Retire In Style Blog Too

Wiggly Little People! My beautiful grandson, Brycen, was in his end of school program today. He is four. It is so much fun to watch these little people in situations like this. They are just being who they are and they do not worry much about anything else. I have taught this age group and I will tell you right now it is a bit like herding cats. When they walk onto the stage, their shirts are tucked in and every hair is in place. Before long the cowlick and the shirt tail has escaped and both shoes are untied. I don't know how or why but there you have it.  When I looked around the room I could see that every mom, dad and grandparents was smiling. His mom and dad are heros in Brycen's eyes! My grandson told his teacher he wanted to be a paramedic when he grew up just like his mom and dad. That made we wonder when the little boy next to him wanted to be a superhero...do you suppose his parents are Batman and Wonder Woman? Maybe in his eyes they are. This is one of the joys of be...

A Toast to Retirement! I always check my traffic and why it is coming to my blog.  Here are 2 HOT TOPICS that seem to draw traffic consistently.   If you have not read these post before, I invite you to do that today. This was written almost a year ago but all the truths remain the same.  Take a look! Senior Independent Living...7 stages of retirement "grief"! In another post written several month earlier, I pointed out the patterns that snow-birds follow.  Those of us that seek a place in the sun during those month that are cold and dreary at home seem to take the same path and arrive at the same destination...but we each throw in a twist of our very own. Patterns that Snow Birds Follow How to be a Snow Bird...answers and lists! I hope you are having a wonderful week.  Stop back by one day soon. b+ Related articles Photo Of The Day: "Retirement Rainbow" (bonocorephotography.wordpress.com) Retire to a Small Town (myretirementblog.com)

RV parked in Mexico. A friend that lives in Florida wrote me a note on my Facebook account today.  His comment was that people come to Florida for two or three month and repeat this pattern for a couple of years.  In the end they usually buy a park model or condo and come back to the same place every year.  We see this same pattern in Arizona.  It would appear that snow birds are at home where ever they land! Here in Arizona those people that rent for two a three month and find they like the lifestyle will come back a second year, rent again and buy a park model during the second year.  Economics talk...it is simply cheaper to buy a park model in a RV resort and rent the lot than it is to rent a park model year after year.  If they are relatively wealthy they will buy a home or condo. Either way they can make themselves at home. There appears to be something for everyone. It is very easy to make friends...activities in the resorts are so diverse that is you...

As I grow older, I know that time is not on my side. It would seem that I need to make the most of the time I will be on this earth. It is all but impossible to imagine what the next 10-20 years will bring but I know that, if I am alive, I want to be ALIVE! I began to wonder, would seeing my "future self" in a digitally altered image or writing a letter to my "future self" about what I will do today change the quality of my life in the future?  Maybe so. And why would that be? I began this line of thought after reading an article in the Harvard Business Review. The article called  Would You Make Better Decisions if You Could See Yourself in the Future? told about a study by  New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business assistant professor  Hal Hershfield   on the effect looking into the future might have on decisions made today. The gist of the article was stated in one of the opening paragraphs: Many people feel disconnected from the individua...

I must be getting a little bunchy...I am beginning to think about travel even though I have no plans to go anywhere for months. I am having too much fun here at home. Yet, in the night, I wake up thinking about our adventures. I talk with my family and friends about travel quite a bit. My husband tells me they don't care but I don't care whether they care or not. I like to talk about it so I do. The story that came to my mind last night was the one about us traveling home from Spain just after the war on Iraq had started. The security was very high, the Spanish people were furious with the American president so we had to pass ourselves off as Canadian. We had witnessed the Palm Sunday procession that morning, lay on the beach in the afternoon and changed quickly before we headed to the airport. I was dressed in my 501's with a light linen jacket, a big straw hat I had worn on the beach, sensible shoes and I carried my beach bag with my swimming suit inside. 2003 In Toledo T...

It has come to my attention that I need to pay better attention. See, I love a Pulitzer Prize winning book or a book that gains attention for it meaty content or a book written about or by someone I admire. The Last Day for Rob Rhino by Kathleen O'Donnell fits into no category of mine so I didn't notice it at all. (Now I find that it was an Indy Book of the Year Finalist.) I first noticed the book when I was reading Kathleen O'Donnell's blog on her website that carries her name. The blog page is called Bald Spots. I read a post she had written recently about her stepfather. She did not particularly like him, his alcoholic lifestyle or even the way he treated her mother. But she held a grudging respect for the effort he put into trying to be the father he knew she needed. He fell far short and she could not grieve his death because her memories were clouded by his abusive behavior. It is not a happy story but the way she wrote it was just beautiful honest and even poign...

