44 and Counting

Today is my birthday. Thank You God for a great family that is already making it happy for me this morning. Thank You God for another birthday.

I'm 44. I may as well say it because my daughter has announced it to the world at church, on the local Christian radio station, and anywhere else and to whomever else she can think to announce it. ~smile~

In a way, I feel older on this birthday because my son, Matthew, is graduating from high school next week. How did I get to my father's age? I don't think of myself as old enough to have a high school graduate. I still feel like a kid trying to figure this life out most of the time. An old kid, that is. ~grin~

You know, the closer one gets to middle age, the older middle age gets. I like to think of middle age now as my fifties. The truth is, I've been in middle age for awhile. Forty-four is probably about as middle age as it gets. Not many of us can expect to live longer than our eighties. Most of us won't get there. It sounds so much better to say that I've lived half my life than three quarters though, doesn't it?

I have great hope for the future. My Grandma Mamie will celebrate her 87th birthday in a few months. She is more active and attractive now than she was 20 years ago! She is a busy lady with a full schedule. She drives where she wants and does what she wants. She's happy and full of life. I have hope that I will be the same at that age.

The key to Grandma's youthful energy and activity? She and I agreed when I was little that she would start counting backward when she was 50. It worked! She's now a teenager and a very happy one at that! You can bet I'll be counting backward from 50, too!