40 Ideas for your Fall Bucket List

 

There's debate about when Fall officially starts. Some say it's September 1 ( Almanac.com, 2022). Others say it is September 22, the date of the autumnal equinox. Either way, fall is coming. Time to celebrate! If you're like me and like to really live each season up, I've made a list of 40 ideas to do this fall:

1. Go for a fall morning walk (VanSchmus, 2021).

2. Try a new coffee drink (Santi, 2021).

3. Make a fall themed breakfast.

4. Eat some chili (VanSchmus, 2021).

5. Read a story.

6. Enjoy a new hoodie.

7. Hang up some fall towels (Bucket List Lists, n.d.)

8. Drink some fall tea.

9. Get a fall manicure.

10. Make a fall craft.

11. Hike.

12. Work with yarn. (Crochet, knit weave, etc.)

13. Hike!

14. Try a fall hairdo all hair (Gillette, 2021).

15. Celebrate the life of someone who suffered from breast cancer. (October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.)

16. Bake!

17. Wear boots with an outfit.

18. Light a fall candle (Santi, 2021).

19. Buy some candy corn.

20. Make a fall soup or stew (gumbo).

21. Pumpkin spice everything.

22. Pull out a fall jacket.

23. Celebrate National Dessert Day October 14 (Bucket List Lists, 2022).

24. Sip pumpkin spice coffee.

25. Eat a pumpkin cookie.

26. Shop for some cozy home goods.

27. Begin your Christmas lists.

28. Pull out a blanket for the bed.

29. Visit a corn maze (VanSchmus, 2021).

30. Celebrate National Pasta Day October 17

31. Admire the fall moon.

32. Do a crossword puzzle.

33. Plan a trip.

34. Take photos outdoors.

35. Sip some hot cocoa.

36. Roast and eat some vegetables.

37. Carve a pumpkin.

38. Roast your pumpkin seeds.

39. Drink some fresh apple cider

40. Plan your Thanksgiving Feast

We actually did most of these items as part of our bucket list last year. What will we do this year? I am still planning. Follow the blog to stay up-to-date!

References:

Almanac.com. (2022, July 27). Facts & folklore about the fall equinox. https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-fall-autumnal-equinox

Bucket List Lists. (n.d.) October bucket list. https://bucketlistlists.com/october-bucket-list/

Gillette, B. (2021, October 13). Fall 2021 hair trends: 30 colors, cuts, and styles to try this year

Santi, J.(2021, September 4). The Everygirl's 2021 fall bucket list. The Everygirl. https://theeverygirl.com/fall-bucket-list/

VanSchmus, E. (2021, June 29). 24 things to add to your fall bucket list this season. Better Homes and Gardens. https://www.bhg.com/thanksgiving/planning/fall-bucket-list/

Wanna Play?

Happy December!

In honor of this last month of 2020 (ready, already?), I made myself a type of bucket list. And since I'm in a bingo phase, I made the list in board form.

Wanna play? (Right click the photo above to open in a new tab and print.) Many of the activities are Christmas-related. Some may be more personal to me. My goal is to cross off as many squares as I can (e.g. "blackout bingo"), but feel free to play as you wish. And tag me on Facebook or Instagram if you do so I can follow along.

The Camelback Mountain Climb

Well, another one off my bucket list! We hiked Camelback Mountain this weekend. The Echo Canyon Trail is really everything what you read online says: 1.2 miles (one-way), about two hours of work, a hard scramble, #worthit. 

(There is another trail that climbs to the top, Cholla, but it is deemed more primitive, so we opted for the more maintained trail.)

We got up at 5 am and left by 5:30. Yes, it was still dark when we arrived at 6 am, but the parking lot was already about half full. We could see headlamps up on the mountain, so plenty of people got there before us. We started the climb in low light, which allowed us to see the sunrise set for 6:48 am.

We stopped at regular intervals for pictures, and to let faster hikers and runners (!) pass. (Yes, people run the trail, or hike it with weighted vests, or both. Check out the fastest climb times for men and women!.) My heart rate never got that high, but the step work was intense. I personally think the climb was shorter, but harder than the Grand Canyon.

