Retire In Style Blog Too

Satisfying Retirement: If I Had An Expiration Date ....that has to be the best thought provoking "if" ever.  Back in the day when we were all thinking in terms of "memes" and "lists" this could have started a wildfire on the web.  The idea came from a blog post by Bob Lowry over at Satisfying Retirement.  His wildly popular blog always gets lots of attention and I am sure that this idea caught people's attention. Bob threw the question out there...what if we had an expiration date?   Bob is a very pratictical man I think and he saw the expiration date as a challenge to finish the jobs he needed to complete...leave a lesson or two for his children, spend his time more productively and grow spiritually. He really covered all the important items.  For all of his list I say ditto. But I need to add a few of my own: I would smile more. My cell phone minutes would all get used. Friends I have not talked to would hear from me. I would write more letters. Ever...

An email came in last week from a representative of a website called Get Old .   I know...that caught me by surprise too.  Talk about telling it like it is.  But the more I thought about it the more I liked it.  Let's get old and get real ....not a bad idea actually.  The site is sponsored by Pfizer.  In their mission statement they express the desire to " ...inspire and activate people of all ages to reconsider what it means to get old...."    When you visit the website you are asked to become a part of an ongoing survey about your attitude toward aging and then add to the conversation.  You can have your say in 1000 characters or less.  I like the idea of changing the perception of aging in the eyes of those that see it as something very negative and dreaded.  Get Old has an Infographic that stopped me dead...oh my gosh...I have been singing to the choir.  I should have been talking to the 30 something set and not the boome...

Do you own a "rear view mirror"? I am talking about a mirror that lets you see the back of your head. I do and I happen to think owning one is a very good thing.   I asked a friend lately if she owned a rear view hand mirror. "What for," she said. "I don't ever look at the back of my head." She did not share my concern. Does that seem like something important to you? I personally try to remember to take a look at what is going on back there once in a while. Things like gray hairs, balding and the area I always miss when I comb my hair need to be checked almost every day. Now it has come to my attention that the back of my head needs to match my face! I know! Who would have ever thought it. A young man said jokingly that it was not right what older women could do with their hair now. He had walked up to a very young looking head of hair and when the woman turned around she was "like 80 or something" he said. Imagine how shocked he must have b...

See, I am the kind of person that drinks a glass of water when I feel bad.  Hydration is cool...right?  When I was looking at technorati this morning trying to find a tag I could hook on to I noticed "bath salts".  It occurred to me that I could talk about bath salts...you know...the kind you actually put in the bath to soak in and relax. It could be a way of hydrating in a tub of water. Holy cow grandma.  I forgot for just a nano second that nothing is what it seems.  Bath salts have an appeal beyond the bath water. The first article under the Technorati tag  bath salts was titled   Is my child taking bath salts? What you need to know.    It crossed my mind that if your young child were taking a bath in salts you would be one that put them there.  But reality kicked in pretty quick and I realized that the mother that wrote on Technorati Women Parenting was referring to a teen or tween and that the phrase "taking bath salts" meant the c...

My son and his wife loved their cat...it had survived a terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, a summer in the Saudi dessert and a week in a rat trap in China.  When it died a few weeks ago it had used all of it's nine lives. Lester was a very useful cat.  When my granddaughter Amelia asked for a hamster she was told "No, because Lester would eat it!".  When she wanted a gerbil she was told "No, we can't have a gerbil or a rat or even a bird...Lester would eat them all!"  So Amelia was convinced that her life would alway be just about Lester.  But she is a very optimistic little girl so her cup was full to over flowing. Amelia's Roller Skates, Christmas 2011 Then Lester the cat died. Amelia is only 4 so she barely sees the world at all...her little bubble includes a space about as big as her ams can reach.  Life went on and there were no reaction at all.  Until the other night. Amelia had crawled into bed between her mom and dad because of a bad dream and ...

