Now that I am a grown up...

In May I celebrated my 30th birthday. I know that some people (both men and women) dread this milestone, or feel that they will miss their 20's. However, I was not one of thoese people. Hitting the big 3-oh simply made me a bit more reflective, and I started to feel that I was making that giant leap into adulthood. This might sound silly, given that I have been married for 7 years, have 2 children, and we are on our 3rd house.

The truth of the matter is that until this year, I have spent most of my life making big changes to try to put off dealing with my own issues. I have presented a happy facade to the world, embraced multitudes of people closely, but not ever truly let them get too close to me. Over the past year my life has been changing, and my attitude has been changing with it. I am more at peace with myself now than I have ever been. I am struggling to remember that I can't control everything, or really anything, other than my own actions and reactions. I am giving thanks daily for my family and all the blessings we have. By now I have seen so many things that seemed like the end of the road work out to be better than I could have imagined, and I am learning to have faith and trust that God has a plan and that I don't have to know what it is.

Perhaps because of all these revelations in the past year, I also took a new approach to life in my 30's. I had a nice little chat with myself, and decided that it is time to grow up. Matt and I have been working together on improving everything in our lives, so here is the list of things I have been doing as a responsible adult now that I am 30.

• Flossing my teeth regularly
• Making time to work out several times a week
• Keeping on top of the housework all the time
• Trying to seriously pay down debt instead of running it up
• Getting annual check-ups, eye exams and dental exams
• Not eating out just because I don't really want to cook
• Making and sticking to (for the most part) a monthly menu
• Making a conscious effort to take stock of my blessings and truly enjoy my husband and children
• Suck it up! Everyone has bad times in their lives, everyone has struggles, and I am vowing to be more positive and not dwell on the struggles.

So, since May I have been doing a fairly good job of keeping these "new decade" resolutions. We have also been focused on getting ourselves in much better shape, so I am happy to report that I am down 61 pounds since we moved to OKC on March 1st! Bring on the next 30 years, I welcome them with open arms and look forward to continuing to improve myself and living my life to the fullest. And hey, getting older certainly beats the alternative!