5 Things You Must Know As A Mid Life Woman

I'm there.  I'm a mid life mamma, grandma and wife. I'm experiencing the fun of empty nesting and the joy of being a granny.  BUT  life here in the middle is weird.  I think women get the raw end of the deal of mid life.  Men sail through with some grey hair or well ok, they sometimes just LOSE all their hair....women get all the crazy body  changes and annoying symptoms.  For those of you who are just entering this phase,  or this joy is yet to be set before you...here is how it's going thus far: 

5 Things You Need To Know About Mid Life For Ladies:

1.  Ready Set, Go....you never know when, how or what will happen with the ever so joyful Menopause.  Get ready for a giant surprise of a ride.  You won't know when it starts, how it will go or what kind of symptoms you will encounter.  It's like a big unknown.  No two women are alike.  You've watched other women go through it and now is your time to wait and see. It's one of life's mysteries.  Doctors can't tell you what will happen and when.  It's got a 10 year window so you are always wondering when that shoe will completely drop.  I mean if you ask a doctor if you are done and past menopause they laugh.  For Petes sake don't laugh...at least lie to me and tell me I'm through it and let's let the good times roll.  Send me home with a prescription for Hersheys chocolate and I will be a happy camper.   Around our house we call it the demon drop (coined from a roller coaster ride).  That is a very good description of how it goes.  One day you are up on top of the mountain just looking at the promised land and the next day you are flat on your face crawling to the refrigerator in the middle of the night  hoping to find some comfort foods.  up/down/up/down rinse and repeat.  That's the mid life pattern.  

 2.  Be prepared for body parts to drop and swing.  You go from abs and buns of steel to singing that old song does your belly hang low does it wobble to and fro.  (i changed the wording on that to keep this blog post PG, if you know you know lol) For some odd reason our hormones and mid life aging just decide to give us a gut and butt...ok maybe some of those big macs and french fries contributed a little but a girl has to get some comfort as we wade through the joys of getting older.  You go from those cute skinny jeans and a snazzy belt to stretchy pants and elastic waistbands.  Body parts that once were firm and toned are now flopping and sagging every which way.    I feel my batwing flabby arms bounce when I walk.  I could use an all body girdle to hold in all the parts that are drooping now.  We are talking compression is needed from neck to toe.  Do they make a full body girdle?  I need to get right on that.

3.  Sleep becomes a dream you are chasing.   You toss back and forth, wake up in a sweat and become a middle of the night movie watcher.  I used to be able to sleep like a baby.  I could sleep for 10 hours straight easily.   Now I have a ritual a mile long of things I do to set the stage for a decent night sleep.  I decided to put some night lights around the house since the middle of the night walks to the kitchen are more frequent now. I'm awake, I need a snack.  I'm scrolling my newsfeed and retweeting my life away.   Wide awake at 3AM is also some quality time for online shopping.  A good indicator of how my sleep is going is if  two days later I get a bunch of packages delivered.  Thanks Amazon for ratting me out by making that delivery  SO on schedule.  That may have happened here. 

4.  You are old, but not really.  Youngsters look at you as old and not connected to real life.  The generations below us think we are old and out of touch.  They are anxious to take the reins from the mid lifers and show them how its done.  I will admit I learn a ton from my kids. They are much more in tune to new shows/movies/apps/websites etc.  I do think that generation thinks we are brain dead because we got older or live a little "old school".  The  70 plus people out there think we mid lifers are youngsters who have a thing or two to learn.  They have kids that are close to my age and therefore consider me a kid.  (yes, behavior wise I do qualify I know)  Being my age is like a giant tug of war.  One side (the youngers) says we aren't worth listening to because we are old.  The other side says we aren't worth listening to because we are still young.  It is especially funny for me being married to an older man.  He is closer to the older crowd and I feel like I am closer to the youngers. Being in the middle gets messy.  I just float around and enjoy all ages.  

5.  "Life it too short to"....I find myself saying that alot.  I've lived past a lot of goals in life.  Marriage, children, grandchildren (keep bringing those babies), homes, cars, jobs etc.  For me that's all kinda been there done that.  Now I'm on to things that enhance all those goals.  Enjoying my husband more, watching my kids with their kids, being present and involved as a grandma.  The house/cars/jobs just don't do anything for me anymore.  They are just necessary evils at this point.  I think life is too short to care about those things at this point for me.  I've been playing this game with my husband, every once in a while,  where I think up things to ask him in order to discuss something he may not know about me or me about him.  When my kids were younger I felt like we never could sit down and have a decent conversation without interruption.  To take advantage of that not being the case now, I ask him questions when we are just sitting chatting.  Pretty sure he is tired of my new game now.  When he hears "So I have a question" he laughs.  I need to shake it up some and catch him off guard.  lol

 I've been thinking lately about what I want to accomplish with the rest of my years.  I'm thinking less about things I want to get/do/go and more about investment.  I'm not talking money here.  I'm talking solid goals about relationships and my giftedness.  I'm still pondering that.  While we were missionaries I felt like just being wiling to be there so my husband can do some important things was plenty enough in terms of serving the Lord.  I felt like that was my ministry. I believe it was a vital part of my role at that time of life.   Now I feel a little aimless.  I'm looking for my spot.  I know the Lord will  reveal that to me as I ask.  I'm looking forward to using my mid life, menopaused, sleepless, old/but not old self for God's glory.  As much as there are curveballs in the life of a mid lifer, there is also opportunity.  I'm older, maybe a bit wiser, but certainly not done.  Solia Deo Gloria