a lot can happen in a year - it's my first blogiversary!

a LOT can happen in ONE year! My blog's first anniversary

I can't believe that it's been a year since I started this blog! The time has just flown past and what started as a place to put down a few thoughts, has turned into one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done. Who'd have thought that something so straightforward could have such a positive impact?

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IT'S NOT THE PROBLEM, IT'S HOW WE DEAL WITH IT

nothing good ever comes easy

A CAUSE CLOSE TO MY HEART

This week's #Friday Reflection is: "Reflect about or champion a cause close to your heart"

I thought I'd write a little bit about how things are going with the little boy I mentor through a program called Kids Hope. This is a program that links a church with a local primary school and the school chooses children who would benefit from some one to one time. The church provides the volunteers, who each get matched up with a child for an hour every week. A small amount of time that can make a real difference in that child's life.

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SOMETIMES YOU NEED THE PATIENCE OF A SAINT

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

SAINT OR SINNER?

Caring for an incapacitated mother can be very good for building up those quality character traits that you didn't know you were lacking in. I always assumed I was a relatively patient human being - not a Saint, but not a screaming loony when dealing with the quirks of others. That was until my mother moved in for a few weeks!

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4 NEW HATS TO WEAR WHILE I'M A CARER

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

WHEN YOUR MOTHER COMES TO STAY

There was a big change in our peaceful empty nest last week.....my mother moved in with us for a few weeks while she recovers from knee replacement surgery. She lives alone in the city and there was no way in the world I would let her go home on crutches! This decision has brought with it a few changes in my usual routine.

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7 LITTLE THINGS I JUST LOVE

7 things that I just love - little jolts of joy

7 THINGS CHALLENGE

I love a challenge, so when I was asked to share 7 things I love, I couldn't resist digging down and having a bit of a feel-good share. So, here are seven of my favourite little things - nothing big, but they all bring little jolts of joy into my life.

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we were made for so much more

The purpose of this glorious life is not simply to endure it, but to soar, stumble and flourish as you learn to fall in love with existence. We were born to live my dear not to merely exist. – Becca Lee

What a beautiful quote! This sums up perfectly the lessons I've learned over the last few years. Life is not about just enduring and getting through each day. This way of thinking can settle into our minds when a few things go wrong and before we know it we are trudging through life thinking that is what living is all about.

Instead, we can choose to learn from the setbacks and get back up and reset our focus and find joy in the rest of life's ups an downs. So much depends on our attitude and expectations of this life we have been given to live.

Let's "soar, and stumble, and flourish" and live this life to the fullest before it's gone and it's too late. Merely existing is not enough - I'm aiming to thrive!

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MEMORIES OF BEING A YOUNG MUM

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

LIFE AS A YOUNG MUM

As I look at my grown and flown adult children, I have moments where I slip back in time and think about them when they were little and how naive I was as a new mum. I'm a fairly logical and ordered person and I assumed parenting would be a straightforward exercise of a + b = c. In other words, love + discipline = perfect offspring. Little did I know......
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CHOOSING ENTHUSIASM OVER PASSION

Is it time we stopped looking for one driving passion and allow ourselves to find our purpose and fulfillment from a variety of interests?

DO WE NEED A "BURNING PASSION"?

I've read many, many articles on "finding your passion" that tell me that my life is not complete unless I find something that I am completely passionate about. I think there is a lot to be said for swapping the word "passionate" with the word "enthusiastic". That way you can embrace lot of different experiences without being consumed by just one.
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DO I HAVE THE RIGHT TO WRITE?

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

IS MY WRITING WORTHWHILE?

There are so many blogs out there written by people who have exciting or dramatic lives. People who have experienced loss, or pain, or passion, or innumerable life events that I have no claim to. When I think about these writers, I wonder if I have the right to write too?

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THE INVISIBLE WOMAN RE-VISITED

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

WHEN YOUR PERSPECTIVE CHANGES

A while ago I wrote a post about the phenomenon that is the "invisible" middle aged woman. It was something that I had been feeling at the time - before I started connecting with all the fabulous Midlife women bloggers who've slowly but surely begun to change a lot of the assumptions I'd been making about life in my fifties.

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what was true then is still true now

They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny. Laura Ingalls Wilder

Laura Ingalls Wilder was a very wise woman - she lived through some very austere times and yet she and her family survived and thrived. I still remember where she describes her excitement and pleasure with what she and her sister received for Christmas when they were living in Kansas....

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MY TOP 5 RESOLUTIONS FOR A REGRET FREE LIFE

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

THE YEARS AHEAD

Life is short and it's too easy to let it run away from you while you are trying to be all things to all people. As a woman I think it becomes a snare and an obligation where you can allow yourself to be taken for granted and lose yourself in the process.

We forget that we have choices - more choices than women our age have ever had. It's time to use those choices to decide how to spend the years ahead wisely. 

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LEARNING HOW TO CREATE STAINED GLASS

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

STAINED GLASS AND MY BUCKET LIST

I've never really had a bucket list - well not one in writing anyway, but one thing I've always wanted to try my hand at was leadlighting (or stained glass). Last week was my birthday and my present from my lovely husband was a two day stained glass/leadlighting course. I've never had the time or the opportunity before because competent teachers are hard to find - and quite expensive. I'm also not the most creative person in the world, and I worried that my complete lack of crafting ability extended to stained glass making too.

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what brings a tear to your eyes?

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

This week's #Friday Reflection question was: "what brings a tear to your eyes?"

I wracked my brains a bit over this one because I don't cry very much at all nowadays. Then I thought back to my life a few years ago where I was crying all.the.time. I was having a big hiccup in my marriage, I felt irrelevant as a mother because my children were independent and living away from home, I hated my job, and so the list went on. Then things changed.....

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I get to decide who I am

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

I'm not sure how the younger generation got so wise, but this quote from the lovely Emma Watson (of Harry Potter fame) is so relevant to how we should be living our lives.

It has taken me 50+ years to stop letting other people direct my life - to know that I don't have to answer to my parents, my peers, my husband, my children, my co-workers, or anybody else for that matter. The one and only person who decides who I am is little old (well not too old!) me.

Knowing who I am and I what I want out of life has come a little later for me than it has for Emma, but it's not too late and I intend to take full ownership of my journey and the type of person I am and the legacy I want to leave, and I'm happy to take my inspiration wherever I find it - thanks Emma!
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celebrating "delicious ambiguity" for my birthday

celebrating "delicious ambiguity" for my birthday

It's my birthday today - I had to pause to think how old I actually am - I'm sticking with "early 50's" for now because I still scrape in! Birthdays are a time of life where you stop and take stock of where you've been and where you're going.......and that's something that I'm still trying to work out. I know where I've come from but I'm still figuring out where I'm ultimately headed.

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3 AFFIRMATIONS TO OWN IN MIDLIFE

3 Affirmations that will make Midlife so much richer - silence, warmth and peace

THREE AFFIRMATIONS TO OWN IN MIDLIFE

I came across a three part mantra a while ago that said "Let there be silence in my mind, warmth in my heart, and peace in my soul"  - nobody seemed to attribute it to an actual author (other than 'unknown') but I loved how profound it was and how it spoke to me the moment I read it. So much of it resonates with how I'm trying to live my life.
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THERE IS SO MUCH MORE TO LIFE THAN A JOB

#midlife blog crestingthehill.com.au

WORKING FOR THE MAN

I worked full time last week while my co-worker was on holidays - visiting her daughter on the other side of the country. It's only been five months since I left my old job where I worked almost full time, but after only working two days a week for these last few months, I certainly noticed the impact of working Monday to Friday again.

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