Life Lessons at 45

Now that I’m half-way to 90, assuming I get there, I’ll share some of the things I’ve learned over my two score and five.

1.Kidney stone pain is worse than natural childbirth.
2.I will never have an hour-glass figure, no matter how much I wish it.
3.If there was only one spot on a life raft, my husband would give it to me.
4.When you talk to (read, yell at) your kids, you find yourself thinking, “Oh, no. I’ve become my mother.” One day they’ll do the same.
5.Marriage is worth the effort. Good marriages can become great marriages.
6.I’m a dreamer, but mixed up in those dreams are a few good ideas.
7.When I was young, I quit everything I started. Now, I finish what I start. That was a major change for me.
8.If your kids don’t laugh at your joke the first time, tell it again.
9.Things to remember during labour and delivery: A) Women have been doing this since Eve. B) It ends eventually. C) You have a better reward for your pain than a kidney stone. D) Epidurals are a girl’s best friend.
10.Women go through a mid-life crisis earlier than men. I was thirty. I’m SO over it.
11.Life is full of regrets. Live in today. (I’m still working on perfecting this one).
12.Entertain friends even if everything isn’t perfect in your home. Years from now, all they’ll remember is how they felt being with you, not what you served or if the dishes matched. Life is about moments like this.
13.Similar personalities clash more than opposites. My oldest daughter inherited her mother’s stubborn streak. Before we had kids, when my husband would be frustrated with me, he’d say, “I hope you have a daughter just like you!” He didn’t realize he was cursing himself.
14.Take heart. Not every teenager rebels.
15. Take a lot of pictures. Leave something lasting for the next generation. I always wished I had something my father had written so I could see his handwriting, and understand how he felt about things, or a video so I could hear his voice or see how he carried himself.
16.As you age, do what you’re comfortable with to feel better about yourself, i.e. hair colour, makeup, etc. T.T. Shields said, when asked whether women should wear makeup, “If the barn door needs painting, you should paint it.”
17.Secure the roof topper on your van when you go camping. Sleeping bags and air mattresses on the highway is not a pretty sight.
18.Get all the education you can get. It can never be taken from you.
19.Do what you love to do for a living, if you can. Life is too short to dread going to work.
20.Settle the big issues of life first; where you’ll spend eternity, who you’ll marry, what you’ll do for a living. After that, the small things settle out and run smoother.
21.Be thankful to God for all the blessings in your life.
22.Be a realist. You won’t always have your health, or your job, or your family around you. Hold on to the eternal things.
23.Learn how to balance a cheque book. I didn’t know how for the first six years we were married, and we lived like paupers. Then we discovered we actually had thousands of dollars due to my accounting finesse, and we used it as a downpayment on our house.
24.Always take carry-on luggage when you travel. People use our first cruise fiasco as an example of what NOT to do. We had NO luggage for 5 out of 7 days.
25.Never say never to God. He has a sense of humour. Remember Jonah? I said, “I’ll NEVER live in the neighbourhood near our church!” Guess where we’ve been for 16 years?