...January : The List...

You've only to look around my home to know I am a girl who loves a good list.

My "workspace"...a traveling stack of planners and papers and scraps...has lists for every purpose.

Actually, now that I write it out...
it's not the lists I love...
it's the checking off of items that brings me joy.

✔✔✔

This season of parenting...of a gap-year young adult + a rambunctious, frustrated toddler + my stepchildren (long distance though they may be) has made the need for lists far greater than before.
I need the lists.
I need them to keep track

 ❒ of tasks

❒ of details

❒ of dates

❒ of all the things I've fallen so far behind on.

I need the lists to remind me of the things I can do...should do...will do...and, yes, have done.

I need the lists to remind me that whatever it was that I couldn't get to today, by want of time or money or energy or silence or space, I might be able to tackle tomorrow...and that's okay.

Those lists are the ones that allow me to feel like my feet are on solid ground in the midst of the maelstrom of life.

But those are not this.

Oh, no.

This list...this is my January list.

My first list in what I intend to make 12 of...a "bucket list" for every month this year, for our family:

❒ hike the South Mountain Fairy Trail and make a fairy home from natural findings

❒ gather pinecones and make birdseed/nut butter pinecone feeders

❒ go on a rock hunt for round white rocks and build snowmen with them

❒ cocoa and marshmallows around the firepit

❒ "spraypaint" pictures in the snow with spraybottles of water/food coloring

❒ sledding

❒ fill the freezer with chilis and soups

❒ make snow-eis

❒ make spaghetti-eis with vegan ice cream

❒ explore one of NJ's waterfalls in the winter...look for ice flows

❒ walk the beach and gather shells, rocks, seaglass...bundle up!

❒ meet a friend for coffee...or sushi

❒ visit a museum and make a meal of appetizers at a new restaurant

❒ teach Henri 3 new signs

❒ try a new recipe

❒ play sous-chef to Johannes for one dinner prep

❒ go on a low-spend thrift-jaunt daytrip: pack sandwiches, snacks and beverages and only spend money on thrifted treasures

❒ have a "dessert for breakfast" day

❒ set up the Christmas tree outside and hang it with edible ornaments for our wildlife neighbors

❒ work on scissor skills with Henri and cut out paper snowflakes for the windows

❒ go out to dinner with just Johannes

❒ go out to lunch with just Henri

❒ sleep in one morning, and eat breakfast while watching cartoons

❒ drive to a desolate spot and stargaze at night, with hot cocoa of course!

❒ attend a library program

❒ read a book with Johannes...engage in book club discussion about it

❒ have breakfast for dinner

❒ plan a future overnight trip

❒ make "care packages" for each other

❒ explore a 'new to us' NJ town

❒ install a new shelf in Johannes' room

~~~

Let's check back in on the 31st and see how many boxes we ✔ off!