I Wrote A 30 by 30 Bucket-List – Here’s How It Went

Back in November 2010, I wrote one of those 30 before 30 lists. I was a few months into my 20’s and freshly married. Now I’m 31 and survived the craziest year ever 😂 I thought it would be fun to see what I hoped to do in the past 10 years and how it turned out.

My original 30 before 30 list: 

Buy a House

After living 5 years in a family home, we actually bought a 3B/2B ranch in 2017. Nothing went how we thought it would in the time since but it’s been nice to have our own place with a low monthly payment.

Have Kids

☑️☑️☑️☑️ accomplished that one and then some 😂

Expand Our Ministry Somehow

We’ve been able to do this in so many ways! 6 months into our marriage we started pioneering together. That continued for 2.5 years and through our move south.

Eventually, we were able to join a foreign language group… in English… in Texas 🤣 It was an amazing novelty experience that actually required us to be in a Spanish congregation for 9 months.

We’ve been able to maintain at least 2 family service days since having kids and all the way through the pandemic. It’s been so amazing to see Jehovah’s hand blessing us and how each kid is growing in their understanding of Jehovah and the Bible.

Travel Historic Route 66

Never got around to this one. I foresee more road trips than air travel in our future so there’s still a possibility of it happening. Plus having kids would make all the kitschy stops all the more fun.

Travel Abroad

We were able to go to Paris, Latvia, and Amsterdam in 2013 for a Special Convention. It was our last hurrah before having kids and we still look back on that trip fondly.

Study Montessori and Implement It In Our Home

Did this with our oldest. We’ve held on to a couple of the principles with each subsequent child but it’s more of an organic implementation than a concerted effort. Our style of parenting is easy more eclectic and based on convenience/ease.

Publish a Book

I actually did this one in May! So technically I was 31 but it was amazing to write and illustrate my own children’s book.

Relearn Swahili

Dabbled a bit in 2013 when we attended the first-ever Swahili Circuit Assembly in the US. Unfortunately, that’s about as far as that went.

Create My Dream Office/Studio

Still dreaming of this one.

Kiss In The Rain

I think it’s happened but honestly, I’m not sure 🙈😂

Maintain Better Sleeping Habits

Ooof have I mentioned I have 4 kids?

Manage My Depression & Anxiety

This one deserves its own blog post. My anxiety hit an all-time high in 2016 after my 2nd birth. The PPD was so bad that I literally wasn’t able to function and life was very dark and scary.
Ultimately starting medication changed my life. The 5 years since have involved different management techniques including a project that was a huge benefit.

Refinish Or Build Our Own Furniture

Actually did this a few times. My mom & I refinished a dresser for my oldest to use as a changing table. Definitely learned I hate painting furniture.
When we moved, we made a sectional daybed using twin mattresses and pallets. It was a fun and comfy concept that I actually miss.
Luke started making different furniture pieces we really love – bar stools, bed frames, the most amazing kitchen island.

Maintain My “Happy Weight”

This is an interesting one because I’m sure I wrote it while thinking about the weight my body naturally stayed in at 18. My “happy weight” in my early 20’s was about 20lbs heavier than that.
My mom bod is another 25 lbs heavier but despite what the outdated BMI says, that’s exactly where my body has returned to between all 4 of my kids. Plus I’m definitely in a place where I’m happy and thankful for everything my body has done for me.

Update MDTS from 30 different states/provinces

So MDTS refers to my old abandoned blog. Needless to say, this one didn’t happen. Although I’m pretty sure I did actually make it to 30 different states/provinces in the past 10 years.

Take Luke to Rockport, MA

Since Rockport is one of my favorite places for a number of reasons it was nice to take the hubs a couple of times actually.

Adopt a large adult house-trained dog

We’ve had 6 dogs in our marriage and none of them came to use as trained adults. They were all rescue large breeds though and well-loved.

Maintain an emergency savings fund with 6 months expenses

Still working on this one, unfortunately. Right when we get close, life happens. Which I guess is the point of the emergency fund after all.

Buy/Pay off a new car

We’ve done this twice now and are almost done with our only car payment. While it would be nice to have a roomier vehicle, having no car payment in our future is very exciting.

Master coding

Nope and actually gave up on this one for myself. My oldest is doing better than I ever did… at 7… so I’ll just hire him in the future lol.

Own the Adobe Creative Suite Design Premium

Yep! Was able to get the suite back when that was still a thing with the disc and all and now I have the subscription.

Live Simply

Still going strong on this one and loving it!

Build unique, cool, functional bookcases and shelves

Pretty sure I wrote this one with something like this in mind. It hasn’t happened yet. But we have had some functional cube shelf room dividers for 8 years now.

Live in either Colorado or Round Rock

This was reinforced with our family trip to Denver in 2017 but we haven’t made it happen and I don’t foresee it anymore.

Go to South by Southwest

This is one of those things that stopped appealing to me sometime in my 20’s.

Teach a Bible Student to the point of baptism

Not yet. I figure it won’t happen at this point until one of my kiddos.

Make a map/scrapbook, Elizabethtown style

I did a similar scrapbook for our world travels in 2013 but I’d like to do a more art journal travel log at some point.

Go cranberry bogging

I still think this would be such a cool experience!

Give 30 gifts within 30 days

I’ve done this with little things but I would like to do 30 different gifts/acts of kindness. Giving truly does bring me happiness.

Write a DIY book

Turns out I really hate writing step-by-step tutorials so I don’t see this one happening in my future.

Did you ever make a life bucket list? How did it go?