Spring 2026 Bucket List and Goals - UPDATE

Hello, dollies!!  I am settled into my recliner after a busy day.  Had breakfast with 2 teacher friends, worked in the yard, then cleaned the upstairs and did a little ironing.  At 4:00 we were headed over the mountain to meet the kids for Lucia's gifted and talented presentation.  The kids were asked to make a travel slide show for a place they would like to visit.  Cia chose Pensacola because we are all going there for the first time this coming July.  She did a great job and found lots of yummy looking restaurant for us to try as well as some fun activities like visiting a graffiti bridge and a turtle sanctuary.  We are looking forward to exploring some of the places she discovered.

We are well into spring so I figured I had better have a look at my spring bucket list and goals to see how I am faring.  

Spring 2026 Bucket List

This is the progress I've made so far on the fun activities I am hoping to accomplish before the season's end.

I have always used the key below to identify my progress - or lack there of!! 

Completed  ✅

In progress ⌛

Not started or not completed  🛑

Taking the fail ❌

Here are things are shaping up so far.

• attend 1 public library event (carry-over from my winter list):  the Richard Burgess branch of the El Paso Public Library has so many great activities on a regular basis.  Have my eye on their crochet class or a plant swap. 🛑  

• brainstorm an activity for my online book club (another carry-over from winter):  I am thinking of a craft activity we can do together or maybe sending a little gift to members who are interested.  But don't quote me on that, yet. Would you like to join our no-pressure, book-a-month online book club, "Come Read with Me"?  Please let me know in a comment below!!  We are about to vote for our April read.  Fun!!   🛑

• Brennyn's visit:  she, Cadence and Declan are visited over spring break. We had such a great visit.  Lauren's daughters were out of school for spring break, too, so we spent a lot of time all together.  We took walks, did a little shopping - all the girls love Ulta, Declan just likes to be along with all the girls.  And I got pictures of everyone in the poppies along the foot of our Franklin Mountains.  We played Easter Bingo and soaked in the hot tub.  It was a wonderful visit and I am looking forward to having us all together again at the beach in July. ✅

• celebrate Easter and my birthday on the same weekend:  I had the turkey and the ham but on Easter Sunday I didn't feel like cooking!!  I can't remember what we did eat...HA!!   Oh, yeah, looking back over the pictures I see we combined Easter with my birthday.  We had German chocolate cake and an Easter egg hunt.  Love the Chapter 68 tee shirt PC gave me. ✅

• complete the scrapbooking of our Alaskan cruise (sound familiar? yup, another carry-over):  I am working on Day 7 right now.  Thank goodness, that is the last day of the cruise.  Once I finish it up, I want to start on scrapbooking our spring 2025 trip to Colorado.  My sister Valerie and I facetime on What'sApp and scrapbook together. ⌛

• create at least one collage with Jennifer Chamberlin:  I signed up for this 5-day workshop in February but haven't begun any of the projects.  I am especially interested in the ballerina or patchwork dancer as Jennifer calls her.  And the tattered cottage.  There are 2 more weeks of school/substitute teaching jobs and I am working quite a bit but then I will have plenty of playtime.  🛑

• freshen hair:  not sure what this looks like but time for an update.  Well, I did get a trim and liked my hair better.  And have been using a L'Oreal Le Color gloss that has improved the color and shine of my salt and pepper locks.  Makes it softer. Want to chop some off, too. ⌛

• hike with Dick and Denise:  we have an entire day planned with our writing group friends D&D to hike Slot Canyon, enjoy lunch at a winery or brewery, and write together.  We did this the first week of April.  It was a very chilly day so perfect for a morning hike. ✅

• holiday in London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland:  our trip ran from 04.25.2026-05.09.2026.  It was reenergizing and delightful.  Waking up each morning with different activities set before us. Our jet lag going over was not bad but we have been pretty sluggish since we got home 10 days ago.  Will plan to write a blog post about the highlights of our trip.  Just know it was really wonderful.  ✅

• open our pool:  we are opening the pool with a BBQ with Lauren and her family over the coming Memorial Day weekend.  PC and I put the sails over the pool today. ⌛

• splurge on fresh flowers:  started doing this last year and it made me smile all spring and summer but haven't bought my first bouquet yet.  Maybe for this Memorial Day weekend?  🛑

• take a road trip to Ruidoso to fish:  we always enjoy walking through shops in downtown Ruidoso and visiting a local winery there.  And there is a pretty little lake where we can fish.  Hoping to do this very shortly.  🛑

Spring 2026 Goals

While my bucket list activities usually revolve around having fun or adding enjoyment to my life, my goals are more like chores or tasks that need to be attended during each particular season.  Some of them are kinda fun and some of them not so much!!  Sharing them here with you helps make me more accountable toward tackling them.  Thank you for that!!

