Here Comes 40

As of yesterday, I have five months left til I hit 40. Somehow this milestone has inspired me in a few ways. First, I started back on a life of healthy eating as of January 2nd. I'm not calling it a resolution because the way I see it - it's a lifestyle change. It's not something to do and then abandon. I want to get healthy for me - and more importantly - for the girls. I don't want them growing up with a mom who feels too heavy to do the things they want. This will become so much more important as Charlotte gets older and starts to be more mobile and active.

Over the last week, I've seen this post on Facebook -
2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a gift - a totally-out-of-the-blue surprise! It may be something I make -- sweets? a scarf? a spice blend? We'll see. The catch is that those five people must make the same offer in their FB status. I can't wait to see who responds!

I'd also toyed with the idea of some kind of set number of good deeds (more than 5). 

So drumroll please...

Get ready for

I saw a blog post about a woman who did 40 acts of kindness on her 40th birthday. I am not even going to begin to imagine that I could pull this off in one day, so I'm going to do 40 things by 40. I have a list sort of in mind and will use that blogger's post for some inspiration (but not all of them as she did some rather pricey things), but I'm not going to post the list up front. Instead, I've created a new tab up top and will update as I get them done. The other reason I don't want to publish the list is that some of you reading this may be the beneficiary of a good deed or two :-)

I think this challenge will be a really good way for me to focus on something good instead of the usual dread that comes along with these milestone birthdays. Plus it'll make my birthday party that much more special, too. Yes - there will be a 40th party. I had said I didn't want one but I've changed my mind.

So stay tuned over the next five months to see what I do to inspire kindness around me.