From Style at Home.com Click image for source ! How do you describe a hoarder?  Is that the person that saves screws, hinges and drawer pulls?  Or are those okay and it is just the bank statements, margarine containers and pieces of paper in the drawers and on the floor that make you a hoarder?  There is a very fine line between what is thrifty, frugal and smart and what is weird. I suppose that somewhere inside of every person there is an urge to keep something that does not have any value and they don't even know why they might need it.  That is for the psychologists to figure out. Getting Ready for the 4th of July! As for me, I did saved a few door knobs and drawer pulls...through many moves!  Then we lived in a house that needed some pizzaz and I used the glass drawer pulls and cabinet knobs to dress it up.  Someone is living with my grandmother's knobs even now.  I don't think a hoarder would do that?  Do you? I posted a picture of a door kno...

I try to stay in touch with the news...really I do.  But here is the thing.  The news is really depressing.  The front page of the NYT always sends we into fits of worry and sighing.  And the fact is they do it on purpose .  Why?  Because that is what the human mind feeds on...we need to survive. Fear and blood are the life source of the newspaper industry. On the other side of the coin we find people that refuse to believe that the world is in as much trouble as the media says it is.  Enter Peter Diamandis.  I invite you to watch this video from TED called Abundance is our Future .   Then I challenge you to spend some part of your newspaper reading  focused on the positive. Good things are happening...like a weather man once said, "Sometimes you just need to look out the window.  We (the news media) don't know everything." Peter Diamandis runs the X Prize Foundation, which offers large cash incentive prizes to inventors who can sol...

I met a man in an RV resort several years ago.  He was one of the people that worked on the Hubble Telescope...but that is not the story.  He was very old or it seemed to me that he was.  I was much younger then.  He and his wife were in Tucson buying a "new to them" used motor home so they could travel to Prince Edward Island.  Why?  Well, his wife wanted to visit the place where  Anne of Green Gables By Lucy Maud Montgomery    was set.  I don't think I had ever had the idea that I might get to see such a place. Now I want to go there. Have you ever wanted to see for yourself?  What does that place just East of Eden look like?  Did John Steinbeck do Salinas Ca. justice? How about Steinbeck's book Travels with Charlie or Sea of Cortez ?  Would you consider following his path on land or sea? Do you remember the tree that Jo and Amy and Beth sat under to read on a warm summer afternoon in Little Women .  Would Louisa ...

When I was reading Seth Kugel's article yesterday I came across a statement that truly expressed my feelings about some of the places I have traveled.  ....I knew that it would take a doctoral dissertation to understand fully everything that had been going on around me.   Seth Kugel NYT That very feeling has left me wondering what  travel books  I should read and when I should do the research...before I leave for a journey or when I return home.  I have found that I am very apt to believe what I read in travel guides so I will skip over things because the writer told me to stay away.  Regret can be a result of that choice.  But, if I don't read the books, there may be things that are missed simply because I didn't know what was around the next corner and stopped short.  There is no right or wrong answer.  I find myself doing a little of both. When my husband and I were in Spain several years ago I saw the  Alhambra  in Granada for ...

I would go see Rodolph Valentine See, I never do this. I am not a person that wishes for the old days or even thinks about them.  But I want the old movie posters back. I have begun to notice that I don't know what name belongs to what famous people. I used to know everyone. Now I remember the face but have not name to go with it.  Has that happened to you?  Remember when the poster for a new movie appeared in theaters, the names of the stars and co-stars were featured at the top.  Starring Jimmy Stewart and Sophia Loren  it would way. I liked that...I decided to see the movie or not based on the star power of the people on the poster because I knew who they were.  Now, I cannot even figure out who is in the movie and suspect that the company releasing the film is hiding something.  I guess I am just suspicious.   Please, just tell me their name, preferably in large print. Being of an age (70 years old) that young people would call old is bad...

How old will you be when you quit doing dangerous things?  I ask because a friend told me the other day that she would not get up off the floor without help.  She is in her 50's.  I scolded her a little! I think the inability to help ourselves is as dangerous as climbing trees. And I know that you can get up off the floor when you are very old.  The trouble is not that you can't do it but that you forget how.  We will forget how to turn over in bed or how to look under the bed for monters.  Although all those are easy tasks if you stay in practice, even riding a bicycle can be a challenge if you haven't actually been on one for several years.  I am staying in practice because I personally don't like monsters under my bed. Curves has a program for exercise that will wake up you muscles...or at least that is what happened for me.  I suppose yoga or any exercise will do the same.  Then get down on the floor and figure it out.  I am includin...

