My sweet quarantine queens, it’s time for the 05.2020 update for my spring bucket list. This continues to be the craziest season! Would never have guessed just how extraordinary this spring would be when I wrote my original 2020 spring bucket list post back in March. But I did create my list knowing life wouldn’t be the same ole’ same ole! And thank goodness I did!!
2020 SPRING BUCKET LIST
Here in El Paso, we are about 7 weeks into our stay at home restrictions. While the rest of state is reopening, we are slower to do so in far west Texas. Our cases of Covid have increased by 125 this week, and our deaths have increased, too. Of course, more folks are being tested so the number of positive cases is going to go up.
Citizens are being required to wear masks when in public. Hiking and walking trails are opening in time for the holiday weekend. Stores began reopening this past Monday but allowing only a limited number of masked customers to enter at a time. All steps in the right direction, though.
As a reminder, here are the 20 activities on this season’s list.
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UPDATE 05.2020
I haven’t really considered my list too often since last month’s update. Let’s see if there’s been any progress at all!!
GOOD FOR THE HEART
These are activities that strengthen relationships and warm my heart.
- Host Easter dinner – invite the kids to join us, set the dining room table with our good dishes, light some candles. Great news!! We are having an ‘Easter-in-May’ dinner this Sunday! Green check mark…Pending.
- Give each other couples massage – complete with candles, aromatherapy, soft lighting, soft music, oils, lotions, and a glass of wine. Pending.
- Listen to and finish our book together in the hot tub – also a wellness goal, listening to When Christ and His Saints Slept: Plantagenets, Book 1 by Sharon K. Penman. We aren’t exactly speed reading (listening) our way through this book. With 36.5 hours total listening time, we have 34 hours left!! This might not ever get that bright green check mark indicating its been completed. But I can say it’s…Underway.
- Dress up for Easter – want to remember the reason for the season, and dress up for our Easter dinner at home. Another activity that might not happen. I doubt we will get all dolled up when we eat our ham this weekend. But you never know. Pending.
GOOD FOR THE SOUL
A few things to warm me from the inside out. And finally some concrete progress!!
- Tiptoe through the poppies – with all of the unseasonable rain earlier in the year, our annual poppies were especially abundant. I have shared the poppies in several posts, here and here. With our triple digit temps, they have all dried up and blown away now. ✔️
- Pay it forward – lots of ways and reasons to treat someone this season. Did donate a box of Victoria’s Secret bras to Bra Recyclers. And last week we were treated to our McDonald’s cheeseburgers by someone paying it forward in the drive through in front of us. So, we followed suit and paid for the meal of the car behind us. ✔️
- Repot and revive mom’s Phalaenopsis orchid – brought it home in my carry-on bag from Kentucky. It’s not dead yet, anyway!! But it doesn’t look as good as it did in the photo below after I repotted it. Embarrassed to show you a new photo. I do think there might be new growth on it, though. Keep your fingers crossed. ✔️
- Spruce up the yard and plants – hoping to add a few more succulents to the yard in some colorful pots, and do something more attractive in the front yard. Have purchased a couple of new succulents and some new solar lights. But waiting to get my patio furniture. Hopefully, I can get everything pulled together by my final update in June. Underway.
GOOD FOR THE BODY
Activities that get me moving.
- Take the first dip of the year in the pool – you all know the troubles we’ve had with our pool, right? Well, I have promised myself to try very hard to enjoy the pool this year. We had to heat the water to have some work done. And enjoyed our first swim several days later. ✔️
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- Hike and picnic at a park or Hueco Tanks – at Hueco Tanks, you can hike, rock climb, bird watch, study nature and history, picnic and stargaze. [source] Hueco Tanks is OPEN! Thought maybe Brennyn and Cady would like going out there. We’ll see. For now, this is…Pending.
- Utilize exercise videos and/or compete in Wicked Wine Run – the Wicked Wine Run has been postponed until 09.2020. In the meantime, we are utilizing some online videos and running several times a week. Check out Sunday’s Wellness Weekend post, here, for more info. Going to give this a ✔️ of completion.
- Take Cia on a nature scavenger hunt – created my scavenger hunt and shared with Brennyn & Cady, Lauren & Lucia, Dani from Family.Love.Inspiration & her children Zaeya, Logan and Nash. Here’s the scavenger hunt, if you would like to do it with a little one in your life. Want to get a few photos of Cady helping us on our hunt. Then will share photos in my last update. But this is definitely…Underway.
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GOOD FOR THE MIND
Experiences that will hopefully require and build brain power.
