Tag: #retirement

Living Our Best Lives

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

I am back from my month long “blogcation.” I really needed to take the month of August to have a reset. It has been a bumpy summer. It started with Mr. U and I both getting COVID. Then there were a lot of projects that I didn’t particularly enjoy or want to do, fulfilling responsibilities, and some health scares. By the of end of July my bike was gathering dust in the garage, I only had my kayak on the water a handful of times, and we still had not unwinterized our camper. Suffice it to say… I was not living my best retirement life. And lingering in the back of my mind was that nagging question… how many more summers do I have left? I can’t afford to miss even one. Do you ever worry about that, or is it just me?

I decided I needed to salvage what little bit of summer I had left. It was time to make a point of living my best life, right now, despite the challenges. My best retirement life is not expensive or glamorous. Aside from some travel, it is pretty simple really. In the summer, my best retirement life is:

  • going out to the garden to pick fresh vegetables and herbs for dinner or a colorful bouquet of flowers to liven up the kitchen counter.
  • a leisurely afternoon kayaking with a friend.
  • a picnic dinner out on the boat watching the eagles soar.
  • taking the four wheelers into the mountains to pick huckleberries.
  • dining al fresco… bonus if it is by the water.
  • that first steaming cup of coffee in the morning when you are camping.
  • late morning bike rides armed with a pack lunch and journal.
  • a lingering afternoon on the water with my family, followed by the smell of the B.B.Q. being fired up.
  • feeling the unfettered joy of being with my grands.
  • laughter gathered around the fire pit.
  • quiet conversations as the sun sets behind the mountain on another summer day.

It was the end of July, and I was starting to feel like a caged animal that had not been outdoors enough – pacing and anxious to feel the sun on my shoulders and the gentle ripple of water under my paddle. So, to kick off taking my summer back, a friend and I loaded up the kayaks and headed to the river for an afternoon on the water. It was just what my soul needed. Towards the end of the afternoon as the sun was getting low, we tucked our kayaks into the reeds away from the waves of passing boats and poured a glass of chilled white wine. A ski boat drifted by and one of the beautiful young ladies waved at us and yelled, “I want to be like you two someday!” And at that moment, I realized, this is it. I am living my best life. I just needed to pull back and carve out some time for it.

Kayaking the Coeur d’Alene River with my beautiful friend (left).

During my “blogcation” I cut down on social media and screen time. I spent mornings with a cup of coffee reflecting. How did I get away from living my best life and how do I make sure that I don’t let the weightier things in life keep me from finding the joy and beauty in every single day? How do I peacefully blend the responsibilities of life with enough time and energy for play? I had to rethink my priorities and what I wanted my life to look like. And while the blog break was nice, I also missed writing.

I pondered how/if writing my blog fit into my best life. What I noticed was that when I did not blog, I spent a lot more time writing in my journal. I guess some people just need to spill their thoughts on to a page. I concluded that writing and taking photos for this blog are part of my best retirement life right now. The challenge was the commitment to post every Monday. I have tried to stay consistent with that, because that is what the social media gurus tell you to do. However, the intent of this blog was never to make me rich or famous, so what do I care about blog rules? Heck, I can post when the muse hits and not post when I am having a super busy week. The shake down is that you may find my blog posts a little less consistent. They may be less or even more than once a week and they may not always show up on Mondays. They may include short blurbs or long rants. I hope that you will stick with me through it and if you want to be notified via email when a post comes out, please sign up for my newsletter.

How peculiar that, even in retirement, we can get so bogged down with the worries and responsibilities of life, that we forget to live our best life. As the old saying goes, “if not now, when?” What does your best life look like and are you making the time and effort to live it, or are you just drifting by?

Sunsets are a vital part of my best life.

Summer Break

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

We all need a break from the routine and commitments of life, even in retirement. Similar to how kids and parents look forward to the freedom that summer break brings – liberation from the schedule constraints of school and the extracurricular activities. I have been writing a blog post every week for the past two years. The very first post was published in July 2022 with the title What next? I write to capture life in retirement, hopefully inspire others on this journey and to remind myself of the things I need to hear. It has been a pleasure, but it has also been a commitment. Granted, just a commitment I made to myself that I enjoy, but a commitment none the less.

