Tell Us About….Something New!

I hope your 2025 is off to a good start. The creative bunch that is my blogger’s writing group thought it would be a good time to write about Something, ANYTHING, New!

The New Year brings brings in for me the date I’ve looked forward to for so long – The Year I Retire! As in, retire from full-time work and being gone from home for 10 hours every weekday, 47 weeks each year (yes, I get very generous vacation by American standards, but I am quite “senior”) I’ve worked full-time for 42 years, with 6 months off during a temporary assignment to Italy (yes, it was bliss). And it feels like a very long time indeed….

It’s not that I hate my job – far from it. I love my colleagues, and I’ve been blessed with great bosses, assistants and co-workers. But the positions I’ve held in my long and varied career have never been my identity – not the first thing I’d want you to know about me. My brother always said his job paid for the life he loved – he gave it his best effort for the time he was required, then came home to his family and the things he loved – where his true life lay. I’ve always felt the same.

I have a 30 minute commute to work that I actually love – down twisting 2 lanes roads in the most beautiful countryside imaginable. No traffic lights, and no gas stations until I get to the village where I work. I know every farm, and most of the livestock in the pastures after 11 years on this route, as well as where a big tree went down, or when someone put in a new fence.

The downside is the village is too small and isolated to be able to run errands on a lunch hour, or do things on the way to or from work (without getting home much later). This leaves the dreaded errands for Saturdays, which are already full of obligations (social or farm work).

I’ve listened to countless books, first on tape, then CDs, then audio books and podcasts. The commute has always provided a lovely separation between home and work – allowing me to mentally prepare for the day ahead on the way there, or clear my head on the way home. I have an informal arrangement with my husband that I go change out of my work clothes before we tell each other about our days, or finish preparing dinner (he usually starts it, for which I’m eternally grateful). It really allows me to switch to “home” mode.

People ask me “what I’m going to do” in retirement, and I first think of the things I WON’T be doing: getting up to the alarm clock at 5:30 am every day, making sure to fill up the gas tank every Sunday afternoon, always getting the first or the last appointment of the day at the doctor, dentist, hairdresser, accountant, chiropractor, etc., browning a roast at 8 pm at night so it can go in the slow-cooker in the morning. I won’t be packing like I’m on a month-long expedition the night before a work day with exercise clothes, lunch, things to drop off at the post office, rain boots and shoes for the office.

What am I going to DO, you wonder? I’m going to exercise in daylight – not before the sun comes up or after it’s dark. I’m going to read for more than 15 minutes at a time. I’m going to garden by the farmer’s almanac and plant by the signs of the moon – not when I’ve got an hour free on a Saturday.

I’m going to put a pot roast in the oven at 2 pm and savor eating it at 6. I’m going to bake bread, make my own yogurt, and sprout seeds (on purpose) in my kitchen window. I’m going to dry some of those herbs I grow every summer, weed my borders and get my seedlings in the ground before they get leggy.

I’m going to spend hours on Ancestry and plug in the holes in the family tree – and connect with my DNA matches. I’m going to do some of those craft projects I’ve been saving on Pinterest and IG – and try some of those recipes! I’m going to make up all of Nancy Birtwhistle’s cleaning products, make marmalade and put it in all those jars I’ve been saving (after I clean out the last of the scented candle in the bottom of each one, and use the wax to make fire starters or re-waterproof my boots…right!)

I’m going to clean out and organize a different area of my house each month, replace that cracked window pane and re-screen the porch. I’m going to hang those copper molds (are they for jello or bundt cakes?) on the wall, and get the dead bugs out of all the light fixtures on the same day.

I’m going to volunteer at the Humane Society, with adult literacy and English as a Second Language. I’m going to finish that iPhone photography course, and print out some photos to hang and to give as gifts.

I’m going to pull my weight on the family farm, doing paperwork, repairing fences or chainsawing downed trees. And look after aging relatives, and help out with my little great-nephew.

I’m going to travel as much as finances and responsibilities will allow – the bucket list grows ever longer, as does the list of people I want to travel with. I hope to do the more active things sooner – the hiking in England, the boat down the Croatian coast, the camels in Morocco – will a flight to New Zealand be too taxing after 70?

I’m going to have lunches with all those people who have been retired for what seems like decades, and try not to make those who are still working jealous. I’m going to go to a show or a concert on a weeknight, and sleep late the next morning.

If all the currently-retired people have stopped laughing, no, I don’t think I can do all this AT ONCE, or even all of it, ever. But A List is the only way I’ve ever been able to accomplish anything, and I want to be looking ahead rather than backward. I figure if I’m lucky and continue to take care of myself, I’ve got 10 or 15 vigorous years before the decline becomes steeper. So I’m walking and flossing, and hydrating an stretching and sleeping and dry-brushing and lifting – and hoping it pays off!

If you’re still reading, thanks for indulging me in a bit of wishful-thinking/forward planning. Tell me in the comments what’s new for YOU, and let’s see what the others came up with this month:

•  Leslie is feeling giddy with anticipation at the possibilities the new year brings.  Although there’s nothing especially new that she is looking forward to, she is hopeful that 2025 see her routine to all the activities that her broken heel kept her from in 2024.  WALKING normally, hiking, jogging, bike riding, swimming, dancing and chasing after grandbabies.  https://onceuponatimehappilyeverafter.com

• If you’ve read Marsha’s blog, you know the last year has been a bit of a struggle.  Nigel has had his right hip replaced, and things are not going well.  For that reason, Marsha is discovering something new on a regular basis.  Head on over to her blog to see what she’s been doing!   https://marshainthemiddle.com/

• Suzy has a lot of new things to be excited for this year, especially the completion of her new house. It’s been delayed by several months but she’s hoping to be in by March because her first house guest (stepfather-in-law) has already booked his flights! www.suzyturner.com

• Something new for a new year! Deb is looking at the year ahead with new eyes and trying to listen in new ways. debbie@debs-world.com Http://www.debs-world.com

• Rosie talks about her recent discovery of the wonderful all-round health benefits of Castor Oil. https://rosieamber.wordpress.com

• Sue from Women Living Well selected Bloom as her WOTY.  For the Something New prompt, she is writing about  Nurturing New Beginnings to live life in Full Bloom. She looks at how we nurture our growth and our garden of possibilities.  You can find her post at https://www.womenlivingwellafter50.com.au/