Hello, I'm ageing. (And I'm okay)

Happy Halloween if you celebrate. We did a lot for two little munchkins who came to our door last night, but it was fun. Oh Corona, will you just give it a rest?? I think we’re all ready to be finished with you.

But today, drinking coffee in my pjs, I’m thinking about my face.

Can we talk about how I’m looking older? Can I tell you about my choices (which may be different from yours…and that’s okay.)

For me, all the delicious hormones of youth are gone now, and I’m not replacing them. I’m not botoxing. My hair is grey. My skin is a little thinner.

But my heart — my heart is beautiful.

And I’m guessing yours is, too.

Here’s the thing: do you care that my face is getting older? Do you mind that I have a huge teacher-frown-wrinkle on my forehead that shows I’ve listened and concentrated most of my life? Does it bother you that my skin isn’t snapping back to it, that I have age freckles, that all my parts that used to live up north are sliding a little southward?

No, you don’t. I’m sure you don’t.

I’m sure you love my wisdom and my friendship, my recipes and my cheerleading, my insistence that you can age and have fun, be yourself, grow older with grace and focus and energy.

Here’s what I think: I think it’s still worthwhile and important to scrub up and look lovely at every age. I’m all for pretty and FUN and enjoying our lives because, truly, we are all so lucky—despite the ‘hard’ that we all have.

But worrying about all the surface of me that I cannot control is not what I want to do.

I want to spend my last half loving my age. However many more years I get, I want to be comfortable and SHINE LIKE I AM.

If you guys have read The 10 Minute Fix you know that I like the work of Mel Robbins, an American coach, lawyer and speaker. She wrote this and I wanted to share (you can find her at melrobbins.com).

She’s right.

In my life, I feel proud of who I’ve become…and the people who matter to me really don’t mind one bit that I’m looking older. (If you’re one of the many beautiful strangers here who haven’t had coffee with me at my kitchen table — do you mind that I’m well and truly 54, and very unlike Nicole Kidman’s 53? Didn’t think so.)

Oh, yes, sometimes there’s this little voice in my head that says I have to convince people that I’ve still “got it” whatever IT is. But the truth talks a lot louder than that.

Truth is: we are here right now. We’re lucky for every day that adds a fine line to our faces. And I’m not going to spend one single moment worrying about whether this age, my age, is less beautiful than the last.

Let’s live it up, and love our age together…whatever that looks like for me and for you.

Catherine x

PS.

• Hello to all the new people this week! You’re so welcome here in my little corner of the internet.

• Like my sunnies?? Oh you guys, I’m starting to feel like a micro-influencer when I tell you where I got this and that…and honestly no one has asked me about them but I think they’re cute. Now I’m laughing at myself!! If you want to know, I bought them at H&M for $12 (current season). Similar here on amazon.

Back To Basics

Friends, if you’re not an egg person, look away now.

But if you are, do you remember these little gems that graced buffet tables in the 1960s and 70s when I was a kid? If you’re looking for a protein-packed snack for you or your family during lockdown — which feels a lot like “Snackdown” in our house — maybe it’s time to get back to basics.

Devilled eggs are super easy to make. I’m also aware that many families are watching their spending just now, so I hope this simple recipe helps you. You’re on my mind…and in my heart, too.

• Boil eggs.

• Cool, then peel.

• Slice in half. Put yolks in a bowl.

• Use a hand blender to mix yolks with mayonnaise and mustard, salt and pepper.

• I add finely chopped red onion and top with a sprig of coriander.

There are so many fancy recipes on the internet, and I’m not claiming mine is the best. I don’t measure anything but just kind of guesstimate the ingredients.

But here’s the best tip for filling.

Use a ziplock bag to pipe filling into the eggs. It’s disposable, easy to use, and gives a perfectly fine result. In fact, I think mine look better than those frilly piped eggs. More appetising and fresh, somehow, and less like they were made seven hours prior.

Just scoop all the filling into a ziplock, clip a wide corner from the bag and fill up those eggs. Don’t bother with a pastry bag and piping ends. Too hard to clean.

Imperfection is okay! Today I’m inviting you to just give it a whirl…whatever that “it” is.

Happy Friday, everyone.

The weekend is on the way! Hope you and yours are doing okay. I’m thinking of you.

Love, Catherine x

PS.

• Can’t wait to see you again on Sunday with some news I’ve wanted to share! I blog twice a week at Love Our Age. You are welcome to come see what I’ve been up to.

This One Is Personal...

It’s my birthday weekend.

As an aside, this is what 54 looks like on me. No make-up on yet, and early in the morning! I don’t pole dance like Jennifer Lopez and you wouldn’t want to watch me perform at the Super Bowl halftime show (ha!). I do some basic weights and lots of walking. I appreciate and love all the variations and choices of other women for them. Personally, I choose not to colour my hair or use botox. I like to be on Team Natural and my favourite add-ons are perfume and fun rings.

(You do you! Love it! I’ll do me! Love it!) I find all women’s choices inspiring and intriguing.

But the real point of my photo is this: I am at a cross roads. This is my year to make a simple decision.

Do I go all in and back myself, or not?

Advance with what I love, or retreat?

Can you relate to this? It would be so easy — so natural — to slow down now and live in my world of what has always been.

• To stay settled into the same career and same routines.

• To drift into next year.

• To believe it’s too hard to create something new.

• To stop learning.

But we have so much life left. We do! Look back at the last five years, from 2015 until now, and think about all you’ve done in those 1,825 days.

In the next five years, we will get 43,800 hours.

Is it time for all of us to get a whole lot louder, and take up more space?

Yes, I have a million voices arguing in my head about my lack of expertise, my imperfect work, my faults (many), my blind spots (also many). Do you have those voices, too?

But I have new things I want to do.

Next weekend I’m going to share a surprise — something new I’ve been working on. I’m really hoping for your support.

I wish you were here to chat about it, and we could all encourage each other to step out into our Great Unknowns.

So there you have it: happy birthday to me.

This year, I’m giving myself the gift of backing myself and being my own best friend. I hope you will, too.

Let’s love our age (together),

Catherine x

PS.

• Beautiful flowers from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law! Pearl necklace from my dear friend and blog reader, Jen. Lovely cake from my stylish friend, Jules. Thank you all for spoiling me rotten this year. I loved every second.

• A reader asked for my gluten free, no bake brownie recipe. These are so delicious. Cut into tiny squares and enjoy a small sweet treat!

Be Fun To Live With

Well, here’s a big question for us all.

Ready?

It’s confronting.

We lose sight of this so easily. Every single day, we have the choice to approach our worlds with joy, and often we’re lost in our worries.

This week, heading out to wine and cheese on a friend’s deck overlooking the Aussie bush at dusk, it would have been just as easy NOT to be fun. Instead, another friend suggested we wear our pink wigs to the door.

Such a tiny thing, and it brought so much laughter.

It makes me wonder this: why do we default into little lives? Why — when it takes hardly any planning, and very little money and almost no extra effort — do we forget to be FUN?

It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten that fun is an option. But there it is, waiting for us to get creative.

Fun transforms us into better versions of ourselves. Oh, yes, there will be teens rolling their eyes and maybe grumbling, but it’s a risk worth taking.

Being fun is not just ‘having fun.’ There’s a difference.

It’s Friday in Australia. The weekend is calling to us all. Can we be more fun to live with today?

Let’s live in joy…and love our age.

Catherine x

PS. Celebrities, pole dancing, comparison, being fifty, authenticity, building businesses and more — I had a fun conversation with Merilyn on her podcast, Lead Your Day. You can listen here!