Well I am forty now and a few days. I went out for Sushi liked I planned, but alas none of my friends showed up, kind of sad for me at least. Not to mention I had spent 3 hours mowing the yard on my birthday. I also have started to mow the yard of the abandoned house next door. Another neighbor has started to throw his beer bottles there. So after a few minutes of cleanup it was all done and looking great for the next week.

So my father called me Saturday and asked me to come by the house to help him. I headed over and spent a few hours helping him do a lot of little things. I thought it was strange, but family comes first. I headed back to my house. And noticed the inlaws were over. I also noticed a truck parked over at my Neighbors that looked like my buddies. Well My wife threw me a surprise birthday party. There was about 15 of my closet friends and family over. I do have a great wife and she really surprised me and made turning Forty a little easier.

Thanks to my sister in-law for making the cake.

This morning, we celebrated a friend’s birthday with a brunch at my house. It was a simple meal, organic vanilla yogurt, fresh fruit salad, and Rhodes cinnamon rolls hot out of the the oven, with a birthday candle stuck in them.

Since she was turning 40, a group of her friends came up with 40 charms for me to make into a bracelet for her. We’ve done this for a couple of other pals in our circle on their 40th too.

I think this is a great idea and want to help you exceed your goal Aimie!

via Random Thoughts: Pay It 40…a birthday gift to your favorite charity.

Some of you may know that next year I will turn 40. I don’t feel 40 and I don’t think I look 40, but the calendar tells me it’s true. I wanted to do something that wasn’t about me. I wanted to figure out a way to give back. I wanted to make a difference, even if it’s just a little one. I have a few friends that will be turning 40 soon as well. In order to make it less traumatic for us and a definite plus for somebody else, we came up with the “Pay It 40″ campaign. Sort of a play on the “pay it forward”.

I will create a new blog/website with links for all the charities. In the spirit of giving, I’d like to open up the Pay It 40 campaign to anybody who is turning 40 from November 1, 2009 to October 21, 2010. What you have to do is: 1 leave a comment here with your name and birthday, 2 chose your favorite charity if you know a link, post that as well and then when the new blog is up and running you can tell all your friends.Let me know if you have any questions. Please feel free to share this information with others. I would LOVE to have 40 people participate.

Hey all.

I was inspired by Forty @ 40 by Larry a few months back and decided to start my own blog about the journey. My big day is in October and you know what – I am actually excited about it. I am running my first marathon, am in the best shape of my life, have a wonderful wife and plans to explore so much more of the world. The blog experience has been great for reflection and looking forward. A great place to show the world my world.

I hope you’ll all visit me for a peek into my life at:

http://john-is-turning-40.blogspot.com/

What a fabulous timely site. Bravo, to all you brave souls who have led the way and showed us that the big FOUR OH is to be embraced not feared.

Last night I officially started my Forty countdown with a celebration of my 40-2-40 Day!!
Yipee!!! 39 days to go!

It really is all about the journey and I have decided to turn the event of turning 40 into a journey on its own.

I am on a self rebuilding journey!
My goal.. to enter 40 stronger, leaner, healthier, wiser and more thankful than I ever was anytime in 30!

Today I kicked off my 40 day cleanse and am blogging it all @ http://www. yournaturalfoodcoach.blogspot.com

I just turned 40 in March and started a photographic project to celebrate the occasion. Basically, I am creating a self-portrait every week for 40 weeks. The project is called “Forty@40″

http://www.lourceyphoto.com/4040project.html

If interested, you can follow along with the project/images on my blog:

www.lourceyphoto.com/blog

Well, the secret is out! I am turning the big Four-Oh this summer.  My goal is to have 40 random acts of kindness done over the month of July…one for every year I’ve been alive! So, think about what you can do to make a difference in someone’s life and then do it!!

There are lots of random acts of kindness ideas out there and, in case you’re not sure where to start, here’s a website you can visit for ideas! http://www.actsofkindness.org/

More from Jenn

On turning 40 (997)

Honestly, when I woke up this morning, I expected every bone in my body to creak from advanced arthritis or bone degeneration.

That didn’t happen.

Maybe a sudden and violent growth of hair from my ears and nose. Luxuriously gray no less.

Nope, that didn’t happen either.

Or even a complete lack of control of my bodily functions.

I just came across this story about the incredible way one man decided to mark his 40th birthday and I thought you might be interested.

