My Tireless Retirement - Weeks 157 & 158

 

You may have noticed I did not post a weekly wrap up last Saturday.  I was actually getting over being sick that week.  I rarely get sick.  In fact, the last time I was sick was over four years ago with a mild head cold that only lasted a few days.  This time though, I ended up getting influenza A and I was down for the count.  I had to take the entire week off work so I wouldn’t risk giving it to anyone else, but it also took me that long to get over that crud.  It was terrible, but I survived.  I must admit however, it was really nice to not only be able to just take a week off to recover but to have that entire time to focus solely on myself.  I did not feel pressured to power through or push myself to feel better before I actually did.  Instead, I was able to rest and recuperate at my own pace.  I may not have felt my best but when you are surrounded by blessings you have NO Bad Days.

 

Best caretaker ever! 😻

The weather that week while I was sick was all over the place.  We had rain, hail, wind, a little bit of sun, but mostly cloudy skies with cooler temperatures that dipped down to the freezing mark overnight.  I definitely don’t feel like I missed out on anything.  I stayed warm inside my home with my fuzzy throw blanket, watched movies and napped a lot.  By the end of the week I was starting to get bored and that’s when I knew I was getting better.  Once Friday rolled back around it had been a solid week since I started coming down with the flu and I was feeling more like myself.  I may not have sounded like it (the frog taking up residence in my throat had yet to vacate), but I sure felt a lot better.  It was time to get back to it.

 

We had some crazy weather like this hail storm

Thankfully, my house didn’t suffer.  I was well enough to take care of me, my animals and the few dishes and little bit of laundry I had made.  I even swished the toilets once, but rather than launch myself into a marathon of “catch up” cleaning that would have completely worn me out I just started doing my daily fifteen minute (or less) cleaning schedule knowing that by Thursday I’d be all caught up and I was!  One thing I did do was to completely strip my bed Sunday and wash all of my bedding.  While everything was washing I was able to open up the bedroom window and air out the room.  Fresh air and fresh laundry made me feel so much better!

 

I had been living off of soup & smoothies

The first part of last week was cloudy and rainy.  I went back to work on Monday and again on Tuesday working only a few hours each day.  I was off on Wednesday and Thursday.  It was a great way to ease myself back into the swing of things.  I used Wednesday was my day to run a few errands (I even braved Costco) and get a few things accomplished but I definitely was not into overdoing anything.

 

The interior was super dirty!

The seats were downright disgusting

Thursday I was chomping at the bit to do something really productive and with the cooperating weather I headed outside and shampooed the seats and carpet in the Subaru.  It took me a solid three hours to get that job done and by that time I was exhausted and filthy, but it sure felt good to get it done.  I’ve got some more work to do on the interior, but this particular job was seriously at the top of my list.  I am super happy to check this off the list!

 

This is what I extracted from the front seats 😕

One thing I can say about being sick for a solid week is that it really tested me and the things I put in place in my home, especially my LTFS, for just this very reason.  I’m thrilled to be able to report that I had everything I needed and was able to adequately care for and feed myself without the need to leave the house for anything.  I am super grateful for a well supplied medicine cabinet, my soup shelf in my LTFS as well as a well stocked freezer and pantry.  Win-Win-Win!

 

I bought myself a new coffee cup

I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy.  Let me know what you’ve been up to! 😃