We’re traveling more in my retirement, but the way my husband sees it, the only way we’ll stay home as much as he likes is if he keeps working, so he’s not taking the Social Security option just yet. He knows I’d pare down what’s in the house and sell most everything and take to the open road in the Wayfarer if it were up to me. I’d take us two plates, two mugs, two spoons, two forks, and two knives. I’d pack three pairs of jeans and six t-shirts, plus two pairs of sweatpants and a thin sweatshirt for pajamas. My camo Birkenstocks, one pair of sneakers, and my trusty Ugg slippers would be in my shoe cabinet. That’s pretty much how my two prescription medications and my favorite toothbrush and I would live for six months out of the year – until all the trees have grown tall enough to give us back our woodsy cocoon we once called home before they were harvested to go off and realize their ultimate destiny as telephone poles, the poor things.
In my best estimation, we’d travel by day, stopping for groceries on our way to wherever we’d camp for two or three nights. We’d take morning hikes and go exploring with the dogs, I’d press flowers between the pages of books and sketch them for watercolor paintings and bookmarks, and then we’d build campfires to sip coffee by, read books for hours, watch movies, and listen to music. I’d have to play Mahjong with bots on the computer unless I came across a group of three players needing a fourth; otherwise, we’d play Phase 10 so I could stay perpetually confused about what to discard.
We’d stop at every festival along the way so we could check out all the jams, preserves, and pickled things they’d be selling, and we’d buy some for our morning toast, along with a dozen free-range fresh eggs. And we’d throw in some homemade soap, too, probably made with the goat milk of someone’s backyard herd. It would smell like crisp mountain air with a hint of breezy wildflowers. Then we’d opt for a caramel apple instead of a funnel cake and sit in a bentwood rocker and watch the cloggers and banjos for a while before Wayfaring along on our merry way, humming some bluegrass tunes .
For today, though, we’ll watch Secondhand Lions and Arthur the King with dogs in our laps snuggled under fleecy throws, and I’ll be reading The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick since that’s what popped up for me on Libby. Yes, for today, we’ll only have a little pat of Kerrygold tub butter on our cinnamon raisin bagels – – none of these festival preserves that must wait for another time……
I’ve been digitizing family photos, getting rid of hard copies of pictures that require closets full of storage. We’ll save space and put these on thumb drives, allowing each family member to have access to all the photos instead of splitting them up. It has always been difficult for me to see my own resemblance to family members through the years, but in my younger years everyone said I looked just like my dad. As I’ve aged, though, and especially when I’m wearing contacts instead of glasses, I’m often told I look like my mother.
My husband and I recently met my dad’s sister for lunch on the way home from a camping weekend, and she remarked how I looked like my mother………and when you hit 60, that feels different than it ever has before.
Retirement officially began four weeks ago, and there are both upsides (travel in the RV) and downsides (having to replace a wheel – not a tire – on the RV) to this new chapter. At the beginning of my first week off, I used a green spiral notebook like the one in the image above to make a list of all the things I wanted to do — something enjoyable each week, blending in some new hobbies and routines as well.
Here are some things I’ve enjoyed in my first official four weeks of retirement, as teachers and students have returned to school (#1-7 I blogged about two weeks ago):
1. Mahjong 101
2. Rag Quilting
3. Morning Walking
4. Yoga
5. Friends of the Library Book Fair –
6. Local Bookstore Book Club
7. Summer Reading Poetry Book Club
The past couple of weeks have included two getaways in the Wayfarer along with a few other new endeavors. Everyone kept asking what I would do in retirement, and I’m so eager to share the ways I’m enjoying it! I have 100 things on my list…..so I continue sharing the list:
8. Postcard Poetry Fest – I signed up to send at least 31 postcards out to those who joined the Postcard Poetry Fest 2026. I have written over 31 original poems and have mailed them to my assigned recipients. It has been exciting receiving postcards from all around the world – many with original works of art on them by the artists. I’ll share the postcards I mailed and many of the ones I received in the coming months.
9. Wayfaring to FDR for camping….and…..10. Wayfaring to Margaritaville for a concert – We went to our favorite nearby state campground for a weekend on a remote campsite and enjoyed the fun and frustration of an unplanned hike. The following weekend, we took the Wayfarer to Lake Lanier to camp at Margaritaville RV Resort and saw the Eagles tribute band The Long Run. We rented a golf cart to get to the venue, and we learned the next morning that Boo Radley is not a candidate for riding in the golf cart because he cannot mind his own damn business and loses his mind and acts a fool.
