the 'ole 5 year plan

So, I kind of feel like 5 years is the common number that people use when they make goals for their life.  Like in five years, I hope to be blah blah blah.  And I'm all about making goals and lists, um, seriously.  But randomly I re-discovered this little creative book (MemoRANDOM: A Journal for Lists, Memories, and Miscellany ) that I got as a gift for helping my friend with her wedding (thank you, Tare!  I'm still loving it 2 years later!) and I got to a page that said,

"Think of who you were five years ago.  Now, describe five* things that have happened to you in the past five years that your self from five years ago would be shocked to find out."

*Like I was going to ever stick to only five, let's get real here.

I didn't think it was that big of a deal until I started listing some stuff out.  Seriously, I dare you to start this - you will be amazed at how much can change in five years.  In retrospect, five years ago seems like a minute - but when you start really digging it all out - it's incredible to find how much is different from where you started and where you'd thought/hoped you'd be in five years.  Some 'shocking' details were funny, others were proud, and some were goals not yet met.  It was an awesome glimpse back in how much has changed in only five years.

So, let's get to it - five years ago, I was finishing up my last year teaching in Brooklyn, NY and getting ready to move in with Brandon into a teeny tiny little town in rural PA and super excited about planning our wedding for the following year.

And since then, my sweet little darling Tabitha at 24,you will be astonished to know that your life 5 years in the future have included the following "shocking" details:

• you have a tv in your bedroom
• you have two dogs and two cats
• Brandon's pet fish are still alive (?!?!!)
• you are a mumma twice over
• you cut all your hair off, like all of it, to pixie.  and love it.
• you've been to Thailand, Hawaii, and Jamaica
• you've moved back to your home town.  and love it.
• you started writing a blog
• your blog has been visited over 1.6 million times  (thank you, readers!)
• your reading is contained mostly to blogs and online articles, you hardly read actual books anymore
• you drink coffee now...everyday
• after all that planning, you couldn't wait for your wedding reception to end so you could just be alone with B
• you've learned to vacuum with one hand and shield yourself from a toddler's flying styrofoam sword with the other
• you  have an iphone.  and love it.
• you can change a baby's diaper in the dark
• you're tv viewing is mostly limited to NatGeo, Discovery Planet, Disney Junior, and Animal Planet
• you turned on the "cool" radio station the other day and literally thought, "Ugh, noise" and turned it off
• you are still not back in the classroom
• you do things as a mother that you swore you'd never do - it is much different than you thought it was (both harder and better)

In five years from now, I think/hope my life will include some of these details - 

• we will have added to our human family by 2 
• we will NOT have moved again
• we will have traveled to Europe 
• we will still be doing 12 months of kindness
• i will be working with kids again
• my kids will be bilingual
• b and i will have renewed our vows
• i will be a published writer 

There's that perfect quote for this from the movie American Beauty, the narrator says - "...its a great thing when you realize you still have the ability to surprise yourself.."  So, let's see what we can do to shake things up, Tabitha at 34 of the future.  I know you'll try your best - I trust you to make the next 5 years happy and interesting.  Good luck - see you in five.