- Paint spring rocks – have my rocks almost finished. Will leave them around the hospital where Francisco works. This is well… Underway.
- Take a class or course – signed up for a mosaic class but received an email saying the class has been postponed. Looking into a couple of courses online for playing my keyboard and gaining confidence with my Instapot. Purchased The Genius Blogger’s Tool Kit but haven’t looked at it once. Pending.
- Work online jigsaw puzzles – my sister reminded me of this activity. I love working jigsaw puzzles. Started a real one and PC mentioned he might even help with it. Thinking the girls might help me get this finished (started??) over the weekend. ✔️
- Organize crafts and craft supplies – my craft space is so small and I have so many different hobbies and projects. I started to organize the area and felt immediately overwhelmed. Got back in there a few weeks later and finished up this chore. Love my new hobby cart. And being able to use my desk! ✔️
Just Plain Good
Activities just for fun.
- Decorate for spring and Easter – Finally, something I have done with gusto! Have debated about taking my springish/Easter decor down since the holiday has come and gone. But since we are eating our Easter dinner this Sunday, decided to leave the house bedecked in bunnies and eggs a bit longer. ✔️
- Find a copycat recipe for a favorite restaurant dish and make it at home – My brother Kevin’s girlfriend is the manager of the BJ’s restaurant in Lexington. When I came across this copycat recipe for BJ’s Parmesan crusted chicken, I asked LeeAnn to check it out for accuracy. She gave it a thumb’s up. So did PC! ✔️
- Make a coconut cream pie or German chocolate cake just because I like them – for my birthday, I baked myself a German chocolate cake. But forgot to take pics!! Then I made this scrumdiddlyumptious coconut cheesecake pie for a recipe swap and blog hop. Sadly, it wasn’t exactly like the coconut pie Grandma Bubby used to make. But boy, was it good!! ✔️
- Host a game night or investigate Pictionary Air – last month, I had declared this probably impossible or very unlikely until things return to some semblance of normal. BUT…with Brennyn and Cady visiting, there is some hope that we could play a game while they are here. Hallelujah. Mark this as still…Pending.
By my count, that’s 10 activities completed, 4 underway to some degree, which leaves 6 activities pending. I have my work cut out for me. Hope you will come back again on 06.21.2020 to check out my final update. And for my summer bucket list reveal. You are cordially invited to start putting together your summer list, too!!
YOUR TURN
Please leave a comment or link up your bucket list update 05.2020 post below.
Or, in a comment, let me know how you’ve been filling your stay at home days. Are stores, bars, restaurants, shopping centers, beauty salons reopening in your community? Are you wearing a mask when you leave home? Would love to hear from you about life in your community and the activities with which you are filling your time.
Stay healthy, my sweet, sweet quarantine queens!
Hugs and kisses,
Nancy
Your pool looks very inviting! Inhoud the nummers go down there soon so that you also can have a ,,normaal,, life!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I keep hoping we will begin to flatten the curve but not yet. Our number of cases and deaths related to Covid keep increasing. Hopefully, June will be a kinder month. We are getting some great use out of the pool this year!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you! Hope your numbers are going down, too. Maybe June is the month we’ve been waiting for.
Deb
It’s incredible that you have been able to tick anything off with the restrictions we are all living under at the moment! So a huge well done for anything done, half done, pending, or just thinking about doing 😉
We are still under a pretty strict lockdown here and it is so hard to keep distance between our family members. It’s hard to tell if higher confirmed cases are due to increased testing or not isn’t it? Our numbers are still too high but the hospital cases are reducing so fingers crossed things may start easing sometime soon. Maybe June?
Enjoy your belated dinner!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Well, Covid cheated us out of our belated Easter dinner just as it did the dinner planned on the holiday. Maybe we can have Easter in June or July?
We still wore masks while Brennyn visited so that made doing some of the activities difficult that I had planned for her visit. Our numbers are increasing because there is more testing being done but we have yet to flatten the curve upward. Hope that is coming in June.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Things have begun loosening up around here a little this week. I felt a little bit more ‘normal’ when I got to go somewhere other than just the grocery store. Hope June will be the month that life start looking up. Thank you, my sweet friend.
Joanne
I haven’t even looked at my bucket list in ages! I think I’m doing pretty well with it though; other than those few wishes to visit public spaces that aren’t opened.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I need to get after my bucket list. Just a few weeks left to wind things up!