11. Mahjong 102 and Free Play – I added a new segment of learning Mahjongg by attending the second course of lessons and engaged in an evening of open play at the McDonough Truett’s Restaurant with my friend Christian. We are riding around places meeting new friends and sharing the joys of “going Mahjongg.” I won my first game last Friday, and Christian swept all three games the night we drove over to McDonough.
12. Zinnia Arrangement – my sister-in-law who grows zinnias has brought me several batches, and I love arranging and rearranging them in my mother’s pitchers. I received an extra-special arrangement when I checked the mail last week. My friend Glenda Funk from Idaho created a watercolor painting of zinnias when I wrote a poem about them, and she framed the print with my poem as a retirement gift, along with a gorgeous boho blanket from Natural Life, a really cool pen and toothbrush holder, and a bracelet from Thailand – and the most heartfelt card ever! I shed tears of joy opening it, thinking of my friend who is so giving and has been suffering such pain in her leg lately. These are treasures I will cherish – so personal and meaningful.
13. Fabric Postcards – I’ve been working on creating fabric postcards for Postcard Poetry Fest for the next round. I sent out a few to see how they would hold up in the mail, and my small group of Stafford Challenge writers all received them and they held up fine.
14. Porch Sitting – I’ve enjoyed late morning coffee with my sister-in-law Bethany and an evening visit with my friend Jayne, who brought me a retirement t-shirt gift. Porch sitting and visiting is a great way to adjust pacing.
15. Lounge Pants Spree – I ordered lounge pants for each day of the week so that at least I could change into clean pajamas each day, but I ended up keeping only one set. I’ll add them more gradually so I can be sure of the fit instead of ordering online. My writing friend Margaret is changing my thinking, though. She says she replaced loungewear with activewear, and perhaps I should consider the same. There are some yoga pants that do not fit quite as tight as leggings, and those would work for me better than the tighter fit.
16. Novel Writing with Nick – I met a friend and fellow writer in Eastman, a couple hours south of here, to go through the first round of edits for the unfinished book left by my father that we are co-authoring. We look forward to bringing this novel to print in the coming months.
17. Kindred Spirits Book Club – I have a Goodreads personal goal of 60 books this year – – (it’s fitting….it’s the year of 60)…..and my Kindred Spirits sisters (missing one of us in the photo below who are the regulars) and I met at our local coffee shop to discuss the August selection: Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden. Our book choice for September is The Sideways Life of Denny Voss. Currently, I’m finishing Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth and I can’t turn the pages fast enough to see what happens next.
18. Barnes and Noble Virtual Book Club – I was looking for a way that my daughter in Nevada and I could connect in a book club, so we participated in the reading of a Brazilian thriller author’s latest book, The Secret Dinner. We downloaded the book on a Tuesday and had 48 hours to read it before the Barns and Noble Monday Mystery event. It’s definitely a great way to participate with family readers across the miles. The novel was disturbing in its subject matter, but reading outside the comfort zone is what readers do sometimes.
Over the next couple of weeks, we will be busy. One excursion that we will take this weekend will likely be one of my favorites of all time….. (hint: It will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday night).
One of the things I’ve looked most forward to in retirement is an unhurried pace to be able to enjoy time together with family and friends with a sense of full presence and my mind not on a million other things I’ve got to get done. Since I have retired, that has happened more and more. I’m not checking the time as much. One day I even had to think about what day it was. That’s a nice feeling. It’s got me thinking about all those dementia checks they give older people by asking them what year it is. There might be better questions for that, since I think that one is a little biased against retirees. We don’t care, and we don’t want to keep up with those minor details anymore.
My husband and stepson
In the past week alone, we’ve met family members for meals and spent time around tables catching up on life and enjoying food and fellowship. We picked up a grandson and took him to Longhorn Steakhouse to talk golf, life happenings, and what he’s reading in school – The Crucible, and how the classic witch-hunt still happens. We have celebrated a birthday with my stepson two counties northwest of us and met my aunt and uncle an hour north of us for lunch because they’ve been hoping to see our RV and see how we set it up. We met my stepson at Il Porto Di Venezia in Senoia (where The Walking Dead was filmed) and found a parking lot with both a Panera and a Barnes and Noble (places to fill two appetites AND space to demonstrate setup of the RV for dry camping) to meet my aunt and uncle.
