I read this great idea on the DesignHer Momma blog. Emily put together a bucket list of 40 things she wanted to do before 40. Read it here. Big things, little things, learning things, travelling things, family things, illegal things…ahem:) And it immediately sparked an interest in my head. I want a bucket list. And why not? I’m 30 next year, a decade and a bit is a decent timeline.

And so, with mild trepidation at throwing this out there and holding myself accountable to online minions, I present to you…

40 x 40: Alicia’s Bucket List:

1. Buy a pair of Louboutins

2. Take my family with me and go back to Finland

3. Complete a photography project

4. Attend a World Junior hockey game

5. Eat entirely organic for one full month

6. Buy an old, run-down house and fix it up, vintage style with green retrofits (yeah, I’ve thought about this one for aWHILE)

7. Go to Africa. Go on a safari & help out at an orphanage. (& try not to bring a baby home. Amen.)

8. Get a pair of Toms for each member of the family

9. Buy something extravagant from an estate sale

10. Take each girl on a separate vacation

11. Learn French

12. Drag Take Ryan to a ballet/musical (maybe more) CHECK! 01/19/13 (Chicago, Ambassador Theatre in NYC)

13. Sew a dress/skirt from scratch (& have it look half-decent, ahem)

14. Set up a projector & big screen in my backyard and throw a backyard movie bash

15. Make a quilt

16. Reupholster an armchair

17. Get my ass back to New York CHECK! 01/18/13

18. Sit in the audience at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

19. Slowly decorate an entire room with cool vintage/used/antique furniture and linens.

20. Keep considering the adoption question. (<- note: this in no way means we want to adopt. It’s a continuing conversation which is completely closed for now. I would like to table it again some day. Maybe. Or maybe not.)

21. Get a tattoo

22. Renew our vows, alone

23. Adopt a pet from the Humane Society

24. Help replant a forest

25. Take my girls horseback riding

26. Take a ride in a blimp

27. Go see Dave Matthews Band play in NYC

28. Work on a political campaign (subject to a fracking decent candidate I can get behind.)

29. Get published.

30. Find the time to meaningfully volunteer for a charity

31. Fill my entire house with pieces by local artists

32. Live at least 80% off the grid

33. Take Ryan to a Stanley Cup final game. (if it ends up being the Montreal Canadians I’ll have earned my Wife Honour Badge of Life)

34. Take up yoga or pilates…and stick to it!

35. Bury a time capsule…and dig it up when Maëlle graduates high school.

36. Go back to a psychic

37. Take Latin dancing lessons

38.

39.

40.

…it’s still growing…maybe I’ll do 50×50?

In any case, some of these are big, some are small. The idea is the same: do SOMETHING. A woman I once sailed with said something to me that still echos in my head to this very day: “Do something just for you, your daughters are watching.”

I want to be a good wife, a good mother, a good friend…a good person. But I’ve had a hard time learning the lesson that all those things start with being good to myself. Maybe first on my list should be: go see a therapist? (<- ah, the difference between needs and wants.)

This is my step in the right direction. If I lose track of myself, I can come back here, take a look at my crossed-off vs. still-to-accomplish and right myself again. Self-motivation. Brilliant. (…I should totally add BE BRILLIANT as item #40…high fives)