My sweet masked crusaders, it’s time for my summer 2020 bucket list update 07.2020. The first look at the progress I’ve made on this summer’s activities. Just scrolling down through this post, you’re bound to notice a whole lotta yellow = pending. Just haven’t been feelin’ it. Not bucket list activities, not wellness goals. Zip, zilch, nada. Seems like the only thing I am feelin’ lately is strawberry red licorice.
When I put together this list, we were well into the first wave of Covid. But that wave has turned into a tsunami of cases here in the Sun City. And today hospitalizations, patients in ICU, patients on ventilators and deaths are all on the increase as well. So that explains some of the yellow you see below in this update 07.2020
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Linking up with the gals at Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop, #wwbh, my friend Penny at Penny’s Passion and my sweet friends Sue and Leeanne for the MidLife Share the Love party, #MLSTL.
Let’s check out the details.
Update 07.2020
Tried to keep my summer 2020 bucket list Covid-friendly in case things got worse and more limitations were put into place. Which has, unfortunately, been the case in El Paso and across the state of Texas. Always the pessimist. Or, I like to think, the realist.
GOOD FOR THE BODY
- Concentrate on improving arms and abs to earn midriff top and workout pants – PC wants me to buy a midriff top/active wear pants outfit but I want to tone up more before I do. But as you can read in my recent Wellness Weekend post, I have lost my workout mojo. Hope to begin to get it back this week. 🟨 Pending
- Return to working out at the gym – the gym is open but we are currently letting the germs settle. 🟨 Pending
- Ride scooters or trolley to explore downtown – something different we’ve never done before. 🟨 Pending
- Run 5 times a week – work on consistency rather than distance. We are running several days but not 5 times a week. Maybe this week I can begin to realize that goal. 🟨 Pending
GOOD FOR THE HEART
- Dress up date night once a month – we visited 2 restaurants in June but with our increasing Covid numbers, we are playing it safe and eating at home. So for now, there is no dressing up for date night. 🟨 Pending
- Kiss goodnight after gratitude journal – we are good about completing the gratitude journal every night but the kissing goodnight, not so much. Have begun doing better about this. And have my new gratitude journal ordered. ✔️
- Patio chats over smoothies – we are really enjoying this activity. ✔️
- Start A Year of Us – started completing this book on our anniversary. The first question was “What would be a perfect date with our spouse?” ✔️
GOOD FOR THE MIND
- Complete courses – those on blogging and morning and evening routines, want to investigate becoming a notary. Have begun the “Make Over Your Mornings” course with Crystal Paine. So far, there haven’t been any revelations or ah-ha moments in the course. But I have just begun. Have looked into becoming a notary, here. Now to start the process. 🟨 Pending
- Follow Dave Ramsey’s podcasts – want to leave some inheritance to my daughters and help build us a stronger retirement. Have begun listening to these podcasts. 🟨 Pending
- Mosaic class – registered in the spring, then Covid – want to learn what to do to finish my mosaic table. Have emailed Terry to see when I can take my mosaic class and work with her to finish a mosaic project I began shortly after I retired. 🟨 Pending
- Summer crafts – banner for the patio, patriotic projects, scrapping, water color and mosaic, of course. I did make a few patriotic crafts for my 4th of July decor. Will be linking up for Erlene’s July Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop with a craft or recipe. ✔️
GOOD FOR THE SOUL
- Begin new Bible study – I am doing Grace Changes Everything by Bonnie Hunter with my sister. It combines Bible journaling, writing, reflecting…something for everyone. Have also ordered my sweet friend Mary Clewley’s “Cultivate” series from her blog Hope Filled Living. I am going to complete the Grace study before I begin “Cultivate.” That way I can keep the 2 studies straight in my head! ✔️
- Find a new gratitude journal – finishing the last entries in my current gratitude journal, have just ordered Choose Gratitude: Blessings Journal by Crystal Paine, who also wrote the morning and evening routine courses above. Looking forward to starting this new journal. ✔️
