Bucket list or to do list
I've spoken or written about my bucket list quite a few times in the past month. I made one when I was 49 and waiting to find out whether I had pancreatic cancer. I worried about work and the mortgage and hubby, although not so much about the children - they were all over 18 and two had moved out of home. I thought about all the things we'd talked about doing when we retired, and things we'd never done thanks to the demands of running our own business.
The list went something like this:
I'd like a grandchild.
I'd like to fly over Antarctica on New Years Eve (in the good seats in the plane)
I'd like a grand child
I'd like to go to England and see the locations mentioned in my favourite books
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to do a boat cruise down the Rhine
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to see the statues on Easter Island
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to go on a Sound of Music tour
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to see the rest of Australia
I'd like a grandchild
and so on. When the push came to shove, I really wanted to be a grandmother. I'd have cheerfully crossed everything else off the list in favour of having a little person in my life to spoil. I wanted to bake cakes, and jump in the mud, and feed the ducks and read books and go on picnics and make tents under the dining table, and finger paint, and make daisy chains, and eat ice-cream, and go to the zoo and, and, and....
I didn't exactly believe the women who told me the love they felt for their grandchildren was so different for the love they had for their children, but it was true! When Briana was born, she filled a Briana-shaped hole in my heart I didn't know I had, as did Maddison, and her angel-twin Paige, and now Ryley.
I'm so grateful that my children decided they wanted children, and that they were able to have them. I love to mind them, but I also love to give them back! And I've done all of those things with Briana.
And so I think I need to remake my bucket list. The places I'd like to go are still on there, along with going to New Zealand to go to the 24 hour book sale, and book town Hay-on-Wye, and cruising around Alaska and going on the train over the Rockies, and going to a sci-fi convention (although I fear most of those I'd love to see are dead or don't to conventions any more) and meet some fellow fans, and go on the Ghan (maybe next year for that one), and see the Northern lights. I'd like to acquire more books for my collection too. Catch up with my friends from school at something other than a funeral.
Not on there is get a tattoo, although sometimes I think about it. Nor is colour my hair purple - I think about that too. I don't want to publish a book or act in a movie.
I have a 'to do list' as well, but the things on my to do list aren't the things on my bucket list. The 'to do list' still has things from 2012 that I haven't yet done.
It includes cataloging/listing my books, trying new recipes, doing a digital photography course, learning to do more with the computer, sorting out a pre-retirement plan, finishing all of my half-finished fanfics, complete several reading challenges, deadlift 70kg (more than 1 rep!), defrost the freezer (I did that a few months ago, but it will need it again soon), frame and hang pictures, scrapbook photos, tidy the bedrooms, repaint the kids' bedrooms.... This list is a mix of 'need' to do and 'want' to do.
The list went something like this:
I'd like a grandchild.
I'd like to fly over Antarctica on New Years Eve (in the good seats in the plane)
I'd like a grand child
I'd like to go to England and see the locations mentioned in my favourite books
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to do a boat cruise down the Rhine
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to see the statues on Easter Island
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to go on a Sound of Music tour
I'd like a grandchild
I'd like to see the rest of Australia
I'd like a grandchild
and so on. When the push came to shove, I really wanted to be a grandmother. I'd have cheerfully crossed everything else off the list in favour of having a little person in my life to spoil. I wanted to bake cakes, and jump in the mud, and feed the ducks and read books and go on picnics and make tents under the dining table, and finger paint, and make daisy chains, and eat ice-cream, and go to the zoo and, and, and....
I didn't exactly believe the women who told me the love they felt for their grandchildren was so different for the love they had for their children, but it was true! When Briana was born, she filled a Briana-shaped hole in my heart I didn't know I had, as did Maddison, and her angel-twin Paige, and now Ryley.
I'm so grateful that my children decided they wanted children, and that they were able to have them. I love to mind them, but I also love to give them back! And I've done all of those things with Briana.
And so I think I need to remake my bucket list. The places I'd like to go are still on there, along with going to New Zealand to go to the 24 hour book sale, and book town Hay-on-Wye, and cruising around Alaska and going on the train over the Rockies, and going to a sci-fi convention (although I fear most of those I'd love to see are dead or don't to conventions any more) and meet some fellow fans, and go on the Ghan (maybe next year for that one), and see the Northern lights. I'd like to acquire more books for my collection too. Catch up with my friends from school at something other than a funeral.
Not on there is get a tattoo, although sometimes I think about it. Nor is colour my hair purple - I think about that too. I don't want to publish a book or act in a movie.
I have a 'to do list' as well, but the things on my to do list aren't the things on my bucket list. The 'to do list' still has things from 2012 that I haven't yet done.
It includes cataloging/listing my books, trying new recipes, doing a digital photography course, learning to do more with the computer, sorting out a pre-retirement plan, finishing all of my half-finished fanfics, complete several reading challenges, deadlift 70kg (more than 1 rep!), defrost the freezer (I did that a few months ago, but it will need it again soon), frame and hang pictures, scrapbook photos, tidy the bedrooms, repaint the kids' bedrooms.... This list is a mix of 'need' to do and 'want' to do.