Spring 2023 Goals, Bucket List and a Bit of Hodgepodge

Hello dollies!! Earlier this week I shared how I’d fared on my winter goals, winter bucket list and being mindful of my WOTY.  Spring has definitely and finally sprung so it’s time to put together my goals for this season. And along with those, my spring bucket list.  With our pool repair FINALLY behind us and a new roof on the house, I am so ready for spring!!

Also throwing in a little hodgepodge.  Have missed responding to Joyce’s thoughtful questions.  This week’s episode marks her 500th edition of this fun little series.  That’s quite an accomplishment!! Find Joyce’s answers on her blog From This Side of the Pond, and then join the fun yourself!!  You can share your responses in a blog post or in a comment below.

Just a reminder:  Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After occasionally uses affiliate links. This means that if you click or make a purchase from a link provided I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you.  Thank you for your support.

Spring 2023 Goals

 

Making seasonal goals works better for me than New Year’s resolutions that I lose track of before the second week of the year.  If I get my goals scribbled onto my goal blackboard in some sort of shorthand, it puts them out where I see them as I begin my day.  Going to make that happen as soon as I publish this post.

You might remember that I divided my winter goals into 2 categories.  Things that are external I categorized under House.  Goals specifically affecting me, my body, my personality I categorized under Home.

KEY TO MY PROGRESS:

• ⏱️ = work on goal underway
• ✔️ = goal met
• ❌ = goal not met

House

• finish kitchen purge:  small appliances, dishes, pots and pans, knick-knacks
• spring cleaning: reorganize kitchen/bathroom cabinets; clean fridge, oven, washer, dryer, dishwasher, small appliances like toaster, can opener; purging, dusting, vacuuming, baseboards, walls, windows, blinds, linens, clean upholstery and carpets, clean closets, garage and shed – WHEW
• refresh patio:  clean patio furniture, put out new rugs, hang sails, replace solar lights on pergola and solar torches, purchase new lanterns, clean grill
• yard sale:  continue collecting things around the house, garage, shed and set a date for sale; clean and list baby things on OfferUp and clothes on Poshmark

Home

• run 3x a week 1.6 miles a time:  increased from winter goal of 2x a week/1.5 miles
• Supernatural 4X week:  maintain from winter goal
• quiet time 4X a week:  same as winter goal…but need to make this happen
• situps/weights/leg lifts 3x a week:  another winter goal carry-over that needs to happen
• host book club online event:  from winter
• pedicure and manicure, at-home spa day:  my BFF Sharon gave me a gift card for a mani-pedi and all the goodies needed for an at-home spa day, need to schedule that

Spring 2023 Bucket List

 

• Easter egg hunt:  at our house or the park
• Plant my veggie garden, plant clover on the west side of the house:  bought these little raised beds last June but never got my garden going.  Ordered seeds in late winter and want to plant them in the beds.  Also, bought clover seeds to sow in the shade of the west side of the house.  Lauren has clover instead of grass in their backyard and it is beautiful.  Hoping it will grow in our side yard and fill in the bare spots where Bermuda won’t grow.
• Make flowerpots for pool:  I have very little luck growing flowers in El Paso.  But my friend Sharon creates the most gorgeous arrangements in pots that she sets around her pool in Oklahoma.  Surely if she can get things to grow there, I can do the same thing here.  Our climates are very similar. Wish me luck. I would love something like this:

• Hike or walk:  we have really fallen down on the hiking and walking.  I miss it.  If we don’t get this done soon, it will be too hot to do it until late fall.  We need to get back to our bedtime walks, too.
• Visit local wineries to pick up some wine:  we did a one-day tour of some fairly local New Mexico wineries last summer or early fall.  Would like to do something similar again, maybe just visiting the wineries within a 25-30 mile radius of home this time.  Look at all of the local wineries within about 100 miles of our home.

