Dream a Little Dream With Me

Good morning friends!

No post last night - I got caught up in working on the new site and totally lost track of time! Breakfast this morning was delicious, and I definitely implemented one of those little tricks to assist with portion control. Obviously, measuring out portions is the first step. But remember that bowl of granola and soymilk I had yesterday? Well honestly, it was lacking in volume. So today I doubled the volume of my breakfast, while keeping the calorie count exactly the same (actually a tad less). I used 3/4 cup of a low-calorie "boring" cereal (Publix Greenwise Flax Flakes) with 1/4 cup of my Berry Almond Granola to bring some extra flavor and textures. Top with 3/4 cup soymilk (who can seriously just use 1/2 cup milk in cereal? Not me!).


Now, there's been a lot of discussion and inspiration in our little blog-world in regards to dreams lately. Meghann had a post on dreams yesterday, Rose discussed her dreams, and Caitlin has a great post up today with all the amazing changes/ realization of dreams that have been going on in her life. Of course I can't forget about Jenna, who is living out one of her dreams and moving to San Francisco on Friday.

I found all these posts very interesting and thought-provoking. Where am I in regards to my dreams? Which led me to a more important question - what are my dreams?

We all start dreaming in our childhood. I know for me, my dreams changed every other week. :) "I want to be a librarian!" or "I want to be one of those artists at Disney that sit and draw people all day!" or one of the most amusing, "I want to be a street musician!" (In my defense, that was when I was very young and saw people throwing cash to a man playing his saxophone outside of a subway in Boston).

I know several dreams that I have today:

• To do all I can to help others wherever possible.
  
• To have a family and be the best mother, wife, sister, daughter, aunt, etc. that I can be.
  
• To travel the world!
• For Ross and I to be able to support our family, not only emotionally and spiritually, but financially as well. If my kids want to take ballet lessons, I want them to be able to take ballet lessons without me having to borrow that money from somewhere else in our budget.
• To pay off all of Ross' student loans and live debt-free.
• To one day live with my parents and my sister's future family all in the same area/ same town.
• To maybe one day write a cookbook?!
• To maybe one day run a half marathon?
• To be a yogi. :)
  

Those are all great, exciting dreams, but most of those things are things that will naturally come with time (at least most presumably will according to how Ross and I are setting up and living our lives now).

For me, the "what are my dreams" comes into play more in regards to career dreams. I know that I want to be an educated, respected, knowledgeable and successful woman. I also know that now is a great time for me to be pursuing some of these avenues (i.e. gaining higher education). I have the time, I don't have kids (nor do we plan on it for years), and most importantly, I want to. What's holding me back? Well, finances for one. I really would prefer not to add to the student loan pile we're in the process of paying off. The other (bigger) thing that holds me back? The "what".

I have many areas of interest. There are so many different paths that I could go on with my life. And while I think I *know* what area I want to pursue, there are times where I still wonder. Going back to school for a master's is a big deal, and I don't personally feel it's something you should do if you're not 100% certain the path you want to pursue.

So, I'd like y'all to help me make sure I'm not leaving any options out! Below are areas that I'm interested in/ enjoy/ good at:

• Health and Nutrition
• Cooking and Baking
• Helping Others
• Music
• Teaching
• Event Planning
• Creativity in general
• Blogging :D
• and I'm sure much, much more. Probably even some interests I don't even realize I have yet!
  

I definitely have a "plan" in mind now. (And ironically it has zero to do with any of the jobs I've been applying for - I've been applying for jobs to increase income to save money to go back to school).

Anyway, what are some paths you think of when you see those interest areas? And most importantly, something I think we can all benefit from - how do you balance your dreams and grown up responsibility?