Spring 2020 bucket list update #1

Spring Bucket List.

We are finally firmly into spring. Mother Nature and I are on the same page! And I’m ready for the first update on my Spring Bucket List.

Health & fitness

1. Join Sue for her 7-Day Eat Healthy for Life Challenge. After that, Iโ€™ll set some related goals to carry me through spring.

I completed the challenge and thoroughly enjoyed it. From the challenge, I chose two goals to focus on for the remainder of the spring: 1) drink at least 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning–before my coffee! and 2) eat five servings of produce at least six days a week and a total of 30 servings throughout the week. So far, so good! On days when I fix my favorite smoothie, five servings of produce is a cinch!

Smoothie ingredients.

2. Work up to 3-mile runs. (I know, I knowโ€ฆyouโ€™ve heard that before.)

I’m getting there. I still don’t have the stamina I did before I slacked off, but I am running/walking three miles at a time.

Running trail.

Joy

1. Increase my daily meditation to 20 minutes, whether that is one long session or two shorter ones.

I’m on target to reach this goal. I am currently at 15 minutes per day, usually one session in the morning, but occasionally I split it up 10 in the morning and 5 in the evening.

2. Clean out my closet and switch out my cold-weather clothes for the warm-weather ones. This may not sound joy inspiring to some of you, but I love getting the spring/summer clothes out.

Mission accomplished! I love spring and the chance to break out the shorts and flip-flops!

Flip-flops.

Growth & learning

1. Complete my jigsaw puzzle. (Yeah, you’ve seen this one on the list before too…and yes, it’s the same puzzle. Still not done.)

Are you ready for this? Drumroll please…the puzzle is complete! Yes, I realize it is a Halloween puzzle in the middle of spring, but that’s what happens when you procrastinate and take more than a year to do one 1000-piece puzzle. I did start it late one summer, thinking I could finish it by fall. Aren’t I silly?

Halloween jigsaw puzzle.

2. Catch up on the BlogAid SEO tutorials.

Not a bit of progress. Moving on…

Relationships

1. Close on our Southern Utah home and start furnishing it. If you wonder how this fits into the Relationships category, it’s a labor of love with my husband and the home we plan to someday retire in.

We are so close. In fact, as this post publishes, we are preparing to go down for the final inspection. Here’s the most recent photo, with the landscaping underway. The area inside the curbing will be artificial turf, and we plan to get a large stone to cover the Century Link post, which we were not anticipating. I hope that means we have super fast internet!

Home under construction.

2. Schedule and hold a girls dinner with my sisters. March’s dinner went the way of COVID-19 social distancing. If restaurants don’t open before spring is over, we will have to make it a virtual date!

Yes, thank you! I have waited so long for this. We had take-out pizza, salad, and wine on my patio, followed by coffee and homemade cookies. Most of the time, we were spread out more than this, but we couldn’t resist coming together for a photo.

Three adult sisters smiling.

Your turn

I’d love to hear what you’re up to this spring. If you have a spring bucket list, link up with us below. Even if you don’t have a formal list, please share a couple of your spring activities in the comments.

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Shared on the GRAND Social and MLSTL.

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay 

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36 Comments

    1. It does feel good to accomplish things, Suzanne. I have a to-do list that I check off each day–even the small items give me a sense of satisfaction when I make that little check mark. Happy spring!

  1. You new home looks lovely! Will you be near a town or out in the country? I’m impressed that you have persevered and completed so many of your goals.

  2. Girls dinner WAS wonderful! Itโ€™s hard staying apart. Iโ€™m so excited for you with your new home. I canโ€™t wait to see it live. โค๏ธ

  3. I’m cheating a bit and sharing what I’m not doing for my spring bucket list! LOL. Amazing the house is finished! Your landscaping is getting done before mine. Floridian’s work so slow, especially when you’re not there to push them!

