Celebrating 60 Something

One of the great things about being sixty-something is that we have more freedom to travel.  Although being retired might mean living on a fixed income, if you plan carefully you can experience that dream vacation without it costing "an arm and a leg!" There are great ways to save money, and still have a fabulous trip!  And when you travel with friends, you can share many of the expenses making your cost even less!

Julia and Robbie have had a lot of great travel adventures together.  They have also traveled with other friends, for work, and sometimes, even with their husbands, and they have learned a lot!  They have been to many places in the US, Puerto Rico, South America, The Caribbean, Southeast Asia, the South Pacific, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.   Some travel was for work but most of it was for fun!  Well, let's be real, all of it was for fun!  Work or not. 

They have garnered a plethora of travel tips along the way and these two traveling tipsters are anxious to share what they have learned!  For instance, wouldn't you like to know why it is important to specify your reason for a trip, and what your expectations are?  Do you want to know which sites are best for booking air travel?  Should you stay in an AirBnB or is a hotel better?  What about trip insurance, is it necessary, or not really?   This, and so much more is on this week's podcast, The Two Traveling Tipsters!

Spoiler alert!  The two traveling tipsters have so much to share that they have split their talk time into two, podcasts!  You won't want to miss Two Traveling Tipsters, Part 2, either!

Every day in this country an estimated 221 people die from a drug overdose, and another 6,748 are treated in emergency rooms.  Drug overdose is now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, outstripping traffic fatalities and gun homicides.  And every year it gets worse.  

Amber experienced every mother's worst nightmare when her daughter, Kenzie, died from a heroin overdose the day after Christmas in 2013.  Overcome with depression Amber spent most of her time in bed until one day when everything changed.  Amber has become a tireless advocate for addiction education and raising awareness that overdose deaths are preventable. 

From her greatest loss came her deepest passion.  

Mary Robinson is the mother of two children and grandmother to seven grandchildren.  She and her husband Mark have been married for 47 years and live in Southern Utah.

At the age of sixty Mary decided to go back to school and finish her degree in Communications.  She graduated at age 63, Suma Cum Laude, no less, from Utah Valley University, and it was during her school journey, that Mary developed the desire to become a life-long learner. She developed a plan and chose, at that time, to learn all she could about Islam.  She has read over sixty books on the subject and has come to love and respect the people who follow Mohamad.  She has visited Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestine in her quest to know and understand the people and their devotion to Islam.  

Mary is devoted to learning throughout her life, and although Islam may not be on the front burner right now, she continues to study and grow. She has been the Chair of several boards and served on many prestigious committees. She says women in their sixties most definitely can go back to school and not only keep up, but do better than the general student population, because they have had rich life experiences and are not worried about dating, roommates and all the other things that occupy the minds of 20 somethings.  Mary tells listeners to just “Go for it!”

Things as they happened in the past, and things as they are now, are facts.  They are not good or bad, they are just neutral.  They are facts.  But the thoughts we have about these facts are what cause us pain in our lives.  We give meaning to those facts according to the thoughts we have about them.  And our thoughts control our feelings and our feelings control our actions.  So learning how to control our thoughts actually allows us to feel better, and act better.  Now who doesn't want to know how to do that?
I am so excited to have Kami Satterlee, a certified life coach working on her master certification under the famed life coach, Jody Moore, with me on this podcast!  Besides being an amazing life coach, she is an amazing wife and a busy mom to four rambunctious kids.  She is smart, talented, funny, compassionate, and very driven, and might I add, my beautiful daughter! 

