2017 Winter Bucket List / Irwin, PA Wedding Photographer Family

Winter Bucket List Ideas

Until yesterday, I didn’t 100% realize the power these lists held. Sure, I write them. Sure, I publish them publically. But I didn’t quite realize just how important they are.

Here’s what I mean by that: as of the beginning of this week, there were several tasks on my fall bucket list that I had not completed. They were fairly easy things, but they simply just kept getting put off to the endless “tomorrow”. But with my fall list coming to an end, and the winter list beginning, I really wanted to check those “easy” items off of my list! So, guess what happened this week? I buckled down & got them done.

And I can say, for sure, that I would not have achieved those things without the accountability of these public lists.

It’s amazing how the days pass. For example and to get specific: it feels like just yesterday, or at a maximum: a few days ago, that I wrote number 16 on this list – “clean up & organize my office space”. But guess what, it’s been a whole 3 months – can you believe that?! It kind of boggles my mind that I’ve had the intention of cleaning up & organizing my office space for 3 whole months! And without this list “expiring”, I would still have that intention. But thanks to these lists – I cleaned up & organized my office space yesterday. And it feels AMAZING.

So, here we go! A review of our fall list and the publication of our winter list!

2017 Fall Bucket List

Go to the Pittsburgh Zoo* – COMPLETED
Read 5 new books* – COMPLETED
Continue working on the 3rd floor (cleaning, organizing, prepping for insulation)* – COMPLETED (I did spend a little time cleaning & organizing the 3rd floor, of course then we decorated for Christmas & all the empty boxes got stashed quickly up there temporarily, so it’s a mess again – oh well – hopefully we’ll insulate in the spring!)
Bake an apple pie (from scratch) – COMPLETED
Decorate the front door/porch area for fall (pumpkins, cornstalks, etc.) – COMPLETED
Go to Washington DC & tour with Braelynn – COMPLETED
Have Ellen take our annual family pictures – COMPLETED
Go to Mom & Dad’s to let Braelynn jump in a leaf pile
Have the best 28th birthday ever – COMPLETED (Derrick & I went away for a night without Braelynn! We missed her, but it was so fun to get away!)
Attend & photograph Irwin’s Light Up Night – COMPLETED
Take Braelynn to Kennywood’s Holiday Lights – COMPLETED & blogged about it here
Figure out how to move Braelynn to her own bed for the entire night (the opposite has happened, we’ve been putting her to bed in her own bed, and then when Derrick & I go up to bed, we’ve been finding her “stowed away” in our bed)
Get back into crocheting & work on a few specific “secret” projects – COMPLETED
Get cinnamon sticks & master making the house smell delicious – COMPLETED (why had I not done this sooner?!)
Clean out our closets and dressers & donate unused clothes – COMPLETED
Clean up & organize my office space – COMPLETED
Plant bulbs for spring & harvest Zenia seeds (I’m afraid this did not happen again this year)
Eat pumpkin pie – COMPLETED
Take each of my siblings out to lunch (one-on-one) (I was able to take out some of them, but not all of them)
Cook a turkey (for the first time – we’ve been married for almost 8 years & never officially cooked a real turkey!) – COMPLETED

So, out of 20 items, we completed 16 items – not too shabby! I definitely feel like I kind of cheated though with putting things like “eat pumpkin pie” on the list – DUH! It was Thanksgiving! Of course, I was going to eat pumpkin pie!
So, here is our list for this winter! It starts today & will end on March 20 – the first day of spring! It’s so close, yet so far away! Here we go!