Dump Your Bucket!

Have you dumped your bucket recently?

We had a wonderful time in NW Iowa celebrating Christmas, however for some reason this year I couldn't wait to get home. Our trip home was uneventful except for the last 5 miles when the roads were completely iced over due to thawing and then refreezing at the 5:00 hour.

It felt so good yesterday to walk into our house. After unloading the van, getting the wash started, and a quick sorting of the mail, the girls were off to friends houses for sleep-overs. Milo and I decided to forgo the chicken shells, I had had the neighbors move from the freezer to the fridge to thaw that day and instead use our Pizza Ranch gift card for a night on the town.

After dinner, we snuggled up on the couch with a glass of wine to watch a repeat of Click and Failure to Launch until we both fell asleep. The Duman was extra glad to be home as once the van started getting packed that morning, she jumped in and refused to get out! She spent an entire hour waiting for our departure. Maxi Pad of course was love deprived and slept practically on top of our heads last night, every few minutes purring for extra attention.

My BIG bed and down comforter was extra cozy last night as I had changed our sheets before leaving due to my flu bug. Don't you LOVE fresh sheets? We both slept like a rock!

One of the things I always do heading into the last week of the year is 'dump my bucket', that is on a big legal pad of paper. I had forgotten to toss one in before leaving, so I asked to borrow one from my mom. For a good 3 hours yesterday I dumped and dumped and dumped everything that was racing through my head. Things from forecasting upcoming financial needs in 2009, to career goals, marketing ideas, ideas for building relationships with family and friends throughout the year, mental/emotional/physical personal goals for 2009, what went great in 2008 and what I needed to work on in 2009.

I am most definitely NOT a NEW YEAR resolution maker. I don't believe in them because EVERY day can be a day that you make the decision to change a behavior or a thought pattern. This dumping my bucket is something I do on a regular basis to constantly evaluate and look for ways to grow, change, and improve.

So have your dumped your bucket recently?

Ideas for dumping your bucket.

Take a pad of paper. The bigger the better in my case.

Allow one or two sheets for each topic. Your topics may being the following and any others that you may want to include.

My headers include the following:

Career

Spiritual

Family (significant other, immediate children)

Family (extended family ie. siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents)

Friends

Physical Health

Mental/Emotional Health

Finances

Then just DUMP anything that you want to on those topics. Successes, failures, ideas, goals, things to do, etc... Ask your spouse or significant other to do the same, then make a date to share and compare each others dump bucket. You may discover somethings you NEVER knew!

Check in tomorrow for ideas of what to do once you have 'dumped your bucket'.

Jill