MOC18 D9 - Letter to future Self

50! I love it!! 50 is fun! it is spectacular, and next year I get a discount !woot..I love the sparkle and shine around your full page of hope for the future!

The writing is so small that I can't read it, but I love the happy elements around the journaling paper.

This is a great LO, It is true it is difficult to read, but not impossible .

Great journaling

Ok, so I figured out my issue with not being able to post from Artisan to the internet - it was Microsoft Edge. Based on my new computers suggestion I was trying that engine out but realize now it's not so hot. I switched back to Chrome this morning and it copy/pasted perfectly.

@Pachimac and @Nemla thank you for attempting to read it while it's so small! LOL. and for giving me a push to figure out why my copy/paste wasn't working anymore. It was giving me fits with credits!!

Dear 50 me,Happy Birthday!
Wow, look at you - 50 today! You look GREAT! You're FABULOUS! You MADE IT! Do you remember the day you wrote this? It is January 9, 2018. You are writing this as a challenge for The Lilypad's MOC (month of challenges) event. It's warmer than it has been. A cold front hit us the past week and a half or so but today is almost 60! Back to a normal winter Texas day!

Eric is out of town, and you are responsible for getting one child to basketball at 5:30, one to swimming at 6:30, and then back to basketball for pick up and then back to swimming for pickup. You took LunaBelle to the dog park because you were afraid if you didn't wear her out, she'd keep you up all night. This was after spending your allotted time at work (still only 6 hours thankfully!).

Last night you had one with AHG from 6:15 - 8 and the other had Boy Scouts from 7-8:30. You had to be there to help get his merit badges squared away. He needs to move up a rank. You had to have Amanda cover you at AHG for Treasurer duties - in case any parents needed to give money to the Troop. Tomorrow is a similar story - though at least both kids are in the same spot! 6-6:30 one helps with Cherubs and the other plays chimes.... then you have a wonderful free hour and a half with one child while the other has Confirmation. Thursday is a repeat of today. This weekend you have a swim meet Fri- Sun you have to be at, and basketball game on Saturday. Surprisingly they overlap in their times! Go figure. You have one child asking to take piano lessons and go through swim lessons again. And her golf tournaments will be starting soon. So on and so on - your days were full and busy. Every day you were running here or there trying to balance school with sports and Church and down time and family time.

I ask you if you remember this day/week because I want you to remember the chaos. Remember how some days you wanted to tear your hair out because the house was so messy? Or because you had spaghetti or sandwiches again for dinner? Here you are, turning 50. Asher is 20. I pray he's doing well in school - maybe a swimming scholarship allowed him to go to University of Nebraska Lincoln? I hope he decided to use his gift of working with kids and study something in the Medical field that will help them! Ada is turning 18 in a couple weeks. Has she survived her teen years? Have YOU?! Her goal was A&M. Did she work hard enough to get in? I'm guessing she should know soon. Or, did she realize a college mascot wasn't the only thing to consider when looking at schools! hich sport won out? Golf or Basketball? Did she play hard enough to get to play in college like she wanted to?

Have you found yourself with time on your hands? If you have, I hope you have found a new identity. At this point in your life, your identity is so wrapped up in your kids and what they want to do and preparing them for their lives. I think sometimes you forgot who you were. Every now and then you tried - you tried to form friendships that will stand the test of time. I think you've found a couple. Thankfully these other women are also so busy that they understand that in this point of your lives you only have so much to give to the other.

I pray that you have been able to still support your kids as a Mother who knows who she is outside of carpools and pickup lines and cheering on the sidelines. I pray your kids have learned something from you - and not just how to clean the toilet! Maybe they've learned that you can do anything you put your mind to - no matter how tired or how many other things show up on your to do list. Maybe they've learned persistence and trial and error is the way you accomplish all you want in life!

Remember those days that shaped you and changed you from who you were before kids to who you are now - not just a tired Mom who can say "I did it!" but a tired Mom who can say "I took what God gave me and produced two beautiful people who will do GREAT things in our world!"

Love, your 43 year old you (or am I 42, I still can never remember!)

OMG girl, I don't know how you do it with more than one kid! I love your journaling!

Your journaling is fabulous! And totally gives me an idea! I love how you captured the chaos of right now to reflect back on.