I had to take a break for a bit from writing. Back in December, I took a little tumble. And really it was very little. However, it was one of those freak things that cause big problems. I broke my right foot, sprained my right ankle, received multiple breaks in my left foot, broke my left ankle in two places and tore some ligaments. Yes my friends, I took the phrase to heart, “go big or go home”.
I was unable to walk for almost three months. In that time, I did some posting here. Then about a month ago, I was given permission to walk, just a bit. I put all my energy into that. Two weeks ago, all casts were removed and I got a walking boot for the left side and permission to wear a tennis shoe on the right. Soon, the boot will be gone and I can wear shoes for the first time in four and a half months. I am so excited.
The past few weeks have really been a challenge. Well, the whole experience has been challenging, but this last bit…being so close to the end, I just want to be done. So … I pushed.
This, my friends, is not a good thing. I have done just what the doctors have said all along. To the letter. And now, I’m pushing myself? You can guess what has happened. Yes, a setback.
Therefore,I haven’t felt up to writing. I was having a private pity party for me. No one else was invited, although some have tried to crash it, but I didn’t let them.
Today, I decided the decorations are coming down. The trash has been tossed out and the party is over!. Just because I did too much (like I do in everything) and had a setback, doesn’t mean it’s all over. I’m still getting better, I’m still so much further along than they originally thought – AND – without having surgery.
Sometimes, “Life In The Over Forty Lane” brings us to a place we didn’t expect or want to visit. And we don’t want to stay long. We just have to remember, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey and the scenic route can be a very good thing.
As you can see, I’m almost done, but If I’m honest with myself, this may be the closest I get to high heels for a while.
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to remember Don’t Forget To Dance!
I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
Today is # 7: The inventor of “SPANX” , Sara Blakely, should be given a Nobel Peace Prize.
Now you may ask yourself, “why does a lycra based, tight fitting undergarment deserve such a high honor?” Well, you must never have tried “SPANX“.
Growing up, my mother ALWAYS wore a girdle. You remember those, right? I think she finally gave them up about 2000 or 2001. My mom was a girl of the 1950s, even the skinniest of girls wore girdles back then. Why do you think the models in the ’50s had such a smooth silhouette?
After I had two children, a hysterectomy and heading into the Over 40 Lane, I thought that I needed to get a “foundation garment”. But the memories of my mother’s girdles (or armor as my dad referred to them) caused me to shudder. I kept going on with only “control top” pantyhose. Pantyhose! Yes, I wore them everyday to the office. I felt more professional, until the 100+ degree heat of South Texas began to wear me down.
A friend told me about “SPANX” she was wearing capri pants and showed me how she had on this thing that looked like bike shorts underneath, but it was lightweight and she was not dying from the heat. After that my life changed forever.
I am a curvy girl. I need to have things “tucked in” and smooth. This became even more important when my daughter got married. I lost 50 pounds to prepare for the wedding (I needed to lose 700 more, but 50 was good). I wanted to look good! I was the mother of the bride after all! Sara Blakey and “SPANX” helped me to be a mother of the bride and not a matronly mother of the bride. I enjoyed the day with my daughter, looked good in front of my ex-husband and his relatives and danced with my daughter all night! That would not have happened with my mothers armor plated foundation garment. I would have been cut in half!
Sometimes, it’s the small, unseen things that makes things so much better. Turns around a whole event. Don’t discount the unseen, the small, the unnoticed. They can change your life!
Thank you Sara Blakely! You are my hero! In the “Life In The Over 40 Lane”, we need all the heros we can get! (and no jiggles)
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to remember Don’t Forget To Dance!
I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
Today it’s item: What you eat and how much you eat does matter and birthday cake doesn’t count.
When I was younger, I never exercised, never worried about the when, what and how of eating. I ate when I was hungry, ate what was around. I really never had to worry about it. It was only after having my daughter that things really changed for me.
If, perhaps in my youth, I would have set patterns for myself, I would have been able to keep to a plan better, but I didn’t, so things are different. We cannot change the past. We don’t have time machines. What we do have is the future. The future can be changed. It happens right here and right now. We can set new patterns and habits. Get rid of old things we don’t need or that aren’t good for us.
