A Work in Progress

We've reached the end!  It's been an awesome birthday week and I've really enjoyed reflecting over all the things I set out to do a year ago.  The last 6 items are still in progress.  I definitely want to keep going on all of them.  For your reading pleasure this evening, I present the 6 items from my 40 Before 40 list that are still a work in progress...

15.) Relearn Spanish -- admittedly, I haven't actively worked on this one in a few months.  But for several months last year, I was hitting up Duolingo on a daily basis and I really kind of loved it!  {I even went so far as to buy a Spanish grammar + verbs + vocabulary book to aid my Duolingo efforts.} I was genuinely surprised to see how much I remembered from my high school Spanish classes back in the day and delighted to realize that I might still have all that Spanish comprehension and understanding buried somewhere deep in my brain.  Hahaha.  Duolingo also offers a podcast in intermediate Spanish that I really enjoyed listening to as well.  I will for sure keep working on this goal.

26.) Back blog our family record 2002-2005 -- setting this goal was just the push I needed to finally just START with going back to the beginning of our family and blogging about those years between when Scott and I got married and when I started the actual blog back in 2006.  I haven't made a TON of progress yet -- mostly because I'm realizing that I didn't keep enough of a personal record during those years (or at least enough of a CONSISTENT personal record) -- but I plan on persisting until I catch up to Sunday, April 16, 2006 when I published my very first post of "a little lagniappe."  In case you missed the back blogged posts, you can click here to check out: The Beginning, Summer of 2002, Oregon Trail, and The Blur of Fall 2002.

31.) Go to the temple 4 times -- I managed to get 2 out of the 4.  We went to the Kansas City Temple last Spring Break, and while we were all together for our Bear Lake family reunion last summer we finished off our time together in the Logan Utah Temple.  I'm confident that I can make up the other two at some point this year.

32.) Save up my pennies for a Canon 6D -- this may or may not be my big birthday present this year.  ;)

33.) Print out digital pictures -- wowzers.  This was quite the undertaking.  I decided to baby step my way to printing out more pictures by starting with all of our road trips.  Even with baby stepping, I'm pretty sure I ended up printing over 700 pictures.  😳  We have some grand plans for displaying all of the pictures, but we haven't hammered out the details yet.

2015 -- Memorial Day Week in New Orleans and Gulf Shores

2016 -- Cruising West Part 1

2017 -- Our Family Tropical Storm Hits the East Coast

2019 -- Cruising West Part 2

37.) Watch 10 (new-to-me) classic movies -- well this one was a bit of a flop!  Three out of ten is pretty shabby.  My main problem was finding "classic" movies (that I wanted to watch) streaming for free somewhere.  I could have just checked a lot of them out of the library, but our DVD player has been busted for a while now and I couldn't justify going out and buying a new one just to watch some classic movies.  Oh well!  I would like to continue on with this project, though, and perhaps as time goes by I'll find some more options streaming somewhere.

My Reviews:

 (1961) West Side Story -- 10/10 (would recommend).

I loved this one so much!  I honestly can't believe I've never seen this movie before.  If I had to name my favorite thing about the musical, it would have to be the pathos.  And the music.  I love the way stories like this transcend time.  Classics are classics for a reason.

(1954) Rear Window -- 8/10 (I'd still recommend).

I enjoyed this one.  There was enough quirkiness and comedy to make it entertaining to watch even though it's not technically a comedy.  

(1940) His Girl Friday -- 6/10 (would only recommend for old film buffs who have an interest in pop culture).

This one was...interesting.  Hahahaha.  I chose this one because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about this fast-talking, screwball comedy.  I thought the first half was really slow and hard to follow at times, but the action picked up for me at about the midpoint and I ended up really liking the rest of the movie.  

And there you go, ladies and gentleman!  My 40 Before 40 recapping is now complete.  I guess it's time to start creating my 50 Before 50 list...  😉

Almost Done

You know, it really just hit me this afternoon that this is my last day in my 30s.  I am not joking when I say that ever since we've hit the year 2020, I can't keep any kind of length of time accurately in my mind.  I get the aughts and the teens mixed up all the time -- I'll say 2016 when I'm really talking about 2006 and vice versa for the whole last 20 years.  It's really weird.  And it's especially weird to think of the fact that 20 years ago we were already in this new millennium.  It simultaneously feels like it was just yesterday while also seeming so long ago and far away.

