Sunday, August 10, 2008

List of things to do before I expire...

I thought you might like my choice of words up there...lol.

I was reading a blog the other night (so what else is new?) and the author was saying that she was going 'grape stomping.' She was going to go to a vineyard and stomp grapes because that was on her list of 30 Things to Do Before I Die.

It got me to start thinking...what are the things I want to do before I die. Then I thought, what are the things I want most to do in life? So I decided to make my own list.
Stomping grapes sounds fun, but if I never stomp on grapes I won't feel like I missed out on life. In face, there are so many things that would be fun to do, but if I never did them I wouldn't feel like I missed out. If I never went to NYC or Hollywood I wouldn't feel like I missed out on anything. But I would like to visit each of the 50 states. I would just choose someplace different to go to in NY and CA.
So then I kind of changed my perspective and began to think of what I really wanted out of life. This is pretty much what I came up with.

The Things I Want For My Life:

1. Be involved in ministry. It doesn't always have to be as organized as Campus Crusade (although I am super excited to be part of that), but I think my whole life should constantly be a ministry to others. Family, friends, unbelievers, etc. We are God's workmanship created for his work! I want to live for Him.



2. It would be great to finish college if that is something God wants
to have happen.







3. I want to fall in love and get married....









4. ...and have a family...a big family! Like at least 5 kids or more. It would be cool to adopt too.









5. I want to home school my kids.







6. I want to visit each of the 50 states. Specific places would include Portland, Seattle, and the Grand Canyon. It would be cool to go Yellowstone or Yosemite too. Hug a redwood or something (just kidding...I'm all for taking care of the planet, but I'm not a fanatic and it's not like I could actually get my arms around one anyway, lol). I'd like to see places in the mid-west too. I'd like to live further west and/or maybe near water (not the beach unless I lived somewhere like Maine [which would take a miracle to get me to move someplace that gets SO cold], but some body of water). I suppose I could move a few times if I had to. :)






7. I want to plant a garden.

8. I want an herb garden in that garden and I want to learn to work with herbs.





9. I want to be healthy and thinner. I want to be a healthy cook!









10. I want to be creative and be able to make things I can use in my own home someday.
I want to be 'domestic.' I think it would be totally cool to be able to earn an income doing the crafty things that I love, but I'm not really good enough at any of those things to make a living off of them. But it would be fun anyway. :)









11. Before I get married (if that ever happens) I'd kind of like to live on my own a little bit. Just to know I can handle it!





12. I'd like to travel to another country (not necessarily Italy although it would be cool to go there, that was just the only picture I could find that I liked online.).




13. Go hang gliding. And ride a roller coaster (see, I'm a little bit adventurous...only a little bit though! And yes, I'm admitting that I've never ridden a roller coaster before.). And I saw this show about a family who traveled all over the Atlantic ocean in a boat and I thought that looked kinda cool. Until a bad storm comes up and then I'd probably be a useless, hyperventilating heap on the floor until it was over.








14. I would love to dance again. Lately I've really been missing it a lot and I'd love to take some kind of dance class again. It doesn't have to be ballet even though I loved how fluid and graceful ballet is.







15. I'd like to be able to do this.






16. And this.




There...that's a few of the things I'd like to do. But you know what's funny? I don't really have to do most of those things in order to feel like I've lead a full life. When I first started this list it was kind of empty because I knew that most of these things (riding roller coasters, traveling all over the world, doing pottery, dancing, standing on my head, etc) are just nice fun things that don't really mean a whole lot of anything. I really think that there is only one thing I can do that will fulfill me and that is to live my life as a servant of Jesus Christ. That's what I was created for and if I don't do anything else with my life, I hope to accomplish that one thing to the best of my ability whether it's by fulfilling my dream of being a wife and mom and helping my husband serve Christ as best as he can and raising children to love and serve Jesus, or by doing something totally different that I can't even begin to imagine.

If anyone else feels like making a list like this, send me a comment so I can look at your list too. It would be cool to see what you love to do or dream of doing.

1 comment:

Bea said...

Wow Gracie I love your banner and your bucket list! But I think that you should be more affirmative about the things that you want. Like "I would like to do pottery or fill in the blank". You kept including 'but if I don't it's ok'. Not it's not!!! You only live once and you can do it!!! I think you list is great! I think I shall continue the thought process for myself. Thanks Grace!