Happy 4th of July, all!  Tomorrow I turn 38. It’s not really a milestone birthday, but it is another year closer to 40. I’m pretty excited for that birthday, ushering in a new decade, closing out the old one. I’m excited to see that that looks and feels like. Every few years, I write a list of things I want to accomplish by a certain age, like this one I wrote before turning 35. I’m excited to share with you my list of things to accomplish in the next two years, my 40 by 40 list!

Before I get to that list, I have to share how things have gone so far!  This birthday week has been pretty darned good. I’ve been off seeing friends, getting things ticked off the to-do list, eating and drinking wonderful things. The highlight, however, had to be this-you know, just hanging out with these AMAZING birds! I didn’t expect when I went to a BBQ next door, that I’d get to pet a 40 day old owl and handle a falcon. I shouldn’t be surprised, this neighborhood always has magical things happening.

The rest of the long weekend will be spent with friends, chatting about old times, sipping cold beers, and eating way too much. There will be hikes, and fireworks, hugs, and well-wishes, so much love and I can’t think of a better way to wrap up 37. I am truly lucky to have such a good life, with great people surrounding me. So, what will the next two years bring? Adventure, excitement, food and more happiness, I am sure based on how this past year has gone and by what I have planned in my new 40 by 40 bucket list!

My 40 by 40 List

1. Do something that scares me, often!
2. Go to Canlis
3. Finally get that tattoo!
4. Pay off a large bill-not super exciting, but getting rid of any bill is more cash for fun 🙂
5. Be more accepting of my body, strengths and flaws
6. Go overseas again/travel more
7. Continue to get in shape
8. Skate more
9. Learn to knit
10. Make sourdough, actually keep it alive for more than 1 week
11. Do 5 push ups, well. Yeah, I said it. 5.
12. Do more karaoke
13. Make a blood orange olive oil milkshake like the one at the Olive Pit, in California-so good!
14. Fix up the garage and make it into a studio
15. Raise rabbits
16. Make more quilts
17. Finish up my herbalism classes
18. Eat less processed foods
19. Rock climb again
20. Hunt a deer and properly butcher it
21. Write more (hmmm…check?)
22. Make cheese
23. Go clam digging
24. Set up a friend version of Outstanding in the Field.
25. Teach Izzy to fish
26. Find more happiness-actively seek it out, and hold it tight
27. Successfully grow peas and carrots, and not little dinky ones
28. Bring Izzy backpacking
29. Take a photography class
30. Dance more
31. Build the fence that has been sitting in raw materials in my garage for 10 years
32. Kayak on Lake Washington
33. Ride in a hot air balloon
34. Go to Disneyland
35. Camp on a beach
36. Buy more nice knives
37. Teach more
38. Hike to a hot spring
39. Take a train ride
40. Read more

That’s it, my 40 X 40 list! What would you add?  Any of these that you’ve already done?

Yours in finding adventure,
Raina