But enough about all that talk of 20 year segments.  It's 40 years that I've been celebrating all week long!  {Side note -- my favorite gift I've given myself week is to not make dinner at all this week.}  And now on this -- my birthday eve -- I'm going to document the last 6 items that I've checked off my list.  Tomorrow I'll talk about the ones still in progress (and that I think I will keep progressing on until I finally finish them, regardless of my age).

Without further adieu, here are the final six...

24.) Complete a new 100 things list -- this was the very first item I checked off my list last year!  Feel free to check it out HERE.

25.) Explore our new surroundings -- we still have quite a ways to go as far as exploring goes, but it's been fun to venture out and find new places.

29.) Decide if I want to get a Master's -- this was pretty easy once I stopped to really think about it. Nope!

34.) Take a professional family photo -- another road trip accomplishment!  The last day of our Bear Lake family reunion, we all gathered at the Logan temple to take family pictures.  I really love having a current family photo to hang on the wall.

38.) Re-read To Kill a Mockingbird -- I finished this a couple of weeks ago in conjunction with Grace reading it for school.  It never disappoints.

(This is currently Grace's lock screen on her phone.  I don't know why I find it so funny that she has a picture of Scout dressed as the Ham in the movie, but I do.  Hahahahaha.)

39.) Get a new license plate/driver's license -- check!  Our totaled car last spring actually made this happen a lot sooner than it probably would have on its own.  Hahaha.  After getting our new car, we killed two birds with one stone and while I got the new plates for the van, Scott tagged along and got a license plate for his car.  And while I was there and at it, I went ahead and finally got a new driver's license as well.  This is quite possibly the quickest time frame after a move that I've ever gotten those two things done.  Not even joking.


And that's all folks!  This post was possibly even more lackluster than last night's.  Womp womp.  Hahaha.  I better go enjoy the rest of my last night in my 30s.  I hear its only downhill once you're OVER the hill.  Hahahahahaha.  J/K, j/k.  The best is yet to come.  Right???

Another 6 Down

Tonight's post is little more lackluster than I'd like -- mostly because I've already covered some of these items in past blog posts and the ones I haven't don't really have very compelling pictures to go along with them.  Nonetheless, here are the next 6 items that I've checked off my list...

18.) Finish painting the whole house -- after knocking out a couple of rooms myself last January, I quickly realized that I really wanted to outsource the rest of the job.  Mainly because of all the TRIM that needed painting throughout the house.  I hated the cream/off-white color that was originally in the house and knew I wanted to replace it everywhere with a nice crisp white.  {Simply White by Benjamin Moore, in case you were wondering.}  Last fall, we finally hired some outside professionals to come and finish up the job for me.  They finished everything so much more quickly (and obviously professionally) than I could have done and I was so glad to finally have paint samples on almost every wall FINALLY covered with a fresh coat of paint.  :)

(Honestly, I don't really have "After" pictures.  The rest of the rooms that were painted were all kind of just neutral colors, with the only BIG difference being the trim.  If you want to see some more dramatic "Before and Afters" you can check out my posts from last year when I painted the piano room and dining room.)

(If you look carefully at the background of this picture, you can see the unfinished trim on the staircase and possibly a little bit in the front hall by the stairs.)

19.) Work on our landscaping -- I tackled this goal last spring, when I overhauled our front yard's flower bed situation.  I also planted a TON of bulbs in the fall, so I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring and the blooming of my new flowers.  :)  You can read all about my landscaping efforts in the original post HERE.

20.) Build up the bumper sticker collection -- another road trip accomplishment!  The kids (mostly Ethan) REALLY didn't want me to sully our "new" van with bumper stickers, so I solved that problem by sticking them all on Stanley -- aka our third car that Ethan and Grace use to drive to school.  Hahahahaha.  I really, really love that.  ;)

21.) Learn a new classical music piece -- I totally did this!  Except I've already forgotten it.  Womp womp.  For some reason, I seem perpetually unable to be mindful that if I don't use it, I lose it.  I set out to learn how to play Claire de Lune, by Debussy, and after a couple of months of practice I had it completely memorized and could play with a lot of feeling (in my opinion) if not necessarily a fast enough tempo.  Hahaha.  Unfortunately, just a few months later -- after not practicing it for a while -- I realized that I could no longer play it by memory.  And some of the trickier parts were really tripping me up.  I guess it's not a complete loss, though, because I can still play through the whole song if I have the music in front of me.  But it's just really interesting to me how quickly I forgot something that I had spent a lot of time working on.

