#108 and #629 Two cranes, one goal and a cleaner entry

Sometimes you get lucky and two crane tasks converge in such a way that by completing one goal you achieve another in the process. That's wonderful when you have 1000 crane goals and hope to get it done in 10 years. It's a twofer, a BOGO, or maybe rather a DOGO. At any rate this weekend on 7/24/10, crane #108 "Build a piece of furniture" converged with crane #629 "Buy a dresser for the Entry way". Okay to be fair, it's not a dresser, but it's more or less the same concept, and it serves the purpose I was trying to address which was to clean up my entry way, provide drawers to store the random stuff I need to have handy but that doesn't have a home, and provide a surface to decorate as I feel the desire to do so.

Yes, it's a kit or modular furniture, or whatever you call it. And I suppose technically they are bins, not drawers, but I'm very happy with it none the less. As you can see from the picture I chose a nine cube shelf and dual neutral tones for the bins. I think it works with the entry way colors which are all wood tones and neutral tans and browns and such. I've already started filling the bins, and I plan to eventually replace the phonebooks in the middle with something decorative, I just needed a place to put them for the moment. Phone books are the bane to my existence as I live in an area where I'm on the fringe of several areas so I get fifteen phonebooks a year. That might be a small exaggeration, it might only be twelve, but still, a crap load of them and the bad thing is you have to dig through two or three to find what you are looking for most of the time. You can't tell from the picture but the bin below the phone books is filled with all the smaller phone books. Oh, and the jug of change is a crane project too. I can't think of what number off the top of my head at the moment though.

All in all I'm happy with it. Now I feel greater motivation to get my pictures hung on the wall above it to complete the look. I feel like I could put these shelving units together in my sleep now as I also bought one for each of the kids so when the curtain closed on the sun today I had built three of the dang things. Hopefully the kids will use theirs to keep their rooms in shape.

My handiwork:

#928 and #945 or How I failed at Facebook and ruined, er, altered a book

Busy week this time, I should have taken time to update more regularly. First off on 7/17/10 I dipped my toe into the world of Facebook to complete #928 "Make a Facebook page". I would link to my page except that after five days I couldn't take it any more and I deleted the darn thing. With so many social media networking sites out there, I don't know how you can have time to DO anything worth updating over if you keep them current. Then beyond your own updates, you have to wade through everyone elses' updates, some of which are worth the time to read and others are beyond the "I don't care" threshold. Why do I need to know EVERY single person everyone on my friend lists friends?? And heaven forbid TWO of them friend the same person, then I get an update that sounds like peer pressure "Suzie AND Johnny just friended Becky!" What is wrong with you, get on the ball and friend her too!!

Don't get me wrong, I had friends on there. I started out with my sister who quickly sent me link invites to friend my cousin and uncle and four family friends I haven't seen in awhile (although two of them just live 6 miles from my house). I also ended up with a handful of old school mates friended, a few I knew well and a couple not so well. It was kind of nice chatting with them to catch up, but the problem with friends like that is that after 15+ years, you aren't the same people you were in high school, and after finding out what you have been doing since then, there isn't really a lot you have in common any more. It's kind of a let down most of the time.

Then I found Frontierville. I think one of my old school mates was playing it and I kept seeing his updates and decided to see what it was. That was a mistake. I love farming games, and I love games where you need to clear out space, and that game was addictive! You need neighbors (Facebook friends who neighbor you in the game) and I just couldn't round up enough in the friend list I had so I started trolling the "add me" forums looking for random strangers looking for a neighbor hook-up. My "friend" list grew and grew, which meant more random updates and more peer pressure because the Frontierville add me's usually added the same people making Facebook inform me more and more how everyone I knew was friends with Sally and I should get with it. Not to mention the amount of time it devoured from my day, checking my crops, harvesting, watering, replanting, clearing my land, feeding my animals, running to all my neighbors' farms to take care of stuff there too, and gifting everyone, and then still dealing with all the Facebook notices on top of that too.

Finally I had enough of the insanity. I'm too compulsive to give up Frontierville, so I just gave up the whole lot. No more updates, no more postings of all sorts of random crap I'm supposed to "like", no more anything. I'm suffering some withdrawal from the game but otherwise, I'm happy with my life again. Still, I tried, so I'm crossing this crane off as done!

On a more positive note I bit the bullet and on 7/19/10 I altered a book! I have to say the first mark is the hardest to make, but after you break that sacred seal, it's actually a very enjoyable hobby. I just happened to have accidentally purchased two copies of the same book, Janet Evanovich's Lean Mean Thirteen so I decided to use it. I'm using the technique called "Altered book poetry" which is where you select words or phrases on the page that say what you want to express and then you gesso out the rest of the words on the page and paint or draw or whatever over that, leaving the original words you selected as a poem. It's a loose abstract poem, but fun to do nonetheless.

So far I have completed one page, and I've gessoed out five other pages that are waiting for the final paint treatment. I have to say that I really like how the pages feel after you gesso them, almost like canvas. I can't wait until the whole book is finished, it will be so neat!! You can see a picture of my first page here on my art blog, and that is the beginning of crane #945 "Make an Altered Book"

So two more down, and although one turned out to be a failure, that's okay, it was a great experience nonetheless. And that is what this project is all about, experiencing and accomplishing things I never thought I would take the time or have the courage to complete.

#920, #922 and nod to #141

When I was a child, I hated the science fair at school. I always did whatever I could to get out of it, by any means necessary. If a kid had a communicable disease the week before the project was due, I was doing everything but licking him in the hopes that a sudden illness would spare me. If that failed, I would lie through my teeth, and when that too failed me, I steadfastly demanded the "D" that was always threatened to those who did not bend to the requirements of the dreaded science fair. I spent all year keeping my gradepoint at an A+ so I would survive the sudden plummet and squeak by with a C on the final report card. Stupid? Yes, I know, but I loathed the science fair.

The funny thing is, it wasn't the science project itself that I hated. It was the prep work that was involved that changed the joy of a fun experiment into the drudgery of a school project. I hated the display board, I hated the report, in the requisite clear plastic report cover, I hated the demands and limitations on the way you presented your project. The whole thing turned me off and had me planning my avoidance stratagy nine months in advance.

On my own, I loved to experiment with all sorts of scientific principles. My absolute favorite of all time was the baking soda and vinegar volcano. My mother could not keep baking soda or vinegar in the house, as soon as she brought home a new box or bottle, I stole it and was out in the yard gleefully watching that glorious chemcial eruption bubbling over the dirt mound I lovingly built around the Coke bottle core. When I used up all the red food coloring then alien green or oceanic blue "lava" spilled over the rim and flooded the plastic dinosaurs that dotted the base of the volcano. The fun only ended when the supplies ran out or my mother came to collect her ingredients. She still to this day grumbles about my theivery and how she could never keep red food coloring in the house long enough to tint anything.

As a parent and homeschooler I passed this joy of fun experimentation on to my children. We mixed slime, stirred up goo, discovered all sorts of interesting properties of materials around us, and of course giggled and gazed at our own share of bubbling volcanos fizzing away in the yard. Anytime I found a new experiment that seemed fun or interesing (which for us usually means messy and/or explosive), I had to run out and get the ingredients and demonstrate it as soon as posible. So of course when I came across the instructions for the following experiments, I knew that #920 "Melt Ivory soap in the microwave" and #922 "Do the Mentos and Diet Coke eruption" had to be added to the list of goals to share with my children. On July 11th, we got experimental.

