the bucket list {top five friday}

the bucket list {top five friday}

a friend of mine suggested the other day that i should write a bucket list. a list of things i would like to do before i kick the proverbial bucket. a compilation of dreams, goals, aspirations and ideas that would be fun to accomplish before i leave this earth for my eternal life with the Lord.

a bucket list.

i wonder if my mom had a bucket list. i wonder if my mom left this world regretting that she never went to europe, always drove the speed limit, or never took the time to cook some huge, extravagant, intimidating meal.

although she did make a killer pot of spaghetti.

i wonder why i have never wondered this until now? i think it is because of the many, many, many things my mom did do while she was still here.

she fell in love with and married her middle school sweetheart. she managed to raise two pretty super kids. she never, ever stopped learning; she was an RN, had a business administration degree and taught high school. she knew how to use a sewing machine, crochet, took tae kwon do classes, could play the guitar, scrapbooked, and knew every american idol contentestant's life story by heart.

one thing i have learned since she passed is that i am very much like her in more ways than i would like to admit, but that my husband tells me every day. so that is what i am basing my bucket list on.

things that i want to do that stem from 1) all the genes and personality traits that my mom passed on to me and 2) little things that she never got to do.



via

one

spend a month in scotland

ok so i am obsessed to the craziest degree with diana gabaldon and the love story she has woven between claire and jamie in her outlander series. the whole story starts in scotland where claire falls between a cleft in two stones and travels back in time 200 years, where she meets jamie and falls in love. i'm not giving you any more details than that but i will say this.

read the stories.

also, my husband's family comes from the scottish branch of the mclains. and scottish history, tradition and the idea of being from a "clan" is so brilliant to me that i want to learn everything about it that i possibly can. i want to tour all of the old clan castles, drink scottish whiskey, buy mclain tartan, bring home a sporran, go to all of the old battle sights and find the stones where "claire fell through". hence the reason i want to be there a month. there is no way i can do all of that in a measley seven day vacation.

so, if i put a paypal donation button would you donate money to the "chris & skye go to scotland for a month" fund? ;)

two

crochet a baby blanket

one of the things that i brought home from my dad's house when we kind of cleaned out mom's stuff was her crocheting basket. she had started on a baby blanket and had worked on it for months. i would love more than anything to learn how to crochet and finish that blanket before i die. that seems kind of piddly considering i have my entire life left to do it. but i'm sure mom thought the same thing. so it is something i would like to do.

three

make sourdough bread

in my humble opinion, there is nothing more delicious than a crusty, warm loaf of sourdough bread smeared with butter (and nutella. if i'm feeling feisty, you know.)

i think they only thing that would make it taste better is knowing that i created the starter, remembered to feed it, lovingly kneaded it and rolled it into a loaf and baked it in my own oven.

four

get my master's degree

my mother was a professional student. had someone paid her to take classes and learn something she would have found her dream professsion. there are only a few years of my life growing up that i know she wasn't in school. i vividly remember having dinner on tuesday nights with my dad at winn dixie in gladewater while my mom was in night school at letourneau (which, not surprisingly, is the same night school i went to in order to get my bachelors).

i have no idea what i would go back to school for which is partly the reason i haven't done it yet. i want to get a master's in business administration with a focus on either human resources or marketing. i would love to get a master of theological studies at smu. or maybe i should just take some continuing ed classes at the local university to fill the need i have to learn something which i think is the real desire. i just want to always learn and try new things. it was something my mother was very good at and definitely instilled a love for in me.

five

live on a lake

i love the sound of water lapping up against the side of a wooden dock, extended out over a murky blue-green lake with little ripples of activity buzzing all over it. i love the smell of fresh air and the feel of that wind you can only get from sitting lakeside when it blows my hair back and cools the hot texas sun off my skin. i love the peaceful time in the morning, sitting at a rusty table with a big spiderweb between the legs of the chair, sipping hot creamy coffee and watching the stillness of the water for the abrupt interupting fish that daringly jumps out after a tempting bug.

i want a house, on a lake, with a screened in back porch and a huge second story balcony where i can sit and read the paper in the mornings and watch the boats dash by in the afternoon.

what is on your bucket list, friend?