Resolutions?!?! Ughh! Make a 2014 Bucket List Instead!

Resolutions!?!? Just the thought of them makes you want to give up before even writing them down. Lose weight, eat better, go to the gym, make more time for myself, learn something new, blah, blah, blah. It’s the same thing every year! What if we just skip the resolutions and make a 2014 bucket list instead? Definitely sounds like more fun to me! Who wants to write out a ton of resolutions to give up before the end of January? If you’re anything like me I write 25 down each year and most times I get a little over half and some tend to be so far out of my reach I set myself up for failure.

Now just glancing at them, out of the 25 I wrote down, only 10 were actually accomplished, so that’s less than half. But I did accomplish a few big ones so they count as double right? 😉  So, why do we torture ourselves every January 1, to make ourselves set goals and inspirations to accomplish, but in reality we just knock ourselves down in less than 4 weeks and make the next 48 weeks hell, because we feel so bad about it!

So instead of resolutions this year, why not do a bucket list for 2014. You can write them out, type them up, make a vision board, or collage them to poster board to see them everyday. Take photos when you accomplish them and hang them on your wall. The possibilities are endless; instead of tucking them inside a journal that you only open once in a while or writing them on scrap paper that eventually gets lost in the shuffle.

A bucket list can consist of anything from trying a new recipe, starting a garden, traveling to another country, trying something new, or going for broke. Make new friends, get rid of the crappy ones, be grateful, take a hot yoga class, be more patient, grow something from a seed. Start a business, buy your dream car, pay off debt, start new debt, (if it helps you reach your dreams!) go back to school. Learn to fly, surf, fish, sail, or run. Read a book a month, turn off the tv, call your grandparents, be forgiving, find spirituality, surprise someone, give back, become a mentor. Chase fireflies, make root beer floats, have a bonfire on the beach. Join a team, have a girls or guys weekend, pamper yourself or your best friend. Start over, trust again, let go, be kind, fall in love again and again. Crawl in bed with the kids, heal your pain, hold hands, and do everything and anything that makes you happy.

There’s my list! 😉 Well some of it! Hope this blog post brings you inspiration and some excitement for 2014! Go into the new year with your head held high, hopes even higher, and a list of dreams and goals that you can reach and accomplish. Happy New Year to all my readers! Thank you for a great 2013!!!

Harvest Moons & Farm Dinners!

This is my favorite time of year! Who doesn’t love the fall?? The perfect weather, the leaves starting to change color, fun things to grow in the garden, delicious soups, chilis, warm dinners paired with yummy red wines, and endless baking. We can’t forget all the football we can handle, fest beers, (my personal fav!) fall festivals,hay rides, and pumpkin picking. The list is endless for me. I’ll even travel 4 hours for the day just to hike through the mountains, pick apples, visit small farms that offer more than my little coastal town can produce while dragging a 1 and 3-year-old quickly behind me!

With fall comes September’s harvest moon! I think the best moon we have all year! (but I have a small obsession with the moon.) 🙂 Perfect for gardening and farming into the night, the moon rises earlier than normal this time of year and provides more light than any other full moon. Allowing us dirt and vegetable loving people to continue to work and harvest into the night. The Harvest moon always is breathtaking in its perfect shade of reddish-orange and it always seems bigger, brighter, and hangs lower in the sky! If you live near the ocean sometimes you can watch it rise over the ocean. I’ve seen it happen a couple of times and it’s one of the coolest things I have even seen. Make sure to look for it tomorrow night!

Create a Summer Bucket List

We all have bucket lists, aspirations, and inspirations to do everything our heart’s desire before our time ends. Summer seems to have its own timeline and deadline that quickly approaches as it speeds by. So why not savor all that precious time and jot down a “summer bucket list” of everything you’ve always wanted to do, every event you don’t want to miss, even hit up all the bistros, breweries, and bars your body can handle.

Summer bucket lists are supposed to be fun, nurturing to your soul, and obviously achievable. So enjoy some of my ideas, include them in your list, and feel free to share any of your own!

• Enjoy the beach at sunrise: Go for a run, mediate, or just watch the colors in the
  sky change as you breathe in the salt air and listen to the waves crash on the shore.
• Try something new: Learn to surf, go kayaking, take a “SUP” stand up addle board lesson, or do Pilates or Yoga on the beach.
• Stare up at the sky: Learn the constellations and the names of the full moons for the summer skies. Find Venus, discover the North Star, or catch an eclipse.
• Pick your own and stock up: Find all the pick your own farms in your area, pick till you can’t pick anymore and stock up for the winter. Eat all the peaches, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines, and watermelons you can stand.
• Get outside: Go to a concert or music festival. See an outdoor movie on the beach or in a park if you’re in the city. Even try a drive-in if you have one in your area. Or have a picnic on a farm, in a field, or on a boat.
• Push your fear factor: Go sky diving, parasailing, or off shore fishing.
• Spend the night out: Go camping, roast smores, sleep in a tent, and chase fireflies.
• Learn to can and preserve: Make your own tomato sauce, jams and jellies, even your own spices and rubs.
• Grow something extra special in the garden: Try something new in your garden. Something you’ve never tried before like artichokes, squash blossoms, figs, or capers (This is my something extra special this year!)
• Keep a journal and take pictures: Document everything! You never know when inspiration will hit you again. Take lots of pictures; make a scrapbook of your
  infamous summer. Pictures last a lifetime!
• Buy local & support your farmers: Try something you normally don’t buy, be proud to give back to your community, find a new recipe for all your new goodies.
• Eat something exotic: Try raw oysters, pick your own Maryland  crabs, eat She-crab soup, try seared Ahi-Tuna, or experience fried green tomatoes or seaweed salad.
• Reread your favorite book: Simple enough!
• Add color and fragrance to your home: Stock up on cut flowers. Sunflowers, Hydrangeas, Gardenias and Ferns. Try different herbs for fragrance. Rosemary, Lavender, Lemon Verbena, or Chocolate Mint!
• Stay salty all day: Take a dip in the ocean, bay, or river. Let the salt dry on your skin or build up in your hair. After a long day in the salty air, throw a beach bash-grill lobsters and shrimp on an open fire in the sand. Enjoy summer cocktails as you watch for that rare, beautiful flash as the sun dips behind the horizon.