no longer in the most coveted demographic

Yep, on Sunday I took a leap into the next age bracket, as defined by marketers. No longer in that sought-after 18-34 group, I am now a full-fledged 35 year-old. Wow. This birthday has felt big, like I'm really an official adult now (somehow leaving home, getting my degrees, starting my career, getting married, buying a house, and having kids didn't quite do the trick!).

Every year on my birthday My Old Man asks me about my goals for the year. This year they are:

1. learn to sew
2. learn Italian
3. keep knitting, and getting better at it
   
4. do better about embodying in my daily life the values I say I hold, especially when it comes to simplicity and living gently on the earth

(uh yeah, one of these is not like the other one)

Did I really need to make a "goal" for knitting? Not really. It's not like I'm going to quit knitting if it's not a goal. But it somehow didn't seem right not to say something about knitting, since it is so central to who I am. (perhaps I should've made one of my goals be to get my hands on some Reynolds Mandalay yarn, since so far that has eluded me)

Better time management ought to somehow be a goal, too. But I've been trying for that for half my life now and I don't seem to be getting much better.

Also off my list for the first time in 6 years: writing a novel. I'm tired of telling myself that's a goal and then never doing it. I did come up with my plot and characters last summer, along with writing down some preliminary notes and sketching out a schedule for myself. But then I got obsessed with knitting and the novel fell off my radar. I did write part of a children's book late last summer, and maybe I'll try to finish it at some point this year. But I'm tired of feeling bad about unmet goals and unrealized ideals, so I'm not setting any writing goals.

For my birthday, My Old Man got me a new camera! This was mainly for my trip to Italy in the fall, but of course it will be getting lots of use taking pictures of my boys and my knitting.

In knitting news, there are the following developments:

1. I have mostly finished Baby J's layette (pictures forthcoming, once I fix the seams of the sweater and find the right buttons; I also need to do some booties)
2. I am working on a couple of dinosaurs for my boys, from Xtreme Knitting I have finished knitting Bronty but still have to do the stuffing and seaming, and I've started knitting Trice. They are so cute! (and fast)
3. I found an LYS that carries Reynolds Mandalay - my yarn should be in on Friday!!!!
4. I am obsessed with The Amazing Lace and with reading other participants' blogs.
5. I finally used my two LYS gift cards, along with my 20% coupon I had been hanging on to for months. It was quite the coup.
6. My Simply Lovely Lace Socks are neither simple nor lovely.
   
7. I got a really happy delivery yesterday, details and pictures coming soon.
   

Okay, my alarm went off 10 minutes ago. It was supposed to tell me to get off the computer and start cleaning up the house while the boys nap. (the whole time management thing, you know) I did not do it then. I must make myself do it now. See, I am an adult now, and really must begin to do adult things, like making myself do things I'd just rather not do.