Challenge Accepted: Create a Bucket List

So, today I was challenged to create a Bucket List: Write down 5-10 things you’d like to accomplish or experience in your life and why. 

We’ll, I’ve always believed in the importance of writing your goals down. I heard a long time ago that if you write them down your are more likely to achieve them. Maybe it’s because you are putting it out there for God or the Universe? Perhaps putting it in writing is like creating a contract with yourself? 

I’ve written down some goals in the past, and I’m happy to look back at those things that were once just a thought and today, and achievement. 

I told myself that I would accept this challenge without over thinking it (something I tend to do. I love to ponder, to process, to evaluate all the possibilities…). I was only challenged to write down 5-10, so here are the first ten things that came across my mind. 

Ten things I want to do in no particular order:

1. Travel to Europe (I have some specific spots in mind)
2. Travel to Asia
3. Write a book (non-fiction)
4. Write a book (fiction, most likely a children’s book)
5. Raise chickens
6. Buy a beach/lake house
7. Start a foundation/non-profit
8. Own my own store (gotta sell all those eggs, right?)
9. Go on a ghost hunt/stay overnight in a haunted location
10. Attend a Native American sweat lodge ceremony

November is a time for GRATITUDE!

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. - Denis Waitley 

Happy November! 

A campaign very close to my heart, BodyImage3D's challenge this month is to start a gratitude journal, and since one of my goal's  this month is to publish at least two blog posts I thought this would a great opportunity to...well...double dip and send two birds out of the park. The questions came from BI3D's November Challenge. So, what are you thankful for this month? Here are the my answers: 

What are you thankful for? Why? My family. I was blessed with kind, loving and supportive parents. A strong brother that grew into an honorable man who chose a wonderful woman to marry, and together they blessed me with a niece and two nephews that light up my heart. I am so grateful and thankful for my husband. I’m thankful that he knows me so well and still loves me. I’m thankful he’s such a hard worker. I’m thankful for all the fun we have together. I’m also thankful for my friends, my great job, my old house, and each blessed moment I have with them all. 

What can you do this month to give back to your community? This month I donated to St. Jude Children’s Hospital. They are pretty amazing. No St. Jude patient pays a dime for any of their treatment. I wish I had more dimes to spare. 

Where do you see yourself in five years? Five years huh, I hope it goes by like molasses on a winter day.  I’ll be 38. Wow. That number seems un-exciting, but I know my life better than that. It is always full of excitement, sometimes known as change, sometimes not as welcomed but looked back on in reverence. I hope that G and I will be living in either an updated version of our house, or are renting out our updated old house and are living in something a little more modern. I expect us to be in the same area, since we both seem to like it so much and since it’s been home for over six years…establishing roots.

By then, I hope 1922House blog has many more posts.

What opportunities have you been given today that will help you get there?

MANY! I have so many to thank the Good Lord for! My husband (not my husband at the time, but I knew he was pretty special =) believed in me and us enough to invest in our property and took on many years of construction and challenges.

My parents paid for my education. They not only financed and facilitated some of the best years of my life, but left me with zero debt to pay when I graduated. I know it was a gift many parents only wish they could provide for their children and for this, I am ever grateful.

I’ve been given the opportunity to work for a wonderful employer that pays me to do things I love to do which in turn allows me to play house, play in the dirt and live my wonderful life. 

What do your friends and family do to help you be better?

I’m blessed to have such a support group around me. My friends and family encourage me when things are rough, and they laugh and cheer me on in times of joy! 

What are your best qualities?

I think my some of my best qualities are my sense of humor (which can also get me into trouble sometimes), my ability and eagerness to teach. Once a teacher, always a teacher I guess. I still enjoy it though. My resourcefulness and ability to FIGURE IT OUT (or at least try). I don’t traditionally consider myself a risk taker, but looking back on the last 10 years, I have been. You’ll never know if you can fly if you don’t jump, or flap your wings when pushed out of your comfortable nest.