Melting Ivory Soap in the microwave is really a fun and interesting experiment, as the bar will grow into a mountain of foam. First off it HAS to be Ivory soap, other soaps do not have the same amount of air whipped into them and they will just melt. Second, I would NOT recommend microwaving a full bar. We nuked half a bar and it overflowed the plate and left some on the floor of the microwave oven to be cleaned off. It wasn't hard to clean up, but had it been the whole bar, the whole microwave probably would have filled with foam. My children especially loved using the soap after it had turned to foam. Allow it to cool as it's very hot to the touch at first, but when it cools it will harden again and can be used just like regular soap. My children both were really excited by this and can't wait to nuke the other half of the bar of Ivory.

The Mentos and Diet Coke eruption is another wonderful experiment, and fans of the old volcano will really enjoy this one. Any kind of soda will work as long as it's carbonated, but diet soda won't be sticky and we found the 2 liter bottles worked best. You need something to line the Mentos up into a stack so you can load them into the bottle in one shot. We used a test tube we had lying around from a bath confetti set, but any skinny cylynder or tube should work. You might want to wait to do this one when soda is on sale because the kids want to do it again and again. Also definately do it outside and far from anything you don't want soda on, the fountain shoots pretty high.

Two great experiements that were a blast to do and the kids can't wait to repeat them over and over. My son even got a little scientific and brought out the paper and pencil to log the differences as we used different sizes of soda and different flavors of Mentos. He might just enjoy the science fair when it comes around, but he's going to have to get his dad to help him with it, I'll be down with a virus.

As a tail note, #141 "Create a Blog for Cranes Project" was completed on July 13th, and although I expect to fiddle with the settings a little more before I'm totally happy, as of this posting I have now updated all the cranes completed so far. Now to get back to work and finish some more goals!

#222 and #1 The list and the crane

Despite my intentions to complete the list of 1000 goals by my birthday, I didn't actually finish the list until almost two weeks later. None the less on July 6th, I happily completed my list with the 1000th goal and completed crane #222 "Come up with 1000 things to do" in the process. In celebration I immediately set to complete goal #1 "Learn how to fold a paper crane".

Let me confess here that I have never attempted the art of Origami before. Confident that I would be able to do this I purchased a package of Origami paper from the craft store when the crane list was still in the infancy of only a couple of hundred goals. I checked books out from the library and scanned over the pictures and folding diagrams and returned them promptly, both sure that I could manage this task easily enough and slightly confused by the intricate diagrams that made no sense to me at all. With my list of goals finally completed, I eagerly selected a piece of paper for that ever important first crane.

That's when I realized that my serious lack of spacial logic equated me to a folding dunce. I couldn't figure out the instructions at all, and finally in desperation I turned to the one source you can always count on to teach you how to do something you can't master yourself, YouTube.

Lisa Shea has a wonderful instructional video on YouTube that goes through the steps of folding a paper crane at a very slow pace to help you keep up. With Lisa's caring tutelage, and a couple of rewinds to figure out where I was going wrong, I was finally able to complete my first paper crane.



Not too bad, and I'm sure by the time I've completed the 1000th crane, I'll be an expert. As I complete each crane I will add it to my collection and eventually string them together in strips of 100 each. I reviewed the video while folding crane #222, and by the time I had finished folding the cranes for the goals I had already completed, I could manage all the folds on my own without the video guidance. Maybe someday I'll branch out and try to master another Origami shape, but for now, I'm back to the list to complete more goals!!

#954 The Cutest Crane

Another crane accomplished before the list was finished, #954 "Get a Pet" was completed on July 2nd when we welcomed a new German Sheppard puppy, lovingly named Jackson, into our home.



Jackson is a welcome addition to our home and surely the cutest crane goal on my list of achievements. The children both really enjoy having a pet again and he loves to chase my daughter around the backyard and play tug of war with my son. I definitely think Jackson loves his new home, and I love the fact that he is finally able to sleep through the night. We are trying to enjoy all his snugly rollie poly-ness now as we know he will quickly grow into a big dog. I look forward to completing cranes #965 (Housebreak new puppy) and #966 (Teach new puppy to sit, lay and sit pretty) with him in the near future. He has already mastered the sit command and is doing pretty good with his housebreaking. We all love him very much.

First Crane Completed, #490

My original goal was to complete my list of 1000 goals by my birthday, however when it took longer than I anticipated, I realized that some goals might be accomplished before the list was complete. The first of them being #490 "Buy a floor steamer to clean the floors with", which I completed on June 27th.

Most of my home is wood or ceramic tile flooring, and that means mopping. I HATE mopping, and in fact I'm ashamed to admit that during my marriage I very rarely mopped my floors. My ex-husband, he was an excellent mopper, although I do not know if he enjoyed it or just put up with doing it. He was terribly anal about it, but did a wonderful job, and either way I didn't have to do it so I was happy. He was a bit of a nazi about not walking on the floors for like an hour after he mopped, which often left us trapped on the islands of carpeted surfaces or marooned on chairs or sofas begging to be allowed a pass to go to the bathroom. Heaven forbid if one of us snuck across the wet floor while he wasn't looking. He could spot even the faintest footprint on his pristine floor and boy did we get it then.

At any rate, divorce robbed me of my mopper and now I was solely responsible for cleaning all those hard floor surfaces. Someday I hope to carpet more of the house, but for now, I wanted an easier way to clean without dragging out the mop and bucket. Friends at work told me about the floor steamer, an electric unit that heats water and uses fabric pads and steam to clean your floors. No messy bucket, no drippy mop, and the pads are washable. How easy is that?? I wanted one.

As my birthday approached my mother was discussing alternative gift options with me. Now let me tell you, I'm very pro-consumable gifts. I love things that can be used up and are gone, or are things that the recipient needs and can use often in a real context. I'm the kind of girl that is happy with a vacuum cleaner for Christmas or a gift card for an oil change for my birthday. My mother was suggesting that she hire her house cleaner to come and clean my house for me. Single moms could really use this, between work and kids and homework and kid activities and everything else, housework is often a challenge. It's a wonderful idea, however I'm kind of weird about letting other people in my house. I wasn't prepared to have a house cleaner, but I didn't know how to explain this to my mother. Then it hit me, like the old saying about fish and fishing, clean a woman's house and she will have clean floors for a day, buy her a floor steamer and she will have clean floors for life. Or something like that.

So I informed my mother that I was planning on purchasing a floor steamer and that if she was willing what I would really love to have for my birthday would be a gift card to go towards the purchase of the steamer I had been eyeing. She agreed and for my birthday I received a pretty pink gift card. My boss at work had also given me a very generous gift check and together I was able to purchase my floor steamer with no cost to me!!

I ended up purchasing the Shark Steam Pocket Mop and I already love it. The head swivels so you can use both sides of the pads, it has a nice size water tank and I was able to do most of my floors without refilling, and the texture of the pad was great for scrubbing sticky spots from the kitchen floor. Overall, I might just end up enjoying the time to clean the floors now. I'm already looking forward to disposing of my old mops, and no longer having to pull out three different ones to clean the different floors in my house. As an added bonus the steamer uses only water to clean the floors (I use distilled water as I have hard water) so there is no smelly chemicals making the whole house smell like insane lemons or exuberant faux pine forests. As someone with a sensitive nose, I really appreciate that!

A small goal I know, but it still felt great to cross one off the list (even if the list wasn't complete yet at the time). Every time I clean my floors I'll think of my parents and my boss who gave me the gift of clean floors by helping me buy my Shark. Thank you!!

