My To-Do, To-Don'ts

Earlier this year I made a To-do list for the year.  I'm still working on it, but I'm a little devastated that I didn't do a few of them because it all has to do with things that I wanted to do in Idaho before I left.  I don't want to mention again how busy I was (even though I just did), but I didn't do these out of laziness, I didn't do them because I simply I too much to do in too little time.

So here are the things that I didn't do.  But just to make things even, I want to replace them with things to do in Texas so I still fell like I'm accomplishing a lot.

6.  Yellowstone: We have gone to Yellowstone 4 or 5 times since we've been married (3 years and counting), so it's not like I've never been there.  I am a little bummed out that Jocelyn still hasn't gone.  But the next time our renters move out, then I'll take the kids up to Idaho and take them, along with cleaning and updating our house.

7.  Tetons:  As much as I love the Tetons (because we've been there equal amount of time) I think I'm okay not going because my little dinky car from high school has trouble going up the huge mountain to the other side of the Tetons.  That's also on the list to visit when we go back up to Idaho someday.

9.  Craters of the Moon star gazing:  I guess there are stars everywhere so I don't need to worry about that right?  I'm justifying for not going.

11.  Watch sunrise on top of Cress Creek with the entire family:  Again, the sun is everywhere.  John and I wake up every morning before the sun is up anyway.  I'll just look out my window and replace it with something else.

16.  Hit my weight loss goal by December:  This will probably sound completely ridiculous to you and sound like I'm justifying my need to test every flavor of Blue Bell Ice cream, but I'm not paying attention to the goal anymore because I've always had problems producing enough milk for my little baby and the only way for me to make enough is by eating a lot.  However, even though I eat more than normal humans should, I still make sure those are healthy calories and Blue Bell ice cream.  But when I stop breastfeeding, I'm ready to starve again.

Oh.  And I don't exercise, but that's for another blog.

18.  Palisades 19. Harriman State Park:  I've just never been so that's why I wanted to go, but I've never heard anything amazing about these places, so maybe I'm not missing out too much.

So that's 7 things on my list that I can no longer do.  I am trying to research more about this area so I can replace these adventures with something else.  So far I have the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory.  Does anyone else have any ideas?

I'm already working on my list for next year!  Some things will stay the same like date night and trying to introduce someone to the gospel.  Since I started my list and read other people that have lists, one thing that I notice is that a lot of people think that to-do lists are really ambitious and neat, but they would never do it for fear of not doing everything on the list.  I think that's why, for so long, I never did a list like that.  But see, I didn't do 7 things on my list.  I tried to, but couldn't, but that didn't stop me from starting 2014's list!

It all started when I was a missionary and my first companion said, that our goal was to get a new investigator every day and invite them to be baptized.  Yeah right.  Right?  Wrong.  I never went a day as a missionary without getting a new investigator.  I don't think that would have happened if my first companion and I didn't set that goal.

Even though reading 50 books in a year with two kids seems a little unrealistic, I'm positive that if I didn't set that goal, I would not read 50 books or even read that many at all.  In all honesty, I'm way behind on that one.  I only have 21 under my belt, but that's still more than nothing!

I encourage everyone to make a list of things that are hard to do that you wouldn't normally do, or make a list of things you have never done!  One thing that will be on my list every year will be to introduce someone to the gospel.  If I could do it every day as a missionary, surely once a year is reasonable now.  It's pretty hard for me considering I only make friends at church, but it can be done.

I'm excited for my end-of-the-year update with everything that I was able to do.  Hopefully you are too, but if you're not, that's okay.  I'm sure this is way more interesting to me that it is to you.