@sloanebcollins *Next week I'll be older than my mother* #MFRWorg #RLFblog #birthday #bucketlist

Next week I’ll be 14 years older than my mother. Somehow, she’s perpetually 36. (Okay, who’s doing the math?)  Yes, I have a big birthday coming up.  One that has me going “how the heck did this happen?” 

So I've been doing some musing on where I’m at in my life, things I've worked for, things I've accomplished, and what I still want to do someday. Which has led to my bucket list.  It’s changed over the years, but some things have stayed the same, and I can finally check them off.

We went to Hawaii a couple of years ago, and I've been to Ireland, so check check. I still want to go to Scotland.

Watching Loved One's Age

This month my father will celebrate his 83^rd birthday. It’s hard to believe that’s he’s that age and I still remember him as a young man working hard to earn a living for his family. My mother is 78 and she still gets around really well, but my father is starting to struggle.

Aging is just part of life’s journey and I know that eventually we all die, but until the last five years I never realized how difficult the journey could be. Unfortunately, I fear that I haven’t seen the worst yet and know that eventually there will be a time when my family members will be gone.

In the last five years, we’ve lost my husband’s mother, my grandmother, my aunt and an uncle. And I know that this is just the beginning. All my family is aging and for that matter, so am I.

Before my mother-in-law died at the age of 88, she told me she was ready to go because all of her friends had passed on. She said you reach a time when you no longer have funerals to attend and you’re the only one left. That statement has stayed with me and I know that there could come a day when that will be the case with me.

At first this really bothered me, but the logical part of me says that this is just part of life. This journey we call everyday living will someday come to an end. The optimistic side of me says that’s why we’re to love each other and enjoy our time together. Live each day to the fullest.

Cherished Memories

Today my daughter turns 14! My baby girl? She can't be. It can't possibly have been 14 years ago that I drove to the hospital with my father for my very organized c-section. After all, I remember everything about that day like it was yesterday.

My husband and I already had our eldest daughter - we were total helicopter parents too. We worried over her, how she was going to handle having a new sister, being separated from me while I was in the hospital (I'd never left her - she was 18 months old) - all sorts of things. To make it easier, my husband stayed with her and my father drove me to the hospital. Once daughter 1 was in bed for nap, my husband would come to the hospital in time to be there for daughter 2. But he ran late... so late that my father was growing paler and paler with every second. He was not hospital operating room material - but I knew he would go with me if my husband didn't make it. When the nurse handed my father scrubs and told him where to change, he straightened his shoulders, patted my shoulder, and told me he'd be right back.

Ten minutes later I was in the operating room and my husband, not my father, joined me. Five minutes after that we were both happily crying a little as our second child, a beautiful baby girl with a full head of hair and reassuringly functioning lungs announced herself to the delivery room.

I remember everything about that day like it was yesterday - not 14 years ago!

It's hard to accept that my baby now plays the viola with skill, reads like she's racing to the next one, loves all things giraffes, and cooking and cleaning (I have no idea where she got her love of cleaning?).

There are memories that are so vivid that I feel like I've been transported back in time, engaging all my senses. And I cherish them, holding on tight so that they don't dim.

I know I'm not alone so share! What's one of your favorite, most vivid, memories?

Thanks for letting me share mine with you. And Happy Birthday Baby Girl! I'm so proud of the amazing young woman you are! You are a gift to everyone that knows you!