The 1000 Cranes List

Here it is, I will be updating this list as I complete each task. I also will be editing this list as I discover duplicate items or need to adjust items on the list.

1. Learn how to fold a paper crane 7/16/10
2. Learn how to make Kim Bop
3. Learn how to make Bul Go Gi
4. Learn how to make Tamales
5. Read the entire Tao Te Ching
6. Re-Read the entire Harry Potter Series from beginning to end
7. Journal for 365 days
8. Sketch/doodle for 365 days
9. Write to a prompt 365 days
10. Exercise 365 days in a row
11. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
12. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
13. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
14. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
15. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
16. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
17. Get to goal weight
18. Stop drinking Dr. Pepper for 30 days
19. Drink nothing but water for a week
20. Take the kids on a picnic with a real basket
21. Walk in the rain
22. Stomp in the puddles
23. Donate time at a food shelter
24. Do a Random Act of Kindness every day for 365 days
25. Keep a gratitude journal for 365 days
26. Read a poem a day for 365 days
27. Buy frames for all the pictures I have
28. Hang up all the framed pictures I have
29. Fill the collage frames with pictures
30. Get all the digital pictures I have on disk printed
31. Give someone I love a care package just because
32. Have Sunday Brunch once a month for 12 months
33. Go for a drive and discover new places, find a new place to eat and discover a new treasure
34. Have a game night with friends or family once a month for 12 months
35. Go antiquing and find some new treasure to collect
36. Watch the sunset
37. Watch the sunrise
38. Listen to a street musician
39. Listen to Jazz
40. Write a love letter
41. Take a photograph every day for 365 days
42. Go to a gallery show
43. Complete a Logic puzzle, sudoku, or fill in puzzle every night before bed for 365 days
44. Swing on a swingset in the moonlight with someone you love
45. Have a movie night once a month for 12 months
46. Bake a new cookie recipe a week for 52 weeks
47. Learn how to bake an apple pie from scratch
48. Learn to make your own cocoa mix
49. Learn how to bake your own bread
50. Learn how to ride a bike
51. Go for a hike at a state park
52. Play in the sprinkler with the kids (or at the spray park)
53. Pitch a tent and camp in the backyard with the kids
54. Catch fireflies with the kids
55. Go sunbathing, lying out on a towel and reading a novel
56. Take the kids to the beach and walk barefoot in the sand
57. Take the kids to a tidal pool and explore the wildlife there
58. Learn how to jump rope again
59. Go for a walk and come back with at least one treasure you find along the way
60. Jump in a pile of freshly raked leaves
61. Make a snow angel
62. Build an igloo (or snow fort, or wall) out of snow
63. Curl up and read a book by the fire
64. Go Christmas Caroling
65. Cook a different dessert every week for 52 weeks
66. Throw a Halloween party
67. Throw a Christmas party
68. Try a different breakfast recipe each week for 52 weeks
69. Cook through every recipe of a cookbook
70. Learn to make pancakes
71. Watch the 10 greatest American movies of all time
72. Read the top 10 novels of all time
73. Create a sacred space with items that are special to me
74. Invent a board game
75. Do stand up comedy
76. Go camping
77. Learn how to dance
78. Go fishing
79. Go skating with the kids
80. Learn how to play tennis
81. Learn how to sword fight
82. Learn sign language
83. Learn to play the piano
84. Learn to play the guitar
85. Compose a song (or at the very least write the lyrics)
86. Sing Karaoke
87. Go for a boat ride
88. Go for a train ride
89. Go on a helicopter ride
90. Rid in a hot air balloon
91. Go on a cross-country car trip
92. Climb a rock wall (real or synthetic)
93. Visit the Grand Canyon
94. Visit the Oz Museum in Kansas
95. Visit the Philbrook Museum
96. Visit the Route 66 museum
97. Go to a casino
98. Visit the Gilcrease Museum
99. Take the kids to Leonardo’s Discovery Warehouse
100. Stay in a bed and breakfast
101. Camp in a cabin
102. Go to an archaeological dig
103. Visit all 50 states
104. Learn to play chess
105. Learn to play pool
106. Learn to sculpt
107. Learn to juggle
108. Build a piece of furniture (either from scratch or from a kit) 7/24/10
109. Learn to paint (watercolors or acrylics)
110. Learn to draw
111. Take a class on something that interests me
112. Join a group that meets regularly and shares an interest
113. Learn to embroidery
114. Eat a vegetable every day for a month
115. Eat a fruit every day for a month
116. Get rid of something every day for 365 days
117. Read every day for 365 days
118. Discover what makes me truly happy
119. Become an early riser
120. Learn time management
121. Create a Lapbook for a story or character or interest
122. Work on a Habitat for Humanity home
123. Edit Empathy
124. Send a manuscript to at least 50 publishers/agents
125. Enter a short story contest
126. Enter a fiction contest
127. Complete five NaNoWriMos.
128. Enter at least 20 writing contests
129. Win a writing contest
130. Publish a novel
131. Write something published in a newspaper
132. Write a children’s book
133. Compile a family cookbook and make copies for each of the kids
134. Write and draw a comic strip or comic book
135. Write a pilot for a TV sitcom
136. Go on a shopping spree and spend $300 cash
137. Give a public speech on something I know well
138. Paint something worth hanging on the wall
139. Sell a piece of freelance writing
140. Create a web site
141. Start a blog for cranes project 7/13/10
142. Post on a blog every day for 365 days
143. Create a YouTube video
144. Tweet every day for 365 days
145. Write a tweet novel
146. Save up $1000
147. Save a dollar every day for a year and then invest in something on the stock market
148. Learn how to play the stock market
149. Build a nest egg worth 6 months worth of income
150. Create savings account and save 10 percent of income
151. Repay loans
152. Balance my checkbooks and keep them up to date
153. Earn money from something I create
154. Go on a candlelight dinner date
155. Go dancing on a date
156. Go on a completely free date
157. Go on a fancy date
158. Go to a comedy club on a date
159. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
160. Go see a live Christmas musical performance
161. Complete a minor household repair
162. Learn how to complete a major household repair
163. Clean out the garage
164. Clean out my bedroom closet
165. Learn to live in the now
166. Learn Yoga
167. Practice Yoga for 30 days
168. Learn Tai Chi
169. Practice Tai Chi for 30 days
170. Experience Bliss
171. Find inner peace
172. Learn to Meditate
173. Practice Meditating for 365 days
174. Get my Palm read
175. Get a tarot card reading
176. Dare to follow your dream and never give up on writing or getting published
177. Do Epic Shit, and I’ll know what that is when the opportunity comes
178. Doodle on a napkin every day for 365 days, keep in an album or leave for someone to find
179. Memorize a poem every month for 12 months
180. Write a silly poem a la Shel Silverstein
181. Set a beautiful, seasonally relevant table for dinner once a month for 12 months, take a pic
182. Write your Creativity Manifesto and hang it on the wall
183. Make a list of 10 things I most enjoyed doing as a child, do at least two from the list
184. Leave a dollar in public somewhere for someone else to find
185. Come up with 20 titles for novels to write someday
186. Learn something new about a culture that is not my own.
187. Create a scavenger hunt and play it with friends and family.
188. Take a photograph of the same scene at different hours of the day or times of the year
189. Go star gazing
190. Plan your dream vacation, collecting brochures, building a collage, etc.
191. Skip rocks, and try to get one to skip 5 or more times
192. Write my personal memoir
193. Get a family portrait made
194. Travel to Ireland or the UK (or both!)
195. Create my own definition of success
196. Learn to take criticism
197. Learn something new every day (for 365 days at least)
198. Do something everyday that excites you (for at least 365 days if not for life)
199. Take a road trip to somewhere I’ve never been before with someone I love
200. Get involved in my community
201. Talk to perfect strangers and make new friends
202. Learn one simple skill every week for 52 weeks
203. Invent a new idea and start a business on the side
204. Realize it is never too late, for anything
205. Organize my home
206. Set 3 priorities each morning and accomplish them by nightfall for 365 days
207. Surprise the people you love with letters or packages in the mail
208. Do something that scares me
209. Finish 10 unfinished projects
210. Finish 10 unfinished stories/novels
211. Don’t say anything negative or criticize anyone for one week
212. Speak with nothing but kindness and love to myself for a week
213. Write an article for a magazine
214. Work as a volunteer at a zoo
215. Hunt for treasure
216. Build a clubhouse
217. Find my dream job
218. Win a contest, lottery, prize or bet
219. See a famous painting in person
220. Hug a mascot
221. Send flowers to surprise someone I love
222. Come up with 1000 things to do 7/6/10
223. Fold 1000 paper cranes
224. Clean off my desk
225. Cook at home for 30 days without eating out
226. Fall in love again
227. Date a musician
228. Be serenaded
229. Recover the pad on my hope chest
230. Buy new living room furniture
231. Re carpet my house
232. Learn to change a tire and check the oil and fluids on my car
233. Complete all the writing exercises in one of my writing books
234. Read all of my writing life books
235. Read all of my normal eating books
236. Cull out books I don’t enjoy reading
237. Rearrange my living room
238. Weed-eat and clear the rocks from the far corner of the yard
239. Clean the house completely once a week 52 times in a year
240. Tear out the monkey grass and plant small flowers
241. Watch a lightning storm with someone I love
242. Raise my children to be happy healthy adults (hopefully)
243. Go to a drive in movie and make out in the car
244. Design a video game
245. Send a message in a bottle
246. Spend an entire day in bed with someone I love
247. Fire a gun (for research purposes)
248. Be able to do 100 push ups without a break
249. Be able to do 100 crunches without a break
250. Donate $100 or more to a charity group
251. Send a secret to PostSecret
252. Date a foreign guy
253. Paint my bedroom
254. Repaint my bathroom
255. Have my chimney cleaned
256. Clean out the junk under all four sinks in the house
257. Take the kids bowling
258. Take the kids to mini golf
259. Take the kids to ride go carts
260. Take the kids to Silver Dollar City
261. Make a home made movie
262. Visit the Smithsonian
263. Leave a note in a book for someone to find
264. Watch 26 movies I’ve never seen before starting with each letter of the alphabet
265. Get a passport
266. Slow dance with someone I love
267. Eat Chinese out of the container with chopsticks
268. Ride in a horse drawn carriage
269. Jump on the bed
270. Swim under a waterfall
271. Take pictures in a photo booth
272. Learn 10 key
273. Go to a concert in the park
274. Take a first aid/CPR class
275. Wear slogan shirts every day for a week
276. Save a gallon jug full of coins and then cash in the money and use it for something fun
277. Go to an auction
278. Qualify for and assume my mortgage (it’s a divorce thing)
279. Clean the ceiling fans
280. Clean/fix the patio door track
281. Go out dressed to the nines and completely dazzling (0n a date or other)
282. Watch all the extended Lord of the Rings movies in a single day long marathon