- Help with food bank or other philanthropy – dropped off Walmart bags at the food bank and realized what a great service they are providing. Would like to volunteer at the food bank but worry about being around that many people right now. We did donate blood at Ft. Bliss for the soldiers in different theaters around the world. ✔️
- Incorporate Calm.com back into quiet time – have been listening to this app on my way over the mountain but want to use it the way it is intended, fully participating in a few moments of real meditation. 🟨 Pending
JUST PLAIN GOOD
- Birthday celebrations – we have 4 summer birthdays to celebrate in July. Had hoped Brennyn, Mustafa and Cady would be able to come to El Paso for birthday. But with the cases of Covid on the increase here and there, we have had to postpone our plans. So, sadly, this isn’t going to happen. ❌
- Make a new dessert – have the ingredients to make this delicious-sounding German sweet chocolate cream pie. Now to make it!! 🟨 Pending
- Try new grilling recipes – wanted to try new shish kabob recipes and they were a hit! On Sunday, I fixed these steak kabobs with sirloin steak, red peppers and red onions. Also fixed these shrimp and sausage kabobs. Mmmmm! ✔️
- Wear maxis at least twice a month – need to get over feeling like all maxis are formals! And I have done that. Have worn a maxi twice lately. Just for fun. And have this new maxi on order from Dress Barn. ✔️
While there is a lot of yellow, there are a few green check marks sprinkled in. By my count, I have completed 9 out of 20 activities. But you might want to check my math. Not too bad for my first update 07.2020.
YOUR TURN
How are you faring on your summer fun list activities? Is life returning to normal in your community? Is everyone still wearing a face mask where you live? Would love to hear about your summer accomplishments so far. And your plans for the last month of the season.
If you are new to the idea of bucket lists or activity lists, and have never made one for yourself, this article explains the benefits of doing so. Perhaps on a slightly grander scale – the author talks about walking the 500-mile El Camino de Santiago – PC and I are hiking the Franklin Mountains…well, not lately. But the benefits are the same!
So, let me invite you, encourage you to make a bucket list for the summer, if you haven’t already. It will keep you growing and moving forward during this difficult time when it is easy to become stagnant. When human nature has us just wanting to crawl under the covers until this virus passes.
If you have a bucket or activities list update 07.2020 post, please link up with me. We can cheer each other on toward a strong finish!
Hugs and kisses,
I am doing really well with my bucket list! The only things we didn’t complete yet are more sweet treats/ recipes I’m trying to space out through the next month.
Proud of your accomplishments on your bucket list. I need to open mine up again and see what I can get busy on over the coming weekend. I have a chocolate pie to make but we are just in total disregard of healthy eating and exercise right now. Hate to add to the problem.
Never made a summer list here. But good job on yours! I think you should dress up for your at home date nights!
Maybe this fall we can all make bucket lists and actually achieve the activities we plan!
Hi Leslie. Am enjoying my grandson this summer. I am so blessed to spend three days a week with him. He is one week short of 6 months and he is an absolute JOY. I am taking in all the moments with him. Nothing like it. I know you know with your sweet little girls! Be safe and enjoy rest of summer and if you don’t complete all the items on your bucket list, its okay !
Hi Cathy, glad to hear that you are enjoying time with your grandson. Aren’t they blessings? Being a grandmother is all of the best parts of mothering and more.
Too bad so many things are on hold. I think we all “feel you.” Ugh. The shrimp sausage shish kabobs look amazing!
We are eating lots of kebabs around here lately. Had sausage, chicken and potato last night. Thank you!!
I reckon you’re doing pretty well, all things considered. Love the maxis but my fave has to be the kiss goodnight.
So many nights we just fall into bed. And I am afraid the goodnight kiss doesn’t always happen but we are better about it than we were. And hugging hello and goodbye again, too.
Inspirational post! I’ll forllow some of the things in the list for my self-improvement!
