It starts with a 4...........

..........Yes, people........that would be my current age. I rolled over another decade. I didn't think it would bother me much. After all, I like to say that I'm only a day older than yesterday whenever a birthday rolls around. This time was a little harder than I thought, however. I think I am a little disappointed in myself, truthfully. I thought I might have my act together better by now. I have to remind myself that I'm always a work in progress and that I will only improve by the grace of God. At least I am reflective about it all, I guess.

I decided to make a list of 40 things to do when I'm 40. So far I only have 23 things on the list. I am going to type them here for posterity. They are in no particular order.........just the order that they popped into my head when I wrote the list.

1. Hand sew a quilt. Luckily, I've already started that. You can read about it here.

2. Get a pedicure. I've never had one.......not much of a girly girl. But it sounds like it would be fun........so maybe that will go on my agenda for the spring or summer.

3. Run a 5K. I've been doing pretty well with my consistency on my running, so this should be very easy to get done this spring.

4. Run a 10K. I'd like to train for a longer race once I've done a smaller one.

5. Wear more skirts...........again, I'm not much of a girly girl, but I live in a testostrone filled house and I'm realizing that I want to add more femininity to my wardrobe.

6. Wear more jewelry. Kind of along the same lines as the above. I don't have much jewelry. I can never bring myself to spend the money on it, but I do think it's fun to wear.

7. Wear more heels. Can you see a theme emerging? I really want someone to nominate me for TLC's "What Not to Wear", but the people I am asking keep telling me my wardrobe isn't bad enough. Truthfully I just hate to shop. I always feel guilty spending money on clothes or shoes for myself. That's why if you know me and see what I usually wear, it's the same 1 or 2 pairs of shoes all winter mixed with the same 4 or 5 pairs of pants and a rotation of about 10 shirts. Pretty pathetic. I keep telling myself that when I get "older", I'll develop more style. Well, I'm getting older and the style, well, IS there a style? That's the problem.

8. Open an Etsy shop. I think I will get going on this during the summer when I have more time. I have lots of ideas for this.

9. Try to get some of my writing published.

10. Plan a date night once a month with DH (lest you think I might be planning it with someone else!!)

11. Learn to knit. This could be dangerous as I don't need another craft hobby or addiction, but I really want to learn.

12. Make a faithbook.

13. Catch up on my boys' scrapbooks.

14. Reorganize my photos into a Library of Memories (Stacy Julian) format.

15. Make a Memory Lane game.

16. Eat more fruits and vegetables.

17. Exercise as often as possible.

18. Send a handwritten letter to 100 people over the course of the next year. I am really enjoying doing this for my Lent project, so I thought I would continue it beyond Lent.

19. Participate in The Toy Society.

20. Participate in Operation NICE.

21. Sponsor a World Vision child.

22. Read Jane Austen. Can you believe I've never read her?

23. Finish making/buying/wrapping Christmas gifts by Halloween. (A lofty goal.........we'll see.)

That's as far as I've gotten so far. Have any of you ever done a list like this? I am open to including more ideas. I kind of wanted to have 40 things to do when I'm 40, not 23.