283. Watch all six Star Wars movies in a single day marathon (I’ve never seen #3)
284. Watch all of the Harry Potter movies in a single day marathon
285. Go swimming with my kids
286. Take my kids to Frontier City
287. Take my kids to Six Flags Over Texas
288. Visit my sister in St. Louis (or wherever she is at the time)
289. Go to the race track
290. Eat an Ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery or Marble Slab
291. Have an International dinner night once a month for 12 months with cuisine from 12 different countries/cultures
292. Eat breakfast every day for 30 days
293. Do WATP every day for 30 days starting with the 1 mile and finishing with the 4 mile
294. Spend one month on the GM/MM eating plan with at least every other day a GM
295. Start a family newsletter and complete at least 12 issues
296. Take a writing class
297. Play one Sim all the way from Birth to death by natural means (meaning I didn’t kill it)
298. Update my writing quote book
299. Do 30 days of Just Dance dancing to at least 3 songs a day
300. Go to bed by 10 PM for 30 days in a row
301. Wake up by 5AM for 30 days in a row
302. Carve something out of wood or stone or soap or other carve-able substance
303. Model something out of sculpy clay worth baking and keeping
304. Buy myself a nice, meaningful piece of jewelry
305. Paint my toenails
306. Spend one night completely in candle light using no electricity (directly at least)
307. Go to a food festival and eat the signature food
308. Eat a beef Wellington
309. Slide down a slide
310. Eat Shark meat
311. Make something using Phyllo dough
312. Write “Dead or Alive”
313. Write Pink Elephants experiment
314. Write Sparklers experiment
315. Eat at Cattleman’s
316. Eat a Shogun’s
317. Read 52 books in a year
318. Make candy
319. Make 10 different kinds of fudge
320. Make a coconut cream pie
321. Get pied in the face
322. Read the top 10 children’s books to my children
323. Transfer home movies to DVD
324. Make or try Risotto
325. Lose 10 inches from waist
326. Go down 5 dress sizes
327. Learn dollar bill origami
328. Rent and drive a convertible
329. Do something creative with paint chips
330. Research handguns for novel with a gun owner or shooting range expert
331. Flirt with a cop
332. Finish Mirror Man
333. Finish Hudson House
334. Finish top secret WIP
335. Learn to use a weed eater
336. write a story about a weed eater, brush hog, ditch witch and backhoe
337. Go on a ghost hunt
338. Visit the top of Pike’s peak
339. Learn to make Chicken Dumplings
340. Learn to make Chili
341. Clean out my car once a week for 52 weeks
342. Get all of my paperwork properly filed
343. Develop a ritual of some sort
344. Go through the VCR tapes
345. Come up with 5 fool proof potluck recipes
346. Design a room
347. Draw up the floor plan of my dream house
348. Design my hideaway cottage
349. Fix the wall in my bedroom
350. Learn to make Baklava
351. Start and use an art journal for 365 days
352. Learn to make lasagna
353. Tell someone no and mean it
354. Visit a radio station
355. Call a radio station and request a song that gets played on the air
356. Solve a problem that helps 100 or more people
357. Make some homemade jelly or jam
358. Overcome my fear of yeast and make homemade pretzels
359. Catch up on all the laundry so that there isn’t a single dirty item in the entire house and then spend 24 hours naked to celebrate and relish the absence of laundry
360. Take the kids to the Tulsa Zoo
361. Carve a pumpkin
362. Take 10 vocal/singing lessons
363. Inspire someone
364. Find a four leaf clover
365. Get 1000 visitors to this blog
366. Make an alphabet list every day for 30 days about 30 different subjects
367. Complete a whole, 26 entry Alpha Blog
368. Receive a fan letter/email
369. Get 100 comments on this blog
370. Dress up like a princess or queen
371. Win an award for something (bonus points if it’s a trophy)
372. Go through a hedge maze or corn maze
373. Walk a Labyrinth
374. Ask a famous person for their autograph
375. Ask a random person for their autograph
376. Jump (or get pushed) into a pool fully clothed
377. Blow a bubble gum bubble as big (or seeming as big) as my head
378. Spend a day blowing bubbles as if smoking cigarettes like on that commercial.
379. Buy a pair of crazy socks and wear them in public
380. Wear your hair in pigtails to work
381. Learn how to French braid (my own hair or someone else’s)
382. Recycle some relevant paper into a crane
383. Ride a city bus, explore at one of the stops and purchase a treasure, then find your way back on another bus
384. Do the A-Z reading challenge
385. Bake a perfect cheesecake
386. Ride a segway
387. Celebrate Dia De Los Muertos
388. Bake a King’s cake to celebrate Mardis Gras
389. Give up something for all 40 days of Lent
390. Volunteer to help out a local theater group, either behind the scenes or as an actor on stage
391. Create a “Cookie of the Month” club for someone you love and give/send them fresh cookies every month for 12 months
392. Make and give the “12 days of Christmas” ring and run gift
393. Build and decorate a dollhouse (can be a small one)
394. Build and race gutter boats
395. Make a pizza from scratch
396. Ride in a limo
397. Make cookies for the local fire department
398. Defrost my ice maker
399. Get 100 people to try the mini crane project (a list of 10 items/cranes)
400. Roll on your side down a grassy hill
401. Make caramel apples
402. Eat at a different new restaurant every month for 12 months and submit reviews to online review sites.
403. Take a candle lit bath with bubbles, a warm beverage and soft music.
404. Hang fairy lights in the living room
405. Hang party lights (or fairy lights) in my bedroom
406. Spend a day acting as if I’m on vacation in my own home. Enjoy everything and worry about nothing
407. Make up a jar mix and then try the recipe.
408. List all my fears and obstacles keeping me from accomplishing my dreams then burn it and feel the bondage melt away
409. Learn how to make a bento box
410. Take my grandma for a car ride
411. Learn to play a whole song on the guitar
412. Listen to a live band at a bar or club
413. Master living in the moment
414. Visit 5 water parks
415. visit 5 amusement parks
416. visit 5 zoos
417. Have an epic water balloon fight with over 100 balloons
418. Take a single flying lesson
419. Drive a boat
420. Hold a baby
421. Bottle feed a baby animal
422. Dig a giant hole
423. Learn to walk in heels
424. Pet a chinchilla
425. repaint a piece of furniture
426. buy a lawn lounger
427. go to Disneyworld
428. Go to Disneyland
429. Spend 24 hours in complete silence
430. Spend one whole month (or four free weekends) without dating a man
431. Have an epic water gun fight with at least 20 water guns
432. Attend a Unitarian Universalist service
433. Have business cards made up with my info on it
434. Carve something out of wood
435. Help out after a disaster
436. Clean out my bedroom and make it a sanctuary
437. Write a letter to someone famous
438. Make homemade macaroni and cheese
439. Kiss under fireworks
440. Go see a chick flick with my mother
441. Bet on a horse race
442. Drink a Margarita
443. Complete an entire cycle of 8MM
444. Save a total of $100 dollars by using coupons on products I regularly use
445. Visit the downtown Metropolitan Library
446. Buy a sexy little black dress
447. Have a girls night out
448. Learn to dance the Tango
449. Bake a Soufflé
450. Ride a horse
451. Clear out Homeschooling stuff
452. Host a Christmas Cookie Exchange party
453. Do Walkblaster/Ramp exercises for 30 days
454. Do the exercise routine on every exercise video I own three times then get rid of the ones I don’t enjoy
455. Purchase a diary or journal that belonged to someone else and read the secrets written inside
456. Organize my office supplies
457. Do EA Active for 30 days
458. Go to Sea World
459. Join a book club
460. Start or join a writing group
461. Go to 12 classes at the library (doesn’t have to be consecutively)
462. Secretly start a “mailer of the month” to send to the kids
463. Have a slumber party for the kids
464. Get a travel mascot and take pictures of it visiting everywhere ala “Flat Stanley”
465. Replace my heat and air unit
466. Spend time writing in a café or coffee shop
467. Attend a Playtime OKC get together
468. Make some ATC’s
469. Participate in some kind of swap
470. Make a whole tree full of Christmas ornaments, even if it’s a small tree
471. Find a way to display my Rubber Ducky collection and get it up
472. Have my wisdom teeth removed
473. Have lunch at the park on a work day
474. Make chicken Enchiladas
475. Make 100 Friendship Bracelets
476. Make some Pasta snack mix
477. Get rid of small appliances, gadgets and equipment I don’t use in the kitchen
478. Sew a quilt (even if it’s a small one)
479. Go to City Bites and buy some of those pumpkin cookies I love
480. Cook a 3 course meal
481. Learn the Thriller dance
482. Play Mahjong with real tiles
483. Design and/or build a large scale sculpture (bigger than 2 feet at least)
484. Take my kids crayfishing
485. Attend a sci fi convention of some kind
486. Have my Caricature drawn
487. Go to a bulk candy store and get a bag with at least one of everything in it
488. Learn to do exercises on the ball
489. Play a game of basketball
490. Buy a floor steamer to clean the floors with 6/27/10
491. Steam clean my carpets
492. Get a current picture of myself taken
493. Put photos in albums
494. Tear out the monkey grass in the front and back yards
495. Keep my fingernails painted for 30 days
496. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
497. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
498. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
499. Get my ears repierced
500. Buy a drill and bit set
501. Host a bunco game
502. Buy a domain name
503. Learn HTML
504. Buy a set of nesting dolls
505. Fold an origami crane out of a material other than paper
506. Stay on top of Generator and battery checks for one year
507. Raise a sim family living entirely off livestock
508. Go through the Change One Plan
509. Cook dinner on a campfire or camp stove
510. Learn to make buttermilk biscuits
511. Write a letter to the editor
512. Paint polka dots on your sneakers
513. Create a time capsule with magazines, CD’s, photographs, letters, and other things and then bury it.
514. Read Atlas Shrugged
515. Read Dante’s Inferno
516. Read Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
517. Send someone a “Thinking of you” card
518. Read Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech
519. Clean my room including under the bed and get rid of stuff I no longer use
520. Invent a holiday and get someone else to celebrate it
521. Bob for apples
522. Eat only food grown within 100 miles of home for one week
523. Write a fan letter to someone famous
524. Write a fan letter to your favorite author
525. Set up a hammock in your living room
526. Get a pet crab
527. Paint a large scale painting (like two or four feet wide or more)
528. Send 100 postcards just because
529. Take a present to Santa
530. Play Dungeons and Dragons
531. Write out your dreams for where you want your life to be in 10 years. Put it away and open it when you are close to that date and see how close you have come.
532. Attempt to see the spook lights of Miami
533. Learn to cook something on the Grill
534. Read Metamorphoses by Ovid
535. Read the Thousand and One Nights by Anonymous
536. Read Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
537. Read Robinson Cruso by Daniel Defoe
538. Read Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
539. Read Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
540. Read Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
541. Read Frankenstein by Mary Shelly
