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It’s Been a Year

July 9th, 2024 at 04:34 pm

A year since I retired! I can’t believe that time has gone by so quickly. I have checked in with Saving Advice periodically but haven’t posted at all. I just don’t find myself spending much time in front of the computer, which is a good thing.

 

When I first retired I half-joked that it’d take a couple of years to just catch up on house projects, organization, and neglected maintenance. I do think that will prove to be true.

 

Things I’ve done in the past year:

Built a raised bed with DS5’s help and planted blueberries

Designed and hired out the construction of the renovation of the second kitchen corner. I’m doing it in pieces: the first in 2023, the second part this year, and the rest (impossible to piecemeal) next year

Cleared out and planted the side bed between the walkway and the house with perennials

Entered all my loose recipes into a recipe app [Recipe Keeper Pro] and threw away the papers! The only exception was a couple of handwritten recipes of my mom’s. I did enter them but kept the original copies in our heritage album with her pictures

Caught up with our vacation scrapbook and with another one that will be a gift in a couple of years

Completed the scrapbook of Christmas cards and 2004-2005 family photos. (Yes, I’ve still got work to do!)

Painted and installed a better organizational system in my half of the closet

Travel: trip to CA to visit DS2, 2-week trip to NC to help a friend set up a house, trip to FL to visit a friend that I hadn’t seen in years

Set up cat doors, new style of litter boxes, and auto-feeders in the basement for our colony of felines

Pressure washed & treated the deck

An assortment of health improvement activities: online master classes, detox regimens, sleep and exercise routines

Entertaining: just in the summer, we’ve had friends over for dinners on the deck and have more planned

 

It’s nice to see this compiled list. Sometimes I forget how much I’ve done.

 

I’m slowly getting out of the mindset that every day must be productive and instead judging each day’s value on happiness and appreciation. It’s a mind shift that I didn’t consider when I retired. I still make to-do lists but it’s okay if something doesn’t get accomplished because an unexpected opportunity arose or just because something took longer, often because I got more engaged.

 

I am going to try to post more than annually! I need to work it into my routine.

 

I've had to mess with this entry to get it not to delete some of the text when publishing.... so odd.

4 Responses to “It’s Been a Year”

  1. PatientSaver Says:
    1720618483

    Glad to hear your retirement has been so productive. I officially retired this year after a freelance writing job kind of withered away.

    What I like a lot is that no 2 days are ever the same, and I have yet to be really "bored."

    Next year I will be tackling a lot more home improvement projects and doing a new vehicle purchase so lots of changes coming down the road.

    I have worked on improving my social life and have more people to do fun stuff with, plus my volunteer work for 3 organizations, weekly lunches with dear old dad and gym 4 days a week keeps me occupied.

  2. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1721087066

    What an awesome year.

  3. Dido Says:
    1721736805

    Sounds like a good and productive first year of retirement. It does make me yearn to find some time to take care of those tasks around my own home that I am postponing until I retire. They just keep mounting up! But I know that, with my time and energy limits, I'm not going to get anything done until I do retire.

    And good for you for making some social connections through a gym--two goals at one blow!

  4. rob62521 Says:
    1722111133

    You've been busy and have accomplished a lot. Good for you. Hopefully you have also had some good relaxing time as well.

    I still struggle with not feeling I have to be productive every minute I'm retired.

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