And besides all the time around tables with those we love, retirement offers the blessed gift of time to browse and pick the books I want to read next. I’ll be meeting Tayari Jones next month when she comes to a University of Georgia campus near me to talk about her latest book, Kin.
Yes, the unhurried pace is the best thing about retirement. Someone told me it would be sleep, but for me it’s the quality of the time awake that I get to enjoy in this chapter.
One of these will be my next book…..I’ll see the author in September at University of Georgia Griffin Campus for a book talk.
Retirement affords time to do those things I’ve been meaning to get around to doing, and one of them is attending more virtual author events. As I searched for upcoming opportunities, I discovered that Barnes and Noble has a Mystery Lunchtime series, and I signed up to hear Raphael Montes discuss his latest book – The Secret Dinner. I hopped on to order the book, only to discover that it would not be released until two days prior to the event. That left one option: Audible. Neither my small town library nor our local bookstore would have the book available in hard copy in time for me to get it.
One of my daughters decided to join in on the book talk Thursday and reminded me on Tuesday, release day, by text: Do you have your audio? Today’s the day! I used an Audible credit and began listening. I was not prepared for the ride of this book.
Jeneva Rose, American author of thrillers, moderated the discussion. She introduced the book and the author, and the discussion began. She asked questions of the author, including the ones we added to the Q&A.
With such a dark subject matter in this book, I was not expecting the laughter and joy of this author. I enjoyed his Brazilian accent and his way of putting things in such an enjoyable way, and I enjoyed the time reading the same book with one of my daughters and having the time to talk about it with others. Even though we are many states away, it’s a great way family members can share our common love of reading and participate in book clubs together even if we aren’t sitting around a bookshop on couches to talk about what we loved most about a book. And what we liked least about it, too.
Jimothy, the Seattle raccoon who is different from other raccoons in physical stature, is taking the nation by storm for his unique level of cuteness and combined raccoon confidence in the way he carries himself in spite of the double-takes from those who spot him. You can read all about him here.
My sister-in-law across the farm has grown the most gloriously beautiful zinnias this summer, and she brings me bouquets and sits on the porch for coffee – – a joy of farm life, and even more so in retirement! But on her last visit, she said there was one in the basket that I’d have to figure out what to do with – – perhaps cut it down or something, since it was different from the others.
When she handed it to me, I smiled – and immediately, my mind went to Jimothy. Here was the Jimothy of the zinnia world, and it needed a spotlight place on my counter where I could see the beauty of the uniqueness of its stem. So I rinsed out a Oui yogurt jar, filled it half full of water, named it Jimothy, and propped it up next to a bottle of dish soap. This is my favorite flower of all – there is not another one just like Jimothy in the entire world, and he’s right in my own kitchen.
Retirement officially began two weeks ago, and there are both upsides (a more relaxed pace and lingering over coffee in lounge clothes and slippers on the front porch, for example) and downsides (lots of initial paperwork to replace life and dental insurance policies that don’t continue forward, for example) to this new chapter. At the beginning of my first week off, I used a green spiral notebook like the one in the image above to make a list of all the things I wanted to do — something enjoyable each week, blending in some new hobbies and routines as well.
Here are some things I’ve enjoyed in my first official two weeks of retirement, as teachers and students have returned to school:
Mahjong – I went for lessons with a former teammate who is also a new retiree! We are learning together how to play the game with tiles. Unfortunately, we have also discovered the highly addictive http://www.mahjong4friends.com, an online game that has us both staying up late at night.
2. Rag Quilting – I created a rag quilt for my newest grandson, who shares my birthday. We drove down to coastal South Carolina to make the delivery and see our son, daughter-in-law, and our grandchildren who live there.
3. Morning Walking and 4. Yoga – I’ve started walking a mile each morning on the treadmill and dabbled in floor yoga and chair yoga. I seem to do much better with the chair yoga, at least while I build some stamina. Yoga looks simple and easy. It isn’t.
5. Friends of the Library Book Fair – My sister in law and I drove to Columbus, an hour away, to check out the sale. We each came away with just under ten books and spent about ten dollars. Not that either one of us needed another book. But I am in the process of reorganizing my TBR pile and increasing my reading time.
Holding out a bag, ready to fill it full of new books!
