This "Retirement" Thing

This new stage of my life, this "retirement" thing, has me doing a lot of thinking. I wasn't prepared to retire. I hadn't given the idea much thought at all until I realized that Saint Gene needed help with my mother, that he had become a virtual prisoner at home unless someone was paid to come in and sit with her and those arrangements needed to be made in advance. No quick trips to the garden store when he ran out of fertilizer or fast trip to the grocery store when we ran out of something unexpectedly. So while the decision to retire was truly carefully thought out, it was mostly thought out in terms of finances. Not in terms of what do I do after I retire. So now, two weeks after the fact, I'm trying to give it some thought. What will I do with my time? Yes, I do intend to spend more time on my hobbies but I don't want them to become work. After all, a woman who is now living in blue jeans and t-shirts (and loving it!) really doesn't need that many pairs of earrings - I already have 80+ pairs. (Can you believe I haven't had the first smidgen of makeup on in over two weeks!!)

I spent the first week at home mostly in and out of bed - I had arthroscopic knee surgery that turned out to involve a little more interior decorating work than the doctor anticipated. And walking, well, not such a pleasant activity after having my knee cleaned out. Did I mention that I live in a tri-level house? Trips up and down stairs are necessary to do much of anything.

The second week at home was sort of a repeat of the first week except with a greatly improved ratio of out of bed to in bed. Walking still isn't much fun but it is getting easier.

Today is Sunday, the start of my third full week of retirement. And I'm not yet used to not thinking of tomorrow as a work day. But I plan to start giving my days a little more structure. Yes, I'm going to sleep late. But not THAT late any more. I think I've caught up on sleep now. And I'm going to stay up and watch all of "Dancing With the Stars" instead of watching half and TIVOing the second half. And I'm going to schedule Mondays as clothes washing day, Tuesdays as, well, who knows.

I'm going into ease into this "schedule" and "structure" thing. After all, I'm retired now. If I don't want to _____, I don't have to _____ (fill in the blank). Now, I'm the boss of me.

Joy Journal: Watching the tomatoes we started from seed going into their Earth Boxes.