43 things

Ok, so I got a fwd with www.43things.com in it. It challenges you to come up with 43 things you want to do with your life/during your life. I am going to try that....

Here they are, in no specific order:

1. Stay married forever. I am pretty anti divorce, and actually see this one as being pretty easily achieved, partially because I totally accept that married life is going to suck sometimes. It still doesn't mean I want to bail out.

2. Relax more.

3 Read everything I can get my hands on, which I pretty much already do.

4. Spend more time with my kids one-on-one. They simply do not like all the same activities, and I need to respect that, and enjoy them in their own personal time, and not always together.

5. Stop being so critical of myself. This applies to many things.

6. Try to think "is that really going to matter a week from now?" If the answer is no, then I am not losing sleep over it.

7. Start being a blood donor again. I used to do this all the time, and haven't in a while. There's no excuse for it.

8. Take a yearly trip with my husband without the kids. During this time alone, I want us to to make lists of what we want to accomplish in the next year, be it financial, spiritual, or anything. I got this idea from Rene Teater and I think it is great.

9. Find the best way to respond to people that think I should go back to work when the kids go back to school. Being a stay at home mom is where I need to be, and I should be able to say that.

10. Find a new house that is a little bigger than this one, that we can grow old together in. I don't have to have a mansion or anything, I just want a decent size yard, and a cool front porch. I hate to move. I want to get somewhere and STAY.

11. Invest as much money as possible as soon as we can. It's time we begin preparing something for retirement and the kid's college. No time like the present.

12. Start telling people 'no' that want pictures taken for free, or at extremely cut rates. Although it is a passion, it is also an income; one that often takes me from my family, and I can't do it for nothing.

13. Don't let photography become so "job like" that it ruins it as a hobby.

14. Learn to thrive on whatever team Mike and I are on at Journey.

15. Start spending Christmas morning at home with my own kids and husband, without feeling rushed to get up and out to other family obligations. I want to enjoy my own family of 4 on that day, and it's time I stressed that.

16. Come up with a budgeting systems for our finances.

17. Eliminate credit card debt within the next two months.

18. Convince my husband to not take my kids hunting so much this year, so he can actually enjoy it. They beg, and he gives in. He never gets to really hunt.

19. Sell more on ebay. I am here all day. There's no reason not to.

20. Don't let negative people bring me down. Normally this isn't a problem, but at times, it is. Just cause you are a lemon doesn't mean I want to be.

21. Go on a girl trip to Hot Springs and have spa treatments and relax.

22. Start taking my yearly trip to the beach with a girlfriend again. I really missed that this year.

23. Learn to pick my battles better with my kids.

24. Steal some of Brandy Files' patience. I have her compassion, but not her patience....

25. Accept that I have a lot of close aquaintances, but only a few real friends, and that's ok.

26. Raise my kids in an open, honest way, so that they feel they can talk to me about anything.

27. Continue to read my bible daily, and write things down, even if I never go back over these notes. I think writing it down somehow connects my hand and my brain and it sinks in better.

28. Make sure my husband and my kids know how much I love them.

29. Appreciate that my father is cancer free.

30. Limit myself on how many pairs of jeans I buy.

31. Try not to raise kids that are too materialistic, but that appreciate that some of their things are nice.

32. Finally buy a bedroom suite.

33. Stop going to every shower I am invited to. If I didn't even KNOW you were pregnant, why should I buy you something?

34. Travel more.

35. Gripe less.

36. Know that my kids will get into arguments with their friends, and I won't be that mom that gets involved. I will let them work it out.

37. Stop using the term, "retard." It's a bad habit, and it isn't nice. I should not jokingly say, "stop acting retarded" and I am really working on that. I don't really know how it even got started.

38. Learn to witness to friends in a way that they don't even realize that's what's happening. Jeff's going to work with me on that one.

39. Learn to leave the camera at home sometimes, and just enjoy the moment, rather than always trying to record it.

40. Be willing to say, "we don't go to the bar anymore," rather than say we don't have a sitter.

41. Develop a household routine that will make this place run like a well oiled machine, at least when it comes to laundry and cleaning.

42. Let my dogs out of their pen at least once a day. It is a huge pen, you could fit 5-6 cars in it, but they still deserve to get out.

43. Tell my parents I love them every time I leave their house.