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Cat | Midlife Growth 💜

@growwithcat

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I vibe code apps to make midlife a little easier 🤭
Learning, building & figuring life out
↓ Less overthinking, more doing 💜

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I’m not even sure how I started having a midlife crisis a few years before I turned 40 🫣 It kind of just crept up on me.

For most of my 20s and 30s, life was just… life. I got married young, had 4 kids and was busy raising them while working on and off. There was always someone who needed me or something that needed to be done.

Then slowly, the kids got older and I started thinking about my own future. I stopped school at 17 and suddenly, not having a cert terrified me. How long could I stay in the comfortable job I had been in for years? Was I progressing? What else could I do? What was I even good at? I think that’s where all the searching started.

At 37, I went back to school after 20 years. I started a small business during Covid and eventually left my long-term job. I didn’t want a bigger title. I wanted the freedom to control my own time and to find something that made me happy.

So I explored. I took courses, tried different jobs and joined communities looking for my tribe. Maybe in some ways, I was also looking for myself. I thought eventually something would click and I’d finally know what I wanted to do. But nope 🫣 I was still figuring it out.

Then last year, my youngest son was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. Suddenly, everything I had been worrying so much about didn’t seem that important anymore. I wasn’t thinking about my career or what I should be doing with my life. I just wanted my son to be okay.

Thankfully, he is well now. 💜

And the funny thing is… I’m turning 43 next month and I STILL don’t know what’s next 🤣 But somehow, that doesn’t scare me as much anymore. We only get one life. Maybe I don’t need to have the whole next chapter figured out. Maybe I can just live it and figure it out as I go.

And honestly, your 40s are such a weird stage 🤣 I have friends my age who just had babies and others who are already grandparents. HOW are we all the same age?! 😂

Maybe that’s the thing I’m slowly learning. There’s really no timeline we’re supposed to be following.

I’m still not sure what’s next for me, but for once, I think I’m okay with that. 💜 by @growwithcat

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2 months ago

I don’t have it all figured out… and maybe that’s okay.

This is what my journey looks like right now💜

Some days I feel behind.
Some days I feel like I’m starting over.

But I got tired of waiting
and decided to just do it anyway.

I’m learning.
I’m trying.
I’m building… one step at a time.

If you’re in this season too,
you’re not alone 💜

I’m really glad you’re here.🫶🏼 by @growwithcat

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6 months ago

☑️Checking off one thing on my 2025 to-do list, a little late.
But for those who know me, I seem to operate on more than 48 hours a day 😛

A mini intro of more than half of my lifetime in 20 slides.☝️

For the past few years, I’ve been sharing year-end recaps filled with milestones and accomplishments. 2025 looked very different. Life unexpectedly put Josh and me in the role of rooting for our youngest boy through chemo. Along the way, we discovered a depth of strength we never knew we had 💪🏻🙏🏻

We’re incredibly thankful for the love, prayers, meals, messages, check-ins, and quiet support from our family and friends. 🫶🏼Every bit of it carried us through the hardest days. You know who you are — thank you! 🫶🏼

In the final month of 2025, we made a spontaneous decision to create four individual bedrooms for the kiddos. After two weeks of renovation chaos, we’re finally back home, just in time to welcome the new year and close this chapter.

As we step into 2026, we do so with renewed hope, gratitude, and belief in new beginnings. 🙏🏻Wishing good health and happiness to everyone who has been checking in on us during this season. It truly means more than you know 🙏🏻🫶🏼😘

Wishing everyone a new year filled with growth in every aspect of life 🌟

Thank you for following @growwithcat 💜 and be part of my growing journey 🫶🏼 by @growwithcat

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9 months ago

Had a whole cute transition planned for this birthday reel, but the weather wasn’t too kind today. 😂

Still very amused by my AI tracking tripod though. 🤭

After a few failed attempts, we gave up trying to get the transition I had in mind… Hub blew out the candle and we just ate the cake instead. 🤣🎂

So I guess this is 43. 🤭 by @growwithcat

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20 days ago

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this. 🫣

Sometime in my late 30s, during what I now call my little midlife crisis period 😂, I started switching off my Facebook birthday notifications.

I wanted to see who would actually remember my birthday by heart…

And I think secretly, I measured people by the way they showed up for me too…

But at some point, I started asking myself…

What kind of friend am I to them?

If they were doing the same thing to me, would I pass my own test? 🫣

So I changed.

