I love lists. I love projects. So yeah, it might make me a cliche, but I love bucket lists.
Earlier this month, when we were driving around Nebraska, I thought, I want a 50 by 50 bucket list. Fifty things I will do before I turn the big 5-0. Which is nearly six years away, but why wait? The sooner I start the list, the better the odds that I’ll complete it.
This is the first draft of my 50 by 50 Bucket List. It is by no means complete, and I reserve the right to change or abandon it at anytime.
- Try rock climbing – at an indoor gym!
- Learn French – well, I’m already learning French on Duolingo. Let’s say that I’d like to be proficient in French (fluent would be cool but I’m pragmatic).
- Make coq au vin
- And a baked Alaska
- Get a ping pong table
- Learn how to tap dance (because if it doesn’t happen by fifty, it’s probably never happening.)
- Knit a pair of socks.
- Be able to French braid my hair. Or, if I chop my hair, be able to French braid Pippa’s hair.
- Write 50 weekday blog posts in a row. (Because this creates momentum, and momentum creates unexpected creativity, and I’d like to see what happens if I do this.)
- Create 50 weekly TikTok’s in a row. (ditto)
- Be all caught up on photo albums.
- Go all out for Halloween – fancy costume, decorations I love, crafting galore, etc.
- Make cake pops.
- Paint 50 days in a row. Anything. Just apply paint to a surface.
- Get a banana tree.
- Grow cut flowers.
- Write another graphic-heavy book, like The Distance Learning Activity Book for Parents Just Barely Holding On To Their Last Shred of Sanity
- Go to a second sound bath – because the first time I went, the guy next to me fell asleep and was snoring loudly and I could not get past the snoring. But now that I’m several years into my hot yoga practice, I would like to attend another sound bath because I think it would be something really good for my body, mind and soul.
- Fly a kite with my kids.
- Make a quilt.
- Take an in-person art class.
- Do some sort of mosaic craft.
- And play around with paper mache. Ick, this is vague. Let’s say that I’ve always been drawn to paper mache so I’d like to attempt five projects, start to finish, to see whether this is something I enjoy.
And this is what I have: FOR NOW.
I’m not rushing to just add things to the list for the sake of having fifty items on the list. I’m 44! I have time. Just having this list at the back of my mind really helps me think about my life and what I want to do. I don’t want to be ninety, riddled with regret. But I also don’t want to put things on the list just for the sake of filling out the list, and then those items become stressful obligations… This is a tool for me to examine my life and think about, What excites me? What do I want to try? Do? This is a list that reflects my inner longings, the things I feel called to do, but for whatever reason, have avoided or just not made the time for. So by starting this list, I hope to remember longings that I buried.
It’s also interesting to see what categories are on the list — crafting! cooking! learning! — and what’s not on the list – travel!
I do love traveling, but I suspect a lot of traveling will happen during my fifties, so let’s save destinations for another bucket list…
For now, these are some other items I’m considering adding to my list:
- Podcasting. Sometimes, I miss it. Other times, it felt like a stressful obligation.
- A saltwater aquarium.
- Pickle ball
- Writing a fantasy novel – but I love my Motherhood Circus series, and I don’t like to restrict my muse.
- Design an enamel pin. Feeling some resistance here. Probably because this shit really belongs on the list.
- Host a ladies’ crafting party – I’m an Enneagram 5, and I get really greedy about hoarding my alone time, but I think it would be really good for me to include a few social goals on this list.
- Go back to Magic Castle.
- Throw a 50th birthday party for myself
And starting this bucket list has made me want to create a few more bucket lists, like:
- A Novak Family Bucket List for things I want us to do before Pippa leaves for college – and this could be broken down into a multiple lists. A list of fun things to do/places to visit. Another list of things I want Nathan and I to teach the kids – from how to boil an egg to how to drive a car.
- A Pasadena bucket list
- A crafting bucket list – so my 50 by 50 does not get hijacked by All the Crafts
- A cooking bucket list
- And the aforementioned travel bucket list
Lastly, methinks I need to update this website to include a page to keep track of my bucket lists. But should that be an item on my 50 by 50, or is that cheating??