Aging gracefully.....

Yep, that's me 53 years ago! Having a great birthday.....2 birthday celebrations last week, a wonderful birthday breakfast this morning, and a party with 8 of my friends is tomorrow night. Yeah, I'm blessed. Every day.

I've started scanning my old family photos ........ My first two thoughts when I saw this picture were "yeah, the chocolate obsession goes way back" and "OMG, a lifetime of thunder thighs!"

I am in the process of weeding out my craft closet, I have decided I am just done with papercrafting. I did one last load of about 200 floral note cards last week, and along with all the cards I did last year when I borrowed Karen's die cut machine.....I'm set for a long while now. I'm now all about getting rid of clutter in all aspects of my life and focusing on what I love, what I'm interested in, and what serves a purpose. I'm still knitting, but largely focusing on making shawls for me.........I wear them frequently and love wrapping myself with colour. I'm making a man's sweater right now, too, because it is a challenge for me and I have a great deal of respect for the person I am making it for. I'm even going to put the kumihimo and beading stuff away for the time being, right now it's not where my head/heart is, and I'm ok with that.

Right now my interests are reading (the Kindle app on my iPad is getting a workout), focusing on learning more about bioidentical hormones (and there is so much to learn), and later this summer I am going to be a volunteer for the Democratic National Convention (I'm very excited.....it'll be a chapter in my mremoirs). I'm also focusing on my daily workouts, and wanting to learn more so I can add variety to my workouts and work around my physical issues. I've take a few classes at the Apple Store to learn about my iPad/iPhone, and want to learn more. The iPad affords me some great opportunities to take free online classes on a variety of topics. I still want to learn Spanish......need to focus on that. I'm also going to make an effort to learn to cook a little more......healthy meals for me.

I thought about this shift in my interests and priorities, and I think that right now, I'm enjoying being rather than doing. I think before I needed to be busy all the time (within the limits of what my back and hip can handle) to prove that I had a life ........ I don't need to justify my time anymore, either to myself or to anyone else. I'm really liking this new phase of my life.

Have a great week, everyone!