My List

Last night was book club at Amy's house.

Amy did a heck of a job hosting it.

We had a delicious Chicken, Bacon, & Pasta dish with asparagus sauteed in butter and garlic. Yum. Our smiles quickly turned to frowns when someone asked "where did you get this recipe?" and Amy answered "oh, I just threw it together with what was in the pantry." Don't you hate people like that? It tasted like something she got out of a Williams and Sonoma Cookbook and she just whipped it up. If I just whipped up anything in our pantry, it would taste like popcorn with spaghetti sauce on it. Seriously.

Amy's pick was The Next Thing on My List by Jill Smolinski. It's the story of a woman who offers a ride to another woman in her weight watchers meeting and accidentally kills her in a car accident. She finds a list that the woman wrote about the 20 things she wanted to do before she turned 25, in order to deal with her grief, she decides to complete the list for her. In the end, her entire life is changed from the whole experience (for a better explanation, click on the link above).

Honestly, I wasn't sure I would like it at first, but I was quickly pulled into it. It makes you think about what would be on your list. Amy decided to play a game and had everyone bring their 20 things typed out with no name on it. We each pulled a list and tried to guess which list belonged to who. It was fun hearing what others put and who had the same things. I found it funny that the older women in the group had several similar ones, while the younger women had similar ones. We all also found it a lot harder to come up with things than we thought it would. The goal was to have things that you could actually achieve. So something like become an astronaut was pretty much off limits. Most of us decided to be pretty serious about our list and are starting to work on them. I decided I'll share my list with y'all.

My 20 Things...

1. Lose 20 pounds.

2.Read and finish Gone with The Wind.

3. Go to New York and see a Broadway Play.

4. Have another baby.

5. Spend the whole day at a spa.

6. Go on a girls weekend trip.

7. Plant a garden and be able to eat from it.

8. Go a full month without watching any tv or movies.

9. Take a honeymoon with my husband.

10. Wear a bikini again (in time for that honeymoon).

11. Run a 5K.

12. Get involved in a Sunday school class at church.

13. Take horseback riding lessons.

14. Own my own horse.

15. Learn to sew more than a beanbag.

16. Finish decorating my house.

17. Go to a movie by myself.

18. Start a Mother/Daughter tradition.

19. Be a more adventurous cook.

20. Own a beach house.

So, there is my list. I don't really have a time line, but I'm thinking maybe 20 before 40? I want to have some type of deadline. I wish every book we read had an activity like this one because it was fun getting to know more about each person. I'll keep y'all posted when I accomplish any of them.