My Tireless Retirement – Week 197

 

Hello friends!  I hope everyone is doing well on this fine day.

 

I got some awesome gifts this year!

A pop up shower tent, a windscreen for my camp stove & a super cute pillow!

The holidays were so much different this past year and in a very good way.  I was much more relaxed and present this time around, so much more so than in years past.  I didn’t listen to much Christmas music and I didn’t watch any holiday movies, neither of which was intentional.  I didn’t do any marathon cookie baking or candy making either.  I completely abandoned past traditions.  What I did do however, was spend an appropriate amount of time with my people as well as by myself.  Everything felt balanced.  On New Year’s Eve we enjoyed a nice dinner, some wine and watched the latest Mission Impossible movie.  We were in bed well before midnight.  No rush, no stress, no pressure.  I enjoyed the holidays in a way I never have before.

 

Fun journaling supplies! 😍

One of the things I like to do at the beginning of the year is to refill everything.  I refill my cleaning supplies, laundry supplies, spices and condiments, etc.  This year I am making a point to write the date on everything I open to see exactly how long items truly last so I can make better decisions regarding how much to buy and stock in my house.  I am finding that things tend to last much longer than I originally thought they would so I need to keep less on hand.

 

I cleaned the cabinet underneath the kitchen sink

I refilled all of the foaming hand soap dispensers and the pump dispenser that I use for my dish soap.  With these dispensers I use a lot less product than what I have in the past and things just last much longer.  I have far less waste too.  In my shower I keep a pump dispenser for my shampoo and one for my hair conditioner so I only use what I need to get the job done.  Again, I use far less product than what I used to with far less waste.  Because I now need less I purchase items far less often and save a lot of money in the process.  Yay!

Everything is clean, restocked and ready

With everything restocked I took a new inventory and found I still have plenty stocked in the linen closet and the LTFS with only a few items on my list to restock, not that I am out, but rather starting to get low on.  I have plenty of time to purchase these few items at the best possible price so no need to rush and run out to buy anything right away.

 

The first full week of 2026 was a very good one for me too.  I worked all day at the senior center last Friday, hosting the senior social at the library midway through my shift, and it was a rather nice day.  My chosen charity the end of last year was to collect and provide useful Bingo prizes for the social.  I am planning to continue this into 2026 as well.  I am also considering doing this for the regular weekly Bingo at the senior center.  I like to do it and I have fun finding various prizes I think people will like and find helpful.

 

Over the weekend I did a lot of paper crafting creating items for both personal use, for gifting and to add more inventory to my Etsy store.  I’m not sure how fruitful my little online shop will be this year, but I’m happy to give it a whirl and see what happens.  My plan is to take the proceeds and use them to invest and grow my wealth the best I can.  I recently opened a new retirement account solely devoted for this purpose.  I am rather excited about this new venture.

 

I took all of the Christmas cards I received this year and last year and was able to use those to create new ones.  I like to call them my “Trash to Treasure” cards and I absolutely love remaking old cards into new ones.  By the time I had finished I had made thirty six Christmas cards.  I may be putting some of them in my Etsy store later in the year.  I went through my drawer of paper scraps and used a lot of those to make some backgrounds to be used in future card making.  I also spent a fair amount of time making die cuts, mostly florals to be used to make ephemera.

 

On Monday I worked in the afternoon and again Thursday afternoon for a few hours each.  I was off Tuesday and Wednesday and was able to do some meal prepping for the week, catch up on some household chores, run a load of laundry and squeeze in some more crafting.

 

I made a keto cheesecake for dessert for New Years

Sunday brunch

With all of the craziness being reported in the news, especially with regard to our government and the steady stream of confusing antics by our president it would be so easy to become overwhelmed by the sheer unrelenting volume of it all.  It feels like we just can’t seem to get any kind of break from it.  Even Christmas day was not immune from the onslaught of political rhetoric.  It made me weary.  Instead I chose to focus the majority of my attention on making my own life and my home as tranquil and enjoyable as I could because I recognize I alone have limited ability to change or affect much of what is happening, at least as far as what has currently been going on.  While some of it is truly frightening, other aspects are simply heartbreaking.  And with that my first full week of 2026 came to an end.

 

A meatloaf supper

I love a warm mug of soup and a grilled cheese on a rainy day

This past week I was grateful for delicious and healthy food to eat, a warm home to reside in and the ability to pay my bills as well as my reliable vehicles to get me where I needed to go.  I had plenty to keep me busy and entertained including a night out for dinner and drinks with friends.  I am so blessed.  How was your first full week of 2026?