8 Ways I’m Accepting Being Midlife and Midperfect

Until the past few weeks, I have really refused to admit I was in mid life. Not sure why, just was in a bit of denial. But, with the kids going back to college and probably never really coming home again; spending a lot of time with my family; and having conversations with some friends my age, I have come to grips with where I am in life.

With this realization came another; that I am also midperfect. How do I define midperfect? Somewhere between just surviving and perfection. One might think that after half your life, you would be near perfect, but that would be boring. Imagine knowing it all. Imagine not having room to learn anything new. And, I mean really imagine having nothing for your partner to complain about…BORING.

So, as I venture into accepting this midlife and midperfect stage, I am trying 8 things:

1. 1. Time with my husband – It has come to a point in our lives that we have spent the past 19 years raising two amazing human beings. Don’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of raising to do. But, in reality, they are not under our roof and not needing to be driven, fed, and taken care of physically on a daily basis. David has traveled for years or commuted for work, so I spent a lot of time alone with the twins during the week. In reality, this is the first time we have “lived” together all week full-time and it is pretty darn cool. We wake up, walk the dogs, and have breakfast together each morning. He heads off to work and I to my home office or local coffee shop to work. At the end of the day we are back together; alone without carpooling or anything else. We are learning what works in this new part of life and although I do not feel we will ever be perfect at it, we are learning how to enjoy every minute of this new time.
   2. Getting back to basics – I know this sounds weird, right? This is my take. Over the past years of our life, we have had wonderful opportunities to have amazing experiences, but the simple things are sometimes pushed to the side. Taking a weekend and hiking; taking a long weekend to explore a nearby city; or just hitting up the local festivals and events. In just a few weeks, we are headed off for a long weekend in Boulder to hang out, hike, fish and just be. We are getting back to the basics.
   3. Eating even better – When I bring this up to people they think we are crazy, but in reality there is so much better I could be doing. I took some time when we moved to Omaha from making my own yogurt and other foods, because I was not able to source what I needed. I am going to find my vendors and get it done. I also already started to to eliminate the rest of the supplements, like making Kombucha for probiotics.
   4. Adding Essential Oils to our lives – I am so excited about this. Over the years, I have dappled in essential oils, trying this and that for this and that and really liked them. I have spent the past few weeks doing a ton of research and when we return from our current trip, I’m exited to enhance our lives with even more essential oils.
   5. Eliminating the unnecessary from our lives – We are cleaning out in so many ways. This is not just for things, but stuff we do that we don’t need to. Eliminate the negative and eliminate the unnecessary.
   6. More travel – This goes without saying. Travel to see my kids, my family, and for adventure. I want to once again dive more into food and culture travel. I want others to also travel through my adventures.
   7. Finding center – This will be the biggest challenge for me. I have spent 19 years and more doing for others, not allowing myself to find center. I was too busy doing for others to allow myself to do for myself. This is what has always made me happy and I realized this was my own choice. But, now that there are just two in our home, I have no excuse but to allow myself to center and do for myself. I plan on getting back to yoga, learning how to meditate, and after my trip to China, I am going to start Tai Chi. Tai Chi at the Tai Hu Home with Mandarin Journey (Add link) caused me to reflect deeply on myself. I realized that after my 2 hour class, I felt as though I knew what being centered actually felt like. But, when the class finished, the feeling went away.
   8. Spending more time with my nieces and nephews – The only regret that I have – and I mean only – about moving so much, was that we were not near family. But that being said, I would have never given up the opportunities we have had as a foursome to be in one spot. We have always been fortunate enough to jump on a plane when we wanted to visit family. But, due to life, the time was not as often as I wanted. So, now that the twins are not home, I am going to be “That Aunt”. Sorry if you all don’t want it, but I am going to do it…

So, as they say “There is no better time than the present”. This midlifer, who is enjoying being midperfect, is about to embark on her next adventure…Join me?

Dana Zucker

I am a home cook that does things my way. In my kitchen, I make breakfast, pack lunches, prepare snacks, and cook dinner. During the week, we eat real food that is homemade, organic, and local. On the weekends we do explore more of our local restaurants. I bake my own bread, juice fresh oranges every other day, and make my own kombucha and other weekly favorites.