Monthly Musings-February

It's the last Thursday of the month which means it's time for our Monthly Musings hosted by Patty (Good-Better-Best Life Blog). This month's topic is:  ways we make our weeks easier. 

Easier. Hmmm. Is life in retirement hard? 

No, not really. But also yes sort of. This season is much like every other season of our lives, except there's a lot more health related stuff and a lot less 8th grade algebra homework to stress you out.

No we're not running out the door early morning with kids in tow heading to high pressure jobs and juggling all the balls in between. But it's also not all late morning lattes wondering what in the world you're going to do today. 

I mean to be honest some days it is that, but mostly life in every season means dealing with things both large and small that vary in weight and importance. There's still laundry (a surprisingly lot of it for two people not working!), still meals to plan, shop for, and cook, still all the mundane household tasks, car repairs, taxes to file, blah blah blah. The kids may be grown and flown, but there are now aging parents to worry over. 

Also...about those grown children? They now have children of their own which adds a wonderful, lively takes- you-back-to-your-own-early-days-of-parenting sort of vibe to your days, and all that to say life is still plenty busy. It's just a different kind of busy. 

1. Paper planner, digital calendar, or other option. 

Don't come at me, but I use both paper and digital. I know,  I know... I should choose, but y'all I just cannot give up my paper planner. When I make an appointment or we have plans, travel, whatever, I do add it all to the digital version, but I update that paper planner regularly too. 

Digital might be handy, but it's not pretty and doesn't give you the same sort of satisfaction holding an actual product in your hand does. 

2. Meal planning, meal prep, or wing it. 

I plan meals, weekly for the most part. We're always up for spontaneous dinners out with friends, but I  still need to have a rough menu for the week. I would find not having a plan to be unnecessarily stressful. 

I can cook so if I need to wing it I will, but that is so rare. I make a menu for. the week, shop for ingredients, and for the most part stick pretty closely to that menu. 

3. Do you choose your outfit the night before? 

Nope. If I have an appointment, or we have church the next day, then yes I think ahead of time about what I'll wear, but life is super casual on the lake so dressing doesn't require a lot of planning. Swim suit-check. Cover up-check. Let's go. 

4. Tips for managing laundry and ironing. 

Throw a load in first thing in the morning and follow it through all the way to the putting away part of the job. Don't let laundry get away from you. 

Here's my tip for ironing-marry a man who excels at ironing. Works for me. 

5. Grocery shop in store or online. 

In store. Hubs likes to say I need to handle every single piece of produce before choosing the exact right one, and he's not wrong. For the most part I don't mind grocery shopping. 

6. Best tips for getting out the door in the morning without the chaos. 

Retire lol. 

7. Share your easiest dinners for crazy weeks. 

Tacos, breakfast for dinner, rotisserie chicken with some rice and veggies on the side, pasta sauce that's been frozen in batches to pull out when you're too exhausted to cook. Same with soups, chilis and stew. Make enough for two meals,  eat one when you make it and freeze the other. 

8. Best tips to keep your house organized during the week. 

Having grown kids certainly helps. Course then they have kids of their own and when they bring them to Nana's house all bets are off. 

9. Share your easiest breakfast. 

I make hard boiled eggs and keep those in the frig for an easy grab and go early morning protein.  I always have fruit and yogurt in the house. 

10. Share your best overall tip not covered. 

Set a timer for ten minutes and do a speed clean/pick up of an area that's making you twitch. 

Don't go to bed with dishes in the sink or crumbs on the counter. You might hate the idea of doing one more thing, but waking up to a sink full of dishes is a sad way to begin a new day. 

Prioritize sanity over perfection. 

You're doing great! 

The Hodgepodge. Not Taxing At All.

Welcome to this week's edition of The Wednesday Hodgepodge. If you've answered today's questions, add your link at the end of my post, then hop over and leave a comment for the blogger before you. Or all the peeps there if you have the time. Here we go- 

1. Do you complete your own taxes? Besides actual taxes, what's something you've found taxing lately?

We don't complete our own taxes. We pay the professionals and in my opinion it's worth it. Fun fact...in the state of SC you have until May 1 to file this year. 

Something I've found taxing lately? 

When we got our new patio furniture they took the cushions from the furniture on our upper deck to refurbish. I mentioned to the decorator I was going to buy new and he said they could make them look as good as new and the price was reasonable. Far less than new cushions would be. So off they went. 

Getting them back has been a bit of a headache though. The shop is about an hour from me, but I'm over that way now and then so wanted to get them on one of those treks as opposed to making a whole 'nother trip for pick up. Plus we're having a party early May and we need those cushions. Plus they've had them since February so it's past time to have them returned. I was going to be nearby on Monday, and when hubs called the left hand hadn't talked to the right hand and we thought it wasn't going to happen. He persevered though, and did that squeaky wheel thing he's so good at and yay! I got the cushions. 

