50-something Moms Blog

A Weekend of Strawberries

For one weekend every summer, June 26-27 this year, the quaint town of Cedarburg, Wisconsin becomes the celebration epicenter for the succulent, mouth watering star of summer: the strawberry.  Historic Cedarburg, Wisconsin will be holding what is now their 25th annual Strawberry Festival. The entire town will offer strawberries, and prepare strawberries, in every possible edible way. And 10,000 visitors last year were all the happier for it.

The weekend's activities begin with "The Berry Big Run," a 5k run/walk that begins at 8AM, benefiting  BigBrothers/BigSisters of Ozaukee County.  After the run, the town's streets are open as a Festival Walk of Art, where artists and  vendors from all over the greater Midwest are showcased. There will be artwork, jewelry, music, food courts, boutique style items, handmade toys, and more.

A Vacation They'll Remember

I marched up the sandy hill, in what must have been my fifth trip heading back to our rented cabin on Lake Michigan. I was thirsty, my skin an itchy mix of sand and sunscreen, and I was hungry. I sighed loudly, shaking my head with the thought of "this is a vacation?"

As I trudged onward on sand filled watershoes, I could hear the joyous shouts of 5 boys recreating battle scenes on the beach behind me, armed with water cannons.  "Sure, " I thought, "of course they're happy. I'm doing all the work, where's my vacation?"  I had to laugh at myself, I fell into this trap every year. Every year that we summer on this beach in Michigan, I begin the first day of our vacation, with these types of thoughts.

I quickly remember back to my first vacation as a parent. I naively thought back then, that vacation with family, would mean vacation for me.  I wondered why no one had warned me that those days of having things done for me while on a family vacation, were gone.  I was now the mother, I was now the one who made it all happen. Who did I think was going to do all the packing, and bed making, and sweeping, and cooking? 

What I Love About Being 50

"Why is it that we have to wait until we are 50 years old, before we see just how beautiful a red pepper is?", Sandy Dennis laments in Alan Alda's mid-life themed movie, "The Four Seasons." That clarity of appreciation that she speaks of, that wonder of our world, is one of the things I've grown into since turning 50. It is a new way of living for me, and I love it.

I wasn't always this way. I lived life in a blur, crossing things off my list of what needed to be done, and diving into the next project. Since turning 50, I have found a wonderful place to be in my life, that of gratitude for what is around me. At this age, I've come to realize what is important, and, not to be morbid, but I also know that I have already spent half of the life I've been given. I want to spend the life ahead of me in happiness. I don't want to waste any more time with sadness, or miscommunication and missed opportunities, as I have done. I know each day is gone at sunset, and, like currency, spent forever. I want to revel in my world, with all of my senses, fully aware.