33year old reflections

So I am having a birthday tomorrow. I turn 34 and so I am essentially going into my mid-thirties.

So. 33.

I can’t say that it was one of my best years. In fact, I haven’t quite enjoyed being 33 as much as I LOVED being 32. Did you love 32 as much as I did? There was just something so very sexy about that age for me.

I constantly felt like I just could NOT get into the 33year-old groove.

I have been very blessed in many ways this past year.

I have also been forced to grow a lot this year. I have been forced to accept things that I didn’t want to accept.

I have been forced to deal with situations where I would have preferred to go ostrich and put my head in the sand. I have been forced to face realities that I didn’t want to face.

But.  I have my family. I have a HUGE amount of support in my life. I am healthy and EXTREMELY blessed. And I am loved. Truly. Madly. Deeply. I honestly lack for nothing and my cup runneth over. So much so that I need a saucer. Or two. Really.

I compiled a list of things that I wanted to do this past year and although I would have liked to cross everything off, it didn’t happen. It’s all good though. My life has been ALL the richer with the things that I DID manage to cross off.   So, here goes:

1. Knit something for each member of my family. That would be something for me, my DH, my sons and my parents. DONE.
2. Master a musical instrument – I’m thinking guitar. I would say that I have mastered this.
3. Weigh 65kg. This is 5kg below my 70kg goal weight. NOT YET.
4. Once on goal weight – treat myself to a Boudoir shoot. HELL NO!
5. Try two new recipes every month. One soup and one other.NOPE. This is the one year that I completely lost my desire to be in the kitchen. I blame my former work spouse aka cooking inspiration for this.
6. Go back to study. I am starting something on the 13/08
7. Make this blog look proper. Import the contents of my Mommy Blog into this one. Look into registering this blog as a domain and if it is going to work for me then go for it! I’ve locked up the Mommy blog and I’ve tried to tidy this one a bit. My About Me page disappeared though and I will have to try to find the time to find it. Oh, and there won’t be a domain registration because I don’t need it for my purposes. YET.
8. Change jobs. Work in progress.
9. Take my family on a proper holiday. We went camping!
10. Go away with my DH for at least 3 weekends between now and next July.Finances didn’t allow this, however we did have 16 nights this past year (I did count) of kids sleeping out.
11. Get a tattoo. I keep thinking of the permanence and the fact that I can’t decide where exactly to put it. Then I lose my nerve.
12. Sort my camera, take a lot more photo’s and actually be disciplined enough to download them. Work out a system for this.I actually DO take lots of pics of my kids even though I don’t publish them online. I download them every month. THAT is how much I sort them.
13. Rework my hair routine. Teach myself to blow dry my hair and once I’ve mastered this then incorporate the GHD into the routine. I can blow dry. I haven’t bought a GHD yet.
14. Visit either a museum or an art/ photography exhibition EVERY SIX WEEKS.Hardly happened. 
15. Attend a theatre production every quarter.YES. I actually did THIS ONE every six or so weeks.
16. Get back into yoga and stick to it. Needs to happen once a week.Slowly but surely. I haven’t gotten into it once a week but it has happened sporadically. I have discovered Pilates though which I LOVE.
17. Take a local trip on my own. One where I would need to fly somewhere.YES. I went to JHB a few weeks ago.
18. Read two books a month.YES. I was actually really good at this one.
19. Do a basic course in social media.Nope.
20. Family photo shoot in Autumn. I want me some browns and orange in my pictures. NO. I usually take pics of my kids when we go out hence my apprehension about this. I really tried to get it together but I couldn’t.
21. Buy some new clothing. I need a whole new wardrobe.Yes. Work in progress.
22. Attend 3 live sporting events. One soccer match, one cricket match and one rugby match. I did try. MANY times. It just wasn’t meant to be.
23. Expand my friendship circle. This would mean attending the occasional tweetup/ meeting of bloggers (if I am invited). Actually I’ll just invite myself.Gosh, I have LOVED this part of my life. I attended one tweetup and met a number of bloggers this year.
24. Run (at least) 4 times 5km races and 3 times 10km races. I ran 4 times 5km races. I didn’t do anything further. Need to buy new shoes.
25. Attend a parenting-type course.I attended 3!
26. Do something crafty (and easy) at least once a month.YES!
27. Figure out a way to make extra money without actually leaving the house to go and work.Figured out. However, this is South Africa. Life is simply not that easy.
28. Learn to make a fire from scratch and actually braai some meat.DONE. I am actually really good at this!
29. Witness a baby being born. NO. I made enquiries about this one. It would require me to become a doula. I have no problem with this but I can’t be on hand the way a doula would need to be.
30. Learn to do some basic maintenance on my car. Stuff like changing a tyre, changing oil, checking spark plugs. YES!
31. Redo my house on the inside. One room at a time. Slowly but surely. I have decluttered every single room in my home and I continue to do so. Am currently redoing my lounge. There’s a painting up, a photo area and I’m about to order a red couch. Once I get the couch, we’ll choose a colour for the walls that would work well with that shade. This may need to wait for summer. We have done a lot of work on the outside of the house though and this is where I spent most of my money.
32. Do more nature-type walks with the kids. Yes.
33. And the big one….buy a new car.Nope. I did sell mine though. A car for me will have to wait a bit.

I’m quite happy with how this went.  I have learned what will work better in the coming year and I’ll be posting a shorter list tomorrow.

Quite frankly, I can’t wait to see the back of 33. I just KNOW that 34 is going to be EPIC!

I’m off for a mini-break tomorrow. We are going here and for the first time ever I’m going to be away for my birthday. My DH is planning a smallish birthday party for me with the kids. Apparently I’m even going to blow out a candle. I actually can’t wait!

Hope you are all good. I’ll see you on the other side of 33.

Later.

x