Midlife Women

Issues, interests and inspiration for midlife women. Aging parents, adult children, grandchildren, travel, midlife reinvention, health & fitness, recipes, entertainment.

Favorite Podcasts That Motivate and Inspire

Midlife Women

6 Podcasts That Motivate And Inspire

I love PODCASTS that motivate and inspire me! I listen to them all the time. When I am getting ready in the morning. When I am doing chores. When I am driving. They stimulate me with their ideas and inspire me to be all God created me to be. They challenge me to think in new ways. They entertain me and sometimes give me a chuckle or two.

These days, I mostly listen to podcasts that feed me spiritually, inspire me as a midlife woman or teach me something about my passion – blogging! And this week, I actually was INTERVIEWED for my favorite podcast for midlife women – Midlife Schmidlife with host, Liz Applegate. In this episode, I talk about the loss of my parents last year, the start of this blog and the fun and adventure of trying new things when you are 50+. What an exciting time of life this is! You can listen here.

6 Podcasts That Motivate and Inspire

[bctt tweet=”My interview on #midlifeschmidlife on loss, being brave and learning new things after 50.” username=”mysideof50.com”]

On Midlife Schmidlife, Liz talks to women about the midlife transition and reinvention many go through at this time in their lives. It runs the gamut – exploring passions and pursuing a new career, telling yourself the truth and not being afraid are common themes. The women interviewed are real-life women like you and me and their stories are inspirational and hopeful.

One Verse Devotional

These 5-minute devotionals by Matt McCarrick focus on one Bible verse a day. There is always some great nugget to chew on and apply. Matt presents in a conversational way. I don’t fell like he is talking “to” me. Rather I feel like I’m in the middle of a conversation with someone who is presenting his understanding of the Bible in a way that is humble and engaging. If I don’t have time for anything else, I can listen to this one while I brush my teeth – which most of the time I do!

Daily Radio Program with Charles Stanley

Dr. Charles Stanley has a warm and engaging way of teaching the Bible. He doesn’t always tell you what your want to hear, but he tells you the truth – just like your Dad would. In fact, when he wants to make a point, he often says “Now listen to me.”, which is what my own Dad used to say to me. Maybe that’s why I like him so much.

Daily Hope with Rick Warren

Rick Warren is the author of the bestseller, The Purpose Driven Life. These excerpts from his sermons at Saddleback Church in California feature Rick breaking down Biblical truths in a way that is easy to understand. Rick always offers a practical way to implement these truths, which I appreciate.

I Teach Blogging

Renee Groskreutz is a WordPress and Blogging Guru. I have learned about all aspects of blogging from her – the technical side, about WordPress, SEO, content, social media – literally everything. I listened to her podcast even before I started my blog. She teaches in a way that is easy to understand for the beginner. Yet a blogger with any amount of experience can learn much.

Create If Writing

Writer and Blogger, Kirsten Oliphint teaches from her many years of experience as first a writer and then a blogger. Topics such as building your list, finding your audience, and the creative process of writing are some of the topics that you’ll find on this podcast. Kirsten also shares about mistakes she has made in this blogging journey. One of my favorite episodes is the one where she shares $1300 worth of mistakes she made in 2015! She communicates with humor and honesty.

Do you listen to podcasts? What are your favorites? Tell me in the comments. I’m always looking for new ones.

July 31, 2016 55 comments

Midlife Women

The Gift of Midlife Girlfriends

I’ve spent the last two weekends with some midlife girlfriends. The first group I had known for 40 years. They were my college sorority sisters and we were together for our bi-annual reunion.

The second group, I didn’t know at all, other than through social media and their blogs. They were the women who attended the Bloggers at Mid-Life Conference in Las Vegas.

The Gift of Midlife Girlfriends

These events reminded me of why I enjoy my girlfriends, both old and new on this side of 50.

I’m inspired by their stories. You don’t reach this side of 50 without experiencing some pain, hard knocks & rough times, be it the death of a loved one, divorce, financial problems or getting fired.

There is a certain transparency that comes at this stage of life. We are past the point of caring so much what others think and don’t mind sharing the joy and pain of our experiences.”

We have empathy.

We aren’t so competitive, so it’s a thrill to be able to encourage and root for each other to succeed.
We’re resilient. Many of us had survived the “worst thing that can happen” (at least the worst thing as we would have defined it in our 20’s) and come out the other side stronger and more determined. It has made us who we are.

We are less judgmental. Gone is the black and white thinking of our youth. We don’t say “I would never…” very much anymore.

But the things we DO know, we KNOW – to the core of our being.

