Linking this post today with Talking About It Tuesdays hosted by Joanne
There was a blog link up yesterday that a lot of bloggers I follow participate in, but I didn't have it together to make that happen which, let's be honest, is par for the course here.
The link up is called Share Our Lives and this month's prompt was A Day In the Life. The way it works is you choose any day in your week (usually the week prior to the linkup), and then share in words and pictures what you've spent the day doing, hour by hour.
I love to read these posts and enjoy seeing all the ways we're different, but mostly how we're the same. People everywhere are doing laundry, making meals, solving problems, managing the everyday ordinary bits of life.
Ten years ago (plus a couple of weeks) my hubs retired. I looked back at my blog and found three posts with similar titles to today's-Thoughts On Retirement Day Six, Retirement Day 47, Retirement Day 183, and then one entitled Five Minutes of Today written at the five year mark.
And suddenly another five have passed.
Retirement isn't anything like I thought it would be.
Well, maybe a little bit but mostly no.
I imagined every day would look a lot like the one before and instead every day is different. I read the Day in The Life Posts and the bloggers who participate are mostly people who are still working and raising their families. Their days and weeks are defined by jobs and children's needs and activities so their weekdays especially are by necessity fairly scripted.
In retirement you can be all over the map if you want to be. You can stay in your pajamas all day every day, skip dinner because you went out for a big lunch, go to bed at 8 PM or stay up all night, see a movie on a Monday afternoon, go out to dinner last minute, invite friends for dinner last minute without wondering if your house is a mess because in all likelihood it's not. You can fill every hour of every day or none at all, and just let the day take you where it will.
You are the boss of your calendar. Mostly. In retirement while you do get to decide how much or how little you want to do every day, some of that will depend on your health. A lot will actually. So you make a conscious effort to take care of yourself, because if you don't have your health it's going to affect you in ways you never gave a passing thought to at age 40.
Or maybe you did, but when I was 40 I was young lol. Back then if we were out with friends the topic of conversation was never about our knees or the ache in our shoulder. We try not to be those people now, but we are not our 'parents retirees'. We're golfing, hiking, kayaking, playing tennis and Pickleball, and truthfully sometimes just sleeping wrong.
I imagined in retirement I'd spend a lot of time chilling on the couch watching hubs nap in his recliner, and instead I'm going here and he's going there and we synch calendars and he texts and asks 'where are you now, do you want to meet for lunch?'
We are definitely not the people who stay in our pajamas all day, and I have absolutely no idea why I thought my hubs of all people would suddenly sit still and retire in his recliner.
I imagined less 'paperwork' and instead there is an awful lot of paperwork. The business of life carries on in retirement much like it did in the workaday world. There are finances to manage, bills to pay, insurance to understand.
There are still meals to plan, clothes to wash (why still so much laundry???), rubbish bins that need to be rolled to the curb on the appointed day, cars needing repairs, floors needing mopping, haircuts, mail, dust, and yadda yadda yadda. You know the drill because we're all in this particular boat together. Retirement does not erase the house-yard-life maintenance that keep the wheels of home spinning.
There's time to travel, explore the beauty and history and fun quirky things that exist right where you live. There's time to volunteer, grow your hobbies, have long conversations with your spouse, dig deep into your faith and prayer life, and invest time and energy in your grandchildren if you're fortunate enough to have them. When I count my retirement blessings these things are all near the top.
So what does an ordinary day look like in retirement?
Well, today (Monday) it was coffee with the sunrise. Read my Bible. Shower and dress for an appointment with the dermatologist in the city. No makeup because he likes you to come in fresh faced. I had a bowl of Special K with Red Berries, then put coolers in the car for the Costco run I'll make after the dermatologist.
My daughter, who is temporarily living with us (along with her hubs and three children), had plans to go to story hour at the library so I gave her my books that are due today. Winning!
I left the house at 9 am and drove almost an hour to my appointment, which was fine. Country roads for the most part and I always have a book going on Audible so I listened to that while I drove. I spent about fifteen minutes in the dermatology office getting my annual skin check, then made the five minute drive from there to Costco. It was mobbed and I bought way too much. It's the law.
Checked out and pushed my very full cart all the way to my car in the pouring rain, unloaded said cart in the pouring rain, returned the cart to the cart return even though it wasn't close and it was still pouring.
Broke in to the Pirate Booty for the car ride home. It was necessary.
I got home about 1 o'clock and unloaded the Costco haul. Made three trips up and down the stairs to put various items in the lower level frig and deep freeze because all this food has to go somewhere. I'd made a small salad the night before because I was thinking ahead and topped it with left over tuna for my lunch. I also made hubs a sandwich because he'd been to the real estate office and hadn't had lunch either.
By now it was 2 PM and I made a cup of hot tea and turned on the fire. It was still wet, gray and cool and I sat by the fire and sipped my tea. I worked on this post while my daughter sat beside me and scoured Pinterest for home decorating inspiration.
She and I plan our weekly meals ahead because with seven people in the house, three of them children who need to eat on the regular, we don't want to leave meals to chance. If it were just me and the hubs we would definitely wing it on occasion, which is one of the nice things about retirement. Anyway, today she put chicken, salsa, black beans and corn in the crock pot while I was out which was super helpful.
While hubs and I had lunch she was working on school with the boys, and when they finished up I read a couple of books to them and chatted about their trip to the library. Little Miss was 'napping' and the boys went to their room to play with legos for a while. I then spent thirty minutes with hubs listening to today's Bible reading and The Bible Recap podcast we do every day. Hubs and I committed to it on January 1 and so far we have stayed on track. Even through Leviticus. And Numbers.
Afterwards I got all the fixings out for our 'taco bowls'. Not sure if that's what they're called but I made some Mexican rice, we topped them with the shredded crock pot chicken-bean-corn mix, grated cheese, black olives, sour cream, guacamole, tortilla chips, and a squeeze of lime. They were delish and so easy!
My daughter did most of the dishes and the kids played before going to get ready for bed. They are full on during the day, but go to bed early and sleep like teenagers which is a blessing. Little Miss is up earlier in general but she's super adorable so we're always happy to see her first thing.
I filled the tub and threw in one of my rejuvenation bath bombs that I love and finally got rid of the chill I'd had since getting soaked in the Costco parking lot. I put on my pjs and wrapped up this super interesting blog post.
That was today. Tomorrow will be completely different. I have to finish taxes, do a grocery run for all the things I don't buy at Costco, there's book club in the afternoon, and then I play Mah Jong with neighbors tomorrow night. It will be another crock pot meal because my son-in-law is working, hubs has a dinner to attend, and one grandson has baseball practice late afternoon.
So how would I characterize retirement on Day 3,665?
Not boring.
I feel like there's more I want to say about it all, but I've run out of steam. Does a trip to Costco wear you out too or am I the only one? Have a nice week everyone!
