Ladies and Gentleman, Today is my Birthday and I am proud to say I am 40. No hiding my age or being 29 forever, I am 40 and fabulous. To tell the truth this last year has had some pretty amazing changes, things that finally make me feel like an adult. It is weird how sometimes you don’t feel like you have aged at all. Well, until you see an 18-year-old and suddenly they look like babies. Still I am not getting older they are just getting younger right? Either way I am embracing my maturity and all that is new and different.
So,what is new and different?
First off, this blog. Blogging was something I considered doing for a long time but just didn’t feel I had the time for. Now I wish I had started long ago. The blog just turned one year and has brought so much satisfaction and inspiration to my life in that short period. I have met some amazing people all over the world. Most of all it has encouraged me to live a fuller life so I can share it with all you amazing readers out there.
This one may seem small but definitely brings me up to speed with the rest of the planet. Crazy but after avoiding it all my life I am now drinking coffee. Like, REALLY drinking coffee. My 9-year-old son actually got me started. He loves coffee milk but is very concerned about the temperature being too hot. I got the be the temp tester and before long I just had a taste for it. Now I am a 3 to 4 cups a day person. How very adult of me!
Another grown up thing I am trying are “Real Sunglasses.” After years of $10 Target sunglasses I decided to buy a pair of Ray Bans. Maybe it was that I moved to land of NO Target, but I felt like to was time. Putting them back in the case instead of throwing them in my purse with the rest of my junk has been the hardest part of this grown up activity. They have survived a whole year I guess that makes them cheaper than a monthly pair of Target glasses and some how un-scratched lenses work so much better!
Okay this is a pretty big one for me. I have never been a runner, even at my peak physical fitness in college two miles was my max. I would gladly walk ten miles but running was never my thing. Well this summer I started slow, jogging small stretches at first and working my way up. I now regularly run 3 to 5 miles at least 3 days a week. Last week I RAN the 10K (6.2 miles) at the Munich Marathon. What? It took me 1 hour and 4 minutes but I would say that is fairly respectable for someone who has only been running for a few months. I have learned that running is more in your mind than your body, mostly keeping you mind off your body. If I get really involved thinking about something else I can forget that some part of my body hurts or aches. I don’t know if this makes me more of an adult but it does make me pretty feel good about myself.
Finally for the whopper, last year we moved to Europe. Germany to be exact. Sometimes it is amazing to think that we are “those people,” like on House Hunters International or something. This has been an amazing opportunity for our family, to immerse ourselves in another culture and travel to places that some people don’t get to go in a lifetime. I thought it would be difficult leaving everything we know behind but it has been a wonderful adventure. I have to say, I will be sad when it is time to go.
Lots of big changes but over all 40 is looking pretty good and since you CAN teach an old dog new trick, I say bring it on!
Oh Maggie, what a wonderful post! And, being way….beyond 4-0, I have to say that each year just gets better. Actually 50 was one of the best birthdays, years, and beginning of great things , that I have experienced. And moving abroad: well, it must be such a fabulous experience. As for running! No, one or two miles is all I ever could do. Now it’s mostly working out at the gym, always trying to do more, lift more, go longer! Congratulations my friend!!
Thanks Libby, Good to know the best may be yet to come!
Happy, happy birthday Maggie! I wish we could have a cup of coffee together to celebrate 🙂 I’m only a couple of years behind you, but still haven’t progressed to real sunglasses. I still buy handfuls at the Dollar Store.
Thanks Emily, Give it a few more years and you may be mature enough for “Real Sunglasses.” I bought mine as a Mother’s day gift to myself last year. Perfect gift to hide the dark circles of exhaustion motherhood can bring 😉
Happy Birthday, Maggie! What a lovely post. I love that you and your family are using the time spent abroad really experiencing the world.
When I was a child, my parents always had friends in the armed forces, and my grandparents rented out their house to some of them too. Sometimes those friends took us to Katterbach, and I always had the impression that the Americans there weren’t … well maybe they weren’t actively discouraged from looking at “the world outside”, but I always felt things were made harder for them than necessary. That was in the late 70s/early 80s.
I’m so happy for you that you and your family get around 🙂
P.S. I am turning 42 today, and everything you wrote about turning 40 is true!!
Well Happy Birthday to you too! Crazy we have the same birthday. Looking forward to a great first year in my 40’s and I am excited for all that is to come.