My Tireless Retirement – Week 180

 

Hello my friends!  Another week has rapidly flown right on by already.  Temperatures have changed and we even had a rainy day on Saturday that I appreciated so much.  It was gray and gloomy, but the moisture was greatly needed.  It has been quite a while since we’ve had a good day of rain.

Before

I can tell you that camping out of a car is vastly different than out of the back of my truck, or an RV for that matter, and I was quickly reminded of that fact while out camping the previous week.  I’m also older and hefting that big camp tote in and out of the car was a little hard on my lower back so I came home with the incentive to create “storage pods” instead.  I also decluttered some more gear that I don’t need or use anymore.

 

New stove!

One of the items that got the boot was the two burner campstove that decided to die on us while we were trying to cook dinner on our first night out.  I was bummed at first, but my BFF thought it was great because now he knew what to get me for my birthday – Ha!  As soon as we got home he fired off an Amazon order and a couple days later this beauty showed up on my doorstep along with enough fuel to camp for a few years as well as weather any long term power outages we might encounter in the future.

 

I had sorted my camp gear into zones and then measured my stuff so I knew what size containers I wanted to get before I headed to my least favorite store to pick up three containers.  It was a lot of fun for me to create these storage pods and I even made some super cute labels too.  They aren’t really necessary because you can see right through the containers, but it was fun!  Ideas are swirling inside of my head as plans are being made for future travel and I plan to do a lot more camping.  I’m so dang excited I can hardly stand it.

 

After

I pulled the other A/C unit out of my bedroom window and now I’m only using fresh air and box fans, which is my preference over air conditioning if given the choice.  As I was putting the freshly washed sheets back on my bed Sunday morning I was having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that in all likelihood I’ll be putting the flannel sheets on the bed in a few weeks.  Kind of crazy to think about, huh?

 

At Albertson’s my BFF had picked up a loaf of the Hero low carbohydrate bread for us to try and I have to say, it is very good.  I really like the ingredients list and the fact that is a very palatable low carb bread, although the price tag is rather high.  They have bagels and hamburger buns, tortillas and dinner rolls there too.  Now that we’ve tried it I was eager to try a few of  the other products and I had a $5 OFF birthday coupon to use so I stopped in while picking up my prescription and grabbed another loaf of bread, a package of bagels and some of the buns.  Initially I thought spending $8.99 for five bagels was a bit ridiculous until I was reminded I would have to spend $10 at the local bagel bakery for five bagels so this was actually a savings.  Plus, I can eat these!  Have any of you tried the Hero bread products yet?

 

Bagel with whipped cream cheese

Taco Pies - the two in the back went into the freezer

Wednesday I devoted various parts of the day to doing a bit of meal prepping while I also ran a few errands, tidied up around the house, worked on some future planning and took care of my household administrative tasks (bills, paperwork and updating my spreadsheets).  My big annual auto insurance and homeowner’s insurance renewals are fast approaching so I fired off an email to my agent/broker asking her to please make sure I am still getting the best rates and to search for ways to reduce my bill.  She got right back to me and told me she will start working on my request.  I also discovered a discrepancy on my last paycheck so I fired off an email to my supervisor and she was able to get that taken care of as well.  It really pays to stay on top of things.  Thursday was much the same as I wrapped up this week in retirement.

 

Recipe coming!

Macaroni salad

This brand new insulated lunchbox was on the FREE table at work

With continued turmoil in the world these days, the shootings in Utah and Colorado on Wednesday, political unrest and upheaval, humans being awful to one another, so much ickyness out that there, it has put us in a bit of a funk around here.  It affects us at our jobs as well as socially amongst our peers as people need or want to talk about it.  Personally, I am often finding it hard to stay motivated and keep my usual happy and positive attitude.  I am struggling, mostly because I don’t know what to do.  The entirety of the situation makes me incredibly sad.  Sad for me, sad for us and sad for our nation.  I continue to pray about this and ask God to guide me in my daily travels.

 

It holds my lunch container, a fork and my ice pack perfectly!

We can’t control the masses, we can only control ourselves so I intend to continue to live in a way that I feel Christ would approve of knowing all the while that I am far from perfect.  Regardless, I want to be kind to others, share when I can, protect what I must, stand on my principles and remain ever faithful.  I am a believer.  If there were ever a time to get closer to God I feel that time is now.  Our strength is being tested in so many ways and we must not fail.  Stay strong my friends and know that united we stand, divided we fall.  Take care and God bless all of you.