Dear ones,
It’s time to come clean about my progress to this point on the 30 activities on my summer bucket list. Read the summer bucket list reveal post, here. For the first time, I printed my bucket list out and posted it on the refrigerator. But really haven’t looked at it that much.
That being said, I am not certain how I am doing at crossing things off my list. Let’s find out together, shall we?
Summer Bucket List:
Attend baseball game- pending
Attend “Music Under the Stars”:
We spent the evening of the 4th of July at the Chamizal National Memorial Park listening to Neon Circus, a Brooks and Dunn tribute band. My feet were itching to dance. We have to take line dancing lessons this fall. Have to.
Begin Bible journaling*-pending
Collect school supplies for donation-pending
Decorate for summer:
Have been all over the map with this. You know that I like to decorate my raggedy wheelbarrow for different seasons/holidays. So I put out summer things for June, then traded them out for patriotic-inspired rockets, stars and stripes.
Going to change back to summer at the end of July.
I always decorate my mantel and above my kitchen cabinets, too. Decided to go with a cactus/cacti for summer. We planted cactus around the pool then continued the theme inside. Read the how-to for my summer garland, here. Picked up the artificial succulents in pots at Walmart on clearance this week. I think they are perfect with my breezy garland.
Ordered these bright, reversible place mats from Revisions Designs at Etsy.
PC and I painted cactuses with I Painted That. Added a few metal…plants and some old cross stitch pictures I made years ago and called it ‘done’.
Donate treats to animal shelter-pending
Eat on the patio:
For this activity you probably envisioned us savoring some kind of grilled dinner on our patio. Which has happened and will no doubt happen again. But recently we picked up some Panda Express and enjoyed it pool side while soaking our feet in the cool water.
Feed some ducks*-pending
Finish elephant cross stitch-pending
Get a make-up makeover+-pending
Go out for dessert-pending
Have yogurt outside-pending
Hike and picnic*-pending
Make crepes+-pending
Make homemade bread-pending
Master a summer cocktail-pending
Play catch*-pending
Put love lock on bridge-pending
Random act of kindness:
No photo proof for this but last week, I did buy lunch for a soldier in line behind me at Walmart. He had a industrial-sized jug of Gatorade and a deli dinner of mashed potatoes and meatloaf. His name was Purdy and he was an E-3 in the Army.
Run a 5K-pending
Scrapbook Easter*-pending
Shoot our guns-pending
Slow dance (with PC through an entire song)+-pending
Summer photo challenge:
A work in progress. Have stumbled a time or two in taking my photos. In fact, today I am behind! But will catch up TOMORROW. Check out (and maybe follow me) on Instagram, here.
Take photo with all my girls:
As I write, all of my girls are visiting. We did get an informal picture of all five of us last night before going out to dinner. But I want something a little more professional looking than a shot on the patio. Maybe one where my hair doesn’t look like Donald Trump’s and one where Lucia is looking at the camera. But this is a great shot of Brennyn Lauren and Cady! And according to the immortal lyrics of Meatloaf (singer from the 80’s and ’90’s), 2 outta 3 ain’t bad. Or in this case, 3 outta 5.
Use good camera for My Fashion Haus:
I have used my Sony camera twice ow for style photos. Most recently for pictures of an outfit I put together for my interpretation to a “Style Imitation Art” prompt provided by Jen at Librarian for Life and Style. Hope to share it in an upcoming post soon.
Viva El Paso with the girls-pending
Watch fireworks:
After the “Music Under the Stars” concert on July 4th, we enjoyed a dazzling fireworks display.
Work on my mosaic*-pending
Write on my book:
Another item I am going to just ask you to trust me on, at least for now. But I have written on my story twice. Once at 3:00 a.m when ruminations about our swimming pool kept me from sleeping.
Well, how do you do; that’s not half bad for the first month! I have fulfilled about a 1/3 of my activities. At this rate, I might just cross everything off by September. With the girls here a few more days, I hope to complete a couple additional bucket list activities. Then life will return to our crazy normal, here at the castle.
Your Turn
I am so pleased that a number of entertaining, interesting gals from all walks of life are joining up for the bucket list series. Hope you will take a few minutes to visit their posts by clicking on the links in our InLinkZ link-up.
And if you have bucket post to share, please click below to link-up with us.
We will share another update 8.21.2017. Our fall bucket list reveal post will go live 9.21.2017. So, if you haven’t joined in for this fun series, start thinking about joining us in September.
Off to bed. Am enjoying these days of being a hands-on grandmother but I am collapsing at night. Have a blessed weekend with someone you love.
Hugs and kisses,
Good job, Leslie! You’ve done some fun stuff! Thank you for buying lunch for the soldier! I’d love to think that someone might do that for MY son one day! I chuckled at your dinner on the patio! That totally worked though! HA! I love the decorating you’ve done, and how wonderful that you’ve had time with family! *happy sigh* Thanks for hosting the linkup!
