Sixty Things About Me

Now I am sixty. 

The ladies in our family gathered this week to celebrate Kristin's 40th and my 60th birthdays. It was such a special day! We all went out to lunch, then came back to our house to continue the celebration with a game, gifts, and birthday cake. Good times . . . lots of laughs . . . lots of love! 

I have not dreaded this milestone birthday in the least, and I have no qualms about anyone knowing my age. I feel that every year, every day, is a gift from the Lord. So, even though there are definitely more limitations as the years fly by, there are also different opportunities and I hope to serve Him with all of my allotted days. 

For my sixty years, I thought it would be fun to tell you sixty things about me. Some are inconsequential. Some extremely important. Some you probably already know if you're a Thinking About Home reader. Some are little known facts. 😊

Here goes . . . 

1. I have had a baby in four different decades of my life. (I had my first baby when I was 19, eleven days before my twentieth birthday, another in my twenties, another in my thirties, and my fourth when I was 40!)
2. I would rather clean bathrooms than go grocery shopping.
3. I love seafood (but not oysters).
4. I have lived in seven houses.
5. I am 5 feet, 8 inches tall.
6. I homeschooled my four children over a period of 28 years.
7. One of my favorite activities is antiquing.
8. Another is having a long chat with a good friend.
9. I am often almost always late.
10. I hated field day in elementary school. I would much rather have been in the classroom. (Weird, I know.)
11. My favorite color is red.
12. I married at age 17. (I turned 18 a few days later, but Ron's good friend/best man would have been back in college by that time.)
13. I have recently found that Walmart grocery pickup is my jam.
14. I wear makeup every day. (Unless I am dreadfully ill.) 
15. I fight with my hair. It is thick and has just enough curl to be annoying, but not enough to let it do its thing.
16. I always wanted to be a mom.
17. I never wanted to be a nurse.
18. For years, I asked for a pig for my birthday. 
19. I don't know one car from another. I call an SUV a "van thing" and I have no idea what anyone drives. So if you don't have a bumper sticker or a noticeable dent, I probably won't know who you are when you pull into my driveway. 
20. I enjoy cooking more than baking.
21. I am a procrastinator.
22. My first airplane flight was at age 47. 
23. I am not a good traveler. 
24. I taught myself to sew at age 8 and proceeded to outfit my Barbies. 
25. I make a cheesecake every Christmas. 
26. My first grade teacher called me The Poky Puppy.
27. I loved school. 
28. I cried the first day I could not go to school because I was sick.
29. I cried the first day my teacher was absent from school.
30. I cried the day that there was tomato soup for school lunch. (Weird little kid, huh?)
31. I am a cat person.
32. I am a house person.
33. I have had a lifelong struggle with time management.
34. I can't kill a cricket (can't stand the crunch ~shudder~ ) but I can sweep them outside. 
35. I don't like milk.
36. I love to sing my praise to the Lord! Hymns are my favorite. (And I have several "favorite" hymns. How can you choose just one?) 
37. One of my favorite passages in the Bible is Psalm 90. (Again, I have several "favorites." How can you choose just one?)
38. I miss homeschooling. 
39. I will do almost anything to get out of making a phone call. And I say ridiculous things on answering machines . . . not on purpose. 
40. Autumn is the season that makes my heart sing. (But you knew that, didn't you?)
41. Does anyone love the Rodgers and Hammerstein Cinderella as much as I do? ~swoon~
42. I am the kiss of death to plants.
43. I was once eyeball-to-eyeball with a snake who got in my house. (Would you like to hear my snake story sometime? I can talk about it now.)
44. I have lived in Maryland all of my life.
45. I love lists.
46. I admire a pretty yard. I desire a pretty yard. But I hate yard work.
47. I love candles . . . food scents like cinnamon or orange or carrot cake, but not florals. 
48. I have a ginormous collection of paper napkins, and a decent collection of cloth napkins. I can't help myself. 
49. I don't remember the first time I met Ron.
50. I have a fear of heights. 
51. Math was one of my favorite subjects, but it was one of my least favorite subjects to teach.
52. I didn't go on to take French IV in high school because I didn't know who I would sit with at lunch. 
53. I'd rather have lemon pie than a birthday cake. 
54. My favorite childhood book is Heidi.
55. I ♡ Thanksgiving. 
56. My "uniform" is jeans, a pretty top (love black, but also bright colors), and silver hoop earrings.
57. My earliest memory was seeing my new baby sister in her bassinet when I was two years and four months old. Not long after, I picked her up and "burped" her while Mom was hanging something out on the clothesline! 😲 I don't remember that, but I've heard the story so many times that almost feel like I do. (My poor mother!) 
58. We have spent most of our 42 years of marriage remodeling a house. 
59. My dream is to write a children's picture book. 
60. My life was changed by the Gospel when I was 12 years old. I realized that I could not be good on my own, no matter how hard I tried. I accepted Jesus's payment for my sin and He forgave me and made me a new creature in Christ. 

I'd love to learn some new thing about you! If you have the time and inclination, tell me something in the comments!