F is for First!

Saturday was another first for me.  (I'm 40 and celebrating every "first" in my life this year.)  On Saturday,  I …. wait for it…. mowed the lawn for the FIRST TIME EVER!  Yeah, how on earth did I turn 40 before I've ever mowed a lawn??  I probably still would not have ever mowed, but my husband was in Poland and I didn't want him to stress over the lawn when he returned.  I had no trouble starting the mower at all.  I had no trouble putting gas in the mower at all.  With each strip I finished, I felt a sense of accomplishment.  I felt empowered.  I know, mowing the lawn made me feel empowered?? It sounds crazy, but I did.  My mom always mowed the lawn when I was growing up.  She was never the type of mom that would teach me things of have me help.  She always felt it was better and more efficient to do things herself.  Then I went to college and met a wonderful man.  We were very young, but we decided we wanted to get married.  So at the age of 20, I married a man who always mowed the lawn.  It wasn't for a lack of offering to mow about a million times over the course of our 20 year marriage.  But he never let me or wanted me to mow.  So with each strip, turn, sweat bead, I mowed.  I felt empowered.  I felt accomplished.  And I finished the lawn, both front and back.  And I enjoyed it.  This may be the start of something new for me.  I would love to mow the lawn again.  It would certainly take a little bit off of my husband's plate.  He can still do the edging and weed-eating.  We can do the lawn as a tag-team effort.  In the mean time, I grin at my nicely mowed lawn that I cut, and wait for the next time when I can mow again.

A new decade!

This year I turned 40!  I've never been a writer, but it's a new decade for me to try new things.  So here I am!  I am writing a blog - something I never thought I would do.  Because I'm 40 and trying new things, here is a list of things I've done or want to do during this momentous year:

1.  I ran my second half marathon.   I ran my first half marathon on virtually no training at all.  I had some ankle issues and took most of the summer to rest my ankle.  So when the half marathon came up, I completed it, but could not run the entire race.  Hence my desire for a second half marathon.  This time I felt great, trained well, and aced it!  It was fantastic!

2.  I went on a mission trip to Mexico.  This is not my first mission trip to Mexico, but my first to Niños de Mexico in San Vicente outside of Mexico City.  It was such an amazing trip!  I got to love on children, see amazing sites, worked, and learned new skills.  Some highlights were:  playing momma to an orphan by rubbing his head and singing to him, going to Teotihuacan and climbing to the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, and learning to tile a floor.

 

Now that I've mentioned the things I've done, here are 2 things I have yet to do…

1.  Chop my hair.  Enough said.  Here's a before picture and a picture of the new 'do I want.  Can I pull this look off?? 

Selfie in the Presidential Palace in Mexico City.  Long hair!

Stacked Curly Bob - Whatcha think?

2.  The second thing I'd like to do during my big year is get my first tattoo.  I always toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo, but could never come up with that ONE THING that speaks to me and signifies importance to me in my life.  Well, I finally found it.  Here's my inspiration:

This verse says it all.  It speaks to me.  I quote it to myself during training runs and yelled it out loud as I was running the last few blocks of my second half marathon.  "Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly;  I do not fight like a boxer beating the air." 1 Corinthians 9:26 (NIV).  I love the multiple meanings this has for me in my life.  Everything I do, everywhere I go, has a purpose and goal.  It's to get me closer to Jesus.  To run the race of life and win the ultimate prize in the end.  

So for right now, I run and serve in an effort to stay fit and fabulous (both physically and spiritually) at the age of 40!