Thank you for coming by and leaving a comment!!
I love that first Maxi – the black one. So pretty!!! I think you’re doing a great job, especially with COVID rearing its head again. I’m finally linking up my list!
-Lauren
Glad to have you join in!! I felt fancy in the maxi. Nice feeling for a change.
It’s such a different summer, Leslie! You seem to be making the best of it! I was hoping to get a bucket list put together to join you but it didn’t happen. Next time!
Maybe you can join for fall! Hopefully, life will be back to what’s familiar by then.
Our gym has opened too but we haven’t been back yet either. Partly due to germs and partly just laziness. It’s tough to be motivated these days. So much more appealing to eat strawberry licorice. 🙂
So our gym opened, and then must have been a hot bed for the virus. Now that contact tracing has been done, I think they have determined that a number of cases came from contact at the gyms and members must wear masks now to work out. Don’t know when we will feel safe enough to return.
We’re in the middle of Winter here in Australia and I always enjoy it when I read a Summer bucket list because I feel brighter just seeing what others are doing in the sunshine. You may not have ticked a lot off, but you’ve made a start on quite a few and there’s still plenty of time to get them into the green. #MLSTL
Do you have snow where you are in the winter? I love snow but in small doses. We have had a very hot summer so I am looking forward to cooler weather with the approach of fall.
HI, Leslie – Your bucket lists are always very inspiring.
Once you make those new desserts and grills…please share photos and the recipes!
Thank you, Donna. Hope to try the dessert this weekend. We have been kabobing with great abandon around here!!
I think you are excused having some ‘pending’ items on your list – live is anything but normal at the moment and Covid is stopping a lot of things from happening.
I so love that maxi with the tassels – you need to wear that for an at home date night!
I am having my first salon hairdressing appointment later today, I’m half excited to be going back and half anxious about being in there but I’m sure that once I’ve been I’ll be wondering what I was worrying about! The next dilemma is to know what to do about the colour …
Those kebabs look delicious – I really like the look of the steak and red pepper ones.
Thank you, Deb, for the sweet words. I need to get back into the salon, too. Not really a salon where I go but the haircutting place!! What did you decided to do about color? I am happily going natural and my hair has been healthier for it. This time when I go, the color will finally get cut off once and for all. YES!!
The kebabs were good, thank you. Tried my hand at some other versions yesterday that were pretty good, too. We are on a kebab kick over here.
Your summer decorations look lovely and I really like your maxi dresses too! 🙂 It’s a shame you didn’t achieve all your goals but I think you did really well considering! it’s a strange new world with this virus and we can only do what we can!
Hope that your week is going well 🙂 It’s a cold and wet winter week here!
Thank you, doll, for the support. I don’t look forward to winter because I feel like I am already in a slump. Thankful we have fall to look forward to first.
Under the circumstances I think you are doing very well Leslie! I’ve been thinking of you whenever I hear the numbers of Covid cases for Texas and am worried for you and your families. It’s always great to catch up with you. #mlstl
Thank you, Debbie, for thinking of me and my family. Texas continues to struggle with Covid. Here in El Paso, our numbers continue to stay high. We are reporting more than 200 new cases a day. Mask restrictions are still in place but things are opening up. I know we need to get the country moving again but I still worry.
Life is getting worse here in Florida. I’ve been working from home since March and it doesn’t look like that will be lifting anytime soon because people don’t listen and until 2 days ago, our Governor wasn’t taking Covid-19 seriously. Still, we try to get out, while masked up and socially distancing, each weekend to a new park or area around us. And I’ve recently taken up crocheting, not great at it, but learning.
Things have stayed pretty worrisome in El Paso. We got a later start on the virus than most of the rest of Texas and the country but our numbers have yet to level off. Glad you can work at home. My hubs was working from home for a couple of months but his boss asked him to return to the office. At first everyone was conscientious about wearing a mask but not so much now. Paul wears one but it doesn’t do much good if he is the only one.
