Happy New Year - Happy New Chapter!

 

If you have wandered over from my previous blog Thrifty Mom In Boise or just stumbled here by chance - Welcome!  This is my new blog.  After well over ten years (eleven + actually) of blogging about my life as a thrifty single mother with two daughters (my adult son has been grown and on his own for quite some time now) I am nearing the end of my full time parenting role and, you guessed it, getting ready to change gears and embrace early retirement.  It has been a long time goal of mine to retire early.  I've dreamt about it, planned for it, saved for it and worked hard to get there.  That time is drawing near and I am very excited about it.  This will probably be my last year of full time employment.  My goal is to retire on December 31, 2022 and I thought you might enjoy following along with me as I make the final preparations and get myself ready for my big day.  With that in mind, I decided to go ahead and start this blog now rather than to wait until I retire.

 

Last year was the most difficult year of my life as far as my health was concerned and I almost thought I was going to be forced to retire at the end of 2021.  All my life I've been blessed with really good health, always passed my physicals with flying colors, perfect blood work and no serious issues or illnesses of any kind.  The only hospitalization and surgery I'd had was a tonsillectomy when I was five years old. So you can imagine the shock for me, my family and my circle of friends when I developed some major heart and vascular issues.  In less than six months I'd suffered a carotid dissection with an aneurysm and three myocardial infarctions (aka heart attacks).  Thankfully, I was able to get the medical help I needed and have managed to turn it around, for the most part.  Will I ever be back to where I was physically before all of this happened?  Probably not.  Will I be back to where I was mentally and emotionally before all of this happened?  Definitely not.  These things will change you, but not necessarily in a bad way.

 

As many of you may know there is nothing quite like a major life crisis to shake things up a bit.  As you recover and get better you cannot help but mull over the situation in your head at times and reconsider the path you happen to be traveling.  I decided right away I was not going to feel sorry for myself or allow despair to set in and I think I managed to do that pretty well overall.  I won't say there weren't times of frustration and occasionally fear would creep in and try to grab hold.  Fear is not at all helpful, nor does it solve anything so I managed to pretty much keep that at bay and instead worked on being positive and proactive.  With all of that I realized that if I had to retire even earlier than I had originally planned I would be okay financially.  I would have to make some new decisions and change some plans but I was comforted in knowing it could be done.  But getting some much needed answers and a solid treatment plan for my health situation as well as getting back onto my feet is allowing me to stick to my original plan and agenda.  Thank you Lord.  Well, I have definitely rattled on long enough so I will end this post right now and I really do hope you will join me as I embark on this next chapter in life.  It is going to be fun, I'm sure of it.

 

I hope you all are doing wonderfully this fine first day of 2022.  I pray for wisdom, good health and great prosperity for us all.  Pandemic be damned!  Let's make it a great year, shall we?