22.) Nail some yoga poses -- ummmm.  So, yeah.  Technically I've nailed some, but I'd never call myself a yogi.  And honestly, I don't know that I'd ever do like a yoga class.  But, I do really like a few different poses for stretching purposes and I like having those in my arsenal for when I'm trying to run more.

23.) See Hamilton -- honestly, I didn't think this one would actually come to pass.  However, when the opportunity came up to see it over Christmas break while we were in Indiana with the cousins, I obviously jumped at that chance.  And it was every bit as magical as I thought it would be.  :)  {You can read all about it, buried at the end of THIS post.}

We're getting so close!!!  Only two more days to go!

The Accounting Continues

Alright!  Who's ready for night 2??  Hahaha.  Here are the next 6 items I've checked off on my 40 Before 40 list...


9.) Hike the Y -- well, we're gonna erase "the Y" portion and call it good.  Hahahaha.  I decided to let our "hiking" in Zion's National Park count, since we ran out of time while in Provo to hike the actual Y mountain.

(I think this was the "Emerald Pools" trail?)

10.) Go camping -- "glamping" counts, right?? I was hoping to do some actual tents-in-the-wilderness kind of camping while on our road trip last summer, but decided instead that the cabins we stayed in while at Zion Ponderosa Ranch were a good enough equivalent.  ;)  (Also -- side note -- a huge chunk of my list was checked off over the course of last summer's road trip, in case you hadn't noticed.  Hahahaha.)

(Definitely glamping.)

12.) Read 40 books -- I actually read around 60, but technically at least a dozen or so of those were books that I read to Isaac.  It would be way too tedious of a recapping to go over all of those, but if you're REALLY interested, you can be my friend on Goodreads and check out everything I read and what I think about it.

To give you a sampling of those thoughts, I'm going to post my favorite reads (and thus reviews) of the last year:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (5 stars)

"I feel like I could almost write a novel of my own just in my reflections and thoughts while reading this book and then thinking about it (constantly) once I was finished. I don't think anything I'm about to say will be articulated very well, but I wanted to write this review while the book is still fresh in my mind. 

my first exposure to "a tree grows in Brooklyn" was as a kid. I remember seeing the movie on tv (in my mind I remember it being black and white) and really being drawn to the main character. fast forward a couple decades and I decided to finally give the book a whirl after hearing from so many friends that they loved it. I don't often read the forewords on books because I tend to find them annoying and kind of like who cares what so-and-so famous person/author thinks about this book. but this i one foreword that I loved almost as much as the book itself. probably because I agree with so many of her thoughts and observations of the story myself. 

I loved this book, but it also made me kind of sad. (although, truth be told, I actually really like books that make me feel my feelings.) when I was a kid, there were many books I read that had a "coming of age" type element to it and for some reason, it always gave me this aching sadness when the story ended and the main characters were on the verge of grown up. it almost made me reluctant to grow up myself, because it seemed like that would be the end. reading this story reminded me of that feeling, but not in a depressing way. possibly because i AM grown up now. and I can authoritatively say that "growing up" and leaving home, ISN'T the ending -- it's the beginning.

things I loved most about the book:
* Francie -- she was a kindred spirit. probably because she thinks so much about everything and tries to analyze her own life and growing up experience while she's still growing up and living.
* the historical aspects -- I've always loved getting glimpses of what life would have been like way back when.
* the humanity -- the human experience is a smorgasbord of interacting with people: good people, bad people; kind people, mean people; rich, poor; happy, sad; lonely, vibrant; black, white, and everything in between. I loved how honest the book is in showcasing all of these characteristics without making making them heavy with symbolism.
* the coming-of-age -- I think everyone can identify with that shift that comes when you realize that the real world isn't quite what it seemed to your younger self.
* SO many truths -- I kind of wish I had been reading with a pencil in hand to underline all of the sentences that hit me so profoundly.
* the image and symbol of that tree growing in Brooklyn -- its just really beautiful.

and there you have it. there were obviously things that seen from the perspective of the 21st century are absolutely outdated and probably offensive to some, so I don't want to go without recognizing that, and I'm grateful that many of those views have improved significantly since the time this story was set. thank you for letting me ramble and get this all out of my system. ;)

(also -- this is completely aside from the story, but I absolutely adored the cover art on my [75th anniversary] edition of the book.)"