6. Local Bookstore Book Club and 7. Summer Reading Poetry Book Club – I have been in a fabulous book club with my Kindred Spirits Sisters at work, and we will continue to read and meet and enjoy book based adventures. This month’s selection is Dear Debbie by Frieda McFadden. I’ve also added a local bookstore book club (The Ferryman and His Wife by Frode Grytten) to my reading life and finished an online poetry summer book club (44 Poems on Being With Each Other by Padraig O’Tuama) hosted by a member of one of my writing groups as well.
The next couple of weeks will include two getaways in the Wayfarer, and I’ll share the adventures on those trips on the 4th Friday of August, along with a few other new endeavors. Everyone kept asking what I would do in retirement, and I’m so eager to share the ways I’m enjoying it! I have 100 things on my list…..
When my children were little and I attended a yoga session each week with a friend in my more flexible days, they called it my yogurt class. My grandfather, an old-school Southern Baptist preacher, believed that anyone who “does that yoga” was a devout Hindu. His son, my father, was also a Southern Baptist minister whose views were far more progressive and embracing of other people and cultures without threat that we would lose sight of our own roots.
I’m not over here spooning up yogurt in a chair, and I’m not abandoning my Christian beliefs. I can embrace the health and wellness offerings of a yogini who shows me the way to stretch and reach to improve my flexibility and mobility without jumping with both feet into another spiritual realm. I am simply a new retiree seeking new routines and ways of staying active, and as I’m regaining the time to enjoy the pleasure of morning stretching and getting my heart rate up, I’m trying to find my groove. I have already capsized my canoe once trying to do floor yoga, so after my morning mile on the treadmill, I tried chair yoga, and BAM! I feel like I’ve found a way to ease into the day with exercise that does not break my neck (or my spirit).
My older daughter recommended Yoga with Adriene on YouTube, and where I made it only halfway (11 minutes) through the floor stretching video, I made it all 17 minutes through the chair yoga video. I feel the blood pumping. Maybe it’s more mental than anything, and that’s just as fine with me if it is – – we all need that part of our health, too. But my skin feels alive, and I’m pretty sure I feel some synapses awakening in my head, re-igniting like those Fourth of July sparklers, celebrating the universe for helping them find life again from the far reaches of dusty closet corners where they’ve been forgotten for a long time. I feel the rush of energy to face the day, and I secretly hope my face will find the radiant glow so many retirees seem to find.
Here’s a 27-syllable title and poem to celebrate the day ~ one for each of my years in public education!
Whenever a new grandchild is born, I dust off their great grandmother’s Bernina sewing machine and start cutting rag quilt squares to welcome the baby in style. My mother left me her treasured Swiss machine from the company named for the Piz Bernina peak in the Alps. It’s the same one she taught me to sew on, and while I’m not the excellent seamstress that she was (nor will I ever be), I feel a deep inner joy knowing that the same machine she used to make our clothes for decades is still being used to make quilts for her great grandchildren. I hope she’s smiling with pride as she gazes down from Heaven!
A lot of times, it’s hard deciding on a rag quilt theme and colors, but this idea came easily. Since Oakley Finn and I share a birthday (July 8), I chose stars and stripes for America’s 250th. There are also narwhals on one of the square designs, and one with waves too, because these grandchildren live in coastal South Carolina and love ocean and sea creatures. Even though there are not any narwhals making the trip from arctic waters down to the Lowcountry waters, I think they fit into the scheme of things just fine.
Retirement time allows for visiting family and sewing rag quilts, and I’m loving every minute of being able to do the things I truly enjoy! I feel blessed!
Rag Quilting
generations stitched
together, transcending time
where love knows no bounds
Our 8th grandchild, born on July 8th, weighing 8 lbs, 8 oz. – the 8th member of his family!
Today is the first day back for students in our school system in Georgia. When I started feeling the tug to retire throughout last school year, I said to a few friends, “If the stars align, I’m thinking about retiring.” Isn’t it ironic that on this first day for students, my sister-in-law Bethany sent me a reminder that this very morning there will be a planetary parade of lined-up planets! It’s as if we have moved out of the realm of the stars and into the planetary universe with someone upstairs nodding a big YES on this first day that I will not be in all the school traffic trying to get to work. I’m home – – living a more relaxed pace and loving it.
These days of early retirement have been filled with such sweet wishes from others. My sister in law from across the farm called last night to ask if she could bring some of her zinnias over. She’s been growing them, and they are stunning. I placed them into one of my mother’s salt pottery pitchers and sat them on the childhood dinner table, and they feel like a smile from beyond – – my parents loved growing zinnias, too! There is nothing like fresh flowers to bring the warmth of love.
Common Threads 