I admire bloggers who have been writing for years. Writing a post and coordinating photos to go with it takes a lot of time. I love doing it, but sometimes it takes away from living the very retirement life that I planned on. So, I am giving myself a “blogcation,” for the month of August. It will allow me some extra time to get a few projects done that I have been putting off, enjoy some play time and a chance to reprioritize how I want to spend these precious retirement years.

If you would like to be notified via email so you know when my next post comes out, please sign up for my newsletter. It isn’t really a newsletter; you just get an email letting you know when a new post is out. No advertising or other junk, I promise. I will also try to post a little more on Instagram if you would like to follow along there at: theretiredalchemist. The IG link is also on my blog home page.

Happy summer break my friends!

Summer Food

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

There isn’t anything much better than lounging in the yard in the early evening, sipping a glass of chilled white wine and taking in the aroma of something grilling on the B.B.Q. THAT is summer. It is the perfect option for cooking when you don’t want to heat the house up with the oven or even stove top. It has been exceptionally hot here in our neck of the woods these past couple of weeks – up to 103 degrees yesterday. Even too hot for Mr. U to slave over the B.B.Q. So, I have been trying to come up with some cool meals that don’t require a lot of cooking.

And just for the record, I am not complaining about the heat. I think you can only complain about one extreme weather condition and mine is the cold/gray weather. The main concern with this much heat and no rain are wildfires. Our beautiful tall pine trees get dry and there are a lot of forests full of them in our area. One lightning strike or careless person can cause a lot of damage. Enough said about weather. Back to food.

This week I decided to try making a rice bowl. I know I am waaay behind the eight ball on this one. (Does anyone even use that term, “behind the eight ball” anymore?) But I have never made a rice bowl before. Thank goodness for Google. I looked at a few recipes and then opened my frig. I did not want to make a run to the grocery store, so I decided to use what I had in the frig or garden. I opened a can of black beans, boiled up some brown rice and added some avocado and feta cheese.

I picked some cilantro and green onion chives from the garden. The chives are good on so many different dishes and I use them all of the time.

I added some left-over teriyaki chicken thighs that we had grilled earlier in the week, and it made a delicious, easy, cool meal. The only other thing that would have been a great addition would be some grilled corn, cut off the cob.

I decided to take pictures before I mixed it all together.

I wasn’t sure what to use for a dressing. But my favorite salad dressing that I make with olive oil and peach balsamic vinegar seemed like it would taste good with it. Oh, soooo good. The recipe for this dressing is in one of my previous posts, Living Organically. There are so many uses for this balsamic vinegar. I have not tried drinking it straight from the bottle yet, but… it might be that good. (The heat must be getting to me.)

Do you have any favorite summer dishes that hit the spot in this hot weather? It is time to whip them up and stay cool out there!

S.U.M.M.E.R.

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Summer is morning coffee out on the patio, lazy afternoons in the water and watching the sun bid goodnight as it sets behind the mountains for another day. But it is also watering plants, deadheading flowers, weeding the garden and sweeping up dirt that was tracked inside. The rhythm of the seasons gives life texture. While I complain about our long winters, I really do enjoy the character of the four seasons. Fall might be my favorite, but summer comes in a close second because there are so many fun things to do. Since we were busy enjoying summer and family last week, I did not take time out to write. So instead of writing a post, I am sharing my favorite things to do in the summer, via photos. A photo is worth a thousand words anyway, right?

Summer always kicks off for us with fireworks over the lake.
Time out on the water.
Always time on the water. One of my favorite places to be.
B.B.Q baby! No herbivores here.
Bounty from the garden.
Outdoor summer concerts. Bonus if they are free. This Motown band was so good!
Camping up in the mountains.
Precious time with my family. It makes my mother heart sing.
Being out on my bike and kayaking. It helps compensate for all the yummy summer food.
And the sun sets on another summer day.

