes (do people even like those or do they think its stupid? I never know). I cannot think of ONE note that I wrote like this. It isn't that I don't want to, its an insecurity thing - I have this underlying feeling that people don't know who I am and don't remember who I am so if they get a random letter in the mail from me they'll be like, "Who is this? Oh yeah, but what the heck is this all about? Thats really weird and random and perhaps a bit psycho..."

* I want to volunteer somewhere this year. I volunteered for the OP Kiwanis club BINGO night a couple of times. I enjoyed it, but scheduling difficulties made it too difficult to continue.

* I want to not feel guilty about taking some time for myself. This is getting a little better.

* I want to go on a weekend vacation with Cornbread (other than the Jones regional in June). We did it!!! Friends of ours have a condo in South Haven, MI and they let us stay there for a weekend. We went for our anniversary and had an amazing weekend together which included: Dom Perignon, massages, walking, walking, walking and NO TV, COMPUTER or TELEPHONE (or CHILDREN). It was awesome!

* I want to know my Bible better. I can say that I've been reading my Bible more, but do I KNOW it better? Not sure. Having the Message translation really, really helps me.

* I want to do a Bible study that is meaningful. I think I originally intended this to be a group Bible study... I have done several personal Bible studies that have definitely been meaningful for me. We also joined a small group and while we are still getting over that *awkward* stage, we've studied one book and have begun a second one. It is definitely very meaningful.

* I want to have a clear plan on when I can start nursing school and where I can go. Clear? Not really. I have questioned this plan over the last year. I want to become a nurse - I FEEL it like an ache, HOWEVER, my questioning lies in: will me going to school and working disrupt the quality of life of our family? Will it result in the girls not getting the attentiveness that they need during the crucial, horrible junior high/high school years? Will it result in me being too distracted and busy to work on relationships? Will it negatively impact my marriage in any way? Ultimately I have to believe that God will work out all of those details. I have been feeling the yearning pretty significantly lately, but I need to be patient and wait, because I cannot go back to school until Georgia is in school - so around 2011/2012. That leads to me feeling restless and anxious about it, but I found this Bible verse: "And don't be wishing you were someplace else or with someone else. Where you are right now is God's place for you. Live and obey and love and believe right there." (I Cor. 7:17, The Message) It was originally written about marriage, but it speaks very LOUDLY to me right now. I could blog on this nursing/calling topic forever - and maybe I will later in an effort to sort out my thoughts.

* I want to take my girls to the park more often during the summer. I did take them to the park a couple of times at the beginning of the summer, but then we started hanging out with the next door neighbors every day and didn't really need to go to the park anymore.

* I want to read a fiction book each month (I just don't know which books to read). I read a lot of fiction books last year - finally!!!! It was awesome! I found an author and a series that I really enjoyed - Jeffrey Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series. I read all of those and have now run out of fiction books - and I've been treated like a second class citizen at the OP Public Library twice (Homer's is very outdated) so I'm hesitant to walk back in there... I need to get back to fiction, though.

* I want to be a good friend. Honestly, I don't know how I've done on this. I hope well, but again, I suspect that I could have been much better.

* I want to eat healthy and be healthy - not just lose weight, but BE healthy. I went through a very long stretch (8 1/2 months) of doing really, really well at this, but then slid back to eating horribly for a couple of months. I would say overall, though, I eat healthy and AM healthy. Have not lost any weight.

* I want to remember my parents' birthdays (I always miss them). See above comments about my dad's birthday. I don't remember if I remembered my mom's last year. I hope so.

* I want to remember ALL of my nephews' birthdays (I always miss at least 2). Again, I think I missed several of them. I think I remembered my oldest nephew's birthday, but sent him a card for the wrong age:( Not sure if I remembered the rest.

* I want to date my husband. THIS one I know I've accomplished. We started dating again last year. Every Saturday night after church we get a babysitter and we go out - most of the time by ourselves, sometimes with other people. It has been the best thing that we ever decided to do. We can't afford to do much, but it is worth every penny that we spend on dinner and babysitting. And if there is a reason we can't go out we definitely both feel it the next week. THIS has been the single most impactful thing that I've done this year - more than any of the above, more than anything else, spending regular quality time with Cornbread has been the best thing we've done for ourselves as individuals and for ourselves as a couple.

Whew! If you made it this far, congratulations! That was long, eh? But it was definitely a good exercise for me. Now I need to come up with my 32nd list:)