What's on Your Bucket List for 2012?

Can you believe we are a third of the way through January already? I know...you may have thought I had fallen off the face of the earth, but I have been busy, busy recuperating from the holidays and pumping out new designs and making several of my patterns available for purchase online. I'm excited to share them with you here in a few days!

I'm one of those odd people that actually loves the month of January. I love the fresh start; the opportunity to reflect on the past year and look forward to the new. I love to put away the Christmas decor and declutter the house. I love to set goals and cross them off my list as they are achieved. I love to try to make life better in the upcoming year than it was in the last.

Each year (and throughout the year) I try to help my kids set new goals as well, but it is not always met with enthusiasm....till this year. I came across an article that talked about "bucket lists". Not just creating bucket lists for life, but writing bucket lists for the upcoming year---a smaller version of all you hope to accomplish before the year "kicks the bucket" so to speak. And not just writing the lists, but making a party out of it. Who doesn't love a party?

That simple change in wording from "setting goals" to writing our "bucket list" for 2012 made all the difference in the interest level of my kids. They thought it was funny and interesting from the get-go, and were eager to fill their paper up. I challenged us all to write as many things on our list as years we were old. My seven year old came up with seven items, my seventeen year old had seventeen. And me? Well, let's just say I had to get creative to come up with at least 29!

Some of my items were reading 10 books that I want to finish before the year's end (each one was a separate item), paying off my medical bills, releasing 12 new patterns, and completing the six classes required to regain my teaching license that I let lapse 11 years ago.

It proved to be a fun challenge, and got us all thinking of what purpose we wanted 2012 to have for our individual lives. I've provided our family bucket list form if you are interested....it's nothing fancy at all, but it's functional and already done for you. I altered an existing template found in Microsoft Word in about 3 minutes, and you are welcome to it.

One item on my list is to have three more "bucket list" parties throughout the year: One in April, one in August before school starts, and one last one in December...all to keep us focused and to provide some accountability for accomplishing our goals before the year kicks the bucket. I'll keep you posted! What's on your bucket list for the year?