Yesterday I already let y’all know why I won’t be making any resolutions this year. Mainly because life with two small children is too incredibly unpredictable to be nailing down a list of even five lofty goals for one year. But I like the idea of having things to accomplish. Just as long as the pressure of having to complete things within a year is off.
Then a fellow blogger/writer Alissa over at Clever Compass came up with the incredible idea of writing and sharing our life lists. Honestly I’d never put together a definitive travel list let alone ALL the things I want to accomplish in my years on this Earth.
It’s kind of hard to think of isn’t it? Try to come up with the top 5 things you want to do in your life and list them right NOW…
What’d you come up with?
Hard, no? And yet, it’s hard to stop once the ball starts rolling. In fact I thought of so many things I want to do I need five lifetimes to accomplish them all. I know some things may never happen, like seeing the Shire or going to outer space. And I know I’m tempting fate by saying I want to see my girls have babies. But still…these are the things I WANT to do, not the things I know will come to pass.
And no this isn’t a Bucket List. Cause I don’t want to look at this list like something I have to do before I kick the bucket. I want to look at it as things to do while I’m alive. A reference in case I’m ever bored and wealthy. You know, for the Lottery Years.
So without further ado and in no particular order my Life List
- Become a prenatal and postpartum Doula
- Adopt or foster a child
- Own our own European-style cafe where you can get an awesome cup of coffee, or beer or wine or whiskey, a great bite to eat and watch a band or a film or read a book or write a book or meet your friends or meet new friends
- Get a Master’s Degree or Law Degree
- Run for political office
- Meet President and Mrs. Obama
- Visit NYC during the holidays and ice skate at Rockefeller Center
- Take the girls to Disney World
- Go to Lebanon and meet Michael’s grandmother and see their village, Deirmimas
- Learn to speak Arabic and teach my children how as well
- Take a RV trip to the West coast and back with my husband, kids and my mom
- Go on a road trip with only my sister Tracey
- Write and produce a feature film
- Go on the White House tour
- Read all the Harry Potter books with my daughters (and Narnia, Tolkien and Hunger Games)
- Take a photography class
- Begin a monthly dinner party club
- Write a children’s book
- Write a fiction book
- Write a memoir
- Publish something I write
- Sing a song in public that isn’t karaoke or Happy Birthday
- Record a song with my husband
- Build a coop and raise chickens (thanks for the reminder Kelli!)
- Have a proper and well-tended vegetable garden
- Learn to compost
- See the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin in concert one more time.
- Go back to Tuscany, rent a villa outside of Montalcino and renew vows on our 10 year wedding anniversary
- Find a forever house, buy it and fix it up and never move my things again.
- Find where my ancestors are from in Africa and go there
- Live in a foreign country for at least a year
- Meet my long-lost Uncle
- Go on an ancestral road trip from here through Indiana, down to Mississippi and back through West Virginia seeing all the places in this country where my family is from
- Visit the Forbidden City and Great Wall in China
- Visit the Shire in New Zealand
- Visit our friends in Cape Cod
- Visit Las Vegas, San Francisco, Portland and Seattle
- Visit London, Dublin and Glasgow
- Travel through the south of France by car
- Visit Vienna, Berlin, Budapest and Prague
- Visit Vietnam, Thailand, Bejing, Honk Kong and Tokyo
- Travel through Brazil to Argentina all the way to the southern tip of Chile and back up to Peru
- Hike Macchu Picchu
- Go to the World Cup or the summer Olympics or both
- Visit India and see the Ganges and ride an elephant
- Go on the Amazing Race with my husband and see the world
- See my daughters get married to someone they truly love
- Be an Auntie
- Be a Grandmother
- Grow old with my Michael
So what do you think? Are there things on my list that you’ve already done? Anything that you think I should add to my list? What do you think is the most easily accomplished this year? I’d love to hear from my readers as well as other bloggers what’s on their lists.
If you are a company or blogger who can help me check any of these off my list I would gladly accept your help. You can contact me at
aliwayout (at) yahoo (dot) com.
Thanks for reading! Now link up!!