BUT…birthday cake is a completely different story. Birthday cake is about celebrating, about enjoying a day of a family member or friend. Don’t forsake the celebrating! Even if we have changed our habits, our patterns, our future, we can always take time out to celebrate with friends. Have a piece of cake.
Life In The Over 40 Lane is all about celebration!
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to rememberDon’t Forget To Dance! I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
Today it’s item: There will always been a purse with loose change in your closet.
Have you ever opened a purse you hadn’t used in a while and found a few dollars? What about a handful of loose change? It may only be one or two dollars, but it feels like you won the lottery. It’s a great day!
When my children were younger, money always seemed tight. I worked a couple of jobs and sometimes they worked with me. Afterwards, I would take them for a treat a fast food place or a stop at a drugstore for their favorite candy. It would make them happy. The smallest thing, made them so happy. It was in these times that finding change or some forgotten singles (yeah like they were ever forgotten) laying loose in an old purse or wallet made a huge difference in my day.
It reminds me of the memories we keep tucked away, back in the corner of a closet in our minds. Good memories, but just laying loose on the floor. Forgotten memories. Sweet memories. Things that make us feel like we just won the lottery. It’s not that they don’t matter to us, or that we don’t want them, it’s just because we didn’t need something from that part of the closet in a while.
Check your old purses and wallets. Physically and mentally. You never know what you might find, it could be a treasure!
Remember, Life In The Over 40 Lane takes quite a bit of “gumption”, you need everything you can get to make it. Scoop up whatever you can and bring it along for the ride!
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to remember Don’t Forget To Dance!
I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
Today it’s item 4:Always have a great black dress
Growing up, my parents didn’t have much to give us at all. We got by, but most of what I had were hand-me-downs. My figured developed early so the things I got were from aunts or older cousins. I always worried that I didn’t look like the other girls. When I was fifteen or sixteen, I read a book about a young writer in New York, trying to make it big. She was invited to a fancy party and didn’t know what to wear and her friend asked if she had a black dress because a black dress can do anything. I didn’t know it at the time, but that small line in that book was one of the truest things I would ever read in my teen years.
As women, we all know the power of the “LBD”. Its something we buy when it’s on sale and keep in our closets. We can put a blazer with it and be all business. Exchange the blazer for a shawl and you are ready for a night out. Perfect!
In our lives we all have those staples we need to get by. Mine has been and will always be a great black dress. When you are living Life In The Over 40 Lane, a great black dress isn’t just a staple it is breath!
Go out and look great – do it in a fabulous and swingin’ black dress!
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to remember Don’t Forget To Dance!
I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
Today it’s item 3: Spray tans are better than the booths, but don’t over do it. No “oompa-loompas”.
I was told once when I was younger and more slender that “tan fat is better than pasty fat”. At the time I just thought it was something funny a friend shared. The friend was already in the over forty lane, I was still in the lane for those in their twenties. I didn’t get it. Now, I do.
A cruise is my idea of a perfect vacation. A pool if you want it, a balcony to look out at the ocean, great food, people who clean up after you all the time, time to explore on shore and a spa whenever you feel like it. Perfect! Being of Euro-Celtic descent, I have been blessed with fair skin that freckles in the sun. Yes, I am polka-dot. Tanning is not something I do well. It’s OK, I’ve come to accept this. Tanning booths were something I’ve tried many times, however, losing someone close to me to skin cancer put the kibosh on that activity. Spray tans – wow! Oompa Loompa – wow!
When we try so hard to make things seem better, sometimes we wind up going overboard. All with good intentions. Embrace yourself, your skin, your tone, your body. Change what we can naturally. Don’t harm yourself or others with the “improvement process”. Be OK with who you are!.
Life In The Over 40 Lane does not care if you have a great tan. It takes you as you come – real!
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to remember Don’t Forget To Dance!. I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
The second item on the list was:Moisturizer IS really important!
This may seem like a silly item to have on the list, but let me tell you it truly is important.
Without citing all the medical information regarding proper skincare, I will say that moisturizer causes your skin to be soft and reduces wrinkles – just like the commercials say. Without it, your skin becomes dry and flaky, hard and the lines become deep and fill your face and neck. Not only does this age you externally, it ages you internally. When I was younger, I didn’t see this as a necessary step. Now, I wholeheartedly advocate this act.
