Inspirations of Life

I have spent the last several days with my mother, who has been here visiting from Minnesota. She arrived shortly after I made my first post and it was fresh on my mind. As we spent time visiting, I thought of all the women who have been part of my life, and a part of who I have become.

I need to recognize my mom first, she was the first to meet me after all! She has shown me strength, perseverance, and (I'll admit it) wisdom. Our life together did not start off easily. She was a single parent, working hard to make a living. Many things would happen over the years that required every ounce of strength and perseverance she had. I often think of those times when I face stressful situations. While there are many other characteristics she possesses, I will stop with wisdom for today's blog. She has learned a lot along the way, yet she is careful how she offers advice. It does not come aggressively, or with a condescending voice. I have to admit, as my children have begun graduating from high school, I am not as good at this as she is. But I have a good example to strive towards. She has shown me how to be strong.

Every women should have an aunt who becomes a friend later in life. I am very fortunate to have one in mine! While we have been friends for years, never more close than the last several years. We laugh, and confide, and best of all travel! One year we went from one coast to the other. Most recently, we started a tradition of treking North. We head to Minnesota each July to spend time with my mom, her sister. We have had some great times exploring Minnesota and South Dakota. This summer she will make the trip with my husband along as well. We will undoubtedly have a great time laughing, confiding, and traveling! She has shown me how to live life to the fullest.

My grandmother has also made a huge impact in my life. She is 85 years old now, and she continues to amaze me. She is my oldest Facebook friend, and loves to keep track of her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren through stories and photos we all share on the site. She has lived through the depression, the loss of two brothers while they were still young, World War II and lived the life of a hard working farm wife. She raised three children on the fruits of her labor and touched each of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren in unique ways. She taught us all crafts, including the art of wheat weaving. She has shown me to not be afraid of anything, and to embrace new things.

These are only three of the women I have been lucky to have in my life. There are many more dating back to my high school years and some special teachers and life long friends that I made. And there are those from my present, including many amazing women at church and friends from work as well. Perhaps I will share some of them with you in a future blog.

How about you, what women have made an impact in your life? 

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog! I am very excited to share with you all of life's adventures. I really hope you will comment and share yours, too!

A little background on why I have chosen "The Autumn of Life" for my blogs name. I recently spent some time in a ladies class at church studying the different times of our lives and what all of those times entail. I was quite surprised to discover that I was entering the autumn of my life. This was described as the time that our children are completing high school and venturing out on their own. It is also a time where we as women really become comfortable in our skin. The time of raising children is waining, and we face re-discovering ourselves. While there are several shades of gray during this time, depending on each of our own situations, we all face this time. We have finished the spring (childhood), are completing summer (child rearing age), and have yet to see the winter. Since I am entering the autumn of life, I should hopefully have years to blog about before winter sets in.

I find this definition to be very accurate to my life, currently. Others around me didn't think I could be in the autumn of my life, and thought I was jumping the gun. I will say they were the ones that are coming on the latter years of autumn in their lives. As I stated earlier, where we fall at what age depends on our own situations. My husband and I like to say we cheated. We chose to adopt older children early in our marriage. We have been married for 17 years, and have been parents for 15 years. D, K, A, J, and C are now 21, 19, 17, 17, and 15. I was a stay-at-home mom for the majority of those years, returning to work when our youngest entered middle school. The plentiful volunteer jobs dry up when they begin higher level schools and I found myself with more time on my hands. And thus began the changing of the colors in my leaves. Areas of my life that I was quite content with became mundane. Many of my thoughts on life and how I thought I would spend the next 20 years began to change.

All this brings me to my new blog. I hope to share this time with all of you. From experience, I know I cannot be the only one going through similiar changes. No doubt, we will face different facets of life. But, I also know we will share many as well. By the nature of tackeling life, there will be many things covered as I write to you. I would like to share with you my experiences in child rearing, raising children that have been adopted through the foster care system, and helping them transition to adulthood. As some of them hopefully go off to college, I am finishing my first degree and will undoubtedly speak of that, too. I love to read, scrapbook, and take photographs and hope to share some of my passions with you.

I hope that you will join me as we face this new phase of life together!