• Inaugurate the refreshed pool with a cookout and swim party:  we aren’t sure how soon we can begin swimming, should know later this week.  Want to fire up the grill and BBQ all the things…brats, ribs, burgers, steaks.  Warm up the water, splash and swim and play.  And then watch the sun set.  You’re invited!!

• Write a short story: for writing class, for me.
• Pub crawl – 3 venues:  crawl as in walking from place to place, not crawl as in too drunk to walk; we could even do each one on a different day/night.  Just want to try some new pubs.
• Chihuahua baseball game:  so much fun.  Love day games and night games, the ones with fireworks afterward.
• Trip to Austin:  for PC’s birthday in February, I got tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Short in a stand-up comedy performance in Austin mid-May.
• Scrapbook Declan:  carried over from my winter bucket list.  Declan is now a year old, almost 18 months old, and I have not yet scrapped his birth.  But I’ve gotten this underway.  Here’s the first 2-page spread

 

A Bit of Hodgepodge

 

1. Last time you drove/flew 500 miles (ish)? What’s a place you’d like to visit that lies approximately 500 miles from your current location? 

Right before Christmas, we flew to Ft. Worth to celebrate Declan’s first birthday.  It was a whirlwind weekend but our boy was well celebrated and is very much loved.

2. Tell us about a time recently it felt like you were ‘racing against the clock’.

Nearly every day.  But one particularly stressful race against the clock was a Saturday morning when the girls were in school and we were living in our little house.  Lauren had to cheer for a game, I think.  Brennyn was at school working on the yearbook or something.  And I had to take our pup, Cheyenne, to the vet clinic because she was having diarrhea and throwing up the most god-awful neon colored stuff knowing that I had a presentation to give across town at 1:00 pm later that day.

After sitting at the vet clinic for some length of time with my very sick dog, the doctor determined Cheyenne had parvo and probably wouldn’t live through the day.  I was devastated.  They suggested I leave her at the clinic but with no promises that she would recover.  I knew I couldn’t afford for her to be hospitalized so I begged them to give me the IV fluids they were going to start her on so I could give them to her at home.

I loaded poor pup into the car, ran to school to pick up both girls. When we all got home, I hung the IV bag from the shower curtain rod and made a bed for Cheyenne on the floor of my bathroom.  I was scheduled to give a presentation at the University of Texas, El Paso (UTEP) to a group of librarians and reading teachers within an hour.  So, I had to shower, dress, gather my presentation materials and give Cheyenne her fluids in about 30 minutes’ time.  Naturally, the IV line was too short to hang from the shower curtain rod and reach Cheyenne on the floor.  Either I would have to hold her on my lap while the fluid dripped into her or hold the IV bag above her so the line would reach.  And that while showering and dressing and putting on makeup for my presentation.

Racing Against the Clock

Somehow, we got the fluids in her but I remember holding the bag with one hand and trying to pull up panty hose with the other.  About lost my mind.  Once the IV bag had emptied, I tried to make Cheyenne comfortable, then closed her up in the bathroom.

The girls had agreed to go with me to UTEP to be my ‘Vannas’ and pass out materials, help me get the technology for my presentation up and running and just get all of my materials from the car to the conference room.  We flew down to UTEP, ran like crazies with all of my stuff and arrived about 9 minutes late to the presentation.  Some of the participants had already left.  But when I explained – in tears – what had transpired that morning to make me late, the remaining people gave us a round of applause.  And I began my presentation.

3. Have you ever attended any really large sporting events? What was your impression of the experience?  The Superbowl, The Kentucky Derby, The World Series, FIFA World Cup, The Indianapolis 500, The Daytona 500, The Olympics, The Masters, Wimbledon, The Boston Marathon, March Madness, Tour de France, Monaco’s Grand Prix, The Open (golf), The Ryder Cup, The Stanley Cup Finals..of the events listed which would you most like to attend in person? Or maybe one that’s not listed?

