revisiting 29 things to do before I turn 30...

So for a little bit of accountability, and to remind myself of these things, I decided it was time for me to check in on my "goals" list for this year, and see how we were doing... / if I had done any of them!  So here we go...

Final tally:  out of 29 to do items, including tallying 50% completes, I have done 18 out of 29 (62%) and I still have 3 months to go!  Feel free to pick one of the ones I haven't completed and help a sister out... :)

1. Climb Mt. Washington - can be on foot or in a car, I'm not discriminatory, but I've lived here long enough that it's time to just do it already. Nope, haven't done it yet.  Volunteers to drive up next month?

2.  Have a BBQ in our backyard 50%?  We grilled steaks outside for ourselves?  Twice?  Since the season is almost over, not sure anything more is going to happen there...

3.  Have my +1 party (finally)* (*where all of my friends come over and bring a friend that they think I would enjoy knowing, but haven't met yet - also known as Jon's least favorite party idea ever...) Nope, nor have I managed to convince Jon to be more open to it!

4.  (Re)establish the Etsy shop that I've been thinking about doing for.ev.er. We'll say 50%.  I have about 75% of the starting merchandise that I'd want, and have been actively working on it.

5.  Eat a really really tasty steak dinner, with a good red wine.  Check and check, several times now that baby boy is here.

6.  Go away for a weekend or even just an overnight, sans kiddo(s). Technically we did this when we went to the hospital to have E, but since we came home with another baby, and the overnight part involved the oh so fun part of labor and delivery, I don't know that that counts.

7.  Make our own cheese.  Nope, not yet.

8.  Complete a second half marathon. Nope, and I don't think it's going to happen until the spring.  Gotta give the old body time to work back up to it, we did just have another (large) baby.

9.  Build a snowman.  Check.  A very little one.

10. Drink more water than coffee most days. Check, almost every day.  Being pregnant helped a lot with that one.  And now, I actually don't crave coffee nearly as much.  Addiction, managed.

11. Have snow on my birthday!  done-skies!

12. Blog more often, and more regularly.  If not blog, then at least write personally.   Jon suggests I quantify this, so how about "more than once a month"? We'll say 50%.  I haven't made the more than once a month goal, but I have done it more than I was for a while.

13. Invent something - every Friday watching Shark Tank, I think... "I should do that..."  Bam. 2014.  Nope.  And while I have an idea, I have no idea how to actualize it.  

14. Have someone write a song for me **ahem** musically talented family.  Nope.  But... wink wink... family, there is still plenty of time.

15. Begin the process of thinking about buying a house...  and while not necessarily buying one, figuring out what comes next in our process, and maybe doing that? Like reading a book on it.  Or picking a location.  Check.  We've spent a lot of time thinking about this one, reading about it, and making calculations (and crying), and thinking some more.  Not there yet, but we've started the process.

16.  Read books regularly.  We'll say check.  I always have a book on my nightstand, with a bookmark in it.  And supposedly I have even finished a few.

17.  Find a "chick flick" or "rom com" that Jon doesn't hate.  He swears he doesn't hate them all.  And we have successfully watched a few without him mocking them, so we'll call that a moderate success.

18.  Actually make one of the crafty ideas (not food, I do that all the time) that I pin on Pinterest.  I'd love to say I have - I used this for inspiration to make S and E's door signs - but only sort of.  We'll call it done, otherwise my stats are somewhat depressing. 

19.  Watch past seasons of Modern Family.  Check and Check.

20.  Go to either a Pats game or a Bruins game - filling out my experience of Boston sports.  **Jon might have contributed slightly to this one, as I started running out of inspiration around #12.**  Nope, much to my husband's chagrin.

21.  Make plans for Hendig #3 in 2015 - ladies, you know who you are, I'm looking at you... Check.  Now to buy that airline ticket and get myself down there!

22.  Learn something new about myself (yes, I'm resorting to intangibles... I'm running out of ideas, but still want to make them realistic goals...) Yup.  I learned that I am ambitious (we knew that), and (new discovery) when I'm at my healthiest, it makes me an adventure seeker and risk taker and someone who loves to try new things.  And when I'm not acting out of a healthy mental, emotional, spiritual place, that ambition manifests itself through defensive, clingy, climbing attempts - and a hunger for success as something which will define me.

23.  Move out of my table against the wall (at work) into something that has walls (!walls!)  Check.  Just did that by quitting my job with the table by the wall earlier this week and hypothetically working out of my home (which yes, has walls!)

24.  Roast marshmallows over a fire outside!  And introduce S to s'mores!  Urban camping, take 3? We'll say 50% - we roasted marshmallows over the stove burner AND introduced S to s'mores.

25.  Get the bed (and a bunch of other misc stuff) out of our dining room (into an intentional space)  CHECK CHECK AND CHECK.  Our dining room is only half cluttered and I am SO SO happy!

26.  Learn how to effectively remove stains from clothing.  Check-ish.  When do you ever fully learn?  But I bought a book on how to do laundry, and I've been reading it, and I've learned a few tricks along the way.  So we'll say it's done.

27.  Send more letters and cards the old fashioned way, regularly.  Check.  I've been trying to do this for birthdays, and at least a few times a month.

28.  Take the GRE (pretty sure I said this last year too)... Nope.  We'll save it for next years to-do list.

29.  Return all the things that I've borrowed but forgotten (or failed) to return thus far.  Almost entirely checked off - still have Krystal and Jordan's doorway Johnny Jump up, but come Thanksgiving, we're done!  Unless I've forgotten something, in which case, please remind me...