Bucket List 2013

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For the second year in a row I'm over a month late to the New Year's Resolutions party. But I wanted the holiday dust to settle and to give it a good long think, hoping to choose resolutions that won't end up beating me over the head with a stick by next December. The past few years I've felt loathe to commit to specific goals, mostly because I feel like this phase of motherhood means my time isn't my own. Evidently my children don't really care when I'm tired, hungry, or in the mood to surf the internet, to say nothing of their attitude toward more productive kinds of "me" time. Exercising, writing, reading...anything that doesn't directly involve my children somehow translates into an invitation for them to hang over my shoulder like chattering monkeys: Whatcha' doin' mom? Can I help? What's that? Can you make me a snack? There might be a spider in my room, let's go have a look and then maybe we can put on some of your lipstick!

Given my popularity among the little people at my house, I've learned that the whole "fulfill your resolution or die trying" approach often ends in carnage, so all month I've been asking myself the question How do I create no pressure resolutions that encourage self improvement without making myself depressed and/or slightly nuts when it doesn't turn out like I envisioned?

This week a friend answered that question for me. Instead of resolutions, I'm going to call it a Bucket List. By definition the term "bucket list" refers to things one hopes to do or accomplish before death, as in to "kick the bucket," but for the purposes of making 2013 great, I'm going to create my own "bucket list." I won't engage you in a debate over vocabulary, but to me the term bucket list sounds more friendly and flexible, less intense, focused more on one's happiness and sense of adventure than a regimental "to do" list. In other words, this is a list of things I hope to do this year that sound fun because by the time New Year's rolls around again, wouldn't it be cool to say, Wow, 2013 was AWESOME! 

Lauren's Bucket List, 2013

• Take a bike ride on a beach
• Add five new tried and true healthy recipes to my standard list of "what I make for dinner all the time"
• Run four miles and when I'm finished shrug and say, That was pretty fun
• Visit a museum I've never been to before
• Submit my work for publication...even if it doesn't get chosen
• Read Edith Wharton's novels
• Start a water fight with my kids
• Sleep 8 hours without interruption
• Visit a friend I haven't seen in years
• Drive downtown at least three times to try new restaurants
• Spontaneously do something REALLY nice for someone else every single week
• Surprise Jeremy...I don't quite know with what or how, but it's fun to plan surprises for your spouse!
• Help each of my older girls master a different cookie recipe
• Fall asleep feeling like my day couldn't have gone better
• Ride on a roller coaster
• Try a type of food I've never tasted before
• Teach my baby to say "mama" before he says "dada"
• Write a handwritten letter to all of my family members

That's what I've come up with so far. Let me know if you have any other great ideas!