Turning 35

Today I turned 35.  Fortunately, I stayed busy for the most part.  Able to not think about the implications of such a milestone, that is until someone would say the words... "Happy Birthday".  Then my mind would begin following the myriad of rabbit trails.

As a result of my exhaustion (which may or may not be related to my agedness) and the late hour, here is a list of my top 10 thoughts on turning 35.

1.  I have a good life (on all fronts), so I certainly can't complain.
2.  Jesus can use the aged as well as the youthful, so I'm still good.
3.  35 is not really that old.  I suppose when I'm 70, 35 will look pretty good.
4.  I would say that I don't feel 35, but I don't know whether or not that's true.  I suppose I just don't feel different.
5.  Regardless of my chronological age, I refuse to become a boring grown-up type.  I doubt that will change any time soon.
6.  A short 5 years ago I couldn't have said this, I have more than my fair share of genuinely good friends.  I'm not offering to give any of them up, but I am definitely making up for my antisocial start to life.
7.  If I had to give up what I've learned in the last 6 years to weasel my way back into my 20's, I'd pass on that deal all day long.
8.  Though I hope, hope, hope it's true, even if it's not, I enjoy being told I don't look my age.  (Don't worry, it won't cause me to favor anyone, so telling me that won't get you anywhere special with me.)
9.  There are some culturally/socially expected things I may have not done in my life... but I like who I am and I really like who I'm becoming and I wouldn't change a thing.
10.  I expect that when I turn 45 I will have an even better life, found myself continually surrounded by genuine people with whom I have a great mutual love and respect, grown in wisdom, been used by God in abundance and still won't look my age.

As my husband would say "Cheers!"  I hope you enjoyed my special day...

P.S.  Being further evidence of item 5 noted above, during my birthday weekend I played Mortal Kombat VS DC Universe, wherein I played Wonder Woman pretty consistently.  My kids begged me to switch characters, to which I replied "I've been pretending to be Wonder Woman since I was 4, I'm not stopping now."  On that note, I leave you with this:

2012 Goals

So, I realize that I'm a couple of weeks late on the whole New Years resolution idea, but since I never do the whole resolution thing, I'm kind of ahead of schedule (because later is still sooner than never... forget it, moving on).  Even now, I'm not setting resolutions, but I am going to set some goals.  Since, there's no accountability like public accountability, my blog seemed like the best (or worst) possible choice for record keeping. 

Photo by Pixtawan

Here we go!

1.  Read the whole Bible before Christmas.  No skipping.  Not even the genealogies. 

2.  Read at least one book, excluding the books of the Bible, per month.  I'm excited about this since I am a reader by nature!

3.  Write a book.  Even if is only ever a self published e-book.

4.  Hand write proverbs (got this one from Jon Acuff, just thought it was such a good idea).

5.  Run twice a week.  I am NOT excited about this since I am NOT a runner by nature.

6.  Jump out of a plane... with a parachute and strapped to another human being who is trained to do such things.  This is what I'd like to do for my 35th birthday and it makes me sick to my stomach. 

7.  Go out on 12 dates with my husband and hopefully space them evenly over the 12 months.

8.  Volunteer as a Family at the Fresno Rescue Mission or a program they recommend.

9.  Send out 52 hand written letters.  Not sure to who, but I think I can manage 1 letter per week and it's only $22.88 in postage.  Not bad.

Ok.  I think that's enough.  I could keep going, but then at some point, I would realize that I could NEVER accomplish all that I'd set out.  So, there it is folks.  My 2012 goal list.