~as a snail swims through molasses~

My "list of 60 things to do before turning 60 this year" is no longer moving along at "snail swimming through molasses" pace.  As a matter of fact, things have been picking up rather quickly especially now that Mike and I have made the decision to move to Wichita Falls, Texas at the end of school this year.   It surely seemed like a huge list when I first began to compile it in August of 2014 but now it has turned out to be quite manageable.  In all, I've begun to cross off 25 of them and there are many others that will be completed before we leave the Rocky Mountains for our new home on the plains of Texas.

I've gone to Utah and seen the beautiful sights that state has to offer its visitors and residents.  Documenting the most beautiful sunrise and sunset of each month has been a slice of that proverbial "piece of cake" and they haven't all been from the same state either.  Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, California, and Whidbey Island, Washington have all provided the backdrops.  I was able to see my children and granddaughter several times already as well as my Scott family members back home in Kansas.  At Christmas time I was able to go to Gander Mountain and the Spice Merchant, two of my favorite stores back in Wichita, and come home with teas and coffees as well as one mighty fine stocking hat for outdoor play ground duty each week.  My daughter helped me to find a really good deal on an airline ticket and rather than having to find an exceptionally good price for using a rental car, I was able to get my own new vehicle.  Ends up that it worked out a whole lot better.  I figure I might as well say that moving to Texas is certainly something totally new and it does take a bit of bravery to do so.  I've been back to my hometown of Haven, Kansas and spent time walking with friends and family members in the city park there.  It was much easier to learn the secret of life than I thought it would be, in fact it was one of the first I accomplished.  By my count, I've actually managed to finish nearly half of them now and my birthday, a celebration of 6 decades of living, is still 6 months away.  

I think I can make it.  

To "organize, organize, organize" as item #55 on the list tells me as well as to "downsize, downsize, downsize" as item #35 on the list would dictate is now the plan of action here in the Renfro house.  A couple of weeks back we started in earnest the process of going through things here to decide what to take with us when we move and what we will sell.  To see the inside of our house this morning, you'd think either an earthquake or a Kansas tornado had visited or something.  Neither would be the case.

We are just moving.

One thing that I've known all along but have been made even more aware of in recent years, is just how much stuff we all can accumulate.  I'm at the top of the list of people who have way more than they need in this life.  Each day Mike and I spend time packing up things in preparation for our garage sale next weekend and the subsequent day of moving in late May.  It feels nice for both of us to be able to downsize, get rid of, recycle or find a new use for the things that fill our home.  Less is way more.  Minimalist living is sounding pretty enticing to me these days.  I never once thought I would say that but that was before I truly realized the excess that all of us who live in America seem to have.

And as I think of it, the word "excess" is putting it pretty mildly.

One of the things that I am choosing to part with is my bike that I purchased for the Bike Across Kansas back in 2011.  I have had it for 4 years now and since moving to Colorado in May of 2013, I have only ridden it a handful of times.  Mostly it has hung upside down in the storage shed, getting absolutely no use at all.  Even though I'd quit riding it, I just could not bear the notion of ever getting rid of it.  Now I see how silly it is to just let it sit idly by when perhaps some other person could use it.  Later on this summer I will more than likely get a different one that is more suited to my present needs.  

It's "ok" to give that wonderful bike and a whole lot of other things up.

Every once in a while, just for fun, I check the life expectancy calculator online.  According to the latest statistics, I'm down to my last 26.8 years of living on this planet we all call "home".  There comes a time for all of us, me included, to have to make the decision as to how to live out our remaining years.  The time goes so fast and personally, I believe that my first 59 years flew by pretty dang quickly.  I'm guessing the last 26.8 will do so as well.  My desire is to live life to its very fullest, to not be weighed down by material possessions that I don't even need, and to see what else God has in store for me, according to His plan.  

Life is a huge adventure, one that is filled with ups and downs, twists and turns, and unexpected detours.  God willing, those years that the life expectancy calculator say I have "coming" will be mine for the keeping, those and even a few more.  If not, then I still intend to live my life to its completion.  The future is unknown for all of us, whether we stay put where we are or move away to a brand new place but for me, one thing remains most certain.

I am more determined to see what God has in store for Mike and I in Wichita Falls, Texas than I would ever be afraid of leaving our home in the Rockies.  It takes faith.

60 things to do before I turn 60~
Deadline Day~October 26, 2015
"On your mark, get set, now GO!"