We have to stuff all of the fun summer activities into the short 2-3 months of warm weather that we get here in the PNW. But perhaps that makes it all the more precious. Do you have any “must do’s” for summer?

Nesting

Posted on by The Retired Alchemist

Over the last several weeks I have been observing the swallows nesting in the birdhouse on our back patio. (Exciting life, I know.) Before moving in they visited the birdhouse several times to see if it was suitable. Then we watched as they determinedly began bringing in little sticks, mud and debris to build their nest. I envision them excited to create their home together and fill it with a family. Before long, we heard little chirping sounds from the birdhouse… the children have arrived! Life will never be the same.

Like people, once the babies were born, the parents spent most of their time taking care of them. In this case, finding bugs to bring back to the nest. Back and forth they went, removing waste and returning with food, as the chirping got louder and louder. Last week, the babies were poking their heads out of the birdhouse, checking out the world outside of their comfort zone. I kept a close eye on them, hoping to witness their first flight away from the nest. Then one morning, I was having my coffee and observing the final baby bird leaning out of the nest as his momma brought him, what turned out to be, his last meal at home. Then he leaned further out and whoosh, he pushed himself out and with a few wobbly flaps of his wings, he was gone. Out to start his own adventures into the world. The next morning, the nest was quiet. It got me to thinking about our own nest.

One of the baby birds peeking out of the birdhouse (left). The baby bird being fed breakfast (right).

We have been feathering our nest for years. Adding pieces of furniture, gadgets and other stuff that would make it more functional and comfortable. As we prepare to downsize next year, I am now busy “unfeathering” our nest. Not a job for the faint of heart. So many memories. It feels like we spend the first two thirds of our life accumulating and the last third of it trying to get rid of what we accumulated. I have been working on this downsizing thing for a while, as I addressed in a post I wrote over a year ago, The Secret Life of Stuff.

I am trying to pawn off gift our children with as much stuff as I can. But as I read recently, your kids don’t want your %#*! and they really don’t want to sort through it after you pass from this earth. I am currently on both ends of that now. We are slowly going through and cleaning out my parents’ home that they raised six kids in. (My dad lives in a house in town now.) Again, so many memories. However, these memories are from the perspective of my own childhood, rather than that of a parent. It is the cycle of life, the remnants of a life well lived in our various nests.

I have to remind myself that the nest is just sticks and that, what we carry with us, what really matters, are the people. The nest is the carrying device for living out life. It does not hold the memories. Those have already been created and live in us. The nest does not shape and build us, family does. I love to live in a cozy, warm, inviting nest, but it is empty without the people that bring it to life.

Son #1 and his wife came to visit the nest last week. Since the rest of our kids live in the area, we were able to spend lots of time together as a family. It is always comforting to have your children back in your nest. It speaks of home and cozy and a reminder of those years when we were all together under one roof, safe and warm. I miss those years. But I have also grown to enjoy our quieter life and the freedom to come and go as we please. We can choose to watch a movie and have popcorn for dinner if neither of us feel like cooking that night.

Nests come and go, but the memories live on. Our four sons helped preserve those memories through an exceptionally thoughtful gift this week. When I retired, they created a book for me. Each of them wrote several pages of their memories growing up and words of kindness and appreciation that were beyond what I deserved. They planned to make one for their dad soon after, but life got busy. They joked that each of them kept waiting for one of the others to spearhead the project. Well, they finished it recently and decided to wait until they were all together this week to give it to their dad. A beautiful, heartfelt, tear inducing, tribute of their memories with their dad. And guess what? It wasn’t about nests; it was about people making lasting impressions on each other’s lives.

Mr. U and I with our four grown sons and the memory books that they made for each of us.

I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July. As I mentioned, we enjoyed precious time with all of our immediate family, ate way too much food and tried to set the world on fire. THANK YOU to all of our current working military and our veterans. We are grateful.