The War That Saved My Life (5 stars)

"I absolutely loved this book. Jane picked it out for me for Jolabokaflod this year because they just read it at school and it's now her favorite book and she thought I would like it, too. she was right! also, I don't know why, but I always seem to identify with "prickly" protagonists. hahaha. there's a lot of heart in the story and I really love that. (also -- side note -- this was the last book I read in 2019. I was really happy to be ending the year with a 5 star book versus the 1 star book I STARTED the year with.)"

Layered (5 stars)

"I first saw this cook book at my sister's house this summer, and -- as weird as it is to say this -- I couldn't put it down until I had read through the entire thing! and I don't mean just looking through the pictures (which are beautiful) and skimming the recipes. I really enjoy the author's writing style and found her blurbs to be interesting and entertaining."

Into the Wild (4 stars)

"the fact that I would like this book is a no-brainer -- it's well-written and researched, has a compelling storyline, and has survivalism at its core. I don't know why I am so drawn to reading accounts of people who attempt to survive in the wild (because there is no way in heck I would ever want to live that storyline) but I am. I've read some criticisms of the book that the author inserts too much of himself and his own story into the mix, but I actually quite liked the comparing and contrasting if you will. shouldn't a good story cause you to reflect on your own life? overall, I really enjoyed the book."

Recursion (4 stars)

"okay, so my obvious bias for time travel motifs in books aside, I found this a fascinating and page turning read. I think I just really like the way Blake crouch writes science fiction. I guess I have this long-ago-formed impression that sci-fi is super robot-y or space-y or futuristic or whatever -- which is not necessarily my thing -- but this kind of science fiction is definitely up my alley. I thought the whole memory-time travel concept was really interesting and I really appreciated the way the story unfolded from start to finish. I really enjoyed it!"

A Case for the Book of Mormon (4 1/2 stars)

"I really enjoyed this book! lots of interesting examples and laid out with logic. 4 1/2 stars -- I would have given it 5, but I felt there were some parts that seemed repetitive. still, a great resource."

The Ten Thousand Doors of January (5 stars)

"oh my goodness, I loved this book so much! it's very possible that I had a slight bias towards it going into my reading because I was so tickled by the fact that Isaac (my 4 year old) picked it out all by himself for my Jolabokaflod gift. hahaha. it did start a little slow for me and took me a little bit of time to get into the world-building of the story, but by the end I simultaneously couldn't put it down and didn't want to finish because then it would be over and I wanted it to last forever. if that makes sense. hahaha. in some ways it reminded me a lot of the Inkheart trilogy (which I also loved), but it's not exactly the same. a blurb on the back of my book called this "a gorgeous, aching love letter to stories" and I think that's absolutely right. it was also a love letter to me of the power of words. which is totally my jam. so, I loved it!"

To Kill a Mockingbird (5 stars)

"this is hands down my favorite book of all time. I usually re-read it every year or so, and this year I timed that reading to correlate with grace reading it for school. it's a funny thing about this book -- even though I love it and it's my favorite, every time I re-read it I'm always slightly nervous that maybe this time I'll end up disillusioned with it. perhaps it's because when I read it the first time I was so young -- 6th grade/12 yrs old -- and loved it from the start and that makes me wonder if it's more of a nostalgia thing that makes me love the book so much. but then, every time I read it again, I come away with a solid assurance that yes. this book is amazing. and I love it. I think I probably have parts of it committed to memory at this point, but there really are SO many profound and truthful statements throughout the story. I always wish (too late) that I had a pencil with me for underlining while reading, but so far it hasn't happened. maybe next time... ;)"

Just Mercy (5 stars)

"I think I have to give this book 5 stars simply for the stunning tour de force that it is. however, as an idealistic and empathic person, this was a VERY hard read for me. like very. I started the book at the beginning of January and only just finished it this weekend because I had to keep putting it down and taking breaks. there is just so much injustice and heartbreak being exposed in this book that it was hard for me to handle. STILL. this was VERY well-written and the subject matter -- while heavy -- needs to be addressed and exposed."

13.) Visit my 40th state -- the kids have convinced me that I should be able to count the states that I've only driven through and not actually stopped in and "visited."  It's counter to my logic, but I decided to let it slide in order to check this item off my list.  ;)   Arizona gets the distinguished "40th state" sticker for being the last new-to-me state I've been to.

