25 Things To Do Before Turning 25
1. Read 25 books.
I love reading and can't wait until the summer every year when I actually have time for it. I'm not sure what these 25 books will be yet, but I'm excited to start making a list.
I read this year like never before; it was fantastic! However, I didn't quite hit the 25 book mark. Here's a few of my favorites that I stumbled across:
- Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant, Veronica Roth
- I know these are getting a lot of attention lately, but I seriously could. not. put them down! I began to feel like I really knew the characters personally and just can't get enough. Veronica Roth is fantastic (and did I mention, she's only 25?!)
- The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
- Because this was considered a "West Virginia" novel, I wanted to read it. I didn't expect to stumble into the wild life of the Walls family. It's definitely a great read!
- Bossypants, Tina Fey
- I love Tina Fey! I found 30 Rock on Netflix and decided I'd give it a try. Around the same time, I decided I'd read this book. I found that right after I watched an episode, Fey would write about that episode in the next chapter of her book. Give it a read if you're looking for a laugh.
- Inferno, Dan Brown
- I discovered Dan Brown in high school. He had only published four books at the time, and I couldn't get enough of them. A few years ago, he published Inferno and The Lost Symbol. I still haven't read The Lost Symbol, but Inferno definitely didn't let me down; like always, it was thrilling, mysterious, and included travel full of description.
Last year we successfully grew tomatoes and jalapenos in our miniature garden space. This year we're hoping for tomatoes, jalapenos, cucumbers, bell peppers, lettuce, onions, & strawberries. The onions and lettuce are looking pretty good so far!
Success! We managed cucumbers too! It was still a super small garden because we didn't have much room, but this year is going to be even better! (We tried cabbage, but it didn't amount to anything.)
My roommates and I have always wanted to do a girls' trip somewhere, but we never had money for such things. Now that we're either out of college or have jobs (for the most part), it would be the perfect time to do it! A beach trip is planned for next month & I can't wait!!
This was SO much fun!! We only went for the weekend, but we had a fantastic time! I hope that we're able to go again soon!
Grandma quilted a lot, and I love having things that I know she actually made. I hope to be able to give my kids & grandchildren something like this in the future, too.
When I found out that my sister was going to have a baby, I couldn't wait to get started on a baby quilt! It was actually a LOT easier than I had originally expected, so I'm looking forward to making another one.
Derek and I try to switch between his church and my church every Sunday, but it doesn't always work out. I want to become more devoted to my spiritual life by ensuring we attend church more often and improving my relationship to God through prayer.
I debated crossing this one off, but I think there's always room for improvement when it come to our faith and spirituality.
6. Sew an outfit
Why buy clothes when you can make them? I've never been a super stylish person (not that I wouldn't want to be), but I'd love to make something that I'd be proud to wear.
Nope...this one didn't make the cut. I would still like to try to make a sundress, so maybe it'll happen this year.
7. Become less passive.
I have never been aggressive. My elementary school basketball coach always told me that I needed to be more aggressive, but I never changed because was always afraid of hurting someone. This idea has continued throughout my life. When someone is rude to me, I counter with kindness. If I'm told to do something that I'm not happy about, I don't object. I certainly didn't inherit this trait from my mother! I'd really like to be less passive and learn to take a stand for myself.
I don't think this has really changed much, but at the same time, I haven't really felt the need to be less passive. Perhaps removing myself from certain situations has helped with that.
I've had the opportunity to explore DC twice in my life, but it's been over a decade since the last time. I'd really like to get the chance to actually walk around and explore as an adult in order to fully appreciate what is there. We're actually planning on a weekend getaway here for our anniversary!
This was a blast! I wish we would have had more time to go exploring because we didn't get to see everything on the list. We were able to visit the WWII Memorial, Arlington, and the Archives though, which is something that I've always wanted to do.
9. Take a food tour
Any time we go to spend some time in a city, I research what there is to do in the area. The last several cities have all offered food tours. I think it would be so much fun to travel around to various restaurants and try the tastes of the city!
I hoped that this would be something we could do while in DC, but we ran out of time. Maybe this will be the year!
I love food. This is probably pretty obvious with my appearance and most of my blog posts. Anyway, I'm always looking for new recipes but am usually too much of a chicken to actually try them. I hate wasting food and am afraid that if a recipe doesn't turn out well, we'll waste the food. Despite this, I'm going to try at least 25 new recipes and hopefully turn some of them into family favorites.
This was BY FAR the easiest one to cross off the list. I've been creating a dinner menu the last several months and using various websites and magazines to help create new and diverse dinners for us every day.
11. Start an exercise regimen
A year ago this item would've been "Lose X number of pounds." Rather than focusing on losing weight, I'm going to work on developing a routine of exercising. This may just be walking three or four times a week, but regardless it'll be more than what I'm currently doing.
We began running/walking last summer, but as the summer wore on and the weather turned cold, we stopped. This is still one of my biggest goals.
