Revisiting my Bucket List from 5 years ago!

I'm working on my "30 before 30" list. I turn 29 in a few weeks, meaning I've only got about 55 more weeks of living out my 20's. I'll share my "30 before 30" list closer to my birthday, but I thought I'd take this time to reflect on a Bucket List post I made in 2012.

Let's see what I've checked off that list in the past 5 years:

1. Own a horse I was blessed to have 2! Hoping to own one again someday
   
2. Visit my homeland: Ireland
3. Play a different board game every day for a month
4. Wear my mom's wedding dress (in some form) and my grandma's wedding band at my wedding  This was pretty cool to check off. I DID wear a dress that was combined with my mom's wedding gown, and my wedding band was my grandmother's wedding band.
5. Show one of my dogs in an AKC competition
6. Have an herb garden  And I have kept most of them alive!
   
7. Learn how to cook with fresh herbs  Totally love doing this with herbs from my own garden!
8. Take a hot air balloon ride
9. Go scuba diving
10. Ride horseback in the ocean   Did this on my honeymoon, bareback in St. Lucia! #thedream
    
11. Search for buried treasure
12. See the sunrise and the sunset on the same day
13. Be debt free for the rest of my life
14. Speak to students about Truth  I've had the opportunity to talk to students and athletes
15. Come out with my own music album
16. Swim with dolphins  Another epic memory from my honeymoon! Swam WITH dolphins on an Island near St. Maarten's
    
17. Hold a lion cub
18. Ride an elephant
19. Rescue a greyhound
20. Do all the crafts on my DIY craft board on pinterest
21. Learn to think before I speak  Still a work in progress, but becoming a therapist helped with this a lot
22. Be in a movie  I've been in a few commercials, so I'll count that!
    
23. Start an orphanage somehwere its needed, and run it
24. Adopt a few kids
25. Make my own wedding veil  Made from my mom's wedding veil! (I didn't make it myself...but I made a veil for my bridal photos)
26. Have a 50th wedding anniversary
27. Take a gondola ride in Italy along the canals
28. Go to the Ellen DeGeneres show
29. Visit England and wear a fancy hat somewhere it would be appropriate
30. Enter a ballroom dance competition
31. Run a 10K  The Chicago 10k! Well, almost...I was registered, and got the date wrong, so I did it with a friend the day before....by ourselves haha. Still got the t-shirt!
32. Grow flowers
33. Help my Dad buy a boat
34. Own a condo where all my family can vacation together  Vacation rental in Hendersonville, NC!
35. See all my kids graduate and get married
36. Visit my cousins in Africa and help them do missions where my Dad grew up
37. Live in Europe
38. Have a library room in my house
39. Write and have a book published
40. Have lunch with Francine Rivers
41. Grow my hair out to my lower ribs
42. Be in Times Square for New Years
43. Go on a Disney Cruise
44. Speak Spanish fluently
45. Share Jesus with a stranger
46. Learn to decorate cakes professionally
47. Eat all natural foods and cook from scratch Proud to do this regularly now!
48. Own a car younger than me  A huge personal accomplishment for me.
49. Be on a TV show like Wipeout, Survivor, or the Amazing Race
50. Feel confident in a bikini  Praise God for healthy body image!
51. Learn to play the guitar
52. Live on a self-sufficient farm with goats and chickens and horses
53. Throw an epic themed party (maybe a reunion, or a reception)
54. Travel travel travel: Greece, Italy, Spain, Tailand, Africa, Norway, Ireland, Hungary, Hawaii
55. Raise my kids along with my brother and sister-in-law

Some of these items aren't priorities for me currently. But still some exciting ideas I think I'd be proud to check off my list one day. 15 out of 55. Not too bad.  And they were some pretty big ones!

What have you checked off your bucket list lately?

Traditions amidst Transience: How Christmas reminds me of who I am

I really love Christmas. Not for the presents, and certainly not for the sudden cold weather, but for the tradition. It’s like a yearly opportunity to come back to the essentials in the midst of the chaos of the year. And in my transient life, this season feels like a lifeline for my soul to cling to when everything is different every single year. In my family, Christmas means Jesus and music and family time and parties. Pretty much 4 of my favorite things.

Honestly, for me, Christmas is a reminder of who I am. No matter how crazy the year is, Christmas brings me back to the basics of myself. I’ve listened to the same core Christmas albums since I was in middle school. So every year at this time that music not only resonates because of its familiarity, but because of the continuity that it represents. For better or worse, I’ve listened to Avalon, Point of Grace, Amy Grant and Transiberian Orchestra’s Christmas albums every year for almost 2 decades (I added in Michael Buble and Pentatonix Christmas albums to the core group on “shuffle” over the past decade). They really are all awesome albums. 

Just as much as this time of year reminds me of what hasn’t changed over the years, I’m very acutely aware of just how much has. 

Since I was 18 years old, I’ve lived in 13 different homes, in 5 different states, not including college. I’m 28 now, almost 29. So much has changed in a decade that I honestly could barely recognize my life, apart from those Christmas albums. I haven’t even worked the same job for more than a year; every year I go to a different office Christmas party. It’s why this time of year always leaves me a little  (read: a lot) homesick for all the places I called home, and all the experiences that would have become traditions if I’d been in the same place long enough. 

If I still lived in Wheaton, I would go to the Christmas Concert in Edman Chapel, and go caroling with friends. If I still lived in Charleston, I’d go to the Christmas Lights festival at the James Island park and enjoy the festivities with friends. If I still lived in Asheville, I’d go to the Grove Park Inn and see the Gingerbread houses, and listen to the live music in front of massive fireplaces, and attend/sing in a Christmas Eve candlelight service. If I still lived in Manhattan (KS), I would enjoy the Little Apple Tree Lighting, and singing carols on Sunday mornings. I live in Missouri this year, and I’m having a Cookie Exchange party. And next year, we will live somewhere different. So far the only tradition that’s been consistent over the past few years is enjoying the Hallmark Christmas movies (no shame). 

But while it looks different every year, the act of celebrating Jesus with others is at the heart of the season, and that is a tradition in and of itself.  

It’s important to recognize change and understand just how much it affects you. I’m a fan of change, usually. But relatively little in my life is consistent year to year, besides my dogs, my family, my Christmas music, and Jesus. So that’s what I come back to every year to keep me grounded. Every year Cora gets a Christmas stocking with treats; I get assigned a name to buy a gift for our Moss family Christmas (and someone gets my name); my parents always say “don’t get me anything this year”; and I spend more time with Jesus, and the Transiberian orchestra. 

I guess those are pretty good traditions after all.

What are yours? How do you celebrate?


This is my very first full size Christmas tree in my own home (its artificial, but when you are never at home for Christmas, it seems a waste to have a real one).