My Tireless Retirement – Week 107

Hello my friends!  It has been another amazing, busy and fulfilled week in my retirement journey and I couldn’t be happier.  As each day progresses I find I am growing and becoming my own person, more and more each day and it feels really, really good.  Retired life gives us so many more options and blessings than we could ever imagine possible.  The biggest blessing for me has been FREEDOM.  Freedom like I’ve never before known in my life.

 

I worked every single day, Monday through Friday last week and enjoyed myself immensely.  I worked less than four hours each day except on Tuesday I worked five hours.  Before I went in and after I got home I had plenty of time to leisurely get things done around my house.  Housework, laundry and even some yard work was easily accomplished.  I’m still pulling up big piles of weeds around the yard and this week will begin on area next to my driveway.  My chickens love the bucketful of fresh greens that I give them each day.

 

My yard looks so pretty!  My apple and pear trees were fully blossomed out.  Tulips and daffodils fill the garden beds with color and my rhubarb plants are coming up and filling out nicely.  I also saw that my hostas are starting to pop up as well.  I just love this time of year.  Two of the three blueberry bushes came back after a blistering hot summer so in my book that is progress.  I pulled up the one that didn’t make it and will buy a replacement soon.  I’ll be posting a garden plans update soon as things are ever changing around here. 

 

Things I Did To Save $$: 

I did not do any shopping last week so I saved a bundle of money there.  And!  With gas prices now sitting at $4.05 a gallon, I rode the bus everywhere so no fuel was necessary to get me where I needed to go.  I also did a fair bit of walking so I got my steps in everyday. 

Along with the buckets of milkweeds and dandelions I have been giving the chickens each I day I also gave them any kitchen scraps I had with the exception of onion trimmings which I put in the scrap bag I keep in my freezer.  This has been going a long way to supplement their diet as well as has saved me a lot of feed this past couple of weeks.  They seem to be eating much less feed the past two weeks and they’re keeping me in eggs, quite nicely. 

The main heat in my house has been officially turned off for the season for about three weeks now.  Last week I only used the fireplace one morning for a few hours to lift the chill off the house after the overnight low dipped down toward the freezing mark.  The rest of the time I was comfortable with a sweater during the day and my throw blanket when I was sitting watching TV in the evenings.

 

Meals I Prepared: 

I pulled out a pan of pork verde enchiladas from the freezer to bake in my cute little toaster oven.  There was enough to make three good sized meals with a bit of green salad on the side.  That used up all of the remaining salad produce I had in the refrigerator.

 

Additionally, I made a big pot of tortellini vegetable soup, ate four servings of that and put away two other servings into the freezer to enjoy later.  I loaded the soup with veggies so each bowl was meal all on its own.  To add more protein to the soup meals I opened and heated up a pint jar of meatballs in marinara sauce.  I topped the soup and the meatballs with a nice sprinkle of grated parmesan cheese.

 

My big news that I’ve wanted to share with you for a while now is that beginning tomorrow I’m teaching a journaling class at the senior center.  It is an every other week, hour and a half class and I’m super excited about it.  It is going to be a wonderful opportunity to share my passion for storytelling and journal making with others.  I am super excited about it.

 

I hope you all enjoyed a fabulous week and I wish you a great week ahead.  Let me know in the comments what has been keeping you busy or some of the things you’ve been doing to save money.  Prepared any yummy meals lately? 

 

FYI - My retirement week runs from Friday through Thursday.