My Tireless Retirement – Week 141

 

Sorry I am late.  It has been another busy week in my retired life as we are cruising toward the end of yet another year.  Hard to believe we are that close to 2025 already.  Where does the time go?

 

I began the week by working all day last Friday.  By the time I got home on the bus it was plenty dark outside and the fog had rolled back in making everything frosty and quite lovely.  Even though it was only 26°F it made for a wonderful walk from the bus stop to my house.  These days I’m wearing my bright neon yellow jacket with reflector stripes so I’m more visible.  I had bought it for hiking, but I pulled it out of the closet a few weeks ago.  It is nice and warm too.  I’m also extra diligent about my surroundings as well as drivers who may not yield to pedestrians in crosswalks.  I’m sorry to say it happens a lot around here.

 

Saturday I tackled a mini project in my downstairs bathroom by removing the handles from the faucet and giving them and the faucet itself a good scrub with some all purpose cleaner and an old toothbrush.  It is the only way to thoroughly clean your faucet and remove the debris that accumulates inside the handles over time.  While I was at it I also used a small flat blade screwdriver to carefully chip away the calcium build up along the rim of the drain.  That had been bothering me too.

 

Sunday I puttered around the house and enjoyed a quiet and relaxed day until I met a friend for dinner at a favorite neighborhood restaurant.  It had been a while since we’d been able to get together so it was very nice to have the opportunity to get together and get caught up on each other’s lives.

 

Monday morning as I sipped my coffee and was thinking about planning my day it occurred to me that there was nothing pressing I needed to do.  My “To Do” list for 2024 is now “To-Done”!  The last thing on it was to put the winter cover on my motorhome and I did that Saturday afternoon.  I am now free to relax and enjoy the holiday season.  Wow!  That feels amazing.

 

A stack of Christmas cards went out in the mail and I also printed off some cute little labels to put on the little jars of pear butter I had made and set aside to give as gifts this year.  I added circles of fabric I had cut out of scrap fabric using pinking shears and put in my stash to be used just for this purpose.  All I had to do was place a fabric circle over each jar and screw on a canning ring.  It was that easy.  I still have more fabric circles left to use again next year.

 

I didn’t work on Wednesday so I started a new meal plan & prep process.  It is something I’ve been planning and working on for quite a while now.  I’m toying with the idea of sharing it on the blog if it is something you think you might find of interest.  My goal is to make a pile of easy to make and re-heat, super healthy and nutritious, affordable and efficient meals from high quality ingredients for one to two people.  I also wanted this meal plan to incorporate a lot of variety.  Additionally, I think it will also save me a lot of time cooking my meals as well as shopping for food.  Plus, it will also save me money.  I think it will be a win-win-win.  Right now I’m testing it out to see how well it works and if I need to do any additional tweaking.

 

I worked a few hours on Thursday and came home to work on another menu plan as well as some different cooking techniques I haven’t used in quite a while.  I dug my wok out of the closet and washed it up and got busy cooking.  Another delicious meal was enjoyed and with that I brought my week to a close.  How was your week?