We are diverse – single, married, divorced, widowed, mothers, grandmothers. We differ in our political & religious views, how we dress, whether or not we color our hair. The desire to “fit in” with the crowd often is dwarfed by the desire to just be ourselves.

Being with my women friends is one of the things that makes this side of 50 the best time of life!

What do you value in your relationships with YOUR girlfriends?

“We make a choice in how we approach aging.” – Walker Thornton

“Aging is not lost youth, but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” – Betty Friedan

Southwestern University Tri Delta Pledge Class

Members of my Tri Delta Pledge Class in 1979. I’m on the top row on the right.

Southwestern University Tri Delta Reunion 2016

Tri Delta Reunion 2016. Photo by Laurie Heath Images. I’m sitting on the bottom row wearing red pants.

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April 18, 2016 69 comments

Midlife Women

15 Things to Do When You Can’t Sleep

Things to Do When You Wake Up in the Middle of the Night

15 Things to Do When You Can’t Sleep

A common problem that many of us face on this side of 50 is insomnia. That is what I have been dealing with lately and I know many of you suffer from it too. I know this because I see you liking and commenting on Facebook posts at all hours of the night!

Can’t Fall Asleep Insomnia

There are two kinds – the kind where you absolutely CANNOT fall asleep, for which there are all kinds of totally unrealistic remedies:

Turn off the TV and get off your iPad, phone and computer. And do what, I might ask?
Limit caffeine. Makes sense, but I do love a cup of coffee after dinner.
Limit alcohol. What? No evening glass of wine?

Can’t Fall BACK to Sleep Insomnia

I don’t suffer from the can’t fall asleep kind of insomnia. I fall asleep about two minutes after I turn on a TV show or start reading a book. I have the wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back to sleep to save my life kind of insomnia.

WITHOUT FAIL at 3 a.m., nature calls or a cat decides I need to get up. I make my way to the bathroom without turning on a light then stumble back to bed, followed by:

Getting a drink from the water jug by my bed because for some reason I am dehydrated.
My lips are dry, so I feel around in the dark to find my Chapstick.
I am wide awake by then and turn on the light to get out my Lavender essential oil and find the Melatonin.
Take off my socks to put the Lavender oil on the bottoms of my feet.
Lay back down on my left side.
Curse the cats for waking me up.
Roll onto my right side.
Stick one leg out from under the covers.
Put the leg back under the covers.
Curse my husband for breathing in such a way that I can hear him.
Curse my husband because he can sleep anytime, anywhere and nothing wakes him up.
Rearrange the pillows.
Try to read on my iPad.
Watch Netflix on my iPad
Lay on my back and try to FOCUS on going to sleep – yeah, like that works.

By this time, it’s 4 a.m., so I usually just get up and have a cup of coffee. Rarely do I fall back to sleep.

So, since I am exhausted, I’m going to let others from the Blogosphere do the work this week. Seriously, I have found some great posts that you’re going to like.

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

From Around the Blogosphere

3 Ways to Clean a Cast Iron Skillet from the Pioneer Woman

I LOVE Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman. I DVR her cooking show. I bought 5 of her cookbooks to give as Christmas gifts. Her line of dishes and bakeware is lovely. She seems like someone who could just be your best friend.

I have a cast iron skillet that I love to cook with, but wasn’t sure I was taking care of it properly so . Now I know.

This article on Caring for Aging Parents called When You Don’t Think Your Sibling is Providing Adequate Care to Your Elderly Parents.

On this side of 50, if your parents are still living, you will likely be involved in caregiving at some point. You may be in the middle of it already.

This is a good article on ways that you and your siblings, given your proximity to your parents and your individual situations can pitch in and work together.

One book that I found to be very helpful was:

Excellent Resource for those taking care of aging parents.

How to Care for Aging Parents, 3^rd Edition: A One-Stop Resource for All Your Medical, Financial, Housing, and Emotional Issues.

This book covers EVERYTHING and it is in an easy to use format. You don’t have to read the whole thing. It’s divided into sections that you can refer to for wherever you are on the journey.

2 Months as a Blogger

After almost two months into the blogging journey, I can’t thank you all enough for actually READING this blog and for your kind and generous feedback. I am overwhelmed.

Here are two ways you can help me grow my readership:

Subscribing to the newsletter here

One primary way that bloggers can earn the income needed to support their site is to attract the interest of potential advertisers. The more newsletter subscribers you have the better.

And it’s not just about helping support this blog. I have some exciting plans for subscriber only benefits coming up soon!

Share posts

that you like on any of your social media channels. If you like them, chances are your friends will too! There are “share” buttons at the top and bottom of each post.

