30 Before 30... meh

It's funny how things change - with or without you taking note of it. Take my 30 Before 30 list, for example, that I created shortly after my 28th birthday (at the tail end of 2010). I had all these big plans of traveling and doing a bunch of extracurricular activities and basically flipping my life upside down by going back to school and attempting to work for myself. Little did I know, Dan was planning to propose just a couple of months after I wrote my list, and I dove head first into planning a majorly DIY wedding that I had a ball with, but left little time for things like baking bread from scratch or taking dance classes. 


While some of the things are still plenty feasible (and there's a few I've actually accomplished!), I'm taking a fresh look at my list and deciding to take on life, in general, with a different approach than I have in the past. In short, my hope is that I can begin to live much more deliberately - that is, appreciating what and who I have, relishing in the everyday, consistently remembering just how blessed I am, and truly "living in the moment" (as cliche as it may sound). 


Here's the original list, with accomplished ones crossed out. I still have until mid-August before I officially hit the big 3-0, so hopefully a few more of these will get done over the coming months!


30 BEFORE 30
1. Leave the country
2. Enroll back in school to begin working towards my bachelor's degree
3. Learn to sew
4. Put all of my pictures in albums, get prints of all of my digital photos and put them in albums as well
5. Work for myself (whether it be in addition to another job or a full on business)
6. Run a marathon. Ok ok... or at least a half marathon
7. Take a trip with my sister  (We road tripped to Florida last winter between Christmas and New Years to visit Kevin and Erica with Dan and Allie! Vacation without any parents?? We had a blast.)
8. Spend a day at a spa  (I didn't 100% do this, but I'm crossing it out anyways. I DID spend an evening getting massages with Bridget and then mani/pedis with all of my bridesmaids the night before the wedding, which is why I'm calling this one a "sort of done". I'm crossing it out because as much as I enjoy an occasional manicure or a massage from Dan, I truly think that I would get REALLY bored spending an entire day at a spa.)
9. See the Grand Canyon in person
10. Finish compiling my Top 10 (Easy) Recipes list
11. Get dressed up and take my Gramma to dinner and a show
12. Make money blogging (seriously, even if I make $10, I'll count it)  (Thanks to a new position at work, I am now a semi-regular contributor to our agency blog. And since my job pays my salary, I'm counting it!)
13. Become more of a morning person
14. Buy real truffles and feel amazing cooking with them
15. Join a team. Any team. (I've played park district kickball with Jeff and his friends for a couple of seasons now. SO. Much. Fun.)
16. Go to a drive-in movie
17. Create a piece of artwork to hang in my home (Completed x2! As Christmas gifts to Dan, I painted a canvas with the lyrics to our first dance, and also took an idea from Pinterest and made him a little "I love you because..." frame that I'm having fun filling in the blank for every couple days.)
18. Meet Harry Connick Jr. in person
19. Reduce our grocery spending by utilizing coupons on a regular basis
20. Make a loaf of bread from scratch
21. Dramatically improve my posture
22. Volunteer an afternoon at the Greater Chicago Food Depository
23. Go on a picnic with Dan
24. Cook a 5-course meal
25. Take a dance class
26. Bake my late Grandmother's famous cheesecake
27. Learn how to do my makeup further than my 3-minute daily ritual of mascara and sheer mineral shadow, and learn to do something more to my hair than wear it down or throw it in a ponytail
28. Go ziplining or parasailing (both are things I am terrified of)
29. Figure out a system for dealing with mail, bills, important papers, etc, that actually WORKS for me, and use it
30. Spend a weekend with Maryrose, just the 2 of us, eating good food, drinking good wine, getting the tattoo we've been talking about for years, and wasting our time away doing whatever we want