Now is the time to move on.  Monday is as good a day as any to take a deep breath and look outside at the sunshine.  I know that even retirees need a day of rest if for no other reason than an older body can hurt if you don't give it time to recover from hard work. Read about China Today I am giving my mind a rest...at least for a short bit. I am allowed right? So go back in the blog read about cats or how-to make  coupon ing fun or hobbies  or even a mid-century trailer we owned at one time. I will let my mind rest and work my body.  Have a wonderful day. b

Baby Shay...the beginning of a circle! The tag "it's the journey" is attached to many stories on my blogs.  Growing older creates many challenges for my husband and I.  I am sure you have all had these experiences. So some days are joyous and some days bring grief.  The days that are remarkable are the ones that bring both and we are able to embrace the joy and put the grief in perspective. When a death and a new beginning come at the exact same moment you take time to ponder the circle of life that surrounds us all.  In our particular case a dear friend and my daughter's mother-in-law, age 84, passed away at the very time that our granddaughter was receiving her graduation diploma.  I was holding the graduate's baby sister and we were cheering and stomping our feet in celebration of life both at it's beginnings and at it's end.  It was tearful yet joyous all at the same time. Life is good...in it's own way.  Be well. b What is Hospice? Hospice of Oreg...

Remember Thoreau taught us: All men are children, and of one family. The same tale sends them all to bed, and wakes them in the morning. Read more I suppose you know more about me than you even care to...I wear my heart on my sleeve. As I grow older I am trying to hide out a little more. It can be hard to make friends when you march to a different drummer. On a day when I am wandering around on the web, not doing much but just learning, it is wonderful to read a post and simply say "yes, I understand". That is what I did when I read RJ's Corner and a post called  Being Broad Minded . You can learn more about me by reading his words. Incidentally RJ describes himself as a non-violent activist, a child of the 60's and a lover of barns.  How could you not love that. Be well, b

You are hereby granted permission to guard your financial wealth...even from your family. While generosity is wonderful, be sure that your family, both old and young, understand the consequences of giving more to them than you can afford. It is possible that bailing out a family member would actually ruin your retirement. Sobering thought isn't it? My journey around the web today took me from Boomer Girl's Guide to Buck$ome Boomer and an article called The Power of Saying "NO" to Preserve Your Retirement . The author, Kay Lynn Akers, is a boomer sharing her thoughts on the financial side of getting ready for retirement. Her post today revolved around the problem that parents have in saying no to their children when they are in need or even just want more than they can afford. I could relate to what she had to say...we all want our family to be happy. But..... The fact is, we need to guard that part of our financial wealth that takes care of us in our retirement y...

See, the thing is I like to shop and work on two blogs and have a beautiful house/yard. I like to be trendy.   But today...today I just want to look like my grandma.  I want to wear sensible shoes and do crochet.  I want to put a beautiful hat on my head when I leave the house.   I want to pray a little.     Not my Grandmother...just me! On these days when I don't care about living a long time or coloring my hair, I think about how simple it was when women weren't expected to be young forever.  It would be nice, just once in a while, to be more like my grandmother...happy in my own skin. Just a thought. b But here is reality...new items on Gift Blogger  but these will go fast so check it out soon!

I just finished reading and article my son wrote for the organization he works for in China...he is a school administrator.  The words revolved around raising girls and what a daunting task that is. Even in this day and age it is assumed that boys will be fine but girls...well they will have to work harder and longer to arrive at the same place. The article began with this paragraph: From the moment our children are born till the day they leave the house and strike out on their own, it is amazing to observe how they grow, learn, and develop into adults.  As a father of two daughters this process scares me to death, but I do want to have strong, independent, and creative daughters! A Father's Role in Raising Amazing Daughter I loved that turn of phrase strong, independent and creative daughters! Isn't that what we all wish for our children both boys and girls?  But that is not the point...the point is how we go about doing that.  How do parents raise daughter and sons...