Gosh that was a lot of explaining. Maybe my answer to this question will be what you find taxing today-ha! 

2.  What are three values you treasure most in a friendship? 

A friend who is trustworthy, vulnerable, and selfless 

3. Do you meal plan or do you mostly wing it? Share your dinner menus for this week. 

I meal plan. Mostly. I always have a general dinner plan for the week, but I'm flexible if there's a last minute change of plans, an invitation to dine out, or we ate a big lunch and don't need an actual dinner. I have never been someone who decided last minute what we were having for dinner. That sounds super stressful to me, unnecessarily so. 

What's on tap this week..

Monday-wings on the grill, baked sweet potato, green beans 

Tuesday-homemade vegetable beef soup, salad, bread...I made this meal for a neighbor I'm taking dinner to, but my soup recipe makes a lot. I normally freeze half, but instead this was our dinner too. I play Mah Jong on Tuesdays so I don't always eat dinner on those nights. 

Wednesday-grilled Asian (flavorings) salmon, steamed spinach, roasted cauliflower

Thursday- butter chicken over rice, roasted veggies 

Friday-crock pot stroganoff, salad 

4. Thomas Sowell is credited as saying, ''There are no solutions, only trade-offs.' Agree or disagree? Discuss.

Well I mostly agree. I do think there's always a  solution, but not always the one we want. And solutions come with trade offs. If you say yes to one thing you're saying no to something else, right? I think what you're saying no to needs to be considered just as much as what you're saying yes to. 

For instance if I say yes to a full time job, that means I cannot participate in daytime activities I might enjoy like a book club or women's bible study. If I say yes to watching my grandchildren while their parents are away I'm saying no to my usual weekday activities. 

5. What's the best perk you've enjoyed at a job?

Most of my working life has been spent in classrooms and school buildings and there's not a lot of perks there. Unless you count the satisfaction of helping a child in some way a perk. Which I do. In most of my jobs I've really enjoyed the people I worked with too, so friendship might also be counted as a perk. 

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

Using this space for my April A-Z Blog Challenge letter of the day today-

N is for Nostalgia

'a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations'

Consider this a p.s. to yesterday's post. If you missed it you'll find it here-(Pressed Between The Pages Of My Mind)

I've been sharing Easter throwbacks in my random thought on Wednesdays for the past several weeks so I'm incorporating today's letter into the picture. I've shared this snap on my blog before, but it's a favorite so I'm sharing it again.  

Easter, 1991...

Be still my heart. 

I see so much of my youngest granddaughter in the face of her momma there...her momma is the laughing baby girl my dad is holding. They grow up y'all but sometimes they birth one so much like themselves you get to relive the sweetness all over again.  

There's my niece with her darling smile wearing an old t-shirt over her clothes so she wouldn't make a mess. And my first born beside her with her favorite color egg cup-pink. She has a daughter of her own now, and guess what her favorite color is? 

I like the word wistful in defining nostalgia. That's exactly how this photo makes me feel. A great big sigh...happy, weepy, a longing for just a minute to be back in my momma's kitchen. 

Wishing you all a heart full of hope this Easter. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 598

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here on Wednesday (April 16) to share answers with the universe. See you there! 

1. Do you complete your own taxes? Besides actual taxes, what's something you've found taxing lately?

2.  What are three values you treasure most in a friendship? 

3. Do you meal plan or do you mostly wing it? Share your dinner menus for this week. 

4. Thomas Sowell is credited as saying, ''There are no solutions, only trade-offs.' Agree or disagree? Discuss.

5. What's the best perk you've enjoyed at a job?

6.  Insert your own random thought here. 

Hodgepodge Questions-Volume 548

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge. Answer on your own blog, then hop back here tomorrow to add your link to the party. See you there! 

1. When did you last have cancelled plans? Were you happy about that or disappointed? 

2. On a scale of 1-10 how much of a planner are you? 

3. Do you have a menu plan for the week? If so tell us one or two things that are on it. If not, what's your plan for not having a plan lol? 

4. The Hodgepodge lands on National Bucket List Day. Do you have a bucket list? Is it written down or just in your head? What is one thing on your bucket list? If you don't have a list, what is one thing you'd add to a list if you did? Yes I'm going to make you think about it. 

5. Rain buckets, a drop in the bucket, couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, sweat buckets, cry buckets...which 'bucket' idiom applies to your life in some way currently? 

6. Insert your own random thought here.