Hey Michael Ann, I am sure there will be someone who recognizes your sweet son’s service to our country and buys him dinner, or a drink, or gives him an unexpected hug. El Paso is such a military town that I feel sure these little gestures happen regularly here.
Okay..I had to laugh at your eating on the patio!! Girl—you crack me up!!
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
I am all about stretching the limits to make things work for my bucket list! Ha! Even eating Panda Express poolside and counting it as dinner outside on the patio. Whatevs!! That’s the nice thing about the bucket lists…we are in charge!
Well done, Leslie! Your decorations look great. Enjoy your week with your girls!
Oh, what a wonderful week I had with my girls. Now back to life. But happily so. I love my routine!
You have done great. The photo of you and your girls is super cute. I can tell how happy and excited you all are to be together. Ps your dress I love it.
I love all the decorating. It looks great. And dinner while dipping your toys sounds amazing.
Thanks for the reminder to hop back on the insta train. I got sidetracked.
Thanks for hosting and letting me join you in this bucket list.
Thank you for always being there, supporting my ideas and efforts. Enjoying your lovely camping pictures. So proud of you guys to bundle up the kids and camp.
Love your eating on the patio – literally! Enjoy time with your girts.
Time with my girls was precious. But so is returning to normal and routine. Love routine. Love normal!! Glad to be back to blogging.
Thank you for your Pay It Forward kindness, you have motivated me to look for opportunities to do same. (Insert heart emoji here!)
The exhaustion of being a hands-on grandmother – oh, how I can relate! But in retrospect, and even in the moment of yet another round of waddling through the house together like penguins, I recognize these are the moments that will build our future close ties together, and that I will treasure forever. Grandmothers around the world understand! (Insert second heart emoji here!)
You write so beautifully of the love we grandmothers have for our babies. Your words are carefully chosen and paint such warmth of relationship. I overuse ‘love’…I love my Lucia, love her eyes, love her chubby thighs. But you are a writer with depth and emotion and feeling in everything you say.
I am exhausted but that smiling kind of tired. Missing my darling daughters and grands but happily returning to routine. And about to dig out from loads of laundry…towels and bedding!!
My absolute favorite item you checked off is the photo of all of the girls! We are going to TWO Cardinals baseball games this next week! One with the kids and the other will be a double date night!
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Hope you had a blast at the Cards’ games. Double dating is fun. Wish we had a couple we liked to double date with. Usually, if I like the wife, PC doesn’t care to hang out with the hubby. Or vice versa.
Still didn’t get a real photo with all of my girls. Geez, that needs to happen. But photo or not, the memories we made play over in my head and heart.
I don’t know, there’s a lot of “pending” items there…you better get going, there’s not much summer left. The panda express meal on the patio is hysterical..not quite sure that qualifies. 🙂 Your girls are beautiful!
After I visited some of the other gals posts, I decided to take the effort to add color and the word PENDING to my own update. Yikes!!! That really highlighted what I haven’t done. Back to normal and routine today after my girls’ visit so here we go!
Thank you for your kind compliment on my girls. In every case they look like their fathers except my youngest daughter Lauren with the lighter, curly hair who looks a teensy bit like me. Brennyn is the spitting image of their dad. And my grands both favor their daddies, too.
What lovely family photos Leslie and I think you really set yourself a task with 30 activities! I’ve missed a couple of days in the Instagram challenge as well. Life just gets too busy! Love the idea of eating on a summer evening with you feet in the pool – so refreshing!!! Most importantly you have crossed off random acts of kindness which is one of the most important on the list. Have a great week!
I have fallen off on the Instagram challenge, too. So doing what I can to catch up. Life just gets busy and crazy and we can only do what we can do! How profound, huh?
I think the random acts of kindness make me feel better than the recipient of whatever small effort I make. Does a heart good.
Now to hit it hard on everything else. Waaaay too many PENDINGS!
You know, if you had gotten yogurt for dessert after Panda Express, you could’ve crossed off two more items. 😉
I missed out on the summer bucket list because of moving and life craziness, so I’m going to start working on my fall list so I can join in on the fun in September!
So glad you will be joining us for the fall!!! We will post on 9/21. Yay, you!
I did work in yogurt this past week with my girls but you are right, I need to think about doubling up some of these activities. Otherwise, my fall list is going to look a whole lot like summer’s fails!
What is it about eating outdoors that is so much more enjoyable? I definitely think Panda Express counts! I’m impressed by your decorating goals. My house looks pretty much the same year-round (except Christmas). And your photo with the girls is beautiful. Good luck with the rest of your list!
Happy summer!
Christie
Thank you, Christie. My daughters have come and gone, the laundry is almost caught up and the house put back together. I love having them here but also love my routine! Back at the day-to-day TODAY!