Thursday, December 27, 2012

The next 5 things...

It's time for an update! So far I've got one item down and five more added.

The '40 Things' List

1. Go snowshoeing.
2. Serve a meal in a soup kitchen.
3. Eat something I've never tried before.
4. Visit a town in Saskatchewan that I've never been to before.
5. Plan my dream 40th birthday trip.
6. Start running again.
7. Visit a US state I haven't been to before.
8. Read a classic novel.
9. Create and complete a scrapbook for one of the trips I've taken in my 30s.
10. Do up a will.

I'm noticing a travel theme in my list already. It will be interesting to watch my '40 Things' grow - I don't even know what the other 30 things will be yet!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

So, where did the blog title come from Jill?

I'm so glad you asked! I have a good answer for you...

When I was in my early teens, my family was invited to a surprise party for a friend's 40th birthday. Her husband had planned the whole thing, her sister's were flown in, and we all surprised her!

One of her sister's rewrote the words to a song and came up with "40 Here, 40 There, 40, 40 Everywhere." There were multiple verses, a lot of laughter - in fact, we laughed till we cried - and each time the chorus came around, we repeated, "40 here, 40 there, 40, 40 everywhere!"

While that surprise party took place about 25 years ago, sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday. And I suppose that's how the next 40 years will be too.

Psalm 90:12 in the Contemporary English Version (CEV) of the Bible says, "Teach us to use wisely all the time we have." Many will know that verse more commonly as "teach us to number our days..." What a great prayer to pray each and every day!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Item #2 - Serve a Meal in a Soup Kitchen

On Friday night (December 14) I went to Souls Harbour RESCUE Mission and helped to serve a meal to the homeless. It was a wonderful experience.

A friend and her husband were preparing the meal and had asked for volunteers to help serve. This is something I've thought of doing for a few years and it just took an invitation to make it happen. I am thankful that the opportunity to volunteer with some others I knew came along.

When I arrived at the mission, the plates were already being dished up in preparation to begin serving the supper meal at 5:00 p.m. I and several other volunteers distributed roast beef dinners to those that were seated and waiting, and we kept an eye out for newcomers to be served and empty plates to be removed from the tables. I poured coffee and more coffee (and more coffee!) and made a few rounds with the dessert trays too. I wasn't sure what I could say to anyone, but found that a smile and the offer of more coffee or dessert was just fine.

Once everyone was served and had their fill and after most had left, we began to clean up and then we sat down to our own roast beef dinner. Good conversation and prayer for a few of those that had come for the free meal followed.

I left feeling blessed and having had a very good experience volunteering at something way outside my comfort zone. It was a blessing to serve those that came through the doors that evening.


Wednesday, December 12, 2012

I should do something special today... after all, it is 12/12/12!

Two weeks ago, I celebrated my 'first' 39th birthday. And even before that I'd been thinking about my 40th birthday. What do I do on it, for it, leading up to it? How will I celebrate this milestone that ends in a zero?

Because of my love for travel, my dream is to go on a trip for my 40th birthday... and maybe I will. When I mentioned doing something special for my 40th birthday to a friend who reaches this milestone six months before me, she said she had several ideas from other friends because of what they were planning to do for their 40th birthdays well. One of those friends of a friend was going to do something fun every day for 40 days counting down to her birthday and planned to blog about each experience. Well, that got me thinking...

What could I do and blog about leading up to my 40th year? After a while, I came up with the answer. In the 11½ months leading up to my 40th birthday, I will make a list of 40 things (doable things) I want to do and can do in this limited time frame - a mini bucket list, if you will - and I will blog about each one as I do them. Perfect!

And so it begins...

There is no list yet. It will grow and evolve over time, even as I do some of the items on the list, cross them off and blog about them. My goal is simple: Do (try!) some of those things that interest me or push me outside of my comfort zone instead of just thinking about doing them some day.

The '40 Things' List

1. Go snowshoeing.
2. Serve a meal in a soup kitchen.
3. Eat something I've never tried before.
4. Visit a town in Saskatchewan that I've never been to before.
5. Plan my dream 40th birthday trip.

There we have it! The first five items on my mini bucket list. Stay tuned... I plan to accomplish one of these within the week!