Not Quite a Bucket List

Today I'm featuring a guest post from one of my closest friends, Bekah. She's a great writer and an inspirational person, as her blog will testify. Leave her some rockin' feedback and check out the other stuff she's written while you're at it!

Not Quite a Bucket List

A bucket list.  I’ve contemplated whether or not I want one of these.  I mean, I am a list person.  I make lists of things to do each day.  Lists of things for which to shop.  Lists for different projects at work.  Sometimes I end up making lists of all the lists I need to make.  But somehow, in all this list making, I’ve never made a bucket list.  Hmmm… kind of weird.

Despite my lack of a bucket list, I did decide the other day that there are many things I love to do, but never really take the time to do them.  I began a list, similar to a bucket list in the sense that they are things I want to make time to do as I go through life.  Yet, it is very different in the fact that I’ve probably done most of these things already and they aren’t really once in a life time things.  In fact, they are almost all things I wish I could do every day.   The title of my list you may ask….?

THINGS THAT BRING ME JOY

Who doesn’t want a little more joy in life?  Even when we are very joyful it’s nice to add a little extra.  So here’s what I did: 

I started this list a couple weeks or so ago.  I’m planning to write (or maybe print off the computer) each of the things on this list on a little card.   Then, I’m going to put them in a jar or dish or hat or something I randomly find laying around the house.  Each morning I’m going to draw a slip of paper from the container and try to do that thing in the day. 

Here’s my list so far:

Things that Bring Me Joy:

1. Make a card to mail to a friend
2. Go for a run
3. Go for a walk… and take your camera with!
4. Find somewhere to volunteer for an hour or two
5. Go for a hike
6. Write a letter to a friend
7. Call a friend you haven’t heard from in a while
8. Make something special for dinner
9. Call a friend and invite them over for dinner
10. Bake some bread from scratch
11. Wander through the blog-o-sphere
12. Go to Niagara Falls (for some this may be on their “bucket list” but for me, being that it’s only 20 miles away, I can basically do this anytime I want)
13. Go rent a movie to watch and pop some popcorn on the stove
14. Play your guitar
15. Write a silly song about something that happened today
16. Read a book
17. Go to the library and read a bunch of children’s books
18. Write a blog post.
19. Eat some ice cream
20. Get all dressed up for dinner (and either go out, or even just get all dressed up and stay at home.)
21. Take a bubble bath
22. Make plans for your next vacation (even if it is a dream vacation you may never actually take.)
23. Plant something
24. Cut some fresh flowers
25. Take some flowers to someone… just because
26. Find a kid to hang out with
27. Kickbox to some favorite songs
28. Go to the farmer’s market
29. Watch a sunrise
30. Go to the park and swing on the swing
31. Color in a coloring book
32. Be crafty… scrapbook, decoupage, crochet, etc.
33. Make some homemade paper
34. Find something to do in town that you’ve never done before
35. Go for a drive, roll down the windows  and turn up the music and sing along
36. Do something nice for someone or leave them a note… and do it all without letting them know or figure out who did it
37. Go lay in the grass and stare at the clouds (or, if in winter, go build a snowman)

My list continues to grow….  I plan to keep blank slips of paper near my container and add to it often. 

But I wonder… what would be on your list?  What are the things that if you did them everyday you would never get sick of them… the things that just bring a smile to your face… the things that may seem a little crazy or childish or whatever, but you enjoy doing anyway.  What would be on your list of “Things that Bring Me Joy”?

Okay… now go  make your list and start enjoying life a little more each day!

Goal Overload?

Hola, Bucketeers! Today, I have the pleasure of featuring another great guest poster! Today, we have Amy from Non-Stop Mom! She has a great post for you, so show her some love through the comments and give her blog a visit and a follow! 

Goal Overload? 

If you have been following my blog (first of all, thank you)then you probably already know about our upcoming road trip. If you haven’tbeen (you should), then here’s a little bit of background information.

I am a 40 year old single mother of 5 kids. Yes, F-I-V-E. Mydaughters are 11 and 9, and my sons are 7, 5, and 4. We are leaving our home incentral Kansas and driving through 10 states and the District of Columbia onwhat has now been dubbed “The Mother of All Road Trips: 2011 Edition” orTMOART:2011 for semi-short. 

There are so many goals that are wrapped up into this trip –and this trip is going to be so much more than just a “road trip”.

