The 5th decade

How on earth did I get to be this old? 40 was ancient when I was a kid. Darn near middle-aged! I remember my parents turning 40, so this is surreal.

I'm relieved about excited about my 40s in all honesty. My 30s were a mixed bag.

A recap of a decade.

At 30, Joe & I got married. At 31, I graduated from library graduate school, moved to Ashland, Wi & later that year to Green Bay. I had 2 different professional library jobs by the time I was 33, both of which gave me valuable lessons about working in library-land.

Gave birth to dear daughter Madeline @ 33. She began my lesson in patience & kindness. I started working again in nonlibrary land @ 34. 35 was realitively boring though we did purchase our first home. 36 was the infamous year of the elbow - 1st broke it then later that year had survey. We spent the next year in relative sanity & I returned to libraryland. 38 was the year of the uterus - I had 2 miscarriages & a total of 4 surgeries, ultimately removing the fibroids which were thought to be responsible for the miscarriages. When I became 39, I became pregnant again & since I was high-risk, life became a bit more complicated. I had almost biweekly doctor appointments, & ended up on bedrest for the 6 weeks before Zoe was born.

And now I'm 40. With a newborn. I'll be 58 when she graduates from high school. Zoe & Maddie are 6 years apart in age & their birthdays are 5 days apart. Life continues to move and bring new challenges, but i'm looking forward to this next chapter.