Fill Bucket, Empty, Repeat

It seems like my kids remember the exact things I wish they would forget....

"You said if we were good at the lake that you would take us out for ice cream, we still haven't gone!"

"What? We can't have brownies for breakfast? You let us yesterday!"

"Emily, you said yesterday that we would do a fashion show! Come on! I want to pick out your outfits and see all your clothes!"

I am such a push over when it comes to fun. I pretty much specialize in fun as a nanny. But in all seriousness, I would do anything for these girls and when I say that I will do something with them or for them, I stick to it because it matters. Not just to them, but to me as well.

When I say I am going to do something, I don't sit around and talk about it for too long, I get up and do it! Why wait? If you have a fiery desire in your heart to do something, get out there and make it happen! Before my trip to Australia, I had heaps of people say to me, "WOW! That's so great you're traveling to Australia for the summer! I wish I could do that!" You CAN do it. "Oh no, I can't. Come on, Emily, really?" Yeah, sure! Just go get a plane ticket, that's what I did.

If you don't take action on your so-called dreams and desires, then they really aren't that important to you in the first place.

There are so many things I want to do before I die, or a less grim way to state it is a bucket list! This is ever changing, just my nature to do the things I want to. There are 2 activities from my bucket list that I am focusing on this summer:

Learn how to play guitar.

Run a marathon.

Both are going to take quite a bit time and self motivation to accomplish. Good thing I live with my ferrets who are constant reminders!

My guitar sits in the sun room just off the kitchen and I will sometimes hear Allison strumming a few chords on it. I gently say, "Allison, please let it be for now. I haven't got it figured out yet. But once I do, I will teach you, OK?" Without missing a beat she says, "When will you know? Why don't you just practice?" There she goes again, making my life easy by saying it like it is.

One day I was watching Allison during gymnastics and wishing I was as fit as those girls doing flips across the floor. I said to Abby, "Hey, I need you to make sure I go for a run today." All afternoon she was riding me, "Have you gone for a run yet? When are you going?" Ugh. I was beat, I really didn't want to. I'll do it tomorrow I said. This is important to me? Obviously not. I argued with myself for 20 seconds then ran upstairs to get changed, came down and ran 3 miles. There. Take that, self.

Get excited and tell people about what you want to do! Once you voice it, then you are automatically accountable to doing it, especially around the crowd that I hang with. Decide what YOU want in your bucket, empty the bucket by doing what YOU want, then meet Jack and Jill (in my case Abby and Allison) at the top of the hill to fetch a new pail of water!