Do you have a dream?  Maybe it's a dream you have had for a long time or, maybe it is a new dream.  A dream can be anything!  
Because we are women, we are caregivers by nature.  We always take care of those around us and sometimes our own dreams go unfilled.  Well, pull that dream out of the drawer!  Life is a cup to be filled right up until the very last minute! I hope we will all look back on our lives seeing dreams that were fulfilled and goals that were accomplished.  I hope we look back with joy and not regret.  
Finish college, write a book run a 5K, learn to watercolor, hike Kilimanjaro, get healthy, lose that weight, travel to Paris, start a business or maybe even do a podcast!
Where there is a will there is a way.  So have a dream in your heart, a plan in your head and a hop in your step.  You are still fulfilling your dreams!

Today's topic is so important but, just hearing the word will make some of you moan and groan.  So, we will replace "that word" with another word... activity! 
The word "activity," as defined on the internet, means the situation in which a lot of things are happening, or people are moving around.  Well, that could mean anything, right?  Which is exactly the point.  ANY "activity" counts as exercise!  So grab your partner and go dancing, or bring a friend and learn to play pickleball, paddle a canoe, go for a walk, hike, bike ride, or play a round of golf. 
"Activity" is important for everyone but especially for older people.  And while no amount of physical activity can stop the biological clock, there is strong evidence that regular exercise,  I mean "activity," can increase active life expectancy by limiting the development and progression of chronic disease and disabling conditions.  Those are big rewards!
The word "retire" or "retirement" means withdrawn from or no longer occupied with one's business or profession.  Great!  So we don't have to work any more unless we want to, but we can still play! So get out there and get moving!

Being a mother was one of the best decisions I ever made.  Raising children has brought me so much joy in life.  but, it has also brought me guilt by the boatload!  It is impossible to raise another human being without screwing it up in monumental ways, even when we are trying and that makes us feel... guilty.  
So, come along with me on my "guilt trip" today,  I am definitely qualified to be your tour guide!   But, we are not going to be packing around a lot of guilt, we are going to be repacking our luggage, getting rid of all that guilt and discovering that we were all actually good mothers!

I love hats!  Not a baseball hat you put on when your hair is dirty and you have errands to run, or the beanie you pull on to watch the grandkids play soccer or t-ball when it’s cold.  I have plenty of those hats and I love them, too.  But I am talking about dressy hats, fun hats, felt hats to wear with a cute winter outfit or a woven hat to wear with a bright spring dress.  I love them.  I own them.  But I don't wear them.   
You have to have a certain confidence to wear a hat.  A swagger maybe?  But really?  Should the wearing of a hat be a daring act of courage?  It shouldn't be, but it is!
Millinery, or the making of hats, goes way back.  There is a lot of interesting history there, and even sacrifice, and I just figure that with so much sacrifice coming from the history of hats, the least we could do, is wear them!  
Hat Day is January 15.  Who knows.... I may get up enough courage to wear one!

Grandma's don't need to be disciplinarians, enforcers, or watchdogs.  They just need to be full of love and... fun!  Who wouldn't want to go to Grandma's house if they knew there  would be a pudding bath or a popcorn scramble?  And sleepovers are always the best at Grandma's house, too!  Especially if you have your own "sheet tent!"  
Join us on "Fun Times with Grandma" as Grandma Robbie, grandmother to 12 lucky grandkids, tells us of the fun things she does when the grandkids come to visit, or at holiday time, or at a family campout! You won't want to miss this episode! 

This is our second episode of Christmas stories.  Those of us who remember when Christmas was much simpler, appreciate feel-good stories that take us back to those simpler times.  Being sixty-something years old has blessed us with sixty-something years of celebrating Christmas, and some things, like enjoying a "feel good" Christmas story, never change. 
"It was Christmas Eve 1942.  I was fifteen years old and feeling like the world had caved in on me because there just hadn't been enough money to buy me the rifle that I'd wanted for Christmas...."  Listen while we read a story written by Harvey Patterson from the Christian Ministry of Bellmead, TX.
We will also read a short Christmas story called "The Man Who Missed Christmas by J. Edgar Park.  Imaging being locked in a vault and missing Christmas!  That is exactly what happens to George Mason in this quick little tale about "the purpose of life."