542. Read the Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
543. Read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
544. Read The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe
545. Read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
546. Read the Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
547. Read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
548. Read Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
549. Read the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
550. Read Moby Dick by Herman Melville
551. Read Walden by Henry David Thoreau
552. Read Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
553. Read A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
554. Read Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
555. Read Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
556. Read Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
557. Read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
558. Read the Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
559. Read War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
560. Read Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
561. Read Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
562. Read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
563. Read Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
564. Read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
565. Read King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
566. Read the Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
567. Read the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
568. Read the Time Machine by H.G. Wells
569. Read Dracula by Bram Stoker
570. Read The Awakening by Kate Chopin
571. Read the Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
572. Read Ulysses by James Joyce
573. Read The Trial by Franz Kafka
574. Read Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
575. Read the Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
576. Read Lady Chatterley’s Lover D.H. Lawrence
577. Read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
578. Read The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
579. Read Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
580. Read Of Mice and Men by John Stienbeck
581. Read The Grapes of Wrath by John Stienbeck
582. Read the Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
583. Read Animal Farm by George Orwell
584. Read Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
585. Read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
586. Read The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
587. Read Lord of the Flies by William Golding
588. Read Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
589. Read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
590. Read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
591. Read In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan
592. Read 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
593. Read Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
594. Read Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
595. Read The Shining by Stephen King
596. Read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
597. Read The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
598. Read the Life of Pi by Yann Martel
599. Read the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
600. Read The Brief wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
601. Read the complete works of Beatrix Potter
602. Read Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
603. Read Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
604. Read Oh, the Places You’ll Go! By Dr. Seuss
605. Read The Canterville Ghost by Oscare Wilde
606. Read The Secret Garden by F. Hodgson Burnett
607. Read the Adventures of the Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton
608. Read the Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis
609. Read Mistress Masham’s Repose by T.H. White
610. Read Half Magic by Edward Eager
611. Read Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
612. Read Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
613. Read The Boy, the Swallow and the Cat by Miguel Bunuel
614. Read Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
615. Read The Haunting by Margaret Mahy
616. Read Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare by Darren Shan
617. Read Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
618. Read the Naming of Tishkin Silk by Glenda Millard
619. Read Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
620. Read Inkspell by Cornelia Funke
621. Read Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
622. Read The Yearling by Margorie Kinnan Rawlings
623. Read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
624. Read a Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
625. Read Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper
626. Read the Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
627. Read Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
628. Treat the day of Sabbath as a true day of rest for a whole month
629. But a dresser for the entry way to hold craft supplies, mittens and other stuff 7/24/10
630. Buy myself some flowers
631. Start a habit of 30 minutes of downtime when I get home and before bed every night
632. Toss 10 things every weekend for a year
633. Learn to read music
634. Learn to make manicotti
635. Learn to make ravioli
636. Build something entirely by myself
637. Detox
638. Complete the entire Live-It workbook journey
639. Read all of my books on writing method
640. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
641. Complete all the exercises in 3 AM Epiphany
642. Complete all the exercises in What If
643. Complete all the exercises in Writing Magic
644. Complete all the exercises in The Write Brain Workbook
645. Complete all the exercises in the Writers Idea Book
646. Complete all the exercises in a Writers Book of Days
647. Write Friday Night fairy Tales every week for 52 weeks as individual stories
648. Write Friday Knight Fairy Tales every week for 52 weeks with same MC
649. Write a Children’s Story
650. Write a Young Adult story
651. Defrost the freezer
652. Write an advice column
653. Spend the night in a themed hotel or special cabin
654. Swim in a hotel pool
655. Jump off a diving board
656. Come up with an original recipe and have it published online or in print
657. Buy new pots and pans
658. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
659. Find solution to pool hole
660. Fix gates
661. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
662. Go to a farm and pet a cow
663. Paint a mural
664. Develop tiny neat print
665. Make Sticky Rice
666. Play laser tag
667. Take the kids to the state capitol
668. Take the kids to the Oklahoma Historical museum
669. Take the kids to the Oklahoma Memorial
670. Hide tiny presents around the house for the kids to find
671. Draw random chalk art in various places around the city
672. Build a hut and spend an afternoon hiding in it doing delightfully pointless things to recharge the soul
673. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
674. Write random post it notes and hide in places for other people to find
675. Give away presents on your birthday
676. Make Rice krispy treats
677. Make popcorn balls
678. Clean out all the storage totes and boxes in my house
679. Fix the garage door
680. Replace the door knob on the exterior garage door
681. Have a picnic at the lake
682. Clean out all of my kitchen cabinets
683. Plan my book party for when I’m a bestselling author
684. Design covers for each of my books
685. Build a play list with a song for every character/major scene in the book.
686. Find a new way to wear my hair
687. Grow my hair out and donate to Locks for Love
688. Learn to play the lap harp
689. Hire a housekeeper to clean the house once
690. Using a sketchbook, post-its, and marker drawings, create a book/comic about being a single mom
691. Complete one run through “Book in a Month”
692. Complete one run through “The Two Year Novel”
693. Follow the “Motivated Moms” calendar plan for one whole year
694. Follow the Body Clutter plan for 30 days
695. Take the Complaint free world 21-day challenge
696. Eat at the Speghetti Warehouse
697. Go to a three movie marathon at the theater (either alone or with a friend)
698. Take the 21 day challenge
699. Live without sugar for one week
700. Fix the outlet in my kitchen (either myself or with hired help)
701. Boo somebody at Halloween
702. Dress up for Halloween
703. Donate to Heifer International
704. Operate a fire extinguisher
705. Try a Gyro
706. Be interviewed for something
707. Learn cake decorating
708. Decorate a cake
709. Read or get rid of all the books I’ve had for years and never read
710. Clean up my computers
711. Fill 10 notebooks with writing exercises
712. Read the Giver by Lois Lowry
713. Read all my SARK books
714. Tour a mansion
715. Tour a garden
716. Tour a historical site
717. Organize my freezer
718. Eliminate the old VHS tapes
719. Scrub down all the wood cabinets in my house
720. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
721. Clear out all the old software disks I no longer use
722. Invent a new phrase or word
723. Hang a dry erase board and use it to manage my life for at least a month
724. Hang up a bulletin board to keep school information straight
725. Make something out of mosaic
726. Visit the Firework Warehouse on I-35
727. Buy and set off a firework that costs $50-100
728. Get the TV antennae off the roof (either myself or with hired help)
729. Teach my children a healthy skin regime and then train all of us to follow it religiously
730. Sled down a hill
731. Roll in the snow with someone I love
732. Make a cake using the baby food recipe
733. Learn the recipe for a mix that I will actually use
734. Make a jar cake
735. Make chocolate covered strawberries
736. Make a signature chocolate candy
737. Fill my writing bible with quotes that inspire me
738. Write a song or a poem that could become a song
739. Put all my old poems into a bound book
740. Transcribe the Tao Te Ching into my special book
741. Learn how to use gold leaf
742. Decoupage something
743. Attend a retreat or meditation at the Buddhist temple
744. Find a way to deal with people who are rude and interrupt me
745. Try an eggplant
746. Try bell peppers, any color
747. Try putting cucumber slices on your eyes to relax
748. Map out an entire story with index cards
749. Clear out old papers that tell me to do things I’ll never do
750. Get rid of shoes I never wear
751. Meet five new people I can count as friends
752. Clean my trash cans (or buy new ones to replace them)
753. Buy or rent a formal dress to wear for a special occasion or just because
754. Learn to accept that you can do anything if you put your mind to it
755. Learn Hieroglyphics, at least the basic set
756. Learn some Chinese, at least enough to have a basic conversation
757. Learn Gaelic or Irish, at least enough to have a basic conversation
758. Go to the Improv Festival
759. Go to the Chocolate Festival
760. Go to a film festival
761. Buy a brightly colored coat
762. Buy rain boots for everyone in my family and then splash to our hearts content
763. Ride the ferris wheel
764. Ride a roller coaster again
765. Construct an indoor fort either on the bed or in the living room
766. Build a charm bracelet with meaningful charms
767. Make an awesome surprise ball for each of my children
768. Answer the Sunday Questions every week for a year (52 weeks)
769. Complete a list in my list journal every day for a year
770. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
771. Make a rainbow cake
772. Volunteer at the zoo
773. Take my kids to that indoor play place with the inflatable toys
