Bucket List

I didn't know what a bucket list was when I was a teenager, but I had one. (Things I want to do before I kick the bucket) When I looked down the road of life ahead of me I had at least a mental list of things I hoped to do. Now that the road behind me is longer than the road ahead, I look back and see that most of the things I hoped to do have been done.

*Get married--check
married to my best friend 45 years
*Raise a family--check
seven children, five living are all married and responsible for themselves
*Write a book--check
seven books published (eight if you count the church history of our congregation)
*Go to Europe--check
saw the places our ancestors lived in Switzerland and Germany before coming to colonial America
*See the Pacific Ocean--check
dipped my feet in the water of the Pacific seven times--in California, Oregon, Nicaragua, and Mexico
*Find my great-grandmother's Powl ancestors--check
found a more than I wanted to know (they were "colorful" characters)

Those were the big goals. A lot of other things came up along the way that I didn't foresee. I wrote a lot of Sunday school material before I got to writing books.We've traveled to Israel (on Leroy's bucket list), Belize, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, Canada, and set foot on nearly all of the 48 states. We missed Nebraska, Washington, and Vermont. I learned to hang siding on the garage, shot a groundhog in the garden, and many other things too numerous to mention. Some things I learned DO NOT work.

Now as I stand here looking both ways (forward and backward) the major things on my bucket list have been done. The things that are still on the list are mostly smaller jobs suitable for a grandma. But I see I will never run out of ideas for things to do. There are always more things to write, pictures to scrapbook, afghans and quilts to make, ad infinitum. I guess the Lord will have to decide when my work is done and empty my bucket.