As a child, my parents or perhaps just my father took us to watch the Boston Marathon being run near our home in Brookline, Massachusetts.  I don’t really remember much except maybe being cold.  And too little to be able to see well.

I am a University of Tennessee Knoxville graduate and have attended a number of Vols football games.  Vols fans are true blue, or true orange and they pack the stadium for every home game.  According to Rockytopinsider.com the University of Tennessee Knoxville had the fifth-highest average home game attendance for the 2022 college football season with an average of 100,532 fans!!

My friends, that is a lot of folks!!  Go Vols!!  So, from my way of thinking, attending a Tennessee football game ranks right up there with the Daytona 500 – which brings in a third of the crowd!!

4. Are you an iced tea drinker? If so, do you drink it year-round, or only in the spring and summer months? Do you make your own or buy it bottled? Sweet or unsweet? Flavored? Lemon or no lemon? How about a Long Island Iced Tea?

I do like iced tea.  Remember first having it at my Oklahoma grandmother’s house in the summer when I was in elementary school.  Bubby added mint to her tea.  And I liked it.  My parents drank Lipton instant iced tea, without sugar or lemon.  So, I drank the same thing.  As I got older, I learned to drink it with Sweet-n-Low and lemon.  Even had an iced tea brewer for a while.  Nowadays, I only drink iced tea when we go out somewhere.  Really love raspberry and peach iced teas but they have sugar and I certainly don’t need more of that.  PC’s favorite cocktail is Long Island Iced Tea, but he doesn’t drink regular tea at all.  I have sipped from his glass a time or two but have never ordered one myself.

5. April 20th is Volunteer Recognition Day…do you volunteer in some way? Tell us about it. If not, tell us about a volunteer you appreciate. 

I am not currently volunteering although I went through almost a half-dozen volunteer experiences shortly after I retired.  For several months, I volunteered at the El Paso Holocaust Museum, setting up a circulation and cataloging system in the library there.  Volunteered for Creative Kids working with underprivileged children in creating art.  Have helped at the Mustard Seed Community Cafe and One Grub Community Garden gardens and the First Baptist Church clothes closet.  And volunteered a little in the public schools.  Need to get back to volunteering because it is such an uplifting experience.

I’ve have been blessed by the assistance of a number of volunteers in the various school libraries where I’ve worked.  But none more special than 3 ladies who worked with me at H.R. Moye Elementary before I retired.  Susie and Liz were sisters, crossing guards and playground monitors who helped me in the library between their shifts crossing children before and after school, and supervising recess on the playground.  Lorena was a UTEP graduate in education who wanted to volunteer in an elementary school to determine whether education was really her cup of tea.  She was a natural at every aspect of library science and library work.  I am proud to say all 3 of these wonderful ladies are still my friends today.  And I couldn’t have done half of what I did in the library without them.  Boy, we had some fun.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

We have a date for PC’s surgery but need to get several tests done for surgical clearance beforehand.  The next few weeks are going to be hectic with appointments and PC getting things situated at work in order to be home recuperating after the surgery.  I hope to whip this house into shape so that is done before his surgery, too.  Then maybe both of us kind just relax and rest and he can heal.

Your Turn

 

I need to wrap this up because my blog is not cooperating again.  Struggling to get it to save this post.

Wishing you a restful weekend.  We have lots on our plate…too much for my taste.  But hoping Sunday afternoon maybe we can slow down a little bit.  Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day here with me.

P.S.

Kind of left you hanging about Cheyenne in my recounting about a time I was racing against the clock.  That day, I felt like I was racing against the clock to try to save her life, too.  I gave her fluids several times, and she began to perk up a little.  The throwing up stopped and she began showing a little interest in eating.

Then lo and behold, she went out into the backyard and popped the strangest thing…a chem light.  One of those glow-in-the-dark lights that kids play with and soldiers use in the field.  She had eaten a chem light.  And that’s what was making her so sick.  Once she passed it, Cheyenne was good as new.  That’s the rest of the story.

Hugs and kisses,