If you don't TRY, you'll never be able to DO

It's not news to those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, but every year on my birthday, I make a goal to try new things that year and set the goal for however many years I am turning. Last year I was 27 so I wanted to try at least 27 new things. I think the older you get, the easier it is to get stuck in your ways and it's important to grow. Now that I'm a mom, this goal is probably more important to me because while raising Creed is my first priority, I think it's important not to lose myself in the meantime and it's easy to do that when I'm focusing on Creed. Some years, it's not so easy to reach my goal, but with so much going on this year, I really could have gone way over 27. Here's what I put on my list:

1. Flew alone with Creed


2. Rode a hot air balloon


3. Met Mo Willems and Jon Sciezska


4. Went to Pink Moon and Sprinkles cupcake shops


5. Took Creed to Disneyland


6. Threw a witches Brew party


7. Felted old sweaters to make cupcake pincushions


8. Downloaded songs on Itunes to make Creed’s lullaby CD (yep, I'm lame and that was my first Itunes download)


9. Got new glasses after over seven years!


10. Did an author interview on the child lit blog


11. Needlefelted toadstool pincushions


12. Sewed a few aprons


13. Went to Punxsutawney for Groundhog’s Day


14. Bought a cook book! Everyday foods’ Food Fast


15. Made a mobile for Creed’s room


16. Held a Valentine Exchange


17. Learn to print on Eva’s letterpress


18. Visited an architectural salvage shop


19. Ate dinner at Tasi


20. Put our house up for sale (getting the house ready was so much work)


21. Sold our first house


22. Ate at Banana Bean Café and El Aripazo (two restaurants I'd been wanting to try for a while)


23. Designed posters to be letterpress printed


24. Took Creed to New York and Coney Island


25. Walked across the Brooklyn Bridge


26. Tried Venezuelan food


27. Moved to Salt Lake City

Now I'm already working on my list of 28 new things for this year starting with going to the Sheepdog Festival and taking a much needed photography class from Candice.

I used to HATE that my birthday usually fell around the first or second day of school. I almost always got school clothes for my birthday while my siblings got them just because school was starting, and I often had no friends to celebrate with because we'd move just in time to start the school year somewhere new. A lot has changed and now I love having a birthday this time of year. This is always about the time when catalogues for community classes arrive and I'm busy thinking about all the cool things I might like to try to learn that year. Columbus had amazing Parks and Rec classes that were really affordable. The Salt Lake Community Learning Centers don't offer many options for kids, but they still have a wide variety of classes for adults. A few options that I think would be fun are basic drawing/composition, breakdancing (ok, I would never have the guts to take a breakdancing class, but I think it's so cool that they offer it), big Band Swing Dancing, Birding 101 (Creed loves birds and I find myself wishing I knew more about them), acrylic painting, yoga, lino and wood-cut printmaking, web design (I've designed a few websites, but I know nothing about programming), and harmonica (which I probably wouldn't take, but aren't you curious about it?).

If you live close to a university, most of them offer life-long learning courses too and they are much lees expensive than a regular college course. You can check out the University of Utah's Lifelong Learning catalogue here. They also offer some courses that are really tempting to me: beginning drawing (I really really want to learn how to draw), introduction to metal work: art jewelry, beyond sushi: Japanese cuisine, designing with fresh flowers, containers for fall gardens, introduction to mime (ok, I'm joking, but I think it's awesome that they offer it), storytelling, ghosthunting 101 (just making sure you're paying attention, again I think it's funny that they offer it and it would be interesting to see what they have to say), sculling, fencing, ice skating for fun and exercise, and full-moon snowshoe hike.

Alas, Larry's schedule is such that it's pretty much impossible for me to take a single one of these classes, but next year his schedule should be much better and I can't wait to see what they offer then because I am absolutely signing myself up!