States I've Been to:

Alabama * Arizona * Arkansas * California * Colorado * Florida * Georgia * Hawaii * Idaho * Illinois * Indiana * Kansas * Kentucky * Louisiana * Maine * Massachusetts * Michigan * Mississippi * Missouri * Nevada * New Jersey * New Mexico * New York * North Carolina * Ohio * Oklahoma * Oregon * Pennsylvania * South Carolina * South Dakota * Tennessee * Texas * Utah *  Vermont * Virginia * Washington * Wyoming

And those bonus states I've at least driven through:

Iowa * New Hampshire * West Virginia

14.) Finish the Old Testament -- way back in 2014, I started reading the Old Testament from the very beginning, with the goal of finishing it by year's end.  {It was the Sunday school curriculum that year for church, and I wanted to be able to read along for all the lessons.}  Well, I got up to Isaiah and then my resolve slowly started to fizzle out and I never ended up reading that last half of the Old Testament.  Last year -- after making this list -- I decided this would be one of the first things I wanted to tackle.  By switching gears from reading to listening I was able to finish off the book over the course of about a month, by listening to the audio version while cleaning up the kitchen each morning.  I view this as one of my biggest accomplishments!  :)

16.) Develop a new talent/skill -- okay, so my initial "talent/skill" I developed was landscaping our yard.  I checked this off last spring and blogged about it then.  HOWEVER, I'm always looking for a good project and this past month, I've added interior decorating to my skill set as well.  Hahahahaha.  J/K, j/k.  I wouldn't say I'm very skilled at it on my own, but I'm VERY good at copying other people's ideas.  And so that's what I did to redo the boys' room (which has been blah since we moved here).

(A mess, I know, but I forgot to take Before pictures and this is the only one I could find from last summer after we had put the bunk beds together.)

The bedroom itself has gone through a couple of transitions in the past year and a half, and up until July of last year, it wasn't even the "boys' room."  It was affectionately named "The Tweedlearium" and it was home to Alex, Jane, Isaac -- and sometimes Sophie.  When we finally convinced Grace to move downstairs into the library (so that Maxwell couldn't ruin her carpet upstairs anymore with his not so occasional accidents), it caused a trickle down effect.  Sophie and Jane moved into Grace's old room and Alex and Isaac now had THEIR own room.  The girls took the two beds from that room with them and the boys were excited when we ordered bunkbeds for their new room.

Fast forward to about a month ago, when a girl I follow (who I kind of knew from church when we lived in St. Louis but had only met once) on Instagram posted a bedroom makeover reveal and I pretty much copied her entire design. (I've linked to her blog post HERE.)  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right???  Hahaha.  Anyway, it wasn't a complete carbon copy, but I certainly used most of her elements for inspiration and as of this weekend, the bedroom is completely finished!

 (The Window Wall -- I had to create mock-ups for the room to make sure everything fit and to know what measurements I needed for the dresser and the shelves, etc.)

(Drapes from Home Depot.)

  

(The Bunk Bed Wall.)

(I think Alex was super stoked to be able to have a place to display all his LEGO creations.)

(The Dresser Wall.)

(The dresser is also from Home Depot and was one of the first inspiration pieces I copied.  The boys haven't had a dresser at all, and it was becoming too problematic to try and store their clothes in bins in a cubbyhole.)

(I made the shelves following Rachel's specifications in her post.  I did change the measurements for the picture ledge and used a 1x2 nailed to 1x3 instead.  We already had all the books and toys, but I got the metal letters from Hobby Lobby, the balloon elephant from Home Goods, and the alarm clock -- which also plays white noise -- from Target.)

(I made the shelves, but to be clear, all I really had to do was stain the boards after getting them cut to the right size.  Ethan was my helper with the table saw for that.  I wanted to try and get the shelves to look similar to the dresser, so I ended up using 3 different stains in succession to get that kind of weathered look.  I used "Dark Walnut" first, then wiped it off and immediately applied "Weathered Oak" and wiped that off.  After letting the boards dry for a couple of hours, I thought the tone was still a little too warm compared to the dresser, so I slapped a coat of "Classic Gray" on them and wiped it off right away.  I kind of love the way they turned out.)

(I went with LEGO superhero prints to hang over their dresser.  I found them on Etsy, and I absolutely love them.  And so do the boys. )

(The prints finally came in the mail yesterday -- all the way from Latvia apparently -- and I was able to put them in the frames [that I got from Hobby Lobby].  The prints are 11x14 in case you are wondering.)

(The lighting at the end of the day yesterday was kind of terrible.)

It was a lot of fun, honestly, and now Sophie, Jane, and Grace are all impatiently waiting for me to makeover THEIR rooms.  So I guess stay tuned for that.  Hahaha.


And that's a wrap for night 2!  More to come tomorrow...