PS – If you subscribe here – watch your inbox. There is one more step. You have to click a link in that e-mail confirming that you want this blog in newsletter form delivered to your inbox.

AND I never share your information with anyone and WON’T SPAM YOU.

Thanks for reading, subscribing, sharing and commenting on mysideof50!

January 20, 2016 50 comments

Midlife Women

Grace and Peace

It all started a couple of months ago. I was feeling:

Fat
Undisciplined
Like I couldn’t “get it together”
Selfish
Unproductive
Like I wasn’t doing enough FOR God – serving enough, worshipping enough, praying enough.

I was feeling bad about myself and sorry for myself. What a loser. Well, being a loser and feeling bad is a problem that MUST BE FIXED NOW! So to fix it, I decided I would DO SOMETHING FOR GOD. I would serve somebody in some way. So I signed up for the first service project I could find at my church.

Immediately I regretted it. I just wasn’t feeling it. Could it be that God really didn’t need me to do something for Him with the motivation of making myself feel better? Or perhaps I was still to be in this “season of rest” He had given me, that at times could be very uncomfortable.

Cut to my Bible reading that morning. In the first chapter of Colossians it said:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father.

Grace and Peace.

God extends his grace to me. I don’t have to perform. I don’t have to do a certain amount of anything – serving, worshipping, praying, reading the Bible, having a “quiet time”. I don’t have look, eat or feel a certain way. There are no hoops to jump through. Through Jesus, God extends grace to me. I can be at peace. I am at peace with Him.

Grace and Peace. I breathed in those words in like someone who hadn’t taken a breath in a very long time. I’ve heard these words for years. But it has taken getting to this side of 50 to start to believe and embrace them.

I haven’t been into Christmas this year. But as we get closer and I think about the birth of Jesus, I am reminded that He is the ultimate symbol of Grace and Peace.

He came from Heaven, was born into this world with all it’s problems and lived as a man. He never sinned. He modeled love and compassion. Then died on the cross for our sins.

He pursued us. Extended grace. The sacrifice of His life giving us peace with God.

So there you have it.

Grace and Peace.

The perfect gift from God.

And what a gift it is.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!

How are you trying to “do” more for God? In what areas do you need to remember that God extends grace and peace to you?

December 24, 2015 2 comments

Midlife Women

I’m Not Decorating For Christmas

I’m not decorating for Christmas. Well, that is not entirely true. I did put up a tree. And thanks to my daughter, Amy, I have a beautiful Christmas wreath, mantel and door decorations. But this year, I decided that I would stop there and not put out the nativity scenes, Santas, snowmen, nutcrackers and other assorted decorations that I have collected over the years.

I’m not decorating for Christmas

On Sunday, my husband, Tony, dutifully went up to the attic and pulled all the Christmas boxes down. I put up the tree and decorated it, all the while thinking that it was one big chore. It used to be fun when I had kids at home. We would turn up the Christmas carols full blast and get caught up in the spirit and magic of Christmas. But the kids are now grown and on their own. They have their own homes, trees, decorations, and traditions. And that’s a GOOD thing!

I mentioned to Tony that decorating the tree wasn’t fun anymore since the kids were gone. Being the good guy that he is, he said, “I will help you. “ Uh, no. Tony’s contribution to the decorations has always been to make sure the tree was perfectly level (Did I mention he’s an engineer?) and to hang the outside lights. I couldn’t imagine he would relish spending time hanging tiny, fragile ornaments on a tree or that I would be able to let him do it the wrong – his way.

After assembling the tree, I was going to unpack the rest of the decorations, but thought the better of it when I remembered that I had an interior decorator coming the next week to help me with some re-decorating I planned to begin after the holidays. I wanted to leave the house pretty much as it was so that she could see it in its usual “un-Christmas” state.

So… I took the remaining decorations and put them in the guest room closet, fully intending to get them out after the decorator came. They are still there. And I don’t miss having them out one bit. So this year, they are staying in the boxes.

It’s not that I don’t like Christmas or beautiful decorations. I have friends who spend days decorating their homes for Christmas. They hire professional help to put up the tree. They LOVE everything about the process. And I LOVE going to their beautiful homes and taking it all in.

It’s just that decorating for Christmas at this point in my life is not that much fun and not that important to me. I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

I think on this side of 50, we need to look at where we spend our time and try to spend it on things that we find enjoyable and meaningful. Lord knows there is enough stuff we HAVE to do everyday that is not particularly fun or meaningful (laundry, cleaning up cat puke & unloading the dishwasher are on my list). It is OK to put aside the things we don’t like that we don’t HAVE to do.

