IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE

It's time to have a coffee and a chat - I'll tell you all about what's been happening in my world this month

IF WE WERE HAVING COFFEE

It's time to celebrate the end of July, and we're firmly in the throes of Winter down here in Australia - so why not share another virtual cup of coffee with me while I update you on what's been going on in my life lately. I love a good 'Taking Stock' blog post, so I hope you'll humour me and sit a while as I share my news.

TRAVELLING, BLOGGING AND LEARNING TO FLY

Travelling and blogging teach us to stretch our wings - and see how high we can fly

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Today my guest blogger is Deb from Deb's World. Deb is normally from Australia, but is in the middle of a 3 month Odyssey on the other side of the world (she's keeping us up to date with her adventures on a special section of her blog specially dedicated to her Odyssey).
She has been gracious enough to take a short hiatus in some little continental cafe somewhere (that has free wifi) to write for me today. So, here's Deb....

A REVIEW OF MY WORD FOR THE YEAR - RISE

Halfway through the year and time to re-define my word for the year "Rise"

SIX MONTHS HAVE PASSED 

Six months have zoomed by and it's time to check in on how I'm doing with being inspired by my word for the year - RISE. I mentioned last year that when I chose ENOUGH as my word for the year, the meaning morphed as the months passed. It moved from having enough to being enough.

I think the same thing is happening with my word RISE - as time has healed some of the wounds from last year, I've come to appreciate that we can rise in so many other ways. Rising to be our best selves is one of the new definitions for me.

IS THE ART OF HANDWRITING LOST?

Is handwriting becoming a lost art? Will future handwriting be the calligraphy of future generations?

ESSAY WRITING

Recently I wrote a post on taking on the challenge of writing a high school essay in an hour - and doing it in my own handwriting. It made me realize how little I actually write with a pen these days. The writing I still do in a journal or a shopping list is a glorified printing really - not the flowing cursive writing of my school days. I managed to resurrect it for the essay but it felt strange when I first started - although I think it was faster and neater than if I'd tried to print.

SILENCE, SOLITUDE, SIMPLICITY AND SURRENDER

In your busy, busy world, have you space for silence, solitude, simplicity and surrender?

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Today I have a non-blogger as my guest - I asked my lovely husband Ross, if he'd write something for me for Social Saturday. He was worried that his post would be a bit too deep and profound, but I figured that my Saturday guests were allowed to choose whatever they wanted to write about, so he could too. 

Today we have something to ponder upon as Ross gives you his thoughts as he agrees with Richard Foster, who writes in the ‘Celebration of Discipline’:

“Superficiality is the curse of our age. The doctrine of instant satisfaction is a primary spiritual problem. The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people.”

MOTHERHOOD AFTER MENOPAUSE - IS IT POSSIBLE?

Some food for thought if you're post-menopausal and still want to have children

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I was approached recently by a company who helps women with fertility issues. They wanted to share some information about mature women and options that are open to them in regard to conception later in life. I had my babies when I was in my 20's - and had no issues with falling pregnant and hadn't thought about it since then. But, then I thought about those who may not have been so fortunate, and so I'm sharing a post that I'm hoping we all find interesting and helpful.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post by Egg Donation Friends. I feel it is a guest post that is relevant to, and of interest to Midlife women and I was in no way influenced by the company.

MIDLIFE - RECREATING FROM THE UNRAVELING

Midlife can be a time for gathering all the loose ends that the unraveling has produced, choosing which threads are worth holding onto, and we begin knitting ourselves a new life.

IT'S NOT A MIDLIFE CRISIS

So many times the words "Midlife" and "Crisis" seem to be mentioned in the same sentence - and yet, from my experience, the two rarely go together. Midlife women today aren't falling apart at the seams, we aren't leaving our families and running off to an ashram to discover ourselves. We aren't sitting around weeping and wringing our hands over our empty nests. What I do see happening is a sense of it being our time to cast aside some of the personas we've worn over the years, and we're putting on something that is a better fit.

SPEAKING EVERY THOUGHT

Would it be wonderful if someone could invent a device that would speak a person's thoughts?

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Today's guest is Sue who blogs at From Dust Beautiful Things where she reflects on rising from a broken marriage, re-discovering herself, meeting and marrying her lovely husband, the "joys" of step-parenting, and her Christian faith. Sue is a good friend of my DIL Hannah and we "met" when Sue asked me for some blogging advice because she was in the process of re-inventing her blog. We've been blogging friends ever since. 

So, I'd like you to meet Sue (if you haven't already) and discover more about her through her post (there's so much I didn't know!)

SHE JUST LET GO AND LET IT ALL BE


FINDING SOMETHING SPECIAL

A few weeks ago I came across a poem that spoke to my heart. It wasn't particularly "deep and meaningful", it didn't offer world shaking advice.....it didn't even rhyme! But it spoke to me and I've re-read it several times since and posted it on my Memory Board for posterity.

CELEBRATING SPINSTERHOOD

Being married is wonderful - but sometimes it's also nice to celebrate spinsterhood

HE IS ALWAYS HOME

My husband works from home....it's lovely that he can avoid the hassles of peak hour traffic and the daily commute, but it means that he is always home. This suits him perfectly as he is an introvert and avoiding crowds and office politics is fine by him. It works well for me in that he now takes on most of the housekeeping and is home to greet me when I walk in the door on my work days, but it means that he is always home.

Sometimes I miss having the house to myself - not that he's really in my personal space, and not that I don't love him dearly and enjoy his company, but I still miss alone time where it's just me and the cats and nothing going on in the background. I guess in a way, there are times where I miss Spinsterhood - living alone with cats!

A MINOR MISHAP

Social Saturday guest post - on what happens when there is a "minor" mishap in the kitchen

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Today's lovely guest poster is Cherie from That Blog Where Cherie Moves To Germany. Cherie moved from the US to Germany after meeting her husband online and falling in love and choosing to head off with him to Europe. She left her country to live in his, and shares her adventures and discoveries as she sets up house in a new land. 

Today Cherie is sharing a little snippet of her life that reflects the ups and downs of establishing her home in Germany. I'm sure you'll enjoy her post and make sure you pop over to her blog to read her very interesting love story.

THE IMPORTANCE OF DE-CLUTTERING IN MIDLIFE

De-cluttering your life now makes things easier for everyone in the years to come

PARENTS

When you reach a certain point in Midlife, you realize that you have become more sensible than your parents (at least that's what it feels like to me). You look at the decisions they're making in their old age and you shake your head wryly and look at your partner with raised eyebrows. You wonder to yourself - "What makes previously sensible people start making poor choices?"

NOW IT'S MIDLIFE AND TIME TO WEAR PURPLE!

Midlife is turning out to be the best time of life for me - why wait until we're old to wear purple?

WHY WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE OLD?

Last month I wrote a post about getting old and how it will be a really fun time if we let it. I shared a poem by Jenny Joseph called "When I am Old" about a woman who is planning on leaving conventional life behind and doing what she pleases.

After I wrote that post I began to think of my life right now and how living in Midlife already gives me so much freedom - in fact I don't have to wait until I'm old to enjoy some of those fun times - it's already happening right now.