• clean rock garden beds:  our backyard neighbor has mesquite trees that hang over the rock wall between our yards. Those danged trees drop something every.single.season.  Our rock gardens are full of debris.  Time to clean them...AGAIN.  Just bought this Armor All wet/dry vac to make the job easier.  ⌛

• complete 100% of my memoir course on Daily Om (sound familiar?? Yup, bumped from winter):  was at 77% complete at the beginning of the season but now at 88%.  Need to get this finished.  ⌛

• donate blood (didn't happen last season):  so easy and yet so hard to get done.  Why is that??  It is going to happen this spring.  🛑

• finish writing the first draft of "Dots and Crinkles" and make progress on my 2026 writing goals (another uncompleted winter goal):  this story is well underway and I have shared some of it with our writing group.  Now to finish.  Have also enjoyed formal  accountability sessions with my writing accountability partner, Denise.  ⌛

• hang bathroom hand mirrors (sound familiar??): have been brainstorming of ways to hang these things.  Tonight I found this post about hanging mirrors.  Almost too simple.  🛑

   

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• paint pull-outs on the pillars around our house:  we attempted this once and the paint color didn't match very well so now the pull-outs look spotted.  PC has this on his spring goals list, too. 🛑

• payoff the remaining balance on my Amazon card (I know, I know):  have been working so hard on this.  Charged some souvenirs from our trip on my card but paid the charge off when I got home.  I have accepted several subbing jobs in order to get this done before the season's end.  Have subbed 4 days in a row for a kindergarten class just a few days after we returned from our trip.  ⌛

• plant veggies in our raised bed:  shh, this might be underway already.  And look...some of them are actually growing.  We've had trouble with our watermelon and lost a basil plant.  But we have tiny peppers coming up on the pepper plant and blossoms on the cucumber and squash that I hope will be veggies soon. ✅

• purge 26 things from my closet (bumped from my winter goals):  surpassed my goal.  Purged 39 items. Still plenty of clothes in the closet, too!!  ✅

• scan the remainder of our family photos into Photomyne:  another task that should be easy but is so tedious and time consuming.  I have decided to scan everything as fast as I can and then worry about labeling the photos once I get them all scanned.  Have started scanning again.  ⌛

• unclutter and organize the garage:  today was the day for tackling this and I am exhausted.  Took about 3 hours to get everything done.  Earned over 9K steps in the process.  ✅

• work on my bikini body:  this is a lifelong goal.  And of course, I am totally teasing about wearing a bikini.  Nobody needs to see that!!  We walked our feet off in London and Edinburgh and pretty well watched what we ate.  Happy to report I gained less than a half pound.  Now that we are home, I am back to tracking my points with Weight Watchers.  Will call this a success when I am down to 138 pounds again.  ⌛

• yard sale:  had thought we would have a big garage sale in the process of cleaning the garage but I didn't feel like messing with it.  We just hauled everything to Goodwill.  Giving myself a checkmark on this.  ✅

With our trip the end of April and the first week of May, I didn't make any progress on these projects for about 3 weeks.  Need to remind myself, though, that this isn't a race and perfection is not a requirement!!  Just need to make forward progress. 

Your Turn

How are you coming on your spring bucket list or seasonal goals?  Hope you have more checkmarks than stop signs!!  I will be returning next month with a final update on my progress and the release of my summer bucket list and goals.

Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day here with me.  We are headed over the mountain to check out 10-year-old Lucia's GT (gifted and talented presentation).  They were asked to research a place they have never been.  Lucia chose Pensacola because we are all going to vacation there in July. 🏝️🍹⛱️🌞 🌊

Enjoy a beautiful weekend.

Hugs and kisses,