Was thinking about all the things we can do to make us look and feel younger today and not one thing that came to mind cost a dime. How perfect is that? My reward for hard work! I was reading a post over at Sightings over Sixty the other day...I seem to be getting some ideas from Tom these days. He was talking about bowling but the post ended with an insight about aging. A fellow bowler pointed out that we are not old until we say it outloud...or at least that was the way I read it. He made me wonder about people that never seem to age. What do they do that keeps them looking and feel much younger than they are? Here is a list of things that I think are important. Never, never say you are old. It will age you right on the spot without your even getting out of your chair. Read and talk...everyone can talk about something they have read and age is no boundary. Talking to someone else everyday is so important and now you have something to talk about. Beside that reading is wonderful exerc...

One of the things we miss most when we are not working or retired is the validation that working for an income provides. Someone thinks we are worthy and pays us to do what we do. I don't know about you but we missed that part of our careers. So, the question is, "How do you find validation and a little income when you are retired or a blogger?" That is where Adsense and  Amazon  come in if you are a blogger like me. I'm restoring my water fountain in my front yard and so I am shopping for a pump. I just thought you would want to know! Tom over at Sightings Over Sixty left a comment and asked me the other day how I made any money using those sources that are allowed on Google Blogger. He said that he had tried Amazon and found that it just didn't provide the validation he wanted. It is tricky to say the very least. There are some ingredients I think you need to make it a worthwhile endeavor. Time is what you have the most of in retirement or a freelance blogger.....

My garden has taught me more lessons than any text book or experts advice. I was reminded of this one more time as I wandered past a beautiful clump of lupine that appeared in the east most spot at the far corner. Lupine has always seemed to be one of those elusive plants that appear in mountain meadows. I had never imagined that I could tame them to grow near to my front door. When my husband plucked a dry pod from a neighbor's dying plant a couple of years ago, he planted it in our very new flower garden. I did not think that we would ever see a bloom. In the garden that day my husband said, "Wait." I have never been a particularly patient person but I am learning that new art form as I grow older. In retirement our budget dictates what we do and what we buy. However, we do not give up anything we  want or need. We simply wait. At some later time what we desire will be financially available or emotionally possible. It is wonderful. So it was with the lupine.  Now it is ...

If you have seen this and haven't shared it with me, shame on you! This is just hilarious. I want to try it. I do not like to peel apples. Post by Sun Gazing .

My Beautiful Brycen (and me). Watching my Daughter Mother  is one of the great joys in my life. When our beautiful mothers and grandmothers are gone, we become the Mother of our own story. Our lives go on but something very pivotal changes without us even realizing it. My mother was a wonderful oral storyteller and when she was gone I become the storyteller in our family. Images she had created for me of our families history or even just life as I grew older became mine to tell.  If I didn't do that for my children they would be gone forever. I need for you to learn from me. I regret not asking more questions. My mother was not a very positive person and the things I knew about my father's parents were not what they seemed. When my husband began dabbling in genealogy, we discovered wonderful things about them that I would never have dreamed.  I think I was a little afraid to ask or to even do any searching for fear of what I would find. After my mother was gone I had to f...

</p> <p style="text-align: center;"> The book called  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel  by Rachel Joyce is such a wonder...it tells the story of a retired man that relives the journey of his past as he becomes an unsuspecting and surprised pilgrim. This story takes a look at how the retirement journey can change not only our lives but our very being. While we take our past with us we can also grow out of it and become what we have want to be. But, as Harold Fry discovered, it is not an easy journey. It takes time and effort to get to a place where a person feels comfortable in their skin once again. Harold has lived for 20 years with a life that is not happy or complete. His wife is very angry with him, his son never really connected with him and his job did not give him any satisfaction or joy. There was only one person that seemed to bring a sense of...

Was that yesterday, today or tomorrow? I went to the doctor's office the other day to have my FREE Medicare wellness check. That was when I got my first idiot test...you know, the one where they say three words, have a little conversation and ask you if you can remember the three words they gave you. I passed with flying colors! Yes, I was a little proud but I also know that if I couldn't have done that I wouldn't have ever found my way to the office to begin with. By the way the three words were  chair, banana and sunshine. The reality is there are things I don't remember and never have. For example, I cannot remember my grandchildren's birthdays, may not know what day of the week it is because every day feels like Sunday and do ask some pretty foolish questions. Don't worry. I am just fine. I have always been a little dreamy and forgetful. It is part of my creative personality and I will not change. But that doesn't alter the way my children see my goofine...

I suppose that most retirees deal with hearing loss either personally or in their relationships. It is just a given that many of us will get become a little or a lot deaf. Is that a problem? Well yes and no. Can you hear me now? See, being deaf can be kinda nice actually. It is quiet, night noises don't bother you and you don't need to even pretend that you hear or understand what the next person is saying because "you have a hearing loss...sorry!" On the other hand the person that is living with a deaf person can become a little grumpy because...well just because. I know for sure that the most important test for hearing loss happens long before that person ever visits a doctor. I have a friend that gives her husband a hearing loss test every once in a while just to reassure herself that she is not going nuts and that she really did tell him that there was no milk and would he please get some but he claims she didn't. For example, they were dancing one night and ...