Love your chats over smoothies on the patio! Sorry Brennyn and her family can’t come, it’s still so hard to believe that all these months later we are still dealing with this virus.
xo,
Kellyann
Oy vey, so tired of masks, and restrictions and worries about the virus. We have gotten off track on our smoothies on the patio and I miss that time together. Need to make that happen again starting tomorrow.
Your 4th of July projects look great! And I love the maxi dresses on you! I think you should dress up for date nights at home, make it a whole thing. 🙂
We are keeping close to home still as well – and I agree, it is realism. 🙂 We will get to those things on our list eventually. I was just telling my husband I have to view this time as sort of suspended, and not look at what we are missing or the days passing by. COVID is really teaching me to live in the moment.
Ha, I should dress up for date night at home! Great idea.
You are not kidding about learning to live in the moment. I shudder at the
thought of making plans beyond tomorrow because who knows? The restrictions
this virus has instituted have been so hard on my 93-year-old mom and other
seniors. She cries every day and has never been a crier. Breaks my heart.
I think it’s hard to strike off things on our bucket list with all the restrictions out there. In Wisconsin there is no mask requirement and nothing is legally allowed to be closed anymore however, most businesses are still closed by choice or they can’t find employees because they make too much money on employment. We’ve been spending a lot of time in nature, enjoying our state parks.
I have enjoyed your staycations!! The last one…Claire?…was stunning. Yes, it is crazy to pay people more to stay home on unemployment than they would make working. Crazy world we live in.
This is quite the list! I didn’t end up making a bucket list this summer, but hopefully I will have one for fall. Facemasks are mandated here in MI, so I don’t feel like taking the girls out right now. Good luck finishing your list!
Danielle, come join us for our fall bucket list reveal on 09.21!!
My daughter and I were just talking about fall…wondering if the corn maze, pumpkin patch and even Halloween will be canceled.
Awesome progress on your summer list! I love the crafts you completed! I recently purchased a gratitude journal. I haven’t started it yet though.
Keep up the awesome job! I didn’t make a list for this summer. I’ve been in that covid funk still.
Thank you! Which gratitude journal did you purchase? I have a new one but not crazy about it so far.
You are always so inspiring in these posts. I just don’t know how you can get so much accomplished! Anyway, I also love my gratitude journal but am not doing it daily and I am also into my smoothie and daily check ins together. How fun!
bosbodaciousblog.blogspot.ca
Thank you so much! Hope to be able to check off a few activities next time around.
Things have quieted down significantly here in western NY…but we’re still overly cautious compared to most ppl. We only leave the house for grocery pickups or to distance visit my parents. I completely understand a lack of motivation! Despite the high numbers elsewhere, the news seems to be encouraging as to improved treatments and vaccine progress. 🤞🏻
Fingers crossed and prayers going up. We are not yet experiencing much decline in the number of positive cases and hospitalizations. But I hope that is around the corner.
You always have such lovely and interesting items on your bucket list. I admire how you keep the romance alive and focus on your relationship. My gym reopens next Monday and my slot is booked! Although I’ve been walking and doing the occasional workout at home, my arms have developed bingo wings so I need to focus on them!
I hear you about the arms!! My arms are flapping like bird wings. They had been looking pretty fair but not any longer. And everything else is wiggling too much too. But we are still scared to go to the gym. And if we do go, we have to wear a mask the whole time! Ugh.
It’s so hard to accomplish anything right now with covid hanging around. A Year of Us is a great way to celebrate your anniversary! And I love that you were able to donate blood!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you, sweets. I am beating myself up everyday for not getting things done, not exercising well. So ready for life to return to normal.
I love your patriotic decor! It’s so cute! I love both of the maxis you wore recently! They are really cute on you!
Thank you, Laura. I almost skipped decorating for the 4th but decided at the last minute our country could use a little extra love. Glad I did!