Thirty-seven, Thirty-eight, Thirty-nine...

With an upcoming birthday of a moderately astronomical number I never really expected to find attached to my name, I've been considering writing a bucket list. But another list kept pushing itself to the forefront. So, before I make a list of things I want to do before my time is up, I've made a list of things I did in my thirties, in no particular order. It was a fun decade for me, and I'll miss it.

1) Stepped into an airplane and flew for the very first time (Nebraska was my eventful destination)
2) Ran my own home business for 4 years
3) Smiled for my first passport
4) Used said passport to go to Costa Rica, my first time in a country NOT touching the USA
5) Dreamed in Spanish
6) Tiled a kitchen backsplash all by myself
7) Swore never to do that again
8) Built a picnic table
9) Gave birth to our youngest child
10) Potty-trained the third child
11) Moved twice
12) Discovered, then forgot about Tae Bo
13) Went to Mexico three times
14) Potty-trained the youngest child
15) Joined a book club
16) Read many, many books after youngest child turned three (and that's a magic number)
17) Joined a writing club
18) Wrote a memoir for my posterity
19) Canned about 400 quarts of peaches, pears, and applesauce
20) Taught the oldest child to sew, cook, and drive
21) Found my first gray hairs
22) Home-schooled 2nd child one semester
23) Taught Freshman Algebra. Which I loathe.
24) Was complimented by 2nd child's Geometry teacher on child's knowledge of freshman Algebra
25) Started a book club
26) Taught classes on canning, gardening, sewing, scrapbooking, rubber-stamping, religion, roasting meat, making pies, chocolates, and lip balm
27) Started a cookbook blog with my best recipes
28) Started a family blog
29) Learned to cook with Elk and Antelope
30) Learned to filet a fish
31) Wrote a novel
32) Wrote five more
33) Started this blog
34) Went to a Bon Jovi Concert, Wicked, and various band, choir, and piano recitals and concerts
35) Won a short story contest
36) Submitted three novels
37) Connected with a bunch of old friends and made a ton of new friends
38) Made it to nineteen years of marriage and counting

And...
39) Had two of my novels accepted by Covenant Communications

Goodbye, thirties. You were good to me. Forties, I have another week; enough time to work on that bucket list. It's going to be a doozy, because I've seen what dreams can do.