Let me explain. Things made with leather (hides, skins) often tend to dry out, become tough and eventually become ill used for anything if they are not treated, kept soft, and conditioned. If they are treated and conditioned (moisturized) they are soft enough to be made into beautiful and useful items.
How are we any less than a piece of leather? If we are not conditioned or treated properly, by ourselves or others, we too will be hard and tough and barely usable. Treat yourself well, condition yourself with things of beauty and positivity. Thinking on, reading about, surrounding yourself with the thoughts, things, words and people you find will lend to your goals. As you “moisturize” you will also bring the same to others.
Moisturize my friends – both inside and out! When we arrive in theLife In The Over 40 Lane, things move swiftly, be ready for anything!
A while back I posted 20 things that I thought were important things to rememberDon’t Forget To Dance!. I thought It would be nice to explore those and share “why” they are important to me.
First on the list was:Be who you are. You can’t be anyone else’s version of you. You can only be YOU.
So many times, I have seen people, women and men, try to “reinvent” themselves. Change their style, their hair, lose weight, get into shape, find a new spiritual truth, a new partner, new friends, the works. However, at the end of the day, alone with their thoughts in the dark, it was still the same person. Slap a coat of paint on a barn, it doesn’t change the fact that it was and will be a barn. For many years, I accepted what others told me about me. I never looked for myself. I wanted to be someone else, do what others did, be what other people wanted me to be. Trust me, it didn’t turn out pretty. Striving for new heights, achieving goals – that is what we are supposed to do. But never lose sight of who you are. Accept the fact that you can’t sign like Whitney, can’t do the same moves Shakira does or cook like Rachel Ray. However, you do sing like you. You do dance like You and can cook like YOU! Be true to who you are. Don’t accept someone else’s concept of you. Don’t look into the mirror they hold up. The reflection you see in the mirror they hold is painted with their brush! Look in your own mirror. Look at yourself with your own eyes – but make sure they are gentle and loving eyes. Not judgemental and filled with self-loathing. If you want to sing “I Want To Dance With Somebody” and bust a move like Shakira while making dinner from your favorite Rachel Ray recipe, then do it! Just be you and enjoy your ride.
Life In The Over 40 Lane is amazing especially when you love what you see in the mirror!
Two things I love in life following closely behind 1) My children 2) My shoes – Road Trips and Music. I can’t say which is better, they are surely tied for 3rd place. Obviously you can’t have a road trip without music, but yes you can have music without a road trip. So, let me backtrack…it’s music and road trips.Road trips were what we were raised with. No planes or cruises. Trains were not vogue in the 70s. Continental Trailways and Greyhound did in a pinch, but most of the time my life was spent in the backseat of the car. Of course, there was the “invisible continental divide” between my younger sister and myself. We each had our own window to see the world. It was great. Sometimes we would listen to “8 Tracks” of comedy albums with my parents, other times my mother read to us aloud. Sometimes we just lost in the scenery and our own imaginationsI’ve taken road trips with my kiddos both when they were little guys and now when they are old enough to help with the driving. It’s a good experience. Not all are like the “Griswolds” trip across the United States (thank God!) but some are just as fun.I think car trips with girlfriends are the best though. You get to stop at all the best (cleanest) restrooms and if it says “gift shop” or “homemade fudge” you are guaranteed a stop. No agenda, no military precision and no one says, “do you really need another one of _______” it is just whatever strikes our fancy at the time.Of course (as stated above) road trips require a soundtrack. So, here is my “Road Trip Soundtrack” top ten:1) Boston – “Rock ‘n Roll Band”2) Ray Charles – “What I Say Part 1 & 2”3) Delta Rae – “Bottom Of The River”4) Grateful Dead – “Sugaree”5) Etta James – “Oh Happy Day”6) Family Of The Year – “Buried”7) Eagles – “Hotel California”8) The Clash – “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”9) Otis Day and the Knights – “Shout”10) The Ramones – “I Wanna Be Sedated” What are some of your “Need To Haves” on your playlist? Oh, by the way, a road trip post wouldn’t be complete without some pictures would it? Here are a few places I’ve happened across in the past few years – Enjoy
Life In The Over 40 Lane 
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