In My Mom Era

Forty. Freaking. Years.

How in the hell did THAT happen?! 😂

Forty years.

From making my mom and dad first-time parents to being a mom myself. From being the little girl everyone took along for the ride to being the one loading five kids into the car for our next adventure.

From wearing diapers to changing diapers.

STILL changing diapers, I might add. 🤣

And I’m not going to lie, I am REALLY looking forward to the day I don’t have to buy those damn things anymore. HA!

But here I am. Forty years old.

And what a wonderful, ridiculous, beautiful ride it’s been.

The Childhood That Started It All

I had an awesome childhood.

My dad took me everywhere he went. And so did my mom’s parents, Grandma and Grandpa Beck.

Especially to McDonald’s.

I’m pretty sure I owned every single toy, cup, or random trinket McDonald’s produced between 1988 and 1998. LOL.

My mom even got to tag along sometimes! 😅

I remember playdates with my cousins. Easters at Aunt Rosie and Garnell’s house. Christmas celebrations at the Hearns’ and at Grandma and Grandpa Beck’s.

The extended Klobe family picnic every single year.

Fourth of July fireworks in the backyard.

The kind of childhood memories that don’t necessarily seem extraordinary when you’re living them, but become absolutely priceless as the years go by.

And the funny thing is, when I think about those memories now, it’s not the expensive stuff I remember.

It’s the people.

The places.

The traditions.

The laughter.

The time spent together.

Forty years of memories, and I have absolutely no intention of stopping anytime soon.

Now It’s My Turn

Now, though?

Now I get to bring my own amazing kids along for the ride. 🥰

Five of them, to be exact.

And let me tell you, traveling with five children is not for the faint of heart. LOL.

But we do it anyway.

Adventures. Road trips. Random detours because something caught my eye. Small diners along abandoned highways. Places we’ve never heard of and places we can’t wait to visit again.

The Klobe family picnic that is STILL GOING STRONG!

Christmas celebrations. Easter traditions. Holidays with family.

All those things I grew up loving?

I get to experience them again, but this time through my children’s eyes.

And THAT is something special.

I hope that forty years from now, my kids will be sitting somewhere remembering all the crazy places Mom and Dad dragged them.

The unexpected stops. The long drives. The ridiculous things that happened along the way.

Maybe they’ll even laugh about how their mother couldn’t pass a historical marker, an old bookstore, or an interesting-looking road without wanting to investigate. 😂

I hope they remember that we didn’t always have a lot of money, but we always found something worth doing.

And most importantly, I hope they remember that we did it together.

Twenty Years in Corporate America

I spent twenty years working in Corporate America.

TWENTY. YEARS.

And earlier this year, they let me go.

You know what?

I’m SO glad they did.

Don’t get me wrong. Losing a job after twenty years is a hell of a thing. Especially when you have five kids, bills to pay, and a household to keep running.

But somewhere along the way, I think we get so wrapped up in working, paying bills, and getting through another week that we forget we’re supposed to be LIVING, too.

And life shouldn’t just be about work.

It should be about the memories you make while living it.

I’m not saying we don’t need money. Good Lord, do we need money. 🤣

I don’t have millions of dollars sitting in the bank.

Hell, I don’t have thousands.

We’re living paycheck to paycheck. There are bills I can’t always pay on time. And I do the whole “rob Peter to pay Paul” dance more often than I’d like to admit.

Is it stressful?

Absolutely.

Would I love to wake up tomorrow and never worry about another bill?

YOU BET YOUR ASS I WOULD. 😂

But I refuse to let the things I don’t have keep me from appreciating the things I do.

Because this is still my life.

My wonderfully chaotic, sometimes stressful, frequently hilarious, completely imperfect life.

And I’m enjoying the hell out of it.

So, How Am I Celebrating 40?

No grand plans.

No extravagant birthday vacation.

No big party.

Just a weekend with my kids and a visit with my parents.

There will be a Dairy Queen ice cream cake, because that’s tradition.

And my mom’s chicken enchiladas, because THAT is also tradition. 🥰

Honestly?

That sounds pretty damn perfect to me.

Forty years ago, my parents were just beginning their adventure as Mom and Dad.

And here we are, four decades later, still making memories together.

Only now, there are five more little people joining the fun.

Life really does have a funny way of coming full circle, doesn’t it?

Here’s to the Next Forty

I don’t know what the next forty years will bring.

Hopefully a whole lot more traveling. A whole lot more books. A whole lot more laughter. And a whole lot more time with the people I love.

I’m sure there will be difficult days. There always are.

But there will also be beautiful ones.

And I intend to be there for as many of them as God allows.

I want to keep exploring. Keep learning. Keep finding little bits of magic in ordinary places.

Keep collecting memories instead of waiting for the perfect circumstances to make them.

Because if forty years have taught me anything, it’s that life doesn’t wait until you’ve got everything figured out.

You just have to live it.

So here’s to forty years.

To my parents, who started this whole adventure.

To my grandparents and all the family members who filled my childhood with memories.

To my husband and our five beautiful kids, who make every day an adventure whether I asked for one or not. 🤣

And to all the people, places, and experiences that have made these forty years what they’ve been.

I wouldn’t trade them.

Well, maybe a few of the bills. HA!

If you’re reading this, thank you for being here. 😊

God bless.

Kelly

I’M ME. 💜