30 Things Before 30

Every year, I make a list of things that I want to accomplish by my next birthday. Here's to a new year and a new list. Some of these are big and seem lofty, some are fairly easy to accomplish. Check back every once in a while. I will have a tab at the top of this blog. If I mark something off, I usually will have a link with it. This year, I had too many things on my list which usually doesn't happen. I guess I'm ready to ring in 30 next summer with a bang. Let's do this. 

1. Read 30 books. With my love for the library now, this should be easy. 
2. 30 Recipes, meal plan for dinner. 
3. Try Blue Apron or something like it. 
4. Go on a family vacation. 
5. Work on getting through Baby Step #2 (Dave Ramsey.) 
6. Paint living room and hallways. Repaint kitchen cabinets. Paint trim and doors white. Lots of painting. Pretty much paint the entire inside of our house. 
7. Try Cize. 
8. Do another Whole 30. 
9. Get prego, round 2. 
10. Yoga Headstand
11. Work through this book. 
12. Reach my goal weight and keep moving (30 minutes, 10,000 steps, or C25k per day)
13. Have a meal at The Kitchen. 
14. Get a facial at She She.
15. Take family photos
16. Create some physical photo albums, not digital. 
17. Be able to park the Dodge Journey in the garage. i.e....Clean it out! Dump trip. 
18. Increase our income. Make it happen. 
19. Potty Train Marin.
20. Spend a lot more time outside. 
21. Write some songs. 
22. Breakup with online shopping and go thrifting more often. 
23. Join a CSA or Bountiful Baskets. Buy veggies/fruits from a roadside stand. 
24. Drink more wine.
25. Get a blowout at a salon. 
26. Help Marin not be such a picky eater. Expand her palate.  
27. Capsule Wardrobe or Project 333
28. Go to a concert at Red Rocks. 
29. Eat like a French Woman.  
30. Paint the outside of our house. 

A REVISIT | 29 Things Before 29

I am a list maker. Every year I make another list of things I want to accomplish in my new 365 days. This was my list from my 29th year. I did fairly well at completing certain items and not well at completing others. This past year I really worked on feeling good in my own skin. I loved getting a library card and I totally nerd out about books now, especially books that I don't have to pay for. We did some traveling but I still didn't stay in a cabin. I didn't do well with anything involving family photographs and picture of Marin. 

I am working on my 30 Things Before 30 List as we speak. It's almost done. I am excited. 

Here is a revisit......

+ Make grilled pizza. 
+ Fit back into my old jeans and rock them.  
+ Go to the Drive-In
+ 3 Day Juice Cleanse.
+ Get out of debt. Forever! (Close, but not done.) 
+ Holy Yoga.
+ Grow out my hair.
+ Take a trip to Estes for the day.
+ Pay off my van.
+ Have a minimalist mentality.
+ Redesign my blog/Complete Blog Life. 
+ Buy a new house.
+ Have one date night a month. At least.
+ Get another tattoo/have a half sleeve designed. 
+ Write & Complete 3 new songs. 
+ See the ocean.
+ Play a show with my band or any band for that matter. As of August 9th, it has been ONE YEAR. 
+ Get back into writing Morning Pages. 
+ Go camping or stay in a cabin.  
+ Whole30 
+ Try and have a green thumb 
+ Create a coffee table book of 52 Weeks of Baby Marin Posts. 
+ Get family photos taken by an actual photographer. (not just us using a tripod.)
+ Try PiYo. 
+ Finish reading all of the books currently on my nightstand (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and participate in this online book club. 
+ Treat myself to a Bliss Package at She She.  I tried the Day Tripper Bliss Package. Heaven!
+ Watch 4 documentaries.  So far: #1, #2, #3. One documentary short. 
+ Buy a new Mac Book. It's time. 
+ Get a library card.

WHOLE ME | WHOLE 30 WEEK 4

I survived my first Whole 30. I ate some cake today for my birthday. I was ok with that. I made it the 30 days. I did it. 

The last week of the Whole 30 was a bit of a blur to me. I didn't do very well with taking photos of my food. I did take some photos but as far as what I ate everyday, I can't really remember. I just remember that I ate clean and compliant to the plan and that's all that matters. Here are a few meals that I remembered to take a picture of....

I stepped on the scale the day after and was pleasantly surprised with the number I saw on the scale. I am closer to my goal weight. One step at a time. One pound at a time. 

I am taking every day now after the Whole 30, one day at a time. One meal at a time. I know now what I can eat that doesn't make me feel like crap. I know what can help me reach my goal weight. I also know that for my sanity, I can't be that strict all of the time and need to drink some wine every once in a while. But, my relationship with food is so much better than it was before. I am eating to live, not living to eat. That is where I need to be. 

In an effort to stick to a budget this month, I have started to meal plan dinners for my family. We just went shopping today for the first two weeks and came in under budget. Eating healthy can be affordable. Really. 

I will probably do another Whole 30 this fall. Now that I've made it through one, I can do another. I just need a bit of a break for a little while. The strange thing is that I already kind of miss it. Who knew? 

I am so thankful for this meal plan. It really did change how I view food and how I view myself. It will be nice to not have to have something special made for family gatherings. I am also looking forward to eating a meal at a restaurant again. 

If you want to change your body and how you think about food....do a Whole 30. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

29

Today is my birthday. Today I turn 29 years old. The Facebook, "Happy Birthdays!" have already started to pour in and I somehow managed to drag myself out of bed early to write before my day officially begins and the rest of the house wakes up. I wanted to sit in my arm chair, with a coffee next to me and write without picking cheerios up off of the floor and dealing with spilled milk. 

29. 29. Twenty-nine. I feel like I was just twenty-one, playing a show in downtown Portland, in an unwise relationship with the wrong boy, and drinking my first Mickey's, surrounded by friends and pasta in an actual restaurant. That was shockingly 8 years ago. I don't even know me from back then anymore. 

Time has changed so swiftly in the last few years. So many things occurred even in the last year alone, from twenty-eight to twenty-nine. This time last year, we had a 6 month old baby girl and I was still slightly crazed from childbirth, still breastfeeding, still finding my footing in the brave new world of motherhood. I was trapped in an unknown body of left-over pregnancy weight and too many consumed donuts and Chinese takeout. 

My job changed in my 28th year as well and I was set free. Getting out of healthcare was the best decision I have ever made as far as my "career" goes. I don't even want to think about how life would be if I was still there, still stuck, still miserable. 

28 was the year that I played the least amount of music. That realization obviously saddens me greatly but I've come to terms with the dry season I find myself in. You have a child and suddenly this full on life-altering shift occurs and the things that I once obsessed and stressed over seem not nearly as important as they once were. Music is still in my bones. But, motherhood and raising a smart, creative, enduring child is my season. 

People are always asking me, "When are you going to book some shows? When are getting the band back together? Are you writing anything?" I am in a season where I am more thrilled by Marin learning a new word, even if that word is just "boobies." I am on a journey of discovery through the eyes of our child and in this season, that is still enough. It has to be. It must be. 

So, hello 29. I have no idea of what experiences and lessons you will hold for me in this new year of living but if it's anything like the years of my past, I look forward to the next 365 days of life, lessons, and new seasons.