30(ish) days of blogging + answering 10 hard questions

today, troy (my husband) sent me a zen habits post entitled, "why you should write daily."  at the end, it sets forth a challenge to write once a day for 30 days and encourages a blog as format to do so.  the challenge starts may 1st.

since i'm an overachiever, i decided to start today.  booyah!

who knows what in the heck i'm going to write on a daily basis, but i guess we'll just see how it goes.  i hope you'll follow along!  (all you gotta do is hit that little button over on the right that says, "follow.")

since my blog post writing is a little rusty, i decided to link up with erin and answer the hard questions.....

and they were hard.....

here we go.....

1. if you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?

i've said it before and i'll say it again, i'm a planner by nature.  so, if i could do one thing differently, it would be to not try to live my life by some self-imposed timeline.  my 21 year old self was convinced that if i wasn't married by 26 and pregnant by 30, my life was destined to be a disaster.  instead, that self-imposed timeline caused me to make some pretty poor decisions in my early/mid 20s, which lead to me being fairly miserable and having to pull myself out of a marriage that, in my heart of hearts, i knew was not a healthy relationship from the get-go.

would i have made the same decision if i hadn't made the self-imposed timeline?  maybe.  i did love my ex. however, i know deep down that a huge reason i decided to ignore all the waving red flags was my "perfect life" timeline.  

truth of the matter is, i still struggle with this from time to time.  i try to just take a deep breath, reflect on how that didn't work for me in the past, and let go and let God.

2. where do you see yourself in 5 years?

i honestly don't know and i sort of hate this question.  it makes me nervous (see answer to #1).

 

what i know for sure is that i want to be is thriving in my marriage where we are happy, both individually and collectively.  that may mean a house full of kids living in our current town or moving to the coast permanently with a whole brood of dogs.  

as for the specifics, i guess we'll just have to see.

3. do you honestly want kids?

this is a painful question for me for personal reasons, but the answer is absolutely, 100% yes.  

4. what has been the best moment of your life so far?

i have had some pretty fabulous moments, from college graduation, to my wedding day with troy, to traveling, but the best moment in my life isn't any of those things.

it was on a quiet saturday in january, holding my husband's hand, and i was recovering from some health-related stuff.  at that moment, i knew that this guy was 100% for real when he said in sickness and in health and in good times and in bad ones.  the comfort, peace, and confidence in knowing that...absolute best moment so far.

5. what is your life theme song?

"keep your head up" by andy grammer.

6. what is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die?

learn how to not crucify myself for my mistakes.

more tangibly, travel with my father (husband and mom can come too) to:

• the caribbean, because he's never been there in his 71 years of life and it is high time he sits in a beach cabana with fruity cocktail.
• ireland because it is where we hail from and although he has been there before, he has talked for years about us going together.
• greece because it is where he was stationed in the air force and has so many great stories about the food, people, and beauty of the country.

7. if you could choose one thing to be known for, what would it be?

being a loving person.

8. if you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc), what would it be?

quit my job and spend my days doing work that i'm passionate about, most likely with a non-profit organization or teaching yoga full time.

9. what has been the most challenging moment in your life?

while several things pop into my head, i would have to say that the most challenging moment in my life has been accepting my mom's illness at a young age and learning how to deal with it in a positive way.  while her disease is not life-threatening, it has certainly been life-altering for her and our entire family.  even though she drives me crazy sometimes, she's a rock star. 

10. summarize yourself in one word.

resilient.

so there you have it.....

and now i'm counting down until happy hour.....

xoxox -