Retirement

I’m a structured, goal oriented person. I like routine and knowing what is happening on what day and  at what time. 

I’m married to the exact opposite type of person. He is spontaneous, spur of the moment, fly by the seat of your pants person.

He’s good for me and I’m good for him. I’ve learned to be spontaneous and he’s learned to be structured (somewhat!)

My whole life has been pretty routine so far. I went from school, to being married, having kids, homeschooling, then working.

Now I’m retired. Right now, I have somewhat of a schedule going to the grandkids 2-3 days a week. But I’m struggling with what to do on the other days. We will be leaving in the fall and I’ll have every day free then. 

I’m usually a good manager of my time. I volunteer or manage my household or minister in some way. 

But for some reason. I’m struggling now. Maybe it’s because I know we won’t be in a place for very long (rv life is awesome by the way) or maybe it’s just because I’m older? Or tired? 

I really don’t know. But this stage of life is strange. I am loving the flexibility of it and the relaxing part. 

But I don’t really want to have a job again. 

I want to be available to my kids and grandkids and hubby.

But what to do on the daily. I have no idea.

Pray for me as I’m in this transition!

FIFTY!!

So I am officially half a century old today!!  FIFTY!!! 

It seems crazy!  I don't feel fifty.  

It's been a great fifty years so far!  

In honor of my fiftieth, here's fifty things that have I've done, things about me, and things I have learned these last 50 years.

1. Been married 31 years to the same guy!!  haha! 

2. Most stuff doesn't matter, but the things that do matter-really matter.

3. Lived in lots of places. I think we've moved 15 (lost track!) times! 

4. Raised 3 kids and now have 4 grandkids!!

5. Dance (or hoop) like no one is watching.  It's so liberating.

6. It's never too old to learn new things.

7. I've been to 36 countries in the world!  That's 14.3% of the world!

8. I love going to places that aren't your typical "touristy" places.

9. I'm an accomplisher..but I'm learning to relax and chill.

10. Reading God's Word is life changing.  Especially reading the whole thing through quickly.  

11. Make a decision.  It's ok if you make another decision later.  Just move, go, do something.

12. Friendships only thrive if you water them. A text, card or call goes a long way.

13. Take the picture.  Be in the picture.

14. Enjoy the moment.  Even if you don't post it on social media, just enjoy the moment you are in, don't be in a rush to go to the "next thing".

15. You'll make mistakes.  Learn from them.  Be humble.  Accept correction.

16.  I've been keto now over 5 years.  It's a lifestyle that I love.  It's helped erase my heartburn, made me think clearer, and kept my weight down.

17. Love grows where you water it.

18. I love traveling.  I'll be glad when I can go overseas again. (dumb covid)

19. What you put into your body is important. Physically, spiriturally, mentally.

20. Who knows how many books I've read.  I wish I had a list! Sometimes I'll start a new book and think...this sounds familiar!  (because I've already read it!)

21. I've sold all our stuff so many times.  (because of all the moving) Stuff is stuff and you'll always have a lot of it.

22. I usually struggle with exercise but I love hiking and walking and really enjoy yoga and aerial yoga!

23. When someone asks you to do something new or go somewhere new.  Give it a chance.

24. I didn't think I could do aerial yoga at all, but my sister is a great encourager!  I actually surprise myself with the things I do!

25. I rarely wear makeup but I love jewelry.

26. The need to impress others wanes as you get older, and get more confident in who you are.

27. Give someone that compliment!  

28. I'm a natural blonde.  Never colored my hair.

29. My hair is fine and thin...makes it hard to curl, but super easy to get up and go.

30. Skirts are my thing.  Been wearing them now over 20 years.  I love how they make me feel feminine and they are good for twirling and dancing.

31. Being best friends with your spouse is awesome.

32. Looking forward to the next 50 years!  I wanna be that funky, hooping, crazy grandma.

33. I love hats!!!!!

34. Coffee, coffee, coffee...and tea.  Yes!

35. One of my favorite things to do is go listen to live music on the weekends with Larry.  Hoop and dancing!!  

36. When meeting someone new, ask them about themselves.  And listen.

37. I'm loving this stage of my life.  Being a grandma, retired, rv living.  ummmm yes.

38. Take the love language test.  It's how you show love to others and how you feel loved.  I'm service and gifts.

39. If I'm cleaning, I'm either showing service or really upset.  ha!

40. I like music of all kinds.  Bluegrass, classical, rock.. pretty much anything!  But I love the 50s music a lot!

41. It's ok to be in pajamas at 6pm.

42. I want to learn to embroidery.

43.  Love playing backgammon with Larry.  I'm so glad my dad taught me how.

44. It's so exciting to see your kids as adults!  To see them grow and learn and thrive!

45. When someone presents to you a new theory or idea.  Don't immediately dismiss it.  It's a great opportunity to research what your own beliefs are.

46. You become the thoughts you feed yourself.

47. You are never too old to change! 

48. I started learning the ukulele last year.  I've been practicing every day.  It's so hard to strum and sing at the same time!

49. I don't like to cook.  Larry's does all the meal making...thankfully!

50.  Turning fifty sounds old, but old is only a state of mind. :)

Big changes!

Big changes in the last few months for us!  We've bought an RV and hit the road!  We are spending the summer in Colorado and hanging with the grandkids!  When the fall rolls around, we will get on the road again and see what happens!  

Life changes quickly!  We sold most everything. I've retired from my job.  Larry continues to work remote.  We leased out our condo.

I'm excited about the RV life!  We are learning so much!  How to hitch, how to dump the tanks, etc.  Still figuring out reliable internet. 

But life is short!  The grandkids grow up so fast.  We have a window of time here to be part of their lives for now and we decided to jump on it!  My grandparents were a huge part of my life and I want to be that to all my grandkids.