I want to own a house. I also want to have children. Both of these things require money and lots of it, so it would be really nice to get our savings up to a place where we could afford these things.
I also debated crossing this one off too. We were able to increase our savings (although not by much), but then we bought a house which pretty much emptied it out. We've been slowly working on building it back up again.
13. Pay off credit cards
This is probably pretty self-explanatory.
Nope. Still working on it, but we're not quite there yet.
It'll be so nice to own our own home! Our lease ends next May, so hopefully we will be able to locate either a home or some land by my birthday.
Yes! In November, we became official home owners! It's thrilling to know that we don't have to worry about painting a wall or having our lease run out. We can do whatever and decorate however we want now because it's our home!
This is an ongoing process in my house. I have to make a conscious effort to sort through, throw away, and donate my stuff because I've always been a bit of a pack rat. If I don't constantly try to organize, I get very overwhelmed.
I worked pretty hard on this last summer and while moving. There's still some work to do, but everything now has a place it belongs and isn't just thrown somewhere.
16. Develop & stay up-to-date on a blog posting schedule
I've really been enjoying writing my blog posts, and from what I hear, there's several people who have been enjoying reading them. I currently don't have any type of schedule or predetermined ideas for posts, so developing something will help me to stay up-to-date without long periods of nothing.
This was probably my biggest failure on my list. Instead of blogging more often, I pretty much went off the grid. I've found that writing for myself is a way to relax, so I'd still like to just take the time to sit down and let the words flow from my mind onto the screen.
I feel like this is a necessity in life. It's so convenient to have vegetables on hand during the winter months--especially ones that you know are healthy and grown organically. I'm hoping that we'll be able to can some of our garden vegetables this year!
While I didn't necessarily can much of my garden, I did learn how to can jalapenos! Derek loves being able to just open the fridge and throw some jalapenos on his nachos or a sandwich whenever he wants.
Yum. I've been wanting to try this for a while, but just haven't had the opportunity.
I had forgotten that this was on my list! I received an ice cream maker from Mom for Christmas this year. I've only tried vanilla and chocolate so far, but it is seriously fantastic. I can't wait for my blueberries to bloom for some blueberry ice cream!
19. Get to the top of Seneca Rocks
Probably the most famous attraction in our county is Seneca Rocks. People from all over come to scale the rocks or just walk up to the top. I think it's only appropriate for the people who live in the area to make it to the top and see what all of the fuss is about. However, after nearly 25 years, I still have not made it up. This is going to be the year it happens.
Nope...still haven't made it.
I love to travel. I mean, really love. So, I'm always really excited to go somewhere new and explore the different features that make each place so special. I think we're going to be making a trip to Baltimore later on this year, so hopefully I'll be able to check this item off the list.
For part of our vacation this year, we went to Baltimore and explored the Inner Harbor. I hadn't been to Baltimore before, but since it's so close to DC, it made sense to go explore one weekend. We had a nice time, especially touring through the aquarium, but I'm not sure I have much of a desire to go back anytime soon.
Painting is so peaceful and therapeutic. Anytime I sit down and paint, I can immediately feel stress leaving my body. We "inherited" most of our furniture, and a lot of it could use a good face lift. I've been doing some research on how to paint and add legs to get a certain look, so hopefully I'll be able to do something along those lines this year.
We had a bookshelf in our living room that was unfinished, so I decided to turn it into a nice aqua/turquoise. It's currently in our bathroom for the medicine basket, Q-tips, and other frequently used materials.
22. Build a piece of furniture
The old chicken coop at Grandpa's fell down. It hadn't really been used for years and was pretty worn, so it was no surprise when it finally fell. I'd really love to take some of the wood from it and build a piece of furniture. I've been thinking about making a small kitchen island or something similar.
I was so hoping I would be able to do this last summer. This is one of the first things I'm going to do this year. I want to make a new dining room table!
23. Stop biting my nails
I'm the last of my friends to bite her nails. Most of the time I don't even really bite them..I pick at them until they tear. I would love to have long and strong natural nails.
I'm working on it. My nails are currently about the longest they've been all year, but I know that in a few days, one will either break or I'll get stressed out and pick at them.
24. Write letters to friends via snail mail
No one writes actual letters any more; it's almost like a lost art. I'd really like to start writing to friends and keeping in touch through letters instead of just texts.
I've started trying to make sure I send cards more frequently, but haven't actually written any letters.
25. Spend more time with family
This is always something that should be worked on in my opinion. We get so caught up in an everyday schedule that it's sometimes hard to find time for each other. We currently have dinner with our families once a week, but it'd be nice to increase the amount of time spent with them and do activities other than just dinner.
We still try to eat with my family and Derek's parents once a week. Sometimes it's less frequent and sometimes we see each other more than that. It's just still quite difficult to get together with everyone's schedule being so different.