The main goal, the main reasonfor why we are even undertaking this is so that the kids and I can see myparents. I grew up in Pennsylvania, and my parents are still there along with afew of my siblings. My parents had me later in their lives, and so they are nowin their 80s. The last time that we saw them was 2 years ago, and my youngestson does not remember that trip. Now, at 4 years old, he will remember at leastbits and pieces of it – and if, God forbid, something were to happen to myparents, he would at least have a few memories of his grandparents. My parentsare for all intents and purposes the only grandparents that he has – hispaternal grandparents are not involved in his life at all (read my blog forthat story as well).

Another goal is to see some friends – old and new. Along theway, we will be seeing friends that I haven’t seen in anywhere from never to acouple of years to 20+ years. Wait,friends I’ve never seen? Yes, you read that correctly – I will be meetingsome friends for the first time ever – friends whom I have had the pleasure ofgetting to know online but have yet to actually see face-to-face. I am soexcited to see my high school and childhood friends – some of them I have lostand found over the years, and a few have always been in my life. I will get tosee some of my family for the first time in years as well.

Sadly, I won’t get to see everyone on my wish list – somepeople have other plans, some have drifted away, some have passed away. But, Iwill be thankful for each and every person we are able to visit with on thistrip.

To me, a rather obvious goal will just be completing thetrip with my sanity intact. It’s not a big secret that my kids don’t always getalong, but they are generally good at traveling. As long as we don’t run intoany major traffic, construction, weather, or mechanical issues, we’ll be good.I hope that I only have to threaten the kids a minimal number of times to keepthem on decent behavior, especially while we are staying with friends. And withthe GPS on my phone and a large atlas, hopefully we’ll be able to find our wayaround any major obstacles and keep on moving!

There have been so many goals even leading up to this trip –getting things squared away financially was huge, but we did it. I have beentucking money away for months in order to make this happen but I did it. I havefigured and refigured the financial end of things to make sure that we havemore than enough money to do this. Granted, we’re not going to be buyingsouvenirs at every stop, and we’re not eating out along the way, but we can doit. We already stocked up on food that we’re taking with us – I have everyintention of NOT stopping at any fast food restaurant on the way out or back(with the exception of hopefully meeting my niece and her family in Columbus onthe return trip). I don’t want to have to buy anything except for an occasionalbag of ice and of course gas for the van, and some groceries at each stop.

Because I have been so stressed out about what COULD gowrong, I’ve been channeling my nervous energy and cleaning my house with theultimate goal of having my entire house clean and organized when we leave – Idon’t think that anything (other than the trip itself) could be better thancoming home to a clean house! And, with the exception of organizing my laundryroom, that goal is just about met. Yay me! I am not the neatest or mostorganized person in the world, as much as I want to be – but when I take thetime and make the effort to clean, it shows. I’ve also explained to the kidsthat not only do I expect the house to stay clean until we leave, but I alsoexpect it to stay that way after we return. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I also fully intend to get everything packed and into thevan by Wednesday afternoon so that I can sleep Wednesday night. I am a night owl,through and through. I have trouble going to sleep any earlier than 2am, and weare planning to leave by 3:00am on Thursday. With a proposed 12-hour drive thatday, I have to sleep Wednesdaynight. Of course, I just remembered that since I am volunteering at VacationBible School with our church this week, my tentative plan of being in bed by8:00pm on Wednesday isn’t going to happen – but maybe by 9:00 instead.

My life has been extremely chaotic over the past few years,to say the least. I just recently went through my second divorce, and myex-husband passed away very unexpectedly just a few weeks later. Emotionally, Ihave been through the wringer more than once. Just getting this trip plannedand seeing pieces of it falling together has done wonders for my attitude aboutlife in general. This trip is so desperately needed right now – which is just asmall part of what is making me determined to make it happen. I have had toomany people tell me that I can’t do it, or that I shouldn’t do it, or whatever– so not only am I doing it for me and the kids, but there is a small part ofme that is doing it to prove to everyone else what I already know about myself– that I can and will do it!

For more of the story, and posts as the trip happens, besure to follow my blog! I plan to post regularly throughout the trip – bothshort “progress posts” from my phone to keep everyone up to speed on our statusas we travel, and longer posts when we get to real computers throughout ourjourney!

Bon voyage!

Dreaming Big

Guess what? Today's your lucky day! You get to listen to somebody much funnier and much more inspirational than I could ever hope to be! Ben is a great guy who wrote up a great post for you guys, so give him some love and go check out his blog!

Hi.

I'm Ben.

