30 things to do before I turn 30

Ok, I guess I have to make this official already. Many moons ago, I was turning 25 and my roommate was turning 30. She and I made lists and went ahead crossing things off. Now, five years later, it was a little overwhelming to do this all over again. My last big list ended with jumping out of an airplane on my 25th birthday. Things have changed slightly. I am a stay at home mom and I can't exactly take my one yr old bungee jumping with me. So, this list had to have plenty of variety.

 It took a while to get some ideas. I looked up many, many lists of other people who were turning 30 and they were all the types of things I don't do, have already done, or they were things that would take longer than four months to complete. Considering the circumstances, I think this is a pretty good list.

30 things to do before I turn 30
 Started groundhog day 2/2/2012 ends on 6/2/2012
1. Read the entire Book of Mormon
2. Complete a puzzle by myself (at least 500 pieces)
3. Cook one complicated recipe from Julia Child
4. Write 30 letters to 30 people
5. Attend the Holi festival
6. Fulfill my commitment and sing for the residents of an assisted living
7. Take my daughter to the zoo
8. For Lent this year, give up buying anything "new"
9. Take my daughter to a children's reading hour
10. Make my own "mommy file"
11. Roll my own sushi
12. Clean and detail my own car
13. Plan a special Valentine's dinner for my husband
14. Watch 10 movies from the 1930's
15. Bake 12 new cookie recipes
16. Learn to polish shoes
17. Take a ceramics class and make something start to finish all by myself
18. Do an act of service for someone who needs it
19. Make something special for my family
20. Practice yoga at least 30 days
21. Discover a new musician and get the album
22. Take 30 photographs
23. Discover a new author and read one of their books
24. Submit some of my writing to a writing contest
25. Write a children's book
26. Try a new type of food or restaurant
27. Take my daughter for her first taco at my favorite Mexican restaurant
28. Go to the Natural History museum
29. Get my own cowboy boots from a thrift store and go to my first rodeo
30. Enter and ride in a formal bike race/ride.

 Yes. There you have it. On my birthday I will probably be biking, baking, or writing somewhere. Please comment if you have suggestions, ideas, or advice. The next four months should be a lot of fun.

Thoughts while cleaning my kitchen...

While cleaning my kitchen today, I got to thinking about the world we live in. I have just recently switched to a new gym. This one has a row of twenty t.v.'s blaring many different stations while I'm trying to focus on what I am doing. My husband and I for many reasons have chosen not to have t.v. at our house. While many people groan at the thought, it has given us some real peace. We have Netflix and choose movies or t.v. shows off Hulu instead. While the commercials are still present our peace comes from not having to see many things that are just in my opinion, smut and dirt.

 I hate dr. Oz and I hate the Oprah Winfrey network and the things that are advertised. I think reality television (if you can call that reality) brings out the worst in people. It is a step lower than good old mr. Donahue, Jerry Springer, and Ricki Lake of the old days. The real housewives of Orange County is somehow always on when I need to switch to my cardio routine and I wonder to myself why people like watching it.

 The Super Bowl was last night and we joined family to eat some excellent food together during the game. Everyone knows the commercials are what makes the game worth the watch. Well, almost every other ad featured some woman dressed like a sleeze, in a strappy outfit with her breasts busting out, or in a bikini. I ask, since when did sexy equal no clothes? Are we that ridiculous and primitive that the only thing that excites and stimulates is extra skin and photoshopped cleavage? As my friend calls it, we are surrounded by " live porn."
 Maybe the reason this is really getting to me is that I have a daughter that is barely a year old. Someday she will come across a number of these examples.... Children's clothes that are designed to amp her sex appeal, people that create themselves through fake means that nothing real will be left.   What is to keep her from believing her sex appeal is all she will have to offer?  She is growing up in a world where if someone doesn't like their body, all they have to do is get surgery or alter themselves in photoshop or just erase who they are altogether and live out their life on the internet as someone else. Now, I know this sounds preachy and believe me, I have my own struggles with self image. I don't think there is anything wrong with looking your best.... But I have had to be wary of that line where I am becoming something I am not.

 Earlier, as I got my flat tire fixed, I looked through the reading materials trying to be positive about the world. It was hard but I had to pull myself away from the several newspaper articles about the coward Josh Powell and his hellish and nauseating actions. (Sometimes the media dwells on something so much that I have to step away for a while.) People magazine can be very addicting for me but I have tried to stay away from it. Usually I just feel fat and angry when I am done reading it. But today I saw an old headline on People's cover. It read: "Elizabeth Smart engaged!"

 It really hit me that in this world, a place where people are so often giving in to the wrong influences and where some fall victim to the madness of others, there is still hope. This girl endured hell. I remember when she was abducted. I was in college and was feeling so scared something that horrible could happen. I expected the worst for many months and dutifully made sure my window was locked every night. Then one day, it was over... And not like everyone expected. She was safe and ok and now, almost 10 years later... She is getting married. She is making a difference and fighting back. She isn't a victim anymore, claiming the rest of her life as hers.

 Now that is the type of example I would love my daughter to learn from. Not the Kardashians or the latest Disney channel tween who will sell out within a few years and get hooked on drugs or plastic surgery. But here is someone real, who believed in God instead of holding on to anger because she had to go through what she did.

 It is getting harder and harder to stand up for what you believe in without offending someone, but I am grateful for all the many people that teach love, kindness, strength, hope and while we are at it... even modesty.