Plus, you really can't beat Colorado in the summer.  Although, we haven't seen too much of the summer yet!  We had snow as of last week!  brrrrrr!  But when summer does arrive, we will be enjoying the beauty of Colorado!  

Life goes so quickly!  You have to enjoy the ride!  

Anyone lived the RV life?? Tips?  Youtube has helped us so much on everything!  If you are in the area, we'd love to visit!

Family stories and history

My mom and dad and grandparents have all passed away.  Their stories of growing up and meeting and living their lives are only left in my memory.  I wish I would've written down their stories.  I wish I would've paid more attention.  Now, how exactly did yall meet?  And why did you move down here?  And what made you quit college?

My dad was an amazing story teller.  He did write down some of his anecdotes, thankfully. But I still have questions that I wish I would have asked.  I still wish I would have listened a little closer.  But as a kid, it's just the same old stories that mom and dad tell, blah blah blah.

But as I get older, I am curious.  I don't remember my great grandparents at all.  But I'd love to know their stories.  My mom documented all the family genealogy. For that, I am grateful.  But they are just names.  Dates of birth, dates of death, counties of marriage etc.  Who were they?  Why did they fall in love? What were their triumphs? their defeats?  their life changing moments?

I'd love to pass some stories down to my kids and grandkids.  But I'm sure they are about as interested as I was at their age.

That's part of the reason for this blog.  My social media posts will be lost to history someday.  FB and Instagram will be as obsolete as Myspace.  But hopefully, the stories I've written in this blog can survive.  And hopefully, someday my descendants will stumble upon them and know a little bit about who I was.  I wasn't just a date of birth and date of death.   Maybe it will shed some insight onto their own journeys and personalities.  Who knows?  

So ask your living relatives now their stories!  Video them!  Write them down.  Save for your posterity. You might not be interested in it now.  But someday you will and you don't want that moment to be lost forever.

The Love of the Library!

I grew up surrounded by books.  My dad was an avid reader and always had a book in his hand, or laying on his chest during naps. hehe.

We had this set of encyclopedias that I was just enamored with.  Back in the day - the encyclopedia was our internet.  If you wanted to know about something, anything, you'd either read an entire book on the subject or you could find the encyclopedia that started with the letter you needed and read a short entry about it.

While my dad was a reader, my mom was a researcher.  She had the genealogy bug and we would spend a lot of Saturdays at the library.  (Now you know why I'm such a nerd 🤓)

Some of my best memories are just being "let loose" in the library.  We could roam around and explore.  Which book caught my eye?  I could just walk up and down the aisles and browse or if something peaked my interest, I'd head over to the card catalog and look up some books on that subject.

Oooh, the smell of the books.  The perfect organization of that card catalog.  All those type written cards, and numbers all perfectly labeled and ordered.  My OCD was in hog heaven.

While my mom was going through the microfiche machine and scouring old newspapers and death certificates,  we were reading. We were learning.  We were learning to love the library.

So when I had kids of my own, I had to introduce them to one of my favorite places! We went to the library at least once a week.  I would let them have the same autonomy and roam the aisles.  Although, there weren't any more card catalogs, and computers and entered the scene, the kids still had just as much fun as I did in the library.

We would take home heaps and heaps of books and I would lay them out on the coffee table for random reading sessions.  I would read to the kids, they would read to me, and sometimes I'd just curl up on the couch and read my own book, or something the kids had picked out.

Now all my books are via Kindle.  I still love a good book in my hands though.  I just started reading this book that is about a library fire!  It got me reminiscing about libraries.  It brought back a lot of great memories.

I hope my grandkids are readers.  I hope to introduce them to the library someday too.

New Year in progress!

This is a new year.  

Really every day is a new day.  His mercies are new every morning.  No matter what choices we've made, we can make new ones.

Sometimes it seems so overwhelming.  How do I eat right, read my Bible, do the dishes, be a good wife, drink all the water, fit in my 12, 000 steps, close all my rings, oh and be a good person???  How???  Every. single. day???

It's tough.  I get it.

I've always told my kids, how do you eat an elephant?  

One bite at a time.

Not that elephants taste all that great.

But you get the gist.

Take one step.

Do the next right thing.

Read the ingredients.

Put back that cookie.

Open God's Word.

Say a kind word.

Take a drink out of that cute cup you got.

Just one thing.

Then another,

then another

and before you know it, you are doing all the things.  Just wake up and do one thing again and you got this!

You can do it!

Sometimes, you'll take a step backwards, but that's ok too.  Just start over.

It's a new year!!  New you!

The GOOD of 2020 Year in Review

We all know what a weird year it has been.  So for this year in review, I'd like to tell you all the GOOD things that have happened this year. (in no particular order)

We got to go to Amsterdam before everything shut down! (one of my bucket list places!)

Fun girl/sister trip to Cabo!

We had a beautiful kitchen/bath/floor remodel

Lots of great aerial yoga classes with my sister!

Took a trip to North Carolina to see family!

My sister took me on an adventure course!  Terrifying but fun!!

So many fun concerts, outdoor music, hooping times!

I turned 49!!!😜

I learned a little bit of the ukulele!  So I can learn new things! haha!

Got to vacation in Dominican Republic!

I had my 2nd grandson born (my 4th grandchild)!

Many trips to go see grandkids!

So I guess it wasn't such a bad year after all!  Like the old song goes, "You've got to accent the positive and eliminate the negative and latch on to the affirmative and don't mess with mister in between." 🎵

Here's to a great 2021!!!!  

🎉🥳😘💗🙏

Lamentations 3:23-24 

"Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.They are new every morning;Great is Your faithfulness, “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,“Therefore I hope in Him!”