Which means I'm not Adrian. 

Which means this is a guest post.

Which means I'm making progress on my list of things to accomplish in my 19th year on this planet. Now that Kate Middleton is officially off the market, my goal of writing at least 7 guest posts for other blogs has moved up to the #2 spot.

What is #1 you ask from the edge of your seat?

Glad you asked.

It's to raise $10,000 to help me make my music and to provide clean water to a village that doesn't currently have it.

Last week a project that's been about 9 months in the making went live. That sounded like I made a baby didn't it? Well I didn't. It feels a little like my child, but it's not human. It's a crowdfunding project called thesoundofwater.

For anyone that may not know, "crowdfunding" is what it sounds like: acquiring funds using a crowd.

The biggest problem for me is finding the crowd. I have a blog, but not a huge following. So I'm looking for people that might share some of my passions to help me make this crazy dream a reality. (FYI, you can give to the project here. There are some awesome perks for donors. Check it out.)

The idea behind my project is to solve two problems I ran into at about the same time. The first one being a Neumann TLM 49 microphone is just out of my price range. The second one being almost 1,000,000,000 people around the world don't have access to clean drinking water.

I know a lot of the posts on this blog revolve around the "bucket list" concept. I can't give advice on how to successfully cross items off a "bucket list" because I haven't personally made it that far yet.

Here is what I can say just a few days into thesoundofwater:

Starting is fun. I may not have made much progress so far, but I already know that even though I'm now working 40 hours a week at a summer camp, and then spending all my free time working on thesoundofwater, I feel so much more alive than I did a couple months ago when I was in limbo without school, a job, or much of a life at all. (I watched a lot of Netflix. That was about it.) 

I can't give advice on how to finish. Besides a 2k race I did when I 10 years old I don't have a great finishing record. Something I can tell you already is that the first few days of living a story you've been outlining for months is a ton of fun.

Terrifying. But fun.

Start before you start. Even though the project only went live last week, I've been working on it since the beginning of October of last year. First conceptually. Then came a crap load (where did that saying come from. such a nasty mental image) of research. Then experimentation. Then more research. Then a period of thinking it was a horrible idea. Then I read this book again. Then more research. You get the picture. 

I don't know if I did enough preparation. I don't know how I'll ever know. I do know I'd be even more terrified than I am now if I hadn't meticulously planned out a lot of my steps. (note: don't over-plan. In the short time since the project went live I've already had multiple surprises. Good and bad. Don't make such a rigid plan that if something goes wrong it all goes wrong. Leave room for things to happen.)

Find a "can't lose" situation. That's what I did. I know that I could end up raising $12. But I realize that, though that would suck, my life will continue. I didn't leave my family or sell all my possessions to do this. It may be a little embarrassing and upsetting if I don't succeed like I want to, but that tiny price I may, or may not, have to pay should not be enough to keep me from trying. 

If it works. A lot of people benefit. I benefit in countless ways. So if it succeeds, it's a MAJOR win. If I fail, besides the small amounts of emotional discomfort it will cause, nothing really happens. Life resumes. With those being the only two possible outcomes, how could I sit back and do nothing?

....

So that's what I've got.

I'll be obnoxious for a sentence and make sure to remind you to visit thesoundfowater.

I've got a blog you may enjoy, too.

Also, I love the music of Greg Laswell. I love Top Chef. One time I rode on a train to Ohio. Sometimes I drink Gatorade. I love Canadian junk food. I'm done now.

A Fish Out of Water...

Today I am featuring my first ever guest poster! When I begged for some awesome writers to help out a couple of weeks ago, Heather, from My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream, was the first to answer the call! Be sure to give her wonderful blog a visit and show her some love and respect in the comments here! She deserves it!

A Fish Out of Water...

That is what I feel like right now, getting ready to talk about my lack of Christianity on Adrian's blog.

I was very surprised when I wrote a post for my blog called Why I Don't Have a God. The comments on the post were surprisingly respectful, and a lot of people were very tolerant of my views, despite the fact that their own views are different. I'm not usually one to talk about religion, mostly because when I bring it up, I get trampled on and questioned. I don't like to label myself as a certain religion, simply because I'm not sure there is one that fits what I believe. I don't believe in the Christian God. I believe in an after life, but not Heaven or Hell. I don't believe that there is some sort of divine guidance in my life - I believe in fate and destiny. I could type a whole post, or ten, about my beliefs. But that isn't what I'm here to talk about today. I want to talk about tolerance.