774. Go see a movie at the Moore theater where I sit in the upper level and order food and drinks during the movie
775. Take the kids to Orr Family farm
776. Take the kids to Great Wolf Water Park
777. Take the kids to Tiger Safari
778. Watch a movie on the Dome at the Oklahoma Science Museum
779. Clean out my file cabinet
780. Make my workbench clean and useable
781. Complete the 1001 meditations
782. Read the 365 Tao for one year
783. Read the Everyday Tao each day for one year or till it’s finished
784. Follow the Five Good Minutes book every day till it’s complete
785. Follow the Five Good Minutes in the evening book every day till it’s complete
786. Burn up every scented candle I have
787. Drink every special flavor cocoa I have
788. Use it up, find 10 things in the house I’m hanging onto for one reason or another and use them up, stop saving them for someday
789. Use all the bath beads and salts I got for Christmas
790. Try that dove deodorant and see if it really makes a difference in your skin
791. Find the Ultimate Oatmeal cookie recipe
792. Re-read Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series
793. Re-read Lightning by Dean Koontz
794. Collect the Incarnates of Immortality series by Piers Anthony
795. Re-read the Incarnates of Immortality series
796. Buy a spring form pan
797. Make a Bundt cake
798. Eat a rump roast, butt roast or loin
799. Make a baked potato
800. Make a twice baked potato
801. Learn to forgive all
802. Stop settling for less than you want
803. Believe you can achieve anything
804. Fill a page completely with color, either paint, pencil, or marker
805. Play with the art supplies I have purchased
806. Let go of things that no longer fit my life
807. Buy new curtains
808. Finish the trim in my daughter’s room
809. Learn to love myself just as I am
810. Write free thought journals to see where my mind wanders when left alone
811. Use all of the writing prompts in the Pocket Muse books
812. Complete a SocNoc
813. Complete a ScreenFrenzy
814. Complete a NaNoEdMo
815. Try dry brushing for 30 days
816. Take the Seven Challenges communication program
817. Construct something out of PVC pipe
818. Take my kids to see a real live crawfish
819. Write one year’s worth of Toasted Cheese/A Pen in Each hand prompts
820. Answer all 365 character questions for a single character
821. Take the photo assignment challenge for 365 days (list in binder)
822. Clean out the lint hose to my dryer
823. Blow out the coils to my Refrigerator
824. Have the limbs trimmed back from the roof
825. Bake a pound cake
826. Bake an angel food cake
827. Scrub down all the appliances inside and out that have been ignored
828. Replace the toilet fixtures
829. Clean or replace the screen on the range exhaust hood
830. Clean or replace the diffusers on the kitchen light
831. Clean the upper window in the entry way
832. Repaint the front door
833. Get an oil change for my car
834. Use the math disks to brush up on my math skills
835. Take the second course in Accounting
836. Take the second course in Excel
837. Take the course in MS Access
838. Get a safety deposit box
839. Get a post office box
840. Develop a system for storing writing pieces with multi back up options so I never worry about losing anything again
841. Figure out what I want to be when I grow up and then make a plan to achieve that within 5 years and then work every day to accomplish that goal
842. Find a local babysit I can trust and rely on so I can go out and do things during the week
843. Get my daughter reading on task
844. Finger paint with my kids on large paper
845. Roll water balloons off the roof
846. Find a place far enough away from everything where you can see more stars than you could imagine are in the sky
847. Use coupons and sales for one month (only on things I regularly buy) and put the savings into a savings account
848. Open a bank account just for emergencies and big ticket items
849. Open a bank account just for the kids’ school and clothing funds
850. Prune out the garden
851. Remove the birdhouse and the pole it’s attached to
852. Replace the last of the old fence
853. Get rid of the swings
854. Find a creative use for the entry patio
855. Camp out in the living room and roast marshmallows on the fire and tell ghost stories
856. Have the chimney professionally cleaned
857. Visit an unusual or specialty store somewhere in the city that I never would go to normally
858. Get into a habit of Febreezing weekly for at least three months
859. Buy a hydraulic jack for my car
860. See if a full size spare will fit in the spare tire space in my car, if so, buy one to replace the donut.
861. Buy new tires
862. Throw myself a birthday party
863. Give a massage
864. Learn reflexology, or at least the art of a great foot rub
865. Make an artistic book of some kind
866. Find a great way to organize my craft supplies
867. Learn how to sew and repair a garment
868. Clean all my windows on the outside
869. Build or purchase a small table or desk to use as a work station for my laptops
870. Go to a bar
871. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
872. Research Skip Tracing for a story
873. Spend a day with a geneticist for a story
874. Date a fireman, or at the very least ask one out
875. Finish the death’s door story
876. Walk 10,000 steps a day for 30 days
877. Walk the equivalent of 1001 miles
878. Go to Oktoberfest
879. Eat at the German Restaurant
880. Learn the recipe for sourdough bread like schlotzsky’s makes
881. Write 500 words a day for 30 days straight
882. Write 1000 words a day for 30 days straight
883. Write 2000 words a day for 30 days straight
884. Participate in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo)
885. Participate in NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month)
886. Participate in February Album Writing Month (FAWM)
887. Participate in 6 months 6 novels
888. Build a working tickler file and use it
889. Have a pretty driver’s license picture taken
890. Watch everything on my Netflix queue
891. Go to a dance in a small town
892. Ride a motorcycle (behind someone, I don’t want to drive)
893. Swim in the ocean
894. Date outside my league
895. Figure out what my league is
896. Seduce a man to the point of total surrender
897. Speak out on the need for kindness and being nice no matter what
898. Stop calling myself a schmuck
899. Tell my ex husband how much I appreciate all that he did during our marriage and thank him.
900. Learn how to make a tasty smoothie
901. Shoot an arrow
902. Shoot a rifle
903. Shoot a slingshot
904. Have a marshmallow war
905. Have the waiters at a restaurant sing happy birthday to me on my birthday
906. Be serenaded by an Elvis impersonator
907. Pick fresh fruit straight from the source
908. Get rid of all my print scrubs
909. But at least 3 cute dresses to wear on dates
910. Carve or mold something out of an edible substance
911. Learn how to carve a turkey
912. Eat a piece of chicken other than the leg
913. Create a banner for my crane site
914. Take pictures of clouds and put together a cloud album
915. Try drinking 3 glasses of milk a day for 30 days
916. Use or lose all the spices in the cabinet
917. Spend some time in the library reading a book I won’t checkout
918. Make something from the Instructables website
919. Have coffee in a bookstore, sitting in one of their comfy chairs with a book or magazine
920. Melt Ivory soap in the Microwave 7/11/10
921. Have a vinegar and baking soda foam fight
922. Do the mentos and diet soda chemical eruption 7/11/10
923. Play telephone Pictionary
924. Order something from the something store
925. Sculpt with tinfoil
926. Doodle on anything BUT a piece of paper: a leaf, a shoe, a my little pony, whatever
927. Start a vacation journal, write down where you go, what you do and add pictures from your trips
928. Create a facebook page 7/17/10
929. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
930. Release a book into bookcrossings.com
931. Create a masterpiece in your driveway with sidewalk chalk
932. Write a letter to someone using only letters cut from newspapers or magazines. Mail it
933. Post a list of 100 random things about yourself
934. Post a list of 20 things you love about another person
935. Collaborate on a story with a friend, each taking turns writing the chapters
936. Write a story that is only 100 words long
937. Illustrate an entire story with stick people
938. Use chalk to write encouraging messages on the sidewalk in 10 different places
939. Do an ongoing photography project. Pick and object or person and take a different picture of it every day for a year.
940. Make fried marbles
941. Spend 15 minutes cleaning everyday
942. Go for one week without spending any money at all
943. Try at least 5 Lithgow Palooza’a with the kids
944. Make a deco minibook
945. Make an altered book 7/19/10
946. Make Smores completely from scratch using Mary Jane’s recipe
947. Make a Pushing my buttons book
948. Make a pet name plaque
949. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
950. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
951. Kill the killer vines
952. EDIT TO BE DETERMINED
953. Craft something with the kids
954. Get a pet 7/2/10
955. Paint my patio door
956. Keep a postcard diary for 30 days
957. Have a money free weekend once a month for 12 months
958. Complete all the math programs of the total math program so I’ll be refreshed and ready to help the kids with their homework
959. Complete a revision hell
960. Get Empathy ready to show by the OWFI 2011 convention
961. Show Empathy to an agent or editor at the OWFI convention
962. Have a Spiderman marathon
963. Sell something on e-bay
964. Purchase someone else’s journal or diary on e-bay
965. Housebreak the new puppy
966. Teach the new puppy to sit, lay, and sit pretty
967. Complete a fast draft
968. Enter 10 writing contests at OWFI, either in the same year or total from consecutive years
969. Read all my parenting books
970. Either get rid of or read all my marriage/relationship books
971. Design a book cover (even if it’s just for my own editing copy)
972. Go 30 days without eating cereal
973. Play Outdoor Challenge for at least 10 minutes a day every day for 30 days
974. Play Big Brain Academy for 30 days and see how much I can increase my brain score
975. Beat Raving Rabbids
976. Beat Raving Rabbids 2
977. Beat Raving Rabbids TV Party
978. Bake a cake in a jar
979. Do Wii Fit for 30 days and unlock everything
980. Do My Fitness Coach for 30 days
981. Do the Wii Gold’s Gym Cardio Workout for 30 days
982. Play Wii Sports, Summer Sports, Wii Play, or Playground at least 15 minutes a day for 30 days
983. Finish the no sew blankets I still haven’t completed
984. Clean everything out of my attic
985. Clean everything out of my shed
986. Clear out my garage and organize the things that belong there
987. Clean out my flower beds and take care of or replace the plants that grow there
988. Plant something in the planter around the tree
989. Use or lose the exercise equipment, use it up or toss it out
990. Buy or build a headboard for my bed
991. Redesign the kid’s rooms to be more efficient and suit their changing needs
992. Get my home 100% clutter free
993. Teach the kids basic home skills so they will be prepared as adults, such as how to cook, clean, manage money, small repairs, etc.
994. Inflate my son’s exercise ball
995. Get 8 hours of sleep a night for 30 days
996. Spend 24 hours awake and with someone I love
997. Learn to live in peace and not want or resent or ruminate over old crap or stuff other people did
998. Go 30 days without using negative language
999. Save someone from something (anything, could be minor or major)
1000. Reach a point where there is no sadness in my eyes but only love and laughter because I am finally whole again

