10 Things That Make Me Feel Like a Grown-Up

This morning I did something that I don't normally do. Before leaving the house to run some errands with the kids, I washed the breakfast dishes. Then I noticed that the living room area rug was sort of covered with crumbs, so I vacuumed it. Then, just so the hardwood wouldn't start to get jealous, I swept it. I did chores. In the morning. Before leaving the house. I was kind of feeling like a real, live grown-up. I tried to think of some other things that make me feel this way, and it was hard, I tell you!

It was much easier to think of things that make me feel not like a grown-up, because that includes nearly everything.

However, I dug deep in order to bring you this list: 10 things that make me feel like a grown-up

1. Cleaning up after myself. See above.

2. Listening to NPR. The median age of NPR listeners is 55. 

3. Roasting a chicken. I lose some grown-up points when I insist that my husband carve it (I don't like all that juice squirting out. Or the bones.).

4. Going to a restaurant with my kids. I thought that maybe having kids would make me feel more like a grown-up, but it doesn't. Taking them out in public, though, that'll do it. There will usually be some people in their early twenties, and they will think I am a grown-up because I have an entourage of three people who depend upon me for survival. This fits into the "fake it 'til you make it" category of things that make me fee like a grown-up.

5. Asking for recommendations for chiropractors (by the way... know anyone good?).

6. Waking up at 5:15 to go running.

7. Waking up at 5:15 to do anything else.

8. Drinking a glass of wine with dinner. No, not because drinking wine with dinner is in and of itself a grown-up thing to do. Drinking a glass of wine with dinner will invariably make me wake up no less than four times throughout the night to pee. Even just noticing this makes me feel like a grown-up.

9. Wearing Danish clogs. Wearing a scarf. Wearing earrings. Wearing all three together is like the grown-up triumvirate.

10. Blogging about freezing stuff. Okay, this one's a stretch, but I needed a way to tell you that I posted a new recipe: No-Bake Granola Bites. 

What makes you feel like a grown-up?