1.  Try acupuncture to see if it really does help aches and pains and whatever else ails me.
2.  Take a hot air balloon ride, just once.
3.  Design my own grave marker, complete with a peace symbol.
4.  Visit the site near Silver Plume, Colorado where the WSU football team's plane crashed in 1970 and leave flowers at their memorial.
5.  Buy a good book, read it and then pass it on to another person each month.
6.  Actually GO to Utah.
7.  Go power-parachuting once again back home near Hutchinson, Kansas.
8.  Document the most beautiful sunrise and sunset, one time each month.
9.  Save a dollar bill every day until my birthday next year and refuse to spend them until then.  No matter what!  Then do something that will make a difference for someone else with it.
10.Convince zinnias to grow from seed here in the clay-filled soil of south western Colorado.
11.Discover the "secret to life" before I die.
12.Go whitewater rafting in the Colorado River.
13.Camp in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.
14.Walk across the swinging bridge once more in the Harvey County East Park back home in Kansas.
15.Go to the city park in my hometown of Haven, Kansas and just sit there to enjoy a nice visit with friend(s).
16.Stop to meet and visit all the good people who helped our good friend Norman Horn with a place to stay for the night as he came through western and south central Kansas.
17.Learn how to scrapbook.
18.Finally get all of my pictures organized and off the computer and my cellphone.
19.Have another great Scott Family Reunion.
20.Ride a combine once again during a Kansas wheat harvest.
21.Make a difference in the life of a child somewhere.
22.Carry someone else's burden for a while to give them a break.
23.Eat some garlic salad at Doc's Steakhouse in Wichita once more.  If you haven't tried it you don't know what you are missing friends.
24.Travel over the big mountain in wintertime and not be afraid to get out and inhale some of that crisp and cold 14,000 feet + air.  
25.Try sewing another pair of pillowcases once again.
26.See my dear and sweet little granddaughter once again.  Be with my children as much as I can.
27.Figure out how to worry less and enjoy life more.
28.See a concert somewhere.  Remember life when I was younger.
29.Try something totally new to me.  Be brave.
30.Go back and walk through the Laurel Cemetery near my hometown of Haven.  Spend time amongst the graves of people who meant so much to me when I was a kid there growing up.
31.Do something for no good reason at all.
32.Write a letter to someone.  Really write it.  You know, with a pen and a stamp?
33.Go to Manhattan Baptist Church back home in the Flint Hills of Kansas and listen to my good friend Dennis Ulrey preach the word and maybe even sit right there on the front row.
34.Go to Gander Mountain in Wichita, Kansas and buy something, even if it's not on sale.  
35.Downsize, downsize, downsize.
36.Continue working on a photo album I started back in 2011 by finding all of my Facebook friends, buying them something to drink and sitting down with them to talk about life.  I've only got 200 more to go.  I can do it!
37.Stay healthy.  
38.See the Dakotas once again. The land of my father.  Visit Mount Rushmore.
39.Learn how to make something from scratch that I would normally have to buy.
40.Find a really good deal on an airline ticket.
41.Find an equally good deal on a rental car, for a change :)
42.Think more about what is really important in life and spend less time worrying about things that can't be changed by me anyway.
43.Throw "caution to the wind" and buy $20 worth of hot tea bags at the Spice Merchant in Wichita rather than just the usual $10 worth.
44.Ride down Kansas Avenue in Haven, KS in a golf cart with my good friend Sylvia Davis driving it and my other good friend Dennis Ulrey hanging on for dear life.  It can happen.  Just wait and see :)
45.Learn how to bowl better.  To actually beat my good husband Mike once.  Just once.  That would be enough for me.
46.To see my family once again back home.
47.To do something kind of crazy with my sister-in-law Paula that doesn't involve the taking of dancing lessons with total strangers.  (and she will know what I mean)
48.To maybe raise a few chickens.
49.Find a way to be a hospice volunteer.
50.To not take myself and life so seriously all the time.
51.To do as Morgan Freeman's character "Carter" did in the "Bucket List" by helping a total stranger for the good.
52.Love myself way more than I do.
53.To find peace in whatever life deals me.
54.To continue to teach and make a difference wherever I might be needed.
55.Organize, organize, organize.
56.Keep better track of my cell phone, glasses, and car keys.
57.See my nieces and nephews that I haven't seen in forever.
58.Take one day to volunteer to do something that I have never done before.
59.Enjoy life.  Enjoy life.  Enjoy life.
60.Remember always the One who made me.  

My first summer here in the Rockies, 2013.  It was fun to ride my bike that day.  Time to find a new owner AND a new bike :)