We got to the summit after about an hour. As with all city activities, we were in thick company. (I can't imagine how many people were there later in the day.) I felt a bit woozy, so I stayed away from the edges. My husband, on the other hand....

We made it back down safely. (Praise the Lord! There are a lot of rescues off Camelback every year.) We didn't run out of water. The weather was great, with a light breeze to cool us off. I'm glad we hiked.

Recommendations/things to remember for next time?

1) Do get there at 6 am. That's the recommendation. I stick with it.
2) Carry a backpack. (You'll need your hands to climb.
3) Wear shoes with tread. (We wear High Sierra hiking boots.)
4) Bring a headband or tie your hair back. (My hair was blowing into my face when I was trying to see to climb.)
5) Consider gloves. We didn't bring any, but they could have been useful for the railings and the upper ascent.

Would we do the hike again? Maybe. When they say the trail is "extremely difficult," they aren't joking. But all in all, it was a good hike. I am thankful.

Bucket List Birthday Weekend

I only turn 30 once, right? So I might as well live it up. I took a day off work on Friday and decided to try to cross quite a few more items off my bucket list. I feel pretty successful and very grateful. 

Here's a recap of the weekend:

Friday, May 4th

Hiking the Hotshots and Journey Trails with Mom:

These trails are at the Granite Mountain Hotshots Memorial State Park and are a tribute to the 19 firefighters who lost their lives five years ago protecting the town of Yarnell.

The trail was 6.5 miles total, but pretty challenging. 

The views were gorgeous.

The memorials were sobering.

Thanks to all who did and do serve in a firefighting capacity.

--

Cooking dinner for the family:

The best weeknight pasta sauce (recipe from Budget Bytes) over spaghetti, with sides of  broccoli and cauliflower and garlic bread

Saturday, May 5th

Prescott Home Tour with Mom: This was my Mother's Day gift to Mom, but I enjoyed it, too!

We dressed alike for a mother-daughter photo

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Dinner at Arturo's:(I wanted to go to Prescott, but then remembered that it was Whiskey Row Marathon weekend. Mom suggested going to Chino Valley, and trying a restaurant there was on my list for this year, so I was like, "Sold!")

My new standard order for Mexican is chili rellano. This was served with beans and rice.

--

After dinner, I had a birthday card and gift opening extravaganza.

I cleaned up a little afterwards....

Thanks to all who sent cards, and wishes, and gifts for my birthday. I felt so loved!

The Big 3-0!

Well, it's May 5 again and the date of my "big" birthday. Am I finally an adult now? No one really believes that I'm 30, but whatever. My birth certificate proves I am.

And now, on to the year in review.

My three favorites from the year:

1) My new job: Hard as it is, I'm finally doing what I trained to do. Lord, help me do my job with grace and strength!

(No, I don't play in the sand every day, but I do engage in sand tray sometimes. This was a tray I created in supervision.)

2) Traveling! Yes, I actually left the state to this year, three times in fact! First, I went to Kansas for my cousin's wedding. Then I visited littlest brother in Wisconsin, and more recently I went to Texas to run the Fresh 15 5K with my brother and sister-in-law.

3) King and Country: Maybe it wasn't the best concert experience ever, but I did it and checked another item off my bucket list.

My Goals for Year 29:

How'd I do? Ehh. I'm working on it, I guess. I have been trying to cook more. I've discovered that I really want chocolate most mornings at breakfast, so I've been having it, usually in the form of chocolate oatmeal or hot chocolate. I stopped being so vegetarian and started eating more meat because it just worked better for me. I'm eating what sounds good even when it sounds ridiculous, like the other night when I had chicken salad and green peas for a bedtime snack. Food isn't the end all, be all, but it's nice when it is satisfying.

My sleep got a little better, as I focused on it more all the times I was sick. But recently it's been not so great. I wonder if the changing of seasons has something to do with it, seeing that I'm waking up at 4 am again.

I've played around with exercise a little bit. I've taken a few more days off due to tiredness and sickness. I got a FitBit watch and am trying to move more during the work day. I'd like to be stronger and healthier, but this is the body I've got, so I need to be grateful for what I can do and not lament what I can't. And I still need to learn to listen to my body more.

