Forty by 40

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     A week ago, I celebrated my 39th birthday. Some days I look back on the life I have lived and feel very blessed and complete. Many days (like today when I spent the whole day cleaning out my pantry while jamming to 90s music and getting way too excited over my label-maker...), I feel like I'm hurtling toward middle age and the peak of my millennial mom moments. Most days, I feel like my life is only just beginning, and that I can't possibly be an adult with a real grown-up job and the responsibility for others' lives. I suppose that's where many of us fall as we near our 5th decade in life. Although I am grateful for where my life has taken me up to this point, I wanted to take this year before I turn forty to evaluate my goals and stop sitting passively while I let life pass by, thinking I'll have time to accomplish my goals "later." Life is happening now, and to celebrate that fact, I have created a list of things I hope to accomplish in the next year. I call it my Forty by 40 list. I have created a list of things I want to accomplish before my next birthday. Some are big and some are small, but they are all things I've been telling myself I'll get to one day, while one day keeps getting pushed further down the road. I hope you will join me in this endeavor as I set out to live my biggest year yet! As I check things off the list, I hope to share the journey and the joy with you all.

In no particular order: 

  1. Hike to Delta Lake in Wyoming 
  2. Hike to the top of Table Rock as a family
  3. Teach the girls how to ride a bike (and ride down the Swamp Rabbit Trail together)
  4. Go to 3 NEW national parks
  5. Conquer our first year of homeschool
  6. Clean out the garage
  7. Make a new friend
  8. Have coffee with 3 new people
  9. Write a poem
  10. Write a short story
  11. Go on a silent retreat
  12. Journal once a week for 52 weeks
  13. Read the Normal Christian Life
  14. Paddle to a waterfall on Lake Jocassee
  15. Hike to Ravenscliff Falls
  16. Run a 5K
  17. Start and complete an exercise program
  18. Read the Chronicles of Narnia with my girls
  19. Have a neighbor over for dinner
  20. See the northern lights
  21. Don't buy new clothes for 1 year
  22. Maintain a weekly sabbath rhythm
  23. Take a Milky Way photograph that I'm proud enough to print and hang
  24. Learn how to use ultrasound for my patients
  25. Attend a med-peds faculty event
  26. Hike 100 miles total
  27. Go to a new state park
  28. Read through the Bible in a year
  29. Cook a fancy meal from scratch
  30. Watch synchronous fireflies
  31. Have at least 1 date night per month
  32. Tent campout with the girls
  33. Backpacking Trip
  34. Have a playdate with the girls' friends
  35. Revisit our honeymoon cabin in Blue Ridge, GA
  36. Volunteer as a family 
  37. Experience a new national park with my parents
  38. Read 60 books in a year
  39. Take a cold plunge in a glacial lake/river
  40. Check in with my extended family monthly
If you want to help me accomplish my goals, feel free to reach or cheer me on as I attempt to cross off all Forty by 40! 








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