    1. Sometimes what you don’t do is just as important as what you do, Pat! I’m eager to see the house and landscaping in person. Fingers crossed–it’s all good. Good luck with yours. We had a little advantage in that the builder can’t close on the home until the front and side yard are complete, so you can bet they were pushing.

    1. No better time than the present, Lydia! I hadn’t done a puzzle in years when I got this one, and I was a little over-optimistic about my abilities, but I finally got it done. Now I’ve started one that is a bit easier.

  4. I give full marks for doing a puzzle before ISO and after ISO. I just dont have the patience or even if i did the place to do it. Your home looks lovely x…we are in Autumn right now and the colors on the trees are just beautiful. #mlstl

    1. Having a good place to do a puzzle was part of my problem, Bree. I kept moving it around (on a board) trying to find a place where it would be convenient to work on, but out of the way. We are excited about the house. We’ll be seeing it in person tomorrow for the first time since lock-down. Fingers crossed!

  5. Your house looks move-in ready! I envy your proximity to Zion… one of my very favorite national parks! I also envy your three car garage. My husband would love to have a garage-sized workroom so I know how he’d use that extra space.

    p.s. I feel the same way about changing out my winter clothes for my summer clothes…yay!

    1. It is a beautiful area, Janis. We can’t wait to see the house in person for the first time since social isolation began. Larry is definitely looking forward to having the extra garage space. Happy spring!

  6. Oh Christie – so many lovely things! As you packed up your winter clothes and shoes, I’ve been getting mine out – change of season everywhere! Lovely seeing you and your sisters and the happiness shining through on being together again. (We’re seeing our kids and grandgirls this week for the first time in 3 months – SO excited!)
    Also great seeing your house – I hope you’ll do a post on both homes one day and include a map of where they both are so I can get my head around it all.
    Finally – CONGRATS on finishing that jigsaw! Great effort and it’s always important to take a photo before packing it away!
    Thanks for linking up with us at MLSTL and I’ve shared on my SM ?

    1. I do love the change of seasons, Leanne, whether it’s winter to spring or summer to fall. It makes me happy to hear that you are seeing your children and grandchildren this week. It has been so hard being separated from family, hasn’t it? Especially the little ones. Thanks for the post idea, Leanne. I’ll give that some thought. I’d love to take you on a virtual tour of the area. Funny you mentioned about packing the puzzle away. I had a hard time breaking it down after working on it so long. I didn’t want to keep it, but it just felt wrong taking it apart. ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Hi Christie I’m so pleased you found two take away points from the Healthy Eating Challenge. I enjoyed your update and I also found that my running fitness reduced dramatically when I couldn’t run with my Saturday Sisters. I have managed to get back up to 15km this week for one run which was a huge achievement as it had become a stumbling block. I have also been doing a 30 day yoga challenge with Adriene and loving it. Thank you for sharing your Spring 2020 Bucket List Updateat #MLSTL and I need to write one for Autumn!

    1. I truly enjoyed the healthy eating series Sue, and meeting your guest speakers. Once I feel firm in the water and produce habits, I’m sure I’ll go back to my notes and make some more tweaks. Congratulations on pushing past your 15km block. It’s been a long time since I’ve run that far. When I was training for a marathon or a half-marathon, and I would pass the 10-mile mark (approx. 16K), I’d have this huge sense of accomplishment…and a strong desire to tell everyone I saw! ๐Ÿ™‚

  8. Hi, Christie – Your new home is lovely — and the location is AMAZING! Our weather was finally warm today. I am soooooo ready for Spring! Bring it on!! #MLSTL

    1. I’m with you, Donna, ready for spring! Our flowers are blooming, and it’s warm enough to sit on the patio for a meal or to read a book. I just love it. If you ever come to southern Utah, let me know. It truly is a beautiful area, with Zion, Arches, and Bryce Canyon National Parks all close by. It’s a little piece of heaven on earth.

  9. Your new home looks great, must be so exciting to be so close to closing. I hadn’t thought of a spring bucket list. Mostly, it’s just been a day by day thing.

