Half a century young!

This weekend I celebrated my 50th birthday with family and friends and it made me think about what I have achieved and been successful at in my 50 years on this planet!

My husband and I and our four children

I guess my first achievement is a pretty important one in that I am still here and I made it to the age of 50 relatively unscathed. I lost a few of my school colleagues in their forties and just a few months ago lost a dear friend at the age of 50 to the dreaded C-word. That’s the reason I had a party because rather than wallow in self pity that I am getting older I am going to live each day to the full.

Money has never been something that I am good at as I like to live like a Queen but in reality should really probably live like a Pauper! Both my husband and I have good jobs but we still have a big mortgage and a few debts besides before we can rest a bit easier.

I also don’t have a fancy house where everything matches. My sofa has a hole in the arm due to kids and pets and I refuse to replace it until the 12 year old stops jumping on it. However what I do have is a loving home.

Moving on to the good things in my life, I have a job that I love and work colleagues that are amazing and a company that values its workforce which is rare these days. I also manage to get to some pretty amazing places in the world and in the past three years I have been to Dubai, South Africa and Costa Rica. I also managed to travel extensively whilst working for Princess Cruises in  the early nineties and visited, Alaska, South America and the Amazon plus the Mediterranean and Caribbean.

My greatest achievement can be seen in the image above and that’s my four children who over the years have made me cry, driven me to distraction but in the main part make me proud to be their mum every day.

Here’s to the next 50 being as good.