When I look in the mirror, I wonder who the hell is looking back at me. I don’t know this gray-haired lady! I still don’t see how my hair is gray when I don’t feel old. And I don’t feel old for a lot of reasons, but the main one is that I am still looking forward to so much.

Things that I now have time for don’t seem to be getting done, however, because I’m still concentrating on family. I know that it’s possible to still do other things because I’ve done some of the things on my checklist, but I want to do more of those things – especially travel.

I’ve never been a planner for the future except when I was thinking about my children’s futures. Know that this is not a good plan, because it has drained me of the resources that I should have in order to accomplish travel plans and other stuff.

I don’t regret at all that I have invested in my babies – that will never be the case. I would do it over and over and over again. But I still should have made a better plan for when they became independent and no longer needed me as much.

Not many people concentrate on what comes next until that time actually arrives – I’m talking about death. I know in my heart that it is nothing that I fear but I am going to make every effort to do what I set out to do. If that doesn’t happen, though, I’ll be content in knowing that I did everything I was supposed to do.