So, sometimes being brave is letting go of the things you’ve always done or the way you’ve always done them, or what you think other people expect you to do to make room for something new.

[bctt tweet=”Sometimes being brave is letting go of the things we’ve always done to make room for something new.” username=”MySideof50″]

Do you have any holiday “must haves” or “must dos” that need to fall by the wayside?

[bctt tweet=”Do you have any holiday must-do’s that need to fall by the wayside?” username=”MySideof50″]

Maybe it’s not getting out the good china that has to be hand washed and instead getting some really nice plastic, disposable plates from Party City.
Or not making your mom’s creamed onions because no one at your Christmas dinner will eat them anyway.
Or putting all your gifts in bags and not spending time wrapping them and crafting beautiful bows.
Or maybe it’s the gift exchange among the adults in your family in general. Have you ever wanted to take that money and make a contribution in their honor to a charity?

Or if you just LOVE doing all that we associate with Christmas – the cooking, baking, decorating and shopping – think about what other things you can let go of for this the month of December so that you can fully enjoy and embrace all that this season has to offer.

Whatever it is, be brave. Try something new. Let go of what doesn’t serve you well anymore. On this side of 50 (or at any time for that matter), it’s OK.

You Might Also Like:

Action Plan To Beat Holiday Stress

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December 7, 2015 45 comments

Midlife Women

Trying Something New

Welcome to my “something new” – the first blog post on MySideof 50!

My name is Cathy Lawdanski and I am a 50 something wife, mother of 2 grown daughters and a “Gaga” to precious grandkids, Parker and Madeline.

I have been a teacher, stay-at-home mom, volunteer and for the past 20 years, a non-profit executive.

In 2015, I experienced some pretty dramatic life changes. Here’s the short version:

In January, my 82-year-old mother had a stroke that resulted in her passing in February. My 90-year-old father was still living on his own, but was becoming increasingly frail and in need of more assistance. In June, I quit my job in the non-profit arena to help care for him. A month later, he broke his hip and passed away in September. Whew….to say that was a tough nine months is an understatement.

Since Dad died, I’ve spent the last few months discovering the true meaning of rest and recovery. For me, that has been catching up on sleep, watching lots of TV and just focusing on my health. I’ve been cooking and eating good food, enjoying the tough workouts and friends at my Crossfit Box, running and taking yoga classes.

I had decided to give myself until the first of the year to grieve and rest, then go back to work at a non-profit. But in the midst of all this rest and self-care, I realized that I had been given the gift of time – time to reflect and think. I came to the realization that as much as I loved working for a non-profit and the people who work in that field, I didn’t really want to pursue that career path anymore.

So I decided to go in a completely different direction. I decided to be a BLOGGER. Something I had never done and didn’t have a clue about. Something creative. I’ve been working on this for several months. There’s a lot more to it than I thought.

It’s scary. Putting yourself out there and trying something new is kind of uncomfortable. The technical side of this is totally out of my wheelhouse. In fact, when this is posted, everything on the blog will probably not be in working order just yet. That’s another whole new thing for me – putting something out there that is not completely READY.

But on this side of 50, I am ready to just go for it. Create. Try something new. Be willing to do something that is not perfect. BE BRAVE.

So, I hope you’ll join me on this journey. I’m excited to learn how to be a better writer, how to create and manage a blog and how to take some great pictures. I’m going to share my life with you – new experiences, recipes I try, random thoughts and pictures of my grandchildren, because what’s the use of having a blog if you can’t post pictures of your grandchildren?

Friends have asked me – can you make money blogging? I know there are people who do. I hope to have a great blog that people value and that will result in compensation. But for me, that is not the point.

The point is conversation with you – the reader. Sharing our lives, experiences and information that is helpful. Things that inspire us. Wisdom we have gained. Maybe a chuckle or two.

So welcome. Thanks for reading. I hope you’ll share MySideof50 with your friends.

In the days to come, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with me in a number of ways. For now, you can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Here’s to trying something new!

December 1, 2015 9 comments

Midlife Women

The Gift of Midlife Girlfriends

Can’t Fall Asleep Insomnia

Can’t Fall BACK to Sleep Insomnia

From Around the Blogosphere

This article on Caring for Aging Parents called When You Don’t Think Your Sibling is Providing Adequate Care to Your Elderly Parents.

One book that I found to be very helpful was:

How to Care for Aging Parents, 3rd Edition: A One-Stop Resource for All Your Medical, Financial, Housing, and Emotional Issues.

2 Months as a Blogger

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I’m not decorating for Christmas

How to Care for Aging Parents, 3^rd Edition: A One-Stop Resource for All Your Medical, Financial, Housing, and Emotional Issues.