ShootingStarsMag
Great job on everything you’ve been able to complete or get started. COVID has messed up so much, that it’s awesome you can still get so many of these things ticked off the list. And oh my god, is that your pool? I love the set up! I have a big above ground pool and I am so ready to get in it but the weather needs to warm up for sure! lol
-lauren
Leslie Roberts Clingan
I read on your blog that you have been enjoying your above ground pool. Good for you. We are enjoying the water at least in our pool. I have to close my eyes to all the problems it has. At least we can cool off in it. Thank you for the sweet comment.
Juhli
Great results despite the restrictions. Your hobby cart and spring decor are charming. Enjoy your family dinner.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, sweets. I just put my spring decor away and brought out 4th of July. Kind of hated to put it back in the box.
Karen
Good to see you back. My Moma is also an orchid grower. I like the scavenger hunt idea & plan to make one for the Grands when they visit in several week. Our community is open, with caution of course. I worked 4 jigsaw puzzles over the winter, working 4 to 5 pieces at a time. It’s still late spring here in SD, with the trees just starting to put on their leaves, so I love your bunny deco to go with your upcoming family dinner plans.
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Oh, Karen, come help me with my puzzle. I haven’t done a single thing more on it since mid-May. Sure would appreciate your help!
So glad you found my blog and left a comment so that I can now visit you. I had a boyfriend years ago in Wildrose, ND. Visited there
a number of times. Loved the landscape. The winters were brutal but I enjoyed the snow and snow mobiling.
I think I have managed to keep my mom’s orchid alive. It look pretty poorly about a week ago and then…there was a new root and the start
of a new leaf. Might be hope for it yet.
Mica
Your Easter decorations are looking good, it’s nice you can have a delayed Easter lunch – we should have thought of that! They lifted the restrictions so each house can have 5 guests, just in time for mother’s day which was lovely. A lot of places are reopening now, although we still have to keep distancing and visitor numbers low, we don’t have to wear masks.
Hope you are having a good week 🙂 It’s a bit cold here – winter has arrived a week early!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Wonderful that you were able to have guests for Mother’s Day. It was a sad day here. I missed all of my babies. But we were together last week and it was wonderful.
Amy Johnson
I know you’ve had a lot of issues with your pool, but it sure is gorgeous! Cute Easter decor too! I don’t think this is the spring/summer any of us had planned, which is such a shame because everyone looks so forward to spring/summer more than any other season of the year. Because I can’t go anywhere, my garden is looking the best it’s ever been. I’m finally getting those old garden beds renovated!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, friend. I am trying to enjoy the pool water and not focus on the issues.
Natalie
Hi Leslie, I hope you have a wonderful family dinner. The scavenger hunt looks like a lot of fun with Cia and Cady’s help. Happy weekend!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you!! We wound up having Mexican food instead of Easter dinner. Or for Easter dinner!
Christie Hawkes
Well done Leslie! You have accomplished a lot this spring. Your pool looks beautiful, though I know you’ve had more than your share of challenges. We are just getting bids on a swimming pool for our southern Utah home. Any tips? I hope you have a lovely Easter in May dinner with your family. I’m looking forward to seeing pictures of your scavenger hunt. Happy spring!
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you, Christie!! Oh I hope your pool building is a more positive experience than ours was. Watch everything they do. Take pictures of every step.
We have had such a time. Hope your pool will bring you nothing but pleasure.
Danielle
OMG you pool looks so inviting. Girlfriend, spend all your time by or in that pool. Also I love all your Easter decorations. They are the cutest. You have completed/started a lot of things on your list, and you sure don’t have many left to finish. Great job! Keep at it.
Our numbers are very low here in SK (Currently have 77ish Active Cases, with 7-8 known Deaths). Keep in mind we have a very small population in our Province (just one 1 million people). We are currently in Phase 2 of opening up here in SK. That means stores are starting to open, hairdressers, doctor offices, dental offices, etc. Around June 8 we are starting Phase 3 (which will allow restaurants to open up to a certain capacity). Many places of businesses need to undergo very strict cleaning policies though. I still wear a mask out in public (Brett is a high risk person), but I am one of the few people who do. I think people here are really starting to just go out and do things (here’s hoping our numbers don’t skyrocket, but it is always a possibility).
Leslie Roberts Clingan
Thank you. We are finally enjoying being in the pool. Still upset by all the issues. But at least we can swim. It does hold water!!
Our Covid numbers have gone up over 300 in the last 2 days. But many of them are related to cases in a jail. Things are slowly opening up.
Bath and Body Works opened today. But they only allowed a few people in at a time and you had to follow a certain path in the store. So we
decided to wait until later to visit. We are wearing masks everywhere we go.