The List

Kids dream big.

Take Aidan, for instance. He loves to draw. He goes through crayon and paper like Pacman goes through blinkies. Today, I saved a thousand trees by teaching him how to use ArtPad. Now he can draw to his heart's content, and the only paper waste that happens is when I give in to "Please Mom, can I print this one? Please? PLEASE? I really like this, really REALLY, the most!" His drawings are full of dreams... he scribbles tree houses that he wants his Daddy to build and mountains that he wants to see. Best of all, he draws me SKINNY! The kid's an artistic genius and a world-class dreamer.

Ian's still too young to really DREAM about things, unless you consider the fact that he thinks he's Spiderman. No, really. He does. Except when thinks he's the Blue Ranger. ("He has cool moves, that's why I wannna be the BLUE Ranger.") Both boys have an imaginary friend named Keno. He moved in with us as soon as we bought this house. He lives under the train table, and everytime we go in the car, he comes along. The boys always buckle the middle seat belt for Keno. For some reason, he never comes along when we take the van... only when we take the car. See, Keno's too cool to be seen in the van. ;)

Dani is a dreamer extraordinaire. She's already applying for college scholarships. She doesn't just want to go to college. She wants to go to college where she WANTS to go to college. She knows that means she'll have to 1) have the grades to get in, and 2) be able to pay for it. She's set on being a teacher/writer. But that may change. There was a time when she wanted to be a spy, a la Harriet the Spy. Then she wanted to be an Inventor. She used to fill the corners of her room with empty toilet paper rolls, used foil, empty newspaper bags, twisties, and all kinds of other TRASH. She'd go into mourning whenever I'd clean it all out. She had PLANS for all that crap. She had DREAMS. She still does. It makes me happy to hear her imagination soar with possibility.

Somewhere between teendom and adulthood, we forget how to dream. We get bogged down in the day to day. That's why I have a list of "things to do before I die". I don't want to forget what I dreamed of when I was 26. Or 32. Or yesterday. I want to be reminded, and I want to KEEP dreaming. I cross things off periodically, and I even add to the list once in a while.

Some old entries that I've yet to cross off:

Wear a size 10 again
go hot air ballooning
Grow an herb garden

Some things I've crossed off:

Make a living scrapbooking
go white water rafting
buy an old house and renovate it (in progress)

Most recent entries:

Travel to Mbale, Uganda to visit Phillip and Laura
Own a Canon digital Rebel
Spend Christmas in Colorado with my siblings

I wanna see myself skinny, in the mountains, driving a bright yellow VW bug, taking pictures (with my new Canon) of my siblings and their families in front of a big fire, with Christmas lights glistening in the snow outside. I want to dream like a kid. I want to dream big.