That time of year is here....already!

As soon as the leaves even begin to think about changing colors, I go into a panic. In addition to all the major holidays most of us celebrate, Joey and I celebrate our house (we bought October 28th), my Birthday, November 13, and The day we met, December 23rd. None of these events we take lightly. Every birthday, I make a new resolution, from a bucket of various life objectives I keep stored away in the back of my brain. My goal for 30 was financial, and now for 31, it's a little more complicated.

I tend to overwork myself. Money seems to be so important to survive, let alone enjoy life, so I thought. I had always made companies a lot of money, and made a decent cut myself. Joey has always been successful as well. However, all we do is work, work, work. So for 31, I realized my goals need to be more pure. I am not "30" anymore, I am "30 something", so I kinda feel like more of an adult. So on this rare occassion, when we get off the subject of "house and home" (not toooo far off, promise) I will share my goals for 31 and beyond.

So let's start on my birthday. Joey is amazing. Seriously. I don't know how I got so lucky. I was scared he wasn't going to make it back from LA (he's working on the soundtrack for Big Mama's House 3, seriously), but at 7:30am on my birthday he was crawling in bed for a much needed snuggle. Just a few short hours later, we were headed North to a horse farm/quaint inn. We had an amazing brunch, and walked around the property. It was kinda this moment when everything from my insides out went "ah-ha!". This is what I love. This is what I want. This is what actually makes me happy. "This" happened to be a plot of land with a bunch of fallen acorns, next to the love of my life in the sunshine. It was a perfect morning.

After our totally blissful morning, we headed to the city for the world's best massage. I was drooling. The entire day was so peaceful and perfect (minus the chaos on 5th ave with all the tourists and shoppers - ick). Then Joey gave me a gift, which was so sweet and unexpected:

I seriously loves diamond and pink stones. This one happens to be sapphire. I felt like a princess! Of course, as per ritual, we headed over to dinner at Candle 79 for a seriously yummy vegan meal - and things got even better  (getting to my goals soon - promise). Alicia Silverstone and her husband Christopher Jarecki sit down right next to us in the corner of the restaurant. I wasn't sure it was her at first. I thought is was a 23 year old that just kinda looked like her. We get into some friendly conversation about vegetarianism. They share some of their mushroom plate with us. Pleasant chit chat go on over the course of our meal, then I realize it's her, and I am happy she is so nice, and down to earth. Her husband was pretty awesome too. It kinda made my day. She wished me a happy birthday, and I geeked out and asked if I can take a photo with her.

So after meeting her and "hanging out" for a bit, I did a little google search to see what she had been up to. She's one of those rare celebs that stay out of the gossip columns, and I love those kinda stars. Looks like she has been trying to stick to Broadway, and came out with a book I ordered right away, The Kind Diet. I never knew she was a vegan, and had this amazing blog, The Kind Life. I got to reflecting more about my goals after poking around her blog and her mission, and finalized my own goals - once and for all. Here we go:

Join a CSA. -  For those of you lucky enough to be in an area where you can join a CSA, I highly recommend it. If you don't know what it is, research "community supported agriculture". I am doing it because I want food which is more pure, delivered to my door. We are going to do vegetables, fruits, and I am also looking for flowers and meat options for Joey.

Work less - I understand I need to work for a living. It's not cheap here in Westchester, and surly not any cheaper in Manhattan. If I can get down to a normal 40-45 hours a week, I can have more time for the things I daydream about. The sunshine in the filled with the acorns and Joey. This needs to happen more than "once-in-a-while".

Blog more - Now you may be thinking, "But you just said work less!" The blog isn't like work to us! We get to work on projects together, and it's fun. It's our home, and we really, really, really, enjoy making it our own. The more time we have to work on the house, the more we get to blog about it and share.

Be who I want to be - I know this sounds cheesy, but it has to be said. I am always hand holding and spouting out advice all willy nilly, and sometimes I feel like a fraud. I want to be this total diyer who doesn't even need to go to the market because I have a successful garden, and know how to make everything on my own. I also have to realize learning how to do everything takes time. Being who I want to be is going to take time, but morphing into that person more deliberately is something I need to focus on.

Purge and buy less - I am going to go through everything I own and donate at least 25% of it to charity, I don't need so much "stuff". I am also going to dedicate to myself to buy less stuff. I don't really buy myself a lot of stuff, but I tend to fill the trash with wrappers and tags so often, I must not be as "good" as I think I am.

I also have some smaller goals, not really worth mentioning, but am excited for non-the-less! Have you ever had a situation inspire you so much you flipped your world upside down? We would absolutely LOVE to know!