Mission(s) Accomplished

If I only I had the time to do xyz...
How many times in the last decade have I thought that?

Well, now I have the time. There are so many things I've wanted to do, I've decided to keep track (in a place where I can't lose the list!)

1. Walk my kids to and from school.
2. Prepare school lunches so the kids don't have to buy hot lunch.
3. Become a frequent visitor to the local libraries.
4. Make healthy meals for the family.
5. Keep on top of the clutter and house cleaning.
6. Participate in parent-child stuff at the kids' schools.
7. Exercise more frequently.
8. Communicate with family and friends more often.
9. Volunteer for things.
10. Grow something (other than dust on furniture!)
11. Eliminate dust on furniture.
12. Learn as much as I can about the kinds of jobs that are out there in the world, especially those that offer a healthy work-life balance.
13. Find more ways to support sustainable living habits.
14. Meditate. (This one could be the trickiest of all!)
15. Write. Part of me fears that I might lose touch with this now that I am away from the classroom.
16. Organize... everything?


Sidebar:
I know there will be other things to add, probably very soon. I'm looking over my list and having flashbacks to teaching. In his memoir Knots in My Yo-yo String, Jerry Spinelli had a chapter called "Sixteen Things I Wish I Could Do". I'd study that list with my students, and we'd make observations about Spinelli's list. Eventually they'd notice that each item began with a verb. Without too much further prodding, they'd notice that no two verbs repeated. We would use it as a model for our own lists. Man, I used to love seeing the stuff they'd come up with.

I wonder what the eleven-year-old me would have listed.
I wonder what those students will wish for when they are my age.