Welcome to the 1000 Cranes Project!

What is the 1000 Cranes Project? It is a personal goal I decided to embark on before my 35th birthday. 1000 goals that I hope to complete within 10 years, hopefully by my 45th birthday. You've heard of bucket lists, those lofty lists of things to accomplish before you die, well the 1000 Cranes project borrows a little from that, and a little from simply wanting to live a life free from regret, and a little bit of Chris Baty's (creator of NaNoWriMo) advice, "The biggest thing separating people from their artistic ambitions is not a lack of talent. It's the lack of a deadline." See that's part of the problem I see with a lot of bucket lists out there, the deadline is when you are dead, and you never know when that will happen. Most of us still take for granted that we have a long way to go, and for the few of us that are given a more definitive date, such as being diagnosed with a terminal illness, we often find the time is too short for what we had planned, or worse now we are no longer capable of accomplishing the things we had always wanted to do "someday".

In fact it was the recent diagnosis of a friend of mine, along with my personal issues of getting "older" at 35, that prompted me to come up with this crazy idea. I set the 10 year deadline so that I will make a concerted effort everyday to work on my list. Some tasks are quick and easy and can be knocked out with little effort, others will take weeks or months to accomplish or require saving up a lot of money to complete. Hopefully the two will balance out so that I can stay on track and complete them all on time.