I can't tell you how many times I've been called a devil worshiper (which is not true), been made to feel ignorant, been made to feel wrong, and been downright insulted by Christians because I am not a follower or believer.

I have been told that I am a rare breed. Not just because I practice freedom from organized religion, but because I do it AND I am tolerant and respectful of the beliefs of others. I was having a religious debate with an acquaintance of mine a while back. She was VERY hardcore Christian. When I told her about my beliefs, she was shocked. Appalled, even. She asked me how I could NOT believe there was a God, and I said, "I just have a hard time believing in something I have never seen, felt, or have proof of existence of." She proceeded to tell me a very long story about a time that she was a youth leader at the bible camp she attended all her childhood. I can't remember the details, and she threatened my very being if I told her soul a story, but it basically came down to the fact that she was praying very hard about something and that she actually SAW God, and heard him talking to her. It was basically her story trying to convince me that He was indeed real. And instead of being an asshole, and saying, "Oh... were you drinking the Kool-Aid they were passing around that night?" I said, "Wow... That must have been incredible for you. It must be a great feeling to have your faith validated like that." There was no debate. There was no "You're right and I'm wrong." There was just tolerance.

My husband and I have been having some problems in our marriage lately, and someone suggested that we watch the movie Fireproof, and do the book called The Love Dare (if you haven't heard about it, check out this post). Going into it, we knew that it was based on Christianity but several friends told us to just change the religious parts so that it applies more to us. Last night, my husband was reading excerpts from The Love Dare. Being a non-Christian, but never having read the Bible, he was amazed at all of the quotes and passages that applied to how he was living his life now, even though he isn't Christian. It sparked a long debate about how almost all religions boil down to the same things:

Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Romans 13:10 (Bible)

With a boundless mind one could cherish all living beings, radiating friendliness over the entire world, above, below, and all around without limit. (From the Maitri Sutra - Buddhist)

Allah does not forbid you respecting those who have not made war against you on account of (your) religion, and have no driven you forth from your homes, that you show them kindness and deal with them justly; surely Allah loves the doers of justice." (Quran 60:8)

Let my worship be within the heart that rejoices, for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are my rituals. Therefore, let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion, honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you. (Charge of the Goddess - Wiccan)

Love and Respect.

It's just how we go about it, and what motivates us to live our lives that way that makes the difference. So tell me... What makes us so different, you and I?

Oops, I Did it Again

I'm not sure what's with all of the song-inspired titles lately...

Today I'm going to do something daring. Something crazy. Something a little wacky.

I'm going to break some sort of unwritten blogging code and hope the blog police don't come for me.

I'm going to, once more, grovel for guest posts.

I received some great responses the first time I posted about this a couple of weeks ago, so I just wanted to throw the opportunity out there once more for anyone who might have missed it or maybe had just forgotten.

I need some awesome, epic guest posters!

That means YOU! 

So, for the sake of not writing the exact same blog post twice, I wanted to share a few guest posts with you to help inspire you. Consider this my Shameless Plugging for the week, so I don't seem completely self-centered and self-promoting.

"Beating Writer's Block" by Jon Acuff - This is the most recent guest post that I've read and has some great advice for writers from Jon Acuff, a Christian blogger and author. He posted on a blog site called Money Saving Mom, which sounds completely out of his realm, and I thought that was pretty gutsy.

What I learned from this guest post: You can guest post anywhere. All you have to do is ask!

My Guest Post at My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream - Alright, this is pretty self-centered and self-promoting, I have to admit. But this is just another example of a guest post that may have been in a realm that doesn't necessarily line up with the one I normally write in.

What I learned from this guest post: If you guest post, you're guaranteed to sound funnier and smarter. I'm not sure why, but that's just the way it works. Sort of like when you eat someone else's ice cream. It always tastes better than it would have if it was your own.

"My Average Day Mostly Sucks" by Jamie, the Very Worst Missionary - I'm not sure what it was about this guest post, but it is one of my favorites. Jamie took F.U. Question's theme and flipped it on its head and then made a great guest post out of it!

What I learned from this guest post: I will never, in a million, bajillion years, be able to write as well as Jamie Wright. Sometimes, you just have to know when to admit these sort of things.

What I actually learned: You don't even have to run with a blog's theme when writing a guest post. Which means you could actually write a guest post for Life Before the Bucket explaining why you don't have a Bucket List or why you hate making goals. You just never know what I could go for!