I started initiating more, arranging meet-ups, checking in and making more effort to show up whenever I could.

And over the years, I also realised that some people I thought didn’t really care actually showed up for me when I needed it the most.💜

That changed the way I saw things quite a bit.

Maybe remembering a birthday isn’t really a measure of how much someone cares after all.

Which is quite funny because this year I went completely the other way and basically told everyone the whole of September is my birthday month. 🤣

No more secretly waiting to see who remembers. 😂

If you want to celebrate your birthday, tell people.

Let people wish you.
Let people celebrate you.

Even if Facebook reminded them.
Even if Instagram reminded them.
Even if you reminded them. 🤭

I think everyone deserves to feel celebrated on their birthday. 💜

And to everyone who’s been following along while I share my stories and figure things out here, thank you. 🫶🏻 I really appreciate you being here.

One more sleep till 43. 🤭🎂 by @growwithcat

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21 days ago

2 days to 43. 🎂

The closer I get to 43, the more I find myself thinking about what actually matters to me now.

Not that I suddenly have life figured out 🤣 If anything, I’m probably still figuring out who I am and what I want in this next stage of life.

But I do know there are things I want to be more intentional about.

I want to spend more time with my parents. Bring the family on more holidays, experience more things together and make more memories while we can.

I want to take better care of my health too, something I honestly haven’t been very good at 😅, and also pay more attention to the health and wellbeing of the people I love.

Friendships have become more important to me too. Not just holding on to the friends who have been with me for years, but staying open to new friendships along the way.

Some of the people I’m close to today only came into my life because I tried something new, joined a community or simply met someone I clicked with. I think we’re never too old to find our tribe and people who vibe with us. 💜

And then there’s me.

I still want to learn. Try random things. Explore new interests. Change direction if I feel like it. 🤭

Maybe that’s one thing getting older has taught me. We really don’t have to have everything figured out by a certain age.

A few reminders I’m taking with me into 43:

💜 You can be grateful for the life you have and still want to grow.

💜 Starting again doesn’t mean you got it wrong the first time.

💜 Make time for the people who matter to you.

💜 Take care of your health before it becomes something you wish you had taken care of earlier.

💜 Keep your old friends close, but stay open to new ones too.

💜 You’re never too old to learn or try something new.

💜 You’re allowed to change your mind about what you want.

💜 Starting with experience is never really starting from zero.

💜 You don’t need everyone to understand the choices that make sense to you.

💜 It’s okay to still be figuring things out in your 40s.

I think going into 43, I just want to be more intentional with my time, who I spend it with and what I choose to do with it. 💜

Which one are you taking with you? 🤭 by @growwithcat

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22 days ago

Yet another vibe coding app 🤭😂

I’ve applied for a week of leave at the end of this month to do some SERIOUS decluttering at home… and somehow I couldn’t help but build an app for it too. 🤣

And of course, hubby gets dragged in to test my random ideas first. 😂 Thank you for always being my guinea pig 🫶🏻

I actually had another post planned for my 3-day countdown to 43 today — about the many different jobs I’ve had over the years while raising 4 kids.

But I’ve been down with a massive headache today 🫣 so that story will have to wait.

Looking back, a lot of my working years were really about trying to make work fit around raising my kids, while figuring out what I wanted for myself too.

There are quite a few stories behind those years that I’ve never really shared. 🤭

If you’re actually keen to hear them, say YES in the comments 😂 Maybe that’ll finally convince me to start yapping after my birthday.

Meanwhile… stay tuned for my upcoming decluttering series! 🤭

3 days to 43 🎂 reflections by @growwithcat

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22 days ago

It’s funny how some of the people closest to me today came into my life at completely different stages.

My closest girlfriends and I didn’t really have the same interests to begin with. 😂 There are seven of us, and we’ve known each other since our teens.

Somehow, we just clicked.

More than 20 years later, we don’t chat every day, and everyone is busy with their own lives. But we still try to meet for each other’s birthdays, and I’m so grateful we’ve kept that going all these years. 💜

I got married young, had kids and spent many years working mostly from home. But I still made friends along the way — through different jobs, neighbours and even fellow mums I met while waiting around at my boys’ football lessons. 😂

As I got older, I also started finding friendships through the things I chose to explore.

In my late 30s, an ex-colleague got me into cycling during COVID, which somehow led me back to netball — my favourite sport in secondary school. I rediscovered an old hobby and found a really fun group of mums too. 🤣

More recently, I’ve intentionally joined communities where I’ve met entrepreneurs, creators and people navigating similar stages of life.

