So, This is Retirement!

I have journaled off and on for at least fifty years.  Don't go trying to figure out how old I was when I started.  I'll just say I could write by myself, but I was VERY young.    Most of what I write is of little or no interest to anyone else but me, but it is a fun way to gather thoughts and feelings and reflect back on how gracious God has been.  I sometimes sit and read one of my old journals and cannot for the life of me figure out why I thought that stuff was important enough to write about.  Once in awhile, there is a very interesting historical tid-bit or some good juicy family gossip.  One of the most interesting things I ever journaled about was the Easter flood in Jackson in the late 1970's.  At the time I had no idea it would be an oft talked about historical event.

This past spring I made the decision to retire from my job of 26+ years.  As a young woman I never wanted a career.  I only wanted to get married, have a house with children and a great husband.  Well I did all of that and was able to stay at home with the three children until our baby was about 13 years old.  So, finally I became a working mom.  I loved my job.  As a child I always liked playing school, shuffling papers and bossing my little sister around.  Perfect practice for my job as administrative assistant.

As I looked forward to retirement, there were so many things I still wanted to do before the old eyes and ears went to the dogs.  All types of arts and crafts interest me.  My list of projects included grandchildren projects, sewing, yard and garden work and attempting to become an artist and photographer.

The only problem was I forgot to let God know about my list.  The entire first month of freedom from punching the clock was spent trying to get my hands around the financial situation which comes with retirement!!  If you have not thought about retirement and are anywhere close to that time in your life, I highly recommend learning a bit about investing and trying to figure out a way to hold on to what you have and not let Uncle Sam get his hands on most of it.  I backed my ears and started studying everything I could about IRA's, large cap, mid cap, annuities, stocks, fixed annuities,...........   Ugh!!!  Stuff like that could  make a grown woman cry.  This was like studying French for the first time in my life.  It was much easier when I got paid on the first of the month and I had spent almost every penny of it by day 30 and I got paid again.

Before I got all this settled, I developed a roaring case of shingles.  I can honestly say this was undoubtedly the most painful thing I have ever endured.  I have had some really weird medical problems in the past and I am a really tough old bird, but this one put me down and out for about seven weeks. 

I recovered just in time to try to get myself together for our trip to the west coast.  Up to the night before we left, I was praying that I was up to the task.  If you followed my blog of the trip, you know that the Lord was so good and I made it just fine.  We had a fantastic adventure and thoroughly enjoyed all 26 days and 7,675 miles on the road.  What a nice retirement party we shared with my sister and her husband in their summer home in Oregon.

As we got back home, we learned that my 87 year old mother-in-law was very sick and so we brought her home with us.  After nursing her for over a week, she ended up in the hospital for several days.  She is so precious and does not want to be a bother to anybody.  We have home health care coming several days a week to help us, but there is still much to learn about caring for the elderly.  This is like learning yet another language.  Since we started this new chapter in my retirement, we have all had the stomach virus and a major cold.  Yes sir, we are having fun now. 

She is wrapped up to her chin in a snuggy by the wood burning stove and I am in my bikini day and night.  The TV volume bar is up to the top of the screen so we can listen to all the squealing on Deal or No Deal and I am the official phone receptionist for all the sweet little ladies in her Sunday School class who call at least once a day, unless they forget and call several times a day and have the exact same conversation which neither one remembers.  This definitely was not on my bucket list, but I do realize how blessed we all are that the Lord knew what would happen and I don't have to worry about trying to hold down a demanding job.  Strange how all that has worked out so well.  I guess I am saying all this to say that life is so unpredictable and sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad.  One day I may be in the position that Mamaa is and I surely hope that there will be someone to tend to me with the same love that I feel for her.   So this is retirement!

The other side of the coin was, after getting Mamaa all situated for the day, I spent about an hour today at grandson #4's school at his book fair.  He was excited to see me and we had a great time picking out books that he liked, plus the money we spent will help his school.  Pre-retirement, I would not have been able to do this.  So, this is retirement  :)