    1. Thank you Jennifer. We are SO excited…and a little nervous. I certainly understand not thinking about a bucket list this spring. I intentionally made mine a little on the light side. Day-by-day is a good thing on occasion–and especially right now. Take care!

  10. I ran across your blog on Grandmas Briefs and glad I checked yours out. That puzzle was awesome and complex. I also can’t do puzzles very fast and by the look of the complexity of yours no wonder it took so long!
    Spring- cleaning for me is a project a day. I have so far deep cleaned my bathroom, hung up all my sandles and shoes on my new shoe rack, switched out winter for summer clothes and repacked my cabinets over my stove. Not all in one day of course.
    I’m glad you and your sisters had fun.
    Take care out there, stay safe!

    1. Hello Sheryl and welcome! Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. I hadn’t done a jigsaw puzzle in years, when I started this one. It took me a while to get warmed up, but then I really enjoyed it. I’m impressed with the spring cleaning you’ve accomplished. Other than my closet, I haven’t gotten any cleaning done this season. I still have one more month to call it spring cleaning though! Take care and stay safe!

    1. That smoothie recipe is delicious, Dee! And yes, I celebrated when that puzzle was finally finished, especially the fact that I managed to hang on to all the pieces, even with how many times I moved it. The house is complete–we closed this weekend! Now to get it furnished and the backyard landscaped. It’s a big project!

  11. Hi Christie, Congratulations on how well you are doing with your Spring bucket list. Quite the puzzle, Christie! Yes, drumroll required. Your home looks amazing. An exceptionally beautiful photo of you and your sisters. I love all of the smiles! Thank you for making me smile.xx #MLSTL and sharing SM

  12. You are doing so well with your list! it’s nice you could all catch up for dinner too! they have lifted restrictions here so we are able to visit family which has been wonderful!

    Hope you are having a good week ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Hello Mica. It really was nice to spend some time in person with my sisters and have dinner together. I hope we aren’t lifting restrictions too soon, but it sure is lovely to have some semblance of normal. Take care and stay safe!

  13. Halloween is my favorite – you can celebrate in the Spring. lol Congrats on finishing the puzzle – it looks awesome.

    I’m glad you were able to have a dinner with your sisters!!

    -Lauren

    1. Thank you Lauren. The puzzle was a real challenge, but all the more sense of satisfaction when it was complete. Dinner with my sisters was wonderful. I’ve missed them so!

  14. How exciting – a new home to do up. That will keep you busy. I’m going to take a look at that SEO link too. Have you used it? I really should pay more attention to SEO but for me it takes away the point about writing a bit.

    1. Yes, Christine, we will be busy with the house for quite some time. It’s a little overwhelming, but also exciting, to think that we need to get every little thing to make it a home. I highly recommend the BlogAid SEO course. MaAnna provides practical SEO tips that do not take away from the writing. In fact, she says time and time again that quality content is the most important thing for SEO, as well as retaining your readers’ interest. If you decide to give it a go, I’d love to hear what you think.

  15. Hope everything went well with your final inspection on the house. It is very pretty. I know you and the family will enjoy many special moments there and make a lifetime of memories between its walls.

    I think I finally have PC willing to drink a smoothie each morning in lieu of eating Brussels sprouts and carrots at dinner. Yours looks delicious. I have an order in at Walmart for lots of smoothie ingredients so we can make this a morning habit beginning this week.

    Glad that it is finally sandal and flip flop season. So glad you were able to spend time with your sisters. My oldest daughter and her daughter were here this past week for a visit. Almost felt like ‘normal’ again.

    Thanks for sharing your spring bucket list progress.

    1. Thank you Leslie. The home is now ours! We just need to furnish it and landscape the back yard. We’re looking forward to spending our first night there, waking up in our new home.

      Good job getting PC to have a smoothie with you in the mornings. I don’t have one every day, but I do enjoy them.

      Amen to flip flops and time with family! I’m happy you’ve been able to enjoy both.

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