43 Years Young or Is It Old?

How have I changed since moving to England and adding another year to my life? One of the most obvious is that I've added lots of black to my wardrobe. Years ago, my mom insisted I have my colors analyzed (you know check skin tone, eye, natural hair color) I am an 'autumn' which means I look best in colors like burnt orange, mustard yellow, cantelope,teal green, yellow, sienna. (no, these are not Crayola crayons) Black is not one of 'my colors' but it is now - black shirts, jacket, boots, scarf; I'm fitting in over here. Not that they don't wear bright colors because you do see some lively colors but drab is popular here. (I say drab just because I'm totally southernized when it comes to colors.)

Another change is that after 20+ years of frying my hair daily with curlers, I'm going au naturale! The houses here are very dry due to the radiators so my hair was becoming quite frazzled therefore, I decided to drop the curlers. How fun is that? Every once in a while I pull out the ole curlers or even more shocking, I use AC's hair straightener. Funny thing how fashion changes our perception of what looks 'good'. When I look back through our photo albums and see pictures of my hair, I cringe and ask, "Why did you let me think that looked good? Ugh, it was awful!"

I remember my first perm in 8th grade. We didn't have the money to get a professionally done perm so Mom decided she would do it. (You can already imagine where this is going) We got the 'kit' from Eckerd's, read all of the directions and we were good to go. When Mom was done, I looked like a freak or someone who had stuck their finger in a light socket. I, of course, cried and never wanted to see anyone. It was so frizzy, kinky. (It was the 80's so you get the picture) Anyway, it was so bad my dad sent me flowers to appease the disaster. We should've just used the money from the flowers to pay for a real perm instead. Oh well, I can laugh about it now and it was sweet of my dad to sympathize with me. All that to say, I've gone from 'poofy' to 'flat'. (This picture of me and my brother, David, was from the 80's Farah Fawcet era. I didn't quite look like Farah though I tried with the hair thing.)

I've slowed down a bit because of the schedule change largely from not homeschooling. I've read more which has been nice. I'm more able to sit and 'give a think' as they say here. My family says I'm cooking more but really it's just that I'm cooking more from scratch which is just out of necessity. I communicate more in writing than I ever had time to do. In a new culture, away from what is familiar and comfortable, I'm being stretched which causes growth. I don't ever want to get more 'settled' in my ways and self absorbed which appears to be a natural decline of human nature so being 'uncomfortable' is a good fight against that. It seems that when you can control life or manage it to the point that you don't have to be uncomfortable and stretched, you can get stuck in a rut and think life is all about you.

I suppose I've got more wrinkles and a few more gray hairs to document my new year. Thankfully, I am content where I am and that makes each day brighter. The Lord has been exceedingly gracious to me this year and I feel and see the effects.

Thank you for the thoughtful cards, emails, gifts and phone calls wishing me, "Many happy returns of the day" as Pooh would say. It was indeed.