And of course, some friendships have drifted too. People I was once close to but hardly speak to now. No big fallout… life just took us in different directions.

I’ve become more okay with that as I’ve gotten older. Not every friendship has to stay the same forever to have been meaningful.

Some friends hold years of history with us. Some come into our lives because circumstances bring us together. And some connect with the person we’re becoming now.

I don’t think one is more important than another.

And I definitely don’t think we should stop making new connections just because we’re older.

Find your tribe. Find people you vibe with.

Join that community. Pick up the old hobby. Take the class. Go to the meetup. Say yes to the invitation.

Keep the friendships that matter. Make the effort to stay connected. Be okay with the ones that have drifted too.

And always leave room for new friendships. 💜

You never know who you’ll meet in your next season. by @growwithcat

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24 days ago

I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about why we started travelling as a family so late.

I didn’t grow up travelling much. I took my first flight at 16 to visit my sister, while my husband grew up travelling quite often.

We got married young, had 4 kids and for many years, travelling as a family just wasn’t something we could make work. I tried to be a SAHM whenever I could while finding work I could do from home. Money was tight and raising 4 young kids was already mentally exhausting enough. Paying for 6 people to travel AND managing everyone overseas felt like a lot. 😵‍💫

But it was hard not to compare. Every school holiday we’d see families travelling, going to Disneyland, taking yearly trips... while even a staycation was something we rarely did.

I knew my kids didn’t need an overseas holiday, but it was hard not to wonder if they were missing out. And when they got older, they started noticing too.

We’d spent years thinking maybe when finances were better, when life was a little easier... but while we were waiting, they were growing up anyway.

The year I turned 40, we finally got all 6 of us on the same plane. 😂🥹

We had such a good time. The kids bonded, we experienced new things together and came home with so many little memories. It made me wish we’d travelled together earlier, but I knew we just weren’t in a position to do it back then.

That trip made me realise I wanted us to make time for more family holidays whenever we could.

We didn’t get to travel last year because our youngest was going through chemo treatment.

Now that he’s well 💜, we’re hoping to squeeze in a family trip at the end of this year. Except getting all 6 of us free is a whole different challenge now 😂 — different schools, schedules and stages of life.

I guess there was never really going to be a perfect time. I’m just grateful we still get the chance to plan the next one. 💜

Curious... did you grow up going on family holidays, or did travelling come later for you too?

5 days to 43. just another little life reflection. 🤭 by @growwithcat

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25 days ago

A Sammi Cheng concert somehow turned into a 30-year trip down memory lane. 🥹🤣

Funny how there are versions of ourselves we almost forget about… until a song suddenly brings everything back.

15-year-old me was so sure she wanted to be a singer. 😂🎤

Almost-43-year-old me looks back now and thinks… wow, life really went somewhere else. 🤭

But I’m glad I got to be that girl. The one who tried, auditioned, dreamed a little too big and genuinely thought she knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life. 😂💜

Maybe that’s also why I’ve been enjoying sharing these old stories as I approach 43 — looking back at who I was, while still figuring out what’s next.

Follow along as I share more of my growth journey through my 40s — and figure things out as I go. 🤭💜

And to Sammi @sammi_chengsauman — thank you for being such a big part of my teenage years. 🥹💜

From teenage me memorising your songs word by word even though I couldn’t speak Cantonese… to almost-43-year-old me finally watching you sing them live. 💜

And maybe it’s time I finally brush up on my Cantonese too. 🤣

I’ve added more snippets from the concert to my Highlights if you want to watch them! 🎤💜

Wishing Sammi, myself and everyone reading this…

愿我们都终身美丽。💜

6 days to 43 🤭🎂 by @growwithcat

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a month ago

Achievement unlocked 🔓😂
Hopefully I’ll still be trying random shit at 53, 63 and 73 too. 🤭💜🫶🏻 by @growwithcat

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a month ago

It’s officially my birthday month so I hereby declare that every day in September is my birthday. 🤣🙌🏻

Starting the celebrations a little early with a present from me, to me… on behalf of my family who doesn’t know they bought it yet. 🤭🎁 Thank you 😬

Any fellow September babies here? ♍️

Drop me your birthday! 🤣🙌🏻

#MetaGlasses #RayBanMeta #raybanskyler #wakemeupwhenseptemberends by @growwithcat

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a month ago