Thursday, June 21, 2012

30 before 30 update

I had a wonderful 27th birthday that started off right with a French toast breakfast prepared by Darby and included phone calls, cards, and Facebook messages from so many friends and family, a delicious dinner at Destihl, and, of course, presents. I'm not ashamed to admit that I still get really excited about opening birthday presents. I was good this year and waited to open (almost) all of them until my actual birthday. Perhaps the best gift I received was the news that my sister is coming to visit in a couple of weeks! This is such a welcome surprise; I'm happy I don't have to wait too long for her to get here!


I feel like my birthday is a good time to give an update on my 30 before 30 goals. Completed goals are in bold, and in progress goals are in italics. With 3 years left, I feel like I'm doing pretty well. 
 
Education
1. Get my master's degree
2. Earn a graduate teacher certificate
3. Take at least two Spanish classes
4. Begin studying two other languages (Started Italian)

Hobbies
5. Learn to sew
6. Create a card stockpile
7. Start a successful container garden
8. Take piano lessons

Finances
9. Save 10% down for a house
10. Increase retirement savings to 10% of our income per month (I'm up to about 5% from nothing.)
11. Increase percent saved on groceries each month to 40% (I'm up to 35%).
12. Get life insurance for both Darby and me

Travel
13. Go to Italy
14. Visit 3 new states (We're going to Iowa for a wedding in July.)
15. Go camping

Cooking
16. Learn how to cook steak (This was easier than I thought. The secret: buy a good steak. :) Who knew?)
17. Take a cake decorating class
18. Completely replace 3 storebought staples with homemade versions (I've replaced salsa, and I'm working on chicken broth.)
19. Whittle "to try" recipes to under 100 (I feel like this is one step forward and two steps back sometimes.)

Health
20. Switch to antibiotic-free animal products (I've switched to organic milk and eggs, and I'm working on beef. I'll post more about this sometime.)
21. Maintain my goal weight (except, see 23 below)
22. Take four different fitness classes (I did KickFit with Mica last semester. It was awesome!)

Family
23. Have a baby (I know this is really weird to put at as a "goal," but it is one major thing I hope to do before I turn 30, so it's in.)
24. Go on a trip with my sister

Spiritual
25. Create two new units for the Cradle Roll class
26. Teach an older children/adult Bible class (Darby and I are teaching an adult Bible class in the fall. I'm still a little shocked that someone okayed our plan, but we're going for it. We'll see what happens . . . )
27. Read 18 spiritual books.

Friendship
28. Plan/attend three Fat Tuesday reunions (We have one planned for SingSong in February.)
29. Plan/attend at least two reunions with my high school friends (We have one planned for September!)
30. Start/join a book club

3 comments:

Mary Kay said...

Man, I am impressed! You are doing a great job! Could you fit in learning Russian for me? Just in your spare time?!?! Hehe. Loved seeing your Italy pictures and I hear Meg talk to you...they are so excited about going!

HANNAH said...

Kyla Marie!!

First of all, SO EXCITED about coming to see you and love the blog shout-out!

Second of all, your goal to take a trip with ME...let's do it next summer!!

LOVE YOU.

Mica said...

Happy birthday again! I'm glad you had a good one!

I love your 30 before 30 goals, and I was happy that we share some of the same ones--especially take a cake decorating class. Shall we look into this for the fall???