14 before I'm 40

The original plan was to come up with 40 goals to complete by the time I turn forty years old. Which would be in 2015. But as I was writing and thinking, and thinking some more, I was hard pressed to come up with these fourteen. I'm not sure what that says about me.

But I won't look into it.

Not today.

Here goes!

1) Write a book. Anything really. And it certainly doesn't require publishing. Except maybe self-publishing on Lulu or something like that. A children's book, short story collection, novella, young adult fiction, a journal that has a story with a beginning an end and a middle, you get the idea.

2) Get in shape. Feel confident about my physique. Feel physically fit. I have about 20 extra pounds to lose. I have 4 years. Just do it.

3) Organize our family memorabilia. That includes our blog and online photos. But mostly, I have a bazillion photos wasting away and probably getting crumbly and rotted in our storage shed. I don't mean making some Martha Stewart scrapbook. (One crafting phase that eluded me.) Just organize and store properly so my boys can appreciate looking through them when they are all growed up.

4) Set up our wills. Our emergency back up plan for our boys. Not done yet. I know.

5) Meet with a financial advisor to make a strategy for retirement. Suze Orman appeared in a dream just before I made this list.

6) Complete a B.S. in Biology. I got a minor in Biology back in my ASU days. (After changing my major from Chemical Engineering to Biology and settling on Interdisciplinary Humanities. Oh the humanity!) But now I have a practical reason for going back to school and finishing it. I am well on my way, already signed up for two classes in the fall. Heaven help me, and my family, for this burden we are all about to endure.

7) Thoroughly clean and organize every closet in this old house. And the storage shed. If you came over for a visit and snuck a peek into any one of our closets, your next visit would surely be an emergency room. Every single storage space has a tower or row of miscellania (oh yes, I just made up that word) that is bound to topple over on an unsuspecting house guest.

8) Read the entire Harry Potter series with my six year old son.

9) Knit something that can be worn. (i.e. Finish a knitting project.)

10) Take up yoga, or any sort of physical activity, on a regular basis.

11) Save up and purchase a new car to replace the one that was forever ago loaned to me by my big-hearted brother.

12) Improve upon our current strategy to pay off our debt. We are more fortunate than most after the market changed so dramatically, (e.g. we are both employed) but it's still annoying, a headache, and an unnecessary cause of some stress. (Ugh! Get this monkey off my back!) And hopefully we'll have a huge chunk paid off in four years.

13) Make more girlfriends. This is an embarrassing topic for me. I don't have a lot of girlfriends. My childhood friends are scattered all over the world. And for some reason I have become super socially awkward in my thirties. Maybe I have been this way all my life and my childhood friends just knew me so well they put up with the quirks. (That's it!!) My husband loves me dearly. This I know. And we have some friends that are couples that have children the same age, but I never 'go out with the girls'. Do I want to? Usually the answer is no. I would choose relaxing at home with Netflix and a cocktail than meet a friend for a movie or drinks. But I realize spending time with my own friends is healthy and something I really need to make time for. (Ugh. Pathetic misanthrope anyone?)

14) Make more time. Let's be truthful here. I am a mom of two young boys. I have a full time job. I drive my boys to activities, sports and school. I cook, clean, check my email, blog (every so often), shop for groceries, sleep. I am about to add classes to the mix. And not just any classes. Classes with LABS. I make excuses for not doing many of these items on my list due to lack of time. But I recognize the need for many of these things. For health reasons alone -- physical, mental and emotional. So this last goal, and the one that is needed to accommodate most of the prior 13, is to carve out bits of time in my daily activities so that I can accomplish all of this.

So there you go. 14 goals to work toward before I turn 40. Easy peasy.

After all this introspection, here's a picture of me. Taking a picture of me, looking into a mirror.

Jack Handy would be proud.