One of my favorite quotes from Anne of Green Gables (the movie version) is “Every day is fresh, with no mistakes on it.” This encapsulates exactly how I feel about New Year’s Day, the first day of every month, Sunday mornings, and the day after a holiday or vacation. Suffice to say, I love a fresh start. And I love celebrating a milestone in some meaningful way that allows me to reconnect to my values and priorities.
I turn 40 on Saturday, July 24, and to welcome my new decade, I’m making a birthday list. Not a bucket list, not really– it’s a list of things I want to do in my 40th year of life. Some are incredibly simple, and some contain multiple steps. Some will take place at home, and others will be an adventure. I plan to check back in with the blog seasonally and let you all know how it’s going.
(Note that I borrowed this idea from Gretchen Rubin, who often uses it in a new year– “21 things in 2021,” for example.) Some of my list items may seem trite, but I’ve put thought into all of them, and I know they will each contribute to my happiness this year in a meaningful way.
Leanne’s 40 in 40
Self
- Create a system for expressing gratitude on a regular basis– writing cards, reaching out on social media, etc.
2. Start tracking how many vegetables and lean proteins I eat every day. Aim for 7 vegetables and 6 lean proteins.
3. Continue to do MOSSA Step and Kickboxing workouts several times a week. (These workouts have gotten me in the best shape of my life!)
4. Take at least one new hike every season.
5. Put “breathe” on my habit tracker instead of “meditate” to trick my brain into actually doing it.
6. Try a new spa treatment.
7. Make a standing walking date with friends.
8. Do an outdoor yoga class.
Family/Friends
9. Plan a 40th birthday trip with my BFF!
10. Find a way to meet up with my college roommates by 2023, our 20th reunion.
11. Plan our next big family vacation. (Disney? Yellowstone?)
12. Set up a seasonal book club.
13. Make a celebration out of Eleanor’s first dance recital next June.
14. Pay off both car loans.
15. Get away with Nick to NYC this fall, including seeing Hamilton!
16. Dedicate the month of December to holiday celebrations to make up for their loss in 2020.
17. Have “Mommy day” with each kid, a special day just for them.
18. Pick strawberries, blueberries and/or raspberries with the family.
19. Take Edwin to visit a historical site, like a battleground or presidential library.
Writing/Creativity Work
20. Write a braided essay and a hermit crab essay.
21. Make a digital collection place for bits of history, psychology and sociology stories to braid into essays.
22. Collect old magazines for inspiration (Life, Good Housekeeping, racially/ethnically diverse magazines from the 1930s onward).
23. Start working on a short story anthology based on the magazines.
24. Do a final pass-through on The Eugenicist’s Assistant.
25. Query 50 agents for T.E.A. (or until I sign with one, whichever comes first).
26. Query at least 35 literary magazines for essays written throughout the year.
27. Give a fantastic performance as a speaker at Hippocamp 2021.
28. Increase subscribers to my newsletter, The Joyful Creative.
29. Figure out a way to manage social media in a controlled, focused way that doesn’t drain my mental health.
Hobbies
30. Bake chocolate babka.
31. Bake a rainbow layer cake (when you cut it open, the layers are all the colors of the rainbow).
32. Make Zingerman’s cinnamon bread for a hostess gift.
33. Watch tutorials on piping frosting, then practice.
34. Do a “paint by numbers” kit.
35. Buy a crossword puzzle book and keep it in the car for long trips.
Home
36. Declutter the house!
37. Find places to donate the clutter.
38. Upgrade our living room furniture.
39. Get the main part of the house painted.
40. Figure out if/when we can afford to move.
Here’s something funny– when I first counted the list, before I added the numbers, I got to 41– and somehow thought that was the right number! My 40-year old brain is either already addled from old age, or I’m eager for another milestone, or I just can’t wait to get past the pandemic phase of my life (I hope beyond hope that by the time I’m 41, this will be truly over).
Have you ever made a list like this? What were your favorite things on the list?
Love this list, Leanne, and happy birthday! You’ve got some wonderful things to look forward to, which I think is especially important after what we’ve been through–and are still going through. I’m looking forward to seeing how you progress through the list this year! Maybe it will help me out of my own funk 🙂
Ooh! I love this idea! What are braided essays and hermit crab essays? Love the baking goals! I wanted to do something similar with last year’s birthday (since I turned 30), but I may do it this year instead 🙂
Hi Tracy! I learned about braided essays and hermit crab essays from a workshop at Hippocamp with Randon Billings Noble a couple of years ago. A braided essay is one with three or four strands or storylines that weave together upon a theme. Here’s an example: https://creativenonfiction.org/writing/the-braided-essay-as-social-justice-action/
A hermit crab essay is disguised as something else– for example, a shopping list, a meeting agenda, something like that. My favorite example is here: https://catapult.co/stories/body-wash