Category: 40-Something
-

Blog Relaunch
Welcome to Family5Power – Tales from a Mid-Life Mama! If you are still a subscriber, thank you for sticking around! If you are a first time visitor, please join me in this new adventure. The photo on the left was my WordPress icon for many years (my youngest daughter), writing…
-

Life Shifts Continue…🎃
I vividly remember driving to work a year and a half ago, starting my first day back into what I term the “business-work-force”. After 20 years as an adjunct professor, raising three children and getting them into college, I was looking forward to taking a much-needed long, deep breath, expecting…
-

5 Days. 4 Nights. No Phone.
For the first time ever, I decided to use a random passcode for my phone. Let me first say that I’ve only recently even started to use a passcode. I often leave my phone on my desk at work and colleagues have begun wandering in while I’m not in my…
-

Impromptu Bonfire🔥
When I arrived home after an 11-hour day at work last week, my husband was burning wood he had recently chopped in the back of our land. The fire looked so inviting, I ate dinner, went back outside and sat by the flames, still in my work clothes. My oldest…
-

Empty and Barren. Full and Bountiful.
During a recent walk at the park, I stopped to stare at these trees, contemplating how the two different trees reflect people’s lives. Or, at least resemble differing seasons in their lives. One person can be the empty, impoverished, stark tree – yet, they work, travel, parent and operate in…
-

Could Libraries Make a Come Back?
As someone who still loves to hold a hardcover book and turn paper pages, I can’t help but wonder if libraries could make a real comeback. Two situations have caused me to ponder this lately. 1) What today’s college students think is “research” makes me cringe when I’m grading papers.…
-

My Love/Hate Relationship with Remote Work
Unless there is another extension here in New York, we’re expected to return to the physical premises of work on May 18th. While I have enjoyed many blessings during this time working from home, it will be good to return to the office. This is quite a statement because 1)…
-

And So She Flew….
This blog has been quiet lately, but my nest has not been. My just-turned-23-year-young daughter (one of the twins) landed the kind of job we’ve been praying for since graduation last May. I rejoiced alongside her four weeks ago that God answered our prayers BIG, but was stunned that the…
-

Becoming Mrs. Lewis
One of the statements I kept on my Mama Duck About Me page for a long time was that I’m a non-fiction reader. Every now and then, I pick up a fiction novel but in the past, it was usually to preview a story before my kids read it. After…
-

If Sitting is the New Smoking…
Then I must be up to three packs a day. Since beginning my new job this past Spring, I have felt terribly restricted. The amount of time I spend sitting is outrageous. Driving to work. Sitting in my office. Meetings. Driving home from work…in traffic – delaying me in my…
-

A Wedding. In a Castle. In Scotland🏴.
Well, it was everything you could imagine a fairy tale wedding would include: stunning countryside, a Scottish castle that exceeded our already-high expectations, very moving vows and a bride that her Mama would have been proud of. If you didn’t read the introduction to this destination wedding/vacation with an important…