James Spring, a man in San Diego, read about a little girl who had been kidnapped by her parents.  The parents, who were wanted for murder, did not have custody of the child and had fled with her to Mexico.  Mr. Spring decided to go to Mexico and save the little girl (and her baby sister) as a way of celebrating his 40th birthday!

Here’s a link to the story in The Santa Cruz Sentinel:  http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_8851661

Well, I’ll be turning 40 in a few months, and I cannot wait!  I’ve had several people ask me if I am freaking out about turning the big 4-0, and I’ve given them a resounding, “Hell no!”  My life is going swimmingly and promises to just get better in the near future.  Besides that, I have a kickass party planned, so how could I be bummed?

Ever since adopting and actually following my “letting go” attitude, everything has been so peaceful and easy for me.  Roxy (my vintage ’63 convertible Mercury Comet) is getting fixed up, my book and stand up comedy show are flowing, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I’m enjoying being back at school after a year and a half leave.

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to sub in several grade levels (3 last week alone), and I have been reminded of why I went into teaching in the first place.  I simply love working with kids.   I love captivating them by using an accent when I read a story and having them believe I actually am that character.  I love having them suddenly get what I’m teaching because out of nowhere I try a different approach that happens to make sense to them.  And I love having random parents come up to me on campus and ask, “Are you Mrs. Aubert?  You were in my son’s second grade class last week, and he loved you!”

by Colette French

So many people get discouraged as they begin to get older. However, it is very important for us to learn to grow old gracefully because at each season in our lives, we have something new and wonderful to discover about ourselves and to offer others. Turning 40 for many is really hard, but there are some fun things you can do to make turning 40 pretty exciting.

Step One

Plan to do something on your 40th birthday that you’ve never done before, but have always wanted to do. Make sure it’s something you’ll always remember.

Back to turning 40… it’s approaching fast.

So far, I’ve done okay in my prep for 40. I’m getting good hair cuts, am free of back pain, am in Yoga instructor training (that will probably take until I’m 50) and am still taking flute (must practice). A few things I could still do better. Don’t really feel like getting into all that now. Oh yeah, and I’m still not re-addicted to caffeine.

So that’s pretty good. I’d give myself about a 75%.

The fact that I haven’t quit the things I’ve started is probably significant. I am SO GOOD at starting stuff and SO BAD at keeping it up. Even just to be somewhat consistent for a year is good news for me. It’s why I don’t dare quit blogging. There are so few things I’ve done consistently for this long.

by Mandy Weckford

If you are going to be turning 40 in the next couple of months, you need to start planning – or making sure someone else is planning – the festivities. Your fortieth birthday is an occasion to be celebrated. You don’t have to have a party, if you don’t want to, but you do have to do something special. Over the past few years, what seems like hundreds of my friends and relations have hit 40, so, if you’re not sure what you’d like to do, here are a few suggestions.

In my family, we all love singing and one of the best parties we’ve ever been to was my brother Dan’s 40th, where we sang karaoke all night. He’s got loads of disks for his games console, which plugs into the back of the television and makes a home karaoke machine. The game keeps the score and is often quite rude but that didn’t stop us singing our hearts out into the small hours of the morning!

My cousin Alex and his wife spent his 40th birthday fulfilling his life’s ambition of driving Route 66 (the way to Amarillo). They had a fabulous holiday, full of adventures, and are still talking about it two years later.

In a couple weeks (less than, actually), I turn forty. This fact always fails to impress those who have passed forty, and particularly those on the golden side of 50, 60, 70, etc. (my dad, 77, is especially insufferable). But let us not underestimate what it means for those who have already begun to endure the Hair Rebellion*: we ain’t no spring chickens. Youth is spent. Under no circumstances can I be confused for a young hipster. The last time I was carded is some years in my rear-view mirror. (Good news: the age at which I have to produce ID to get a senior discount is yet years in my future!)

I realized that my youth was gone a few years back when I realized that I had, to the eyes of the undergrads at the college where I work, turned into a specter. I became not quite invisible–they still dodge around me when we’re on a collision course–but something like a bush or a trash bin. Turning forty merely puts the period to the end of the sentence.

However, I grieve none of this. In compensation for my lack of youth, I have the gathering wisdom of age. Example: 21-year-olds get drunk on crappy beer. But at the ripe old age of 40, I know better. I plan to christen my ruby anniversary with something a little more rare. But what? It’s not a choice I should or will take lightly. I imagine it should have some or all these characteristics: rare, aged, strong, intense.