This Saturday, the 12th of February, is my 27th Birthday.  A little scary to be honest!  Well past the quarter-century mark, and only 3 more years until I turn 30.

Aside from being a great reason to share great food and wine with friends - not that I'm generally hard-pressed to find an excuse to do that anyway! - I find Birthdays a poignant time to selfishly reflect myself over the past year.  What have I done?  What didn't I do that I wanted to do?  What really sucked?  What am I looking forward to in my next year of life?

Over the past 12 months, I have made some pretty important decisions regarding my physical and mental/emotional health:

I resigned from my job, as it was just too physically, mentally and emotionally draining to continue with - a decision I probably should have made some time ago.
I decided not to pursue more work for the time-being.
I'm really enjoying being able to do housework at my leisure, bake and cook, and exercise without worrying about being too tired out to go to work.
Cutting down on junk food.  I'm only likely to have maybe one glass soft-drink a week!  I've cut down on coffee, down to around 2 cups a day!  In the last few months, I've also been handling my comfort eating a little better.
I decided early last year to go back to school.  Today I submitted my application and sat an interview for a course due to start next week.  I am so excited!
I'm spending more time outdoors and really loving it.  Walking and gardening really relax me, sometimes I'll just sit outside in the garden and dig for the hell of it.
Trying to make our lives more sustainable, by recycling more, growing some of our own produce, and sharing it with friends.  We now have Solar panels installed that feed back into the power grid, and we have drastically changed our power usage in the home for the better.
I'm training dogs again which is something I've always loved doing.  I've missed Obedience Club over the last several years, and it's really nice to get into it again.
I'm reading more books which I had all but stopped doing for a few years.  I've been managing to average one a month, and hope to ramp it up this year!
Spending more time with friends is one of the bigger positive changes.  I'm always happier when I can share my experiences with friends, and I've got some really positive and supportive people around me now.

But it's not all good.  There's a lot of things I wish I had done, or had done differently over the last year.  I've thought about those too, but I won't share them right now.

For now, I'm looking at the positives.  This year I'll be expanding on all the positive points above, because they all make me feel better about Me (I said this was a time for selfish reflection, right?!)!  But they're also positive for those around me; sharing experiences, happy times, and personal growth.

No, I didn't get mugged, but it was bloody humid and warm today!!

Warmest day of Spring so far (I think?), getting to a top of 26°C and 50% - 60% Humidity!!

Unbelievably, it's still hovering at 19°C as I write this at nearly 9PM. Ahh roll on Summer!

I got most of my chores done early, followed by errands, and then drove out to Longford to see some friends. I took a pack of boisterous dogs for a walk/swim at the river, and spent the rest of the afternoon lazing away and chatting.

As you can see, Harry really enjoyed lazing with his friends Alexander and Nicholas on the loveseat:
I'm doing well so far with my goals, and I've exercised 4 out of 5 days since writing that post. I'm not doing so well with the pampering myself, but I'm going to make up for that next week when I go and have a Manicure, Pedicure and Lash Tint - Bec made me do it!!!

Been feeling pretty lost lately, and I've decided I'm going to take a page from somebody else's book and set out my goals on the blog. Nothing better than the huddled masses on the web to keep you in check!

As some of you know, housework and other tasks really tend to get on top of me. If I'm unwell for a day or more, general daily chores get missed, and it snowballs from there. Depression ensues, and it turns into a vicious cycle!

They'll get more ambitious as I get into it, but here they are for a start.

• Blog at least once a week
• Spend some time at least 5 days a week one-on-one training with the dogs
• Exercise at least 5 days a week - minimum 10 minutes
• Keep up the good work listing my mounds of stuff on eBay
• Set 3 simple housework goals each day, and achieve them!
• Take a few minutes out each day to spend time pampering myself
• Don't let things get me down!

Okay! Let's see how I go with those for starters.