I love how many things are similar on our lists. We should totally buy Rosetta Stone (Arabic) and form our own little study group some day. Also, have you seen all the fantastic film stuff going on around creating feature length films on mobile phones?? There are some great Meet Up groups and pop up film festivals that are pretty exciting. It’s a goal of mine for this year, but I’m so green it’s hard to stay started and motivated. Love, Love your list!
Alissa | CleverCompass.com recently posted..My Life List
Hooray for compost!
To reiterate Alissa, it’s so cool how similar so many of our list items are.
Oh yeah, and I LOVE bacon too.
Vanessa recently posted..Vanessa’s Life List
LOVE your list! My husband and I have always wanted to be on Amazing Race, too! We can help you with #7…people seem to be jumping on board to help celebrate my 40th birthday in NYC! (We have four years to plan!)
Eeek! I’ve been behind on my blog reading, so I’m just now seeing your new design – I love it! And I’m so happy I’m on your blog list
Anyway, I love your list! The only one of these I’ve done is not an exciting one – I have my Master’s – but there are several I would love to do, too. I love that you put reading some awesome books with your girls on the list. I started reading Harry Potter with mine two years ago – and the only reason we didn’t finish was because it finally turned Jenny into a reader and she had to take it away from me so she could just finish the books herself rather than waiting for me
Katie E recently posted..New Year, New Habits: Taking Meal Planning to a New Level
Happy New Year Ali!
I love your list.
My list, obviously is very different. I have done some on yours though! things to talk about during one of our Happy hours!
Political office, (does the library board count? never again btw)
NYC during the holidays (remind me to tell you of spendin New Years on a bus with a Jehovah’s witness)
DisneyWorld with Lugh
White House tour
Read ALL the Harry Potter books to Lugh (cried when Dumbledore died)
I’ve taken two photography classes
I’ve written a children’s book (never went anywhere)
Been published
Visited Forbidden City and Great Wall (awesome, that’s all to say)
Been to London
I’m an auntie
About seeing Led Zeppelin–that ship has sailed honey. I had tickets for their last concert in Detroit and John Bonham died and it got cancelled. It was to my FIRST concert. I wish I kept the tickets, but I turned them in for return $ (I was a kid). they announced at the time that Led Zeppelin would never be “Led Zeppelin”
without all the original members. Happy new Year!!!!!
Love this list.
Composting has been something I have wanted to do forever. As is a garden! I should have put those on my list!
I love all of your writing ones. Totally relate to them. And the European Cafe reminded me of this book I read recently, the Colour of Tea. You might enjoy it. I definitely did (I reviewed it) and it made me want to open a cafe, too!
Andrea recently posted..The Tell, Hester Kaplan ~ Book review
I LOVE your list too!! I can’t believe I forgot to add a few of your final items to my list. I especially love how you don’t specify “a man” when you refer to your daughters potential weddings. It’s a pet-peeve of mine when people just assume their daughters will marry men and their sons will marry women. Find LOVE. Be HAPPY. Think I must add that to my list. And renewing vows… in Tuscany!!! Love that too. So many more things I love & want to adopt… right off the bat — the doula dream reminded me of my dream to become a certified lactation consultant. You are so right: once you start these lists, it’s really tough to stop!
Didn’t see “attend MI Winter Beer Fest” on here though. Easy to cross off next month! ;D CHEERS!
Kelli @ Momma Needs a Beer recently posted..Life List
Wow, We have a lot of the same things on our life lists,(except mine still includes being a mom).
You have, again, inspired me, A!
Love the list!
hugs,
Dani
What a robust list! I am inspired, especially by #1 and #2, these are such selfless acts. As for me, I would love to do 4 (the law degree), 21, 31, 47-50 (but with my hubby, of course) .
Teresha recently posted..Deal Alert: Stay Home, Stay Warm with Leading Lady Bras
I love your Life List. Traveling through Europe is amazing. Going on road-trips with your sister can always be fun. I love writing about my life list and look forward to reading your accomplishments.
MommaDJane recently posted..Preserve Your Memories With $65 Giveaway From YesVideo
Hooray for doulas! I did that work for a few years and it is great work! You will rock at supporting women!
Kathy Morelli, LPC (@KathyAMorelli) recently posted..#LifeList Time! Join us for a blog hop!