Hopefully this has encouraged you to think about guest posting not only here, but on your other favorite blogs as well! Let me know if you're interested in guest posting here through a comment or in an e-mail and we'll make it happen!

I Don't Want to Beg, But...

Farmer's Markets are probably the best invention ever. Reminds me so much of the markets in Sierra Leone.

Alright, fellow Bucketeers. I didn't want to do it, but...

I'm begging for your help!

(Yes, the title says I don't want to beg. Doesn't mean I won't do it!)

If you haven't noticed as of late, I haven't been feeling very well. I'm not really sure this is going to be remedied anytime in the very near future, and I only feel more tired each day. Quite frankly, it sucks. That's why I need your help.

Instead of shamelessly plugging blogs today, as I usually do, I would like to shamelessly plug Life Before the Bucket...

for guest posts!

I'll be honest. I could survive without them, but honestly, I want to feature other people's writing on here! There are about a million avenues you could take when writing a guest post here on Life Before the Bucket:

Write about a life goal you've recently accomplished.
Write about a goal you've failed at (I do this frequently).
Write about a goal you're in the process of achieving.
Write about something that has absolutely nothing to do with your goals (again, I do this frequently).
Write about a specific hero that you have - we all need a little inspiration.

Or just about anything else you can think of.

If you write it, I can make it work.

So here I am, on my virtual, interweb knees, pleading for your help.

Would you consider writing a guest post for Life Before the Bucket?

If you're willing, able, or whatever the case may be, just e-mail me at awaller1990@gmail.com. You can send me the potential post in whatever format you please, and I'll let you know what I think!

Thank you so much in advance. You have no clue how much this will help me out.

Why I Love Ice Cream

Disclaimer: This was originally a guest post on My Husband Ate All My Ice Cream. However, I thought I should post it here, just in case you missed it! Enjoy!

My marriage is funny.

Seriously, it makes me laugh.

First of all, my wife loves cooking. This is definitely not a problem. However, her favorite thing to cook is sweets. Baking is her niche.

This is where things get funny: I don't like sweets.

I can't help it. I'm a man. I like meat. Meat and potatoes, with a side of corn on the cob and a cold can of Pepsi, to be exact.

Now I've only been married for two years, so all of this is subject to change. But what I've learned over the course of the last two years (and the three years prior to that while dating my wife) is that if she likes something, and I don't, she's going to suck me in and make me like it anyway.

I can't help it. She's so darn cute.

The other day, I noticed that she has begun subtly invading my preferred meat and potato diet. It began with Easter. I always get a buttload of candy at Easter and I never eat it. Maybe I enjoy watching the chocolate bunny mold. I'm not sure.

My wife was determined to not let the candy go to waste, though. She proceeded to rectify my egregious wrong by putting out a bowl of candy in the middle of the living room, conveniently located within arm's reach of my favorite seat. That bowl is now nearing emptiness.

She's a tricky one, I tell ya.

I realized that this invasion of my diet had been taken to a whole new level a couple of weeks ago when she went grocery shopping for us. She usually does the shopping because I get lost, distracted, or forget where I'm going and come home without any food. And then we starve.

This trip, though, she asked me if I wanted her to buy me some ice cream. In our two years of marriage, we've never bought ice cream. But I did it. I approved. And the rest is history.

Now I realize that my wife's invasion of my diet is completely kosher. These things happen when you get married. Or maybe I'm the only one. Either way, though, this wasn't totally unexpected for me. Especially in light of a recent discovery that I made: my mother's ice cream addiction.

Now most people would describe me as being as skinny as a rail. But if I'm a rail, my mother is a toothpick. She disappears when she turns to the side. It's crazy! But every night before bed, she indulges in a big, fat bowl of ice cream.

EVERY night. Sick, isn't it? And her freezer is usually stocked with at least 3 kinds of ice cream. Who needs 3 different tubs of ice cream?!

Well, I'm convinced that her love of ice cream is a genetic thing, because after my wife bought that ice cream for me, I started doing the same thing. I started indulging in an overflowing bowl of cookies and cream ice cream every night, and I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about it.

Mmm... I do love my ice cream.

But it makes me wonder... What else is my wife changing about me without telling me?

I've got my eye on you, wife.

I'd love to hear your feedback from this post if you hadn't already read it! Have you noticed these sort of changes in your own relationships or marriage? What sort of things do you refuse to change, regardless of your partner's preference? What things have they changed as a result of what you like? Let me hear about it in a comment or an e-mail!