Nifty Fifty

Hi readers, and Happy Spring! Hopefully, you are experiencing some nice weather where you are! It’s finally thawed here in the Northeast, though it’s really still taking a while for winter to get the message and completely move along. Today is cold, raw and rainy, but it’s not dampening MY spirits! There’s been a lot going on since we last “visited” together…including that I reached a milestone! 

I have always thought birthdays are special. They should be – every year is a blessing! This year was also a “milestone” birthday – I turned fifty!

When I was a child, it seemed like fifty was so far away. I remember attending a fiftieth birthday celebration as a young child, only to realize the birthday person was “half a hundred”. Oh my! “Older” doesn’t really describe what I feel now; words that better fit this time of my life are “grateful”, “wiser”, and “blessed”.

Turning fifty means my life at this time is different than before. 

Audrey was so little when I started blogging here for MaryJanesFarm as the Suburban Farmgirl!

A pic of me from one of my very first blogs in 2010. Ha! I STILL have that dress!

When I first started blogging in 2010, I was a mama to a precious little one. Now, I am a mama to a beautiful young woman, who is also my “bestie” and closest confidante. 

So proud of my girl!

Later this year, my husband and I will celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. Here we are on my birthday. He planned a perfect day, along with one of my dearest friends (who literally crowned me “Queen for the Day”).

My husband “gets” me; he spoils me, and I am just so lucky to have my sweetheart. I am so GRATEFUL to have my sweet little family. My daughter and my husband are my heart.

I have always been close to my older brother. We tease each other, and we joke around, but he also has always given me really good advice. I had recently called to thank him for a thoughtful birthday surprise. We chatted awhile when I realized I didn’t really have anything new to tell him. I sighed, “I’m sorry, I just don’t have anything new to report”. He said that was just fine; maybe it’s just that “As you get older, you learn to talk less, and to listen more”. That’s true.

I don’t worry about small things as much as I used to when I was younger, and now I really appreciate plain ol’ regular days. I also don’t worry what people think, as young women often unfortunately seem programmed to do. I’ve never been afraid of trying new things, which makes life so much fun (I can’t wait to share with you all my newest hobby, coming in an upcoming blog). Also, I have learned not to fear change! (That is not always in my nature, change used to bug me – alot)! Going into my fifties, I am WISER. 

I really appreciate things – gestures, kindnesses, time…even more than ever with age. The week of my birthday, I was showered with cards and letters from friends and family, I have had local friends take me to lunch, and surprises show up in the mail from others far away, including a special, sentimental gift from my mama . One friend, who is also one of my knitting students, baked cupcakes and surprised me at knitting class. My Facebook was flooded with messages, and one friend even sang Happy Birthday on Messenger. It warmed my heart each time someone remembered me. 

“Things change. They always do, it’s one of the things of nature. Most people are afraid of change but if you look at it as something you can always count on, then it can be a comfort.”

~ Robert James Waller

I’m proud that I’m Generation X. We are the last generation to know what life was like before all the “tech”, but also the first generation to embrace it, and I think we know the value in both. 

This birthday felt bittersweet. I used to have visitors every year on my birthday – faraway friends, my parents, in-laws…the Pandemic has stopped so many from traveling.Ten years ago, I wrote a blog on turning forty. Little did I know that in the decade that followed, we’d be missing so many special days and events, going through with the rest of the world in a pandemic. We have all been through so much. We missed out on our daughter’s high school senior milestones and  graduation, seeing our parents and family on both sides as trips were cancelled, and seeing friends, some who we did not get to say goodbye to. We recently lost my husband’s grandmother at the age of 100-and-a-half. She saw so much in her lifetime! We hoped we could see her one last time – to have celebrated at her big 100th birthday celebration, but the Pandemic kept us from being able to. I am just so thankful that my daughter knew her Great-Grandmother!

RIP dear Oldemor. You will be missed!

The fall before the Pandemic started, I threw my husband a fiftieth surprise party. He never saw it coming, and it was a wonderful celebration. I didn’t expect anything like that for my fiftieth. For one thing, people here still do not gather like before, and for another, he and my daughter can’t hide anything from me. They say I notice everything! He always said, “I could never surprise you; you are so much more organized than I am.” (Though, a few years before, there was a surprise party that I NEVER saw coming. Surely, they would not do that again)! 

On my special day, I was showered by my husband and daughter with all sorts of goodies and balloons, and flowers sent by dear in-laws in Denmark.

I made a second bouquet with the lilies – for where there are no kitties!

I was then told to get dressed up for a lovely lunch reservation but that it would be a surprise where we were going. 

I was confused when instead we turned into the driveway of a dear friend’s house, and more confused when I was told she was going to lunch with us. I was told to go to the door and get her, while Kim and Audrey “cleaned out the backseat” as they “forgot she would be riding in the backseat”. 

Next thing I know, I am standing in my friend’s kitchen, surrounded by some of my closest friends. It was a lovely, special surprise of a day of laughter, lunch, and love. 

Thank God they did not put fifty candles on that cake!

My dear friends really know me!

Late forties and fifties is when your friends become not only your “friends” but they become your lifeboat. They make you smile, love and really “know” you. I don’t have relatives nearby, and I miss them all terribly, but I do have a wonderful little family and dear friends, both near and far, that make the world a little smaller.  I also have YOU, dear readers!  I am BLESSED.

So – if you are younger than me, don’t be afraid to grow older. It’s a trip! And if you are ahead of me, wait up! Let’s keep on being adventurous. Celebrate with me, farmgirls, and let’s keep remembering to count our blessings! Thank you again, dear readers, for riding along here with me the last decade…MUH-WAH!

Wishing you all a Happy Easter! 

Don’t forget to drop me a line in the comments and say “hi’! I love hearing from you all!

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Until Next Time…Farmgirl Hugs, Nicole