My Goals for Year 30:

I'm working on my #bucketlistproject. Those are my specific goals for 2018. In the next year of life, I guess I'd say that I more globally want to:

1) Get better at my job. I need to attend trainings and apply what I learn. That's often a challenge in the fast-paced, ever-changing work world, but it's possible.

2) Stress less. I stress a lot. I really need to get better at managing my own stress so that I can achieve goals one and three.

3) Live life. I'm bad about letting stress and tiredness steal my joy. I need to let those things go and live as much as I can. Certain things are out of my control, like getting married or finding a house I can afford. But I can live in the moment, enjoy what I have, and keep reaching out to find new experiences and relationships.

And that's a wrap. Any comments or suggestions about my goals? What goals did you, or do you have for year 30? Please share in the comments section.

Crocheted Scarf Project

I "taught" my sister-in-law to crochet via video chat (and then her grandma really taught her) a few years ago. Since then, we've been exchanging pictures of our current projects and trading ideas for future making. Over the holidays, we decided to do a crochet link up where we would both pick a pattern and text photos back and forth regarding our progress. She chose the rouge infinity scarf pattern, while I chose the every man scarf, which I wanted to make for my brother who lives in the cold hinterlands of the north. She asked me if I planned to change colors as indicated in the pattern, and I was like, "Nope! Too much work for me."

I used Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick and Quick for this project, which I purchased at Wal-Mart. I went with the variegated moonlight color to give some character to the scarf. This yarn was pretty pricey and took almost three skeins to make an approximately 5 inch by 70 inch scarf.

I chose this pattern because it was easy. In truth, it was probably a little too easy. I managed to screw it up by doing front post only double crochets every other row (instead of back post only double crochets, as stated in the pattern), but it worked out. I only completed seven out of the ten rows with my ergonomic J hook. Three more rows would have been overkill. (I thought ending on row three made the pattern look better, so that's what I did. Basically, I altered this pattern a lot without meaning to.

I completed this #bucketlistproject item in five days, more quickly than expected due to being down with a flu-like virus for a week, but oh well. It's done. (And my sickness might explain why I inadvertently changed the pattern so much.)

Step-by-step pictures are below:

Row 1:

Row 2:

Row 3:

Row 4:

Row 5:

Row 6:

Row 7/Finished project:

Thoughts on this step-by-step crochet post? Do you have questions about this pattern? Do you want to see more or less posts like this? Please share in the comments section.

The Bucket List Project

I don't make New Year's Resolutions, at least not the rigid, "I will do this thing every day for the whole year," type of resolutions. I make lists of things I want to do, like I did in 2016, or set small monthly goals like I did with this year's yoga challenges. I want to have reasonable and attainable goals, if I even call them that. Maybe I should call them intentions.

My overall goal for 2017 was to pursue passion and find purpose. I wrote a little bit about that, but let's be honest, it came late in the year. For most of the year, I struggled. When I changed jobs, I realized that I'd been faking life for most of the year and hadn't really been present or truly living. That epiphany brought with it a wave of self-discovery and honestly, a lot of struggle and pain. I don't have a bad life, but there are certainly parts of life that are very hard. I wasn't quite ready for the overwhelming feelings that came with real living and lost some of my pursuit of what mattered in the process.

I am turning 30 this year. Realizing that I'm growing older by the year, I've decided to try a different approach for living in 2018. I'm constructing a bucket list. 

When I think of bucket lists, I think of Second-Hand Lions and doing what I want to do in my latter years, or at just the last minute before I die. I don't want to live like that. I want to live as many moments as I can being intentional, and present, and purposeful. Having a life's end list makes me want to put things off that I could do now. I considered a reverse bucket list for 2018, but decided against it, too. Yes, I want to be grateful, but a reverse bucket list is about what's been done. I want to focus on doing things now. 

So for 2018, I've made myself a list of 30+ things I want to do this 30th year of my life, and with my fellow JoySquad member @717jr decided to embark on the #bucketlistproject. This is a project to try to focus on doing things that matter to us now instead of later. It's a project about being intentional and taking advantage of the moments we have.

Want to join us in this project? Tag your Facebook or Instagram posts with #bucketlistproject so we can share each in other's joys. Link up with this blog by posting about your bucket list projects in the comments section. Let's seize the day today instead of waiting until tomorrow.