Why a 1000 goals? And what do cranes have to do with it? Well that is another source of inspiration. One day while surfing the internet for ideas to add to my list, I came across the legend of the 1000 paper cranes. The legend in Japan is that if you fold 1000 paper origami cranes you will please the Gods and they will grant you a wish. Because of this many people fold paper cranes to give to newlywed couples or other people as gifts of good luck. There is a legend of a little girl, Sadako Sasaki, who developed leukemia due to exposure to radiation during the bombing of Hiroshima. When Sadako was hospitalized due to her illness her best friend, Chizuko Hamamoto came to visit and folded a paper crane for her and told her of the legend. Sadako was entranced with the hope that the Gods might grant her wish and heal her so she collected any scraps of paper she could find and worked on folding 1000 paper cranes, folding over 1300 before her death just a few months later. People now keep the story of Sadako and the paper cranes alive as a message of peace, and there is a statue of her at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, where every day thousands of paper cranes arrive from all over the world from children inspired by the Sadako's story.

If I could have one wish it would be to have lived a life with no regrets. With daily life it's easy to get bogged down and forget the things you want to achieve that are greater than the laundry and errands and work of the moment. Time runs away from us when we aren't looking, and before we know it our children are grown and gone before we were able to take that adventurous camping trip we always talked about, and milestones we wanted to celebrate passed us by while we were stressing over the small stuff. Sometimes we need a list to keep us on task, and the greatest task we can accomplish before we die is to have really lived our lives, and not just let them slip by while we were busy planning for the somedays.

My list has all sorts of things both great and small. Let me tell you, it taxes the brain a bit to come up with 1000 things, and some of it I came up with in desperation. There are some household tasks I really need to do but always put off, but the sooner they are done and off my mind the more at peace I will be, and some things I simply need to learn how to do. There are things I want to make sure I do with my kids before they are gone, as they are 8 and 11 now, and in 10 years they will be 18 and 21 and we will be ready to start a whole new adventure. There are personal goals I want to accomplish, such as furthering my writing talent, and actively pursuing a career in writing. I also want to stretch my creative muscles with some artistic challenges, and I have many personal relationship challenges in there as well.

Some of the items on my list I have accomplished before and want or need to accomplish again. Some may seem silly, and a few really simply are, but every item on the list means something to me somehow, so it's worth having there. I will admit that as it took me three weeks to come up with the list, there might be a few duplicate items on there, but as I discover them I'll replace them with new goals. I also reserve the right to alter or substitute other goals should the goals on my list no longer fit my lifestyle later on in life, but hopefully I'll be able to accomplish all of them with their original intentions.

I hope you will find this project interesting or at the very least entertaining, and I hope you will join me as I attempt to complete 1000 goals, folding a paper crane for each one as I finish till I finally achieve my goal and can rest secure that I left no regrets.

And now for the list.....