30 Before 30 Revisit

I'm so bummed! On my last blog, I wrote up a "30 before 30" list: 30 things to do before I turned 30, and then when I deleted the blog, I never wrote down my list. What a momental loss!
I started thinking about this list last night because I wrote it when I was 24 and now in a month, I will be 27 and that is half way to 30 from my last list... which is a little scary when you consider how quickly time goes by and how quickly things can change.
I remember recording that there was so many things that I wanted to do, wanted to accomplish before having a family. At that time I couldn't image having a child -
I think back on the last 3 years and smile about the things I did do, but remember that there were opportunities to try new things that I avoided: out of fear, out of laziness... Why do we sometimes avoid ways to enrich our lives? Why I am content with so little sometimes when there is so much life to be lived!?
I worried about a lot of stupid stuff, I shrunk away from being who I am, I often lived in the future instead of in the present, I was anxious... I'm not that afraid to admit these things - they're probably issues that a lot of people struggle through and have to go through in order to live the lives that they were intended to live. But the part that I do become afraid of is the complacency to continue living in that mind frame. It's not fun to worry - and I shouldn't. God has surely taught me, especially this year, that worry is an extra burden that only I put on myself. It isn't worth the struggle - God knows what I need, He supplies it, and I don't have to worry - ever. I suppose the same rule applies to living authenticly - I am who He made me to be - there is no reason to hide that or to live otherwise.
I'm starting to realize this, but the hard part is getting over that hump... (I get to this place in my rationale a lot) and just doing, just living, just being me.
In the spirit of enrichment in my life, I have formulated a new list: and I'm not saying that I HAVE to do everything on it, but they are things that I want to do because doing them would make me, more me! I'd love to accomplish them before I have kids - but I am slowly realizing that children create more life and more love and I want more life and love - and I want them with Ross - so I'm not putting a time table on this list; 30 before 30 just has a nice ring.

1. Read through the Bible in a year
2. Run a marathon
3. Get something that I write published
4. Have a garden
5. Create a hobby farm (yes, I want chickens!)
6. Take cake decorating classes
7. Get my Masters
8. Get a dog
9. Learn how to sew
10. Take cooking classes
11. Go sailing
12. Travel to Asia
13. Travel to Western Europe
14. Buy an original piece of art - check, did that
15. Take a pottery class
16. Relearn french
17. Take a backpacking trip with Ross and not be scared (bears are scary forces!)
18. Create something that I can market/sell
19. Eat healthy so that I truly look my best
20. Join a community band
21. Volunteer somewhere on a regular basis
22. Use the farmer's market regularly
23. Take more pictures
24. Run a duathelon
25. Have a family
26. Adopt
27. Be a smart consumer
28. Find a true church home
29. Be part of a book club
30. Be able to stop, analyze, evaluate a situation, and chose the best thing to say at any given moment :)

Watermelon Ice Cream

I was pretty excited to make this recipe today. 1) I love ice cream 2) I love basil 3) This is healthy! (As in, I could eat this for breakfast tomorrow, and it'd be totally okay!)

Recipe:

Dissolve 1/4 c. water and 1/4 c. sugar over high heat. Let cool.

Cut up 4 cups of watermelon and 1/2 cup of basil. Place into blender with simple syrup and 1 table spoon lime or lemon juice.
















Add 1 c. plain yogurt. Blend thoroughly.
















Take mixture and put into ice cream maker. Churn for 40 minutes or until you get a desired texture/consistency.
















When done churning, place into freezer until it's truly ice cream.

Delicious! I think this would be really fun to omit the basil and then add in chocolate chips after 30 minutes of churning (they'd look like seeds!).

Anniversary

Thursday Ross and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary - which seems a little crazy to me! Time has flown by, and I feel like we should have a quaint little house with a nursery all set up - but that is just not the path God has planned for us. It's been such an interesting life and not at all what I could have expected, but it's been perfect... hand taylored for us.

I can honestly look back and see everything we've accomplished together - surviving the first few years of teaching, getting through law school, sometimes really having to scrimp and save to make ends meet, being totally creative and spontaneous with our weekends... and through it all totally falling more in love with each other. Ross makes me laugh harder than anyone I know.

I hope we have many more happy years together!

For our anniversarys, we've decided that taking a trip is the most fun for us. Our honeymoon was an adventure, and this year we decided to go down to Kentucky and tour the Bourbon Trail which is the touring of several distilleries with tasting (of course) at the end. Hence why you would go through several of the same type of tours. We also stayed at an amazing bed and breakfast one night and then spent a few hours at Mammoth Caves (we were going to camp there 1 night, but severe thunderstorms primaturely ended our little trip).

Hanging out at the B and B on one of their many hammocks.

This Bed and Breakfast also had an Alpaca farm where they made a lot of handmade things to sell. They wouldn't let us touch them - but Ross still tried.

This one was giving us the stink eye.

This house was built right before the Civil Way by a plantation owner... slaves did most of the construction (this is so baffling to me as a Yankee to hear someone say this and be walking through a house that was created by forced labor).

Ross and I at Wild Turkey taking our shots after the tour.

This was a really cool distillery - Maker's Mark. They had an amazing tour, and I learned more than necessary about how Bourbon is made. These are the distillery tanks.

Mash - this made the whole place smell like pizza baking.

Barrels that are stored for at least 6 years - the expansion of the liquid into the wood during the summer and the constriction of it during the winter is what gives Bourbon it's amber color and distinct taste - interesting huh?

Best part of the tour.

We also visited Abraham Lincoln's childhood home. Don't be deceived - this is his boyhood friend's home - not his... seemed like false advertising to me, but hey, it was still enjoyable.

It was so hot down in Kentucky (I think this seems to be becoming a trend in the southern states) that going down into Mammoth caves was down right pleasant. It was hard to take pictures down there, but it was really neat to see how water caved out these rooms under ground.

Entrance down into the caves - wish it would've stayed nice for us so we could enjoy another day there, but alas - not to be.

It was a really fun trip. We got home on Sunday and started packing our upcoming singles trips - Ross to Philly and me to Grand Rapids.