My name is Manouri. I am a 46-year-old (almost 47!) Jesus follower, a wife of 25 years to an awesome man that I met when I was 13 years old, a mother of one incredible teen and one extraordinary tween, a marketing professional for an inspiring company and a lifestyle blogger who is chasing the fountain of youth. I don’t look my age, I certainly don’t act my age, and most times, I don’t feel my age.

Sometimes, my body does feel my age, or even older. I have a few health issues that get me down occasionally. I’ve had to change my lifestyle and my diet in recent years so these health issues don’t get worse. This blog will explore many aspects of my life, from my secrets of looking, acting and living young, to cooking and decorating, from work and kids, to travel and relationships, from self-care, fitness, fashion to the many, many crazy things my family and I do to have fun. Basically, it’s my personal fountain of youth, and you are welcome to drink from it. It will also explore many aspects of life that I know NOTHING about. I plan to invite many guest bloggers, men and women alike, to share their thoughts and expertise. So even if my life is boring, hopefully theirs won’t be.

My Life After 45 is my second foray into blogging. My first blog, Glamping With the Giesens, ended abruptly when we sold our trailer and gave up camping, which we did when we bought our cabin in Ontario. But I never gave up my love of blogging, or writing for that matter.

My Life After 45 was originally born in June 2019. My son was attending a kids camp in Ontario, my daughter was volunteering as a counselor at the same camp, and my husband couldn’t get the time off of work, so I was alone at our cottage in Ontario for a week. I had big romantic dreams of sitting on the porch all week with a coffee or a glass of wine with my laptop, the words spilling from my fingers onto the keyboard. What I did instead was sit there with a fan aimed at my face because we did not have air conditioning. In Ontario, you need air conditioning in the summer. It is HUMID. So instead of writing, I wandered around outside. It was still humid outdoors, but slightly less so. So, my blog never took off. And then summer ended and I went back to work. Then school, then Christmas, then birthdays…then this stupid COVID-19 thing happened, and I got temporarily laid off from my job. And now I have lots of time to write.

So because of COVID-19, My Life After 45 will start off with a very different vibe than it would have if it had started last June as it was meant to. But, it was meant to be. All things happen as they were meant to, I believe.

I hope you enjoy My Life After 45.