Change to Spice Things Up

by Irwin
(Lakeland)

Here it is the last day of September in the year 2018. Three months left…where does the time go?

It seems like just yesterday I was thinking about whether or not I wanted to make some New Year’s Resolutions for 2018 and guess what, here it is just a few months away from having to make that decision once again, but this time the resolutions will be for 2019.

While this year so far has had some trials and tribulations that had us wondering how our lives might be affected, for the most part all turned out rather well. It has been, if nothing else, a quite busy year and one that is not over yet.

We have done more traveling this year and to places we have never been before not just the usual trips out west or up north, and truth be told, we are not done yet as we have one more small trip planned before the end of 2018.

I am going to do something different with this post, something I have been a pondering about for some time now just to see how well it comes across to those of you that follow my rants and raves about the retired life.

By the way, before I go any further, let me just say that even though our retirement life came upon us unexpectedly and earlier than we had contemplated we would be retiring, it has been and continues to be a blast! Would not change a thing.

Having said that, let me elaborate a bit further. Being a realist I would be the first to admit that if I were being completely honest, I guess there are a few things I would have done differently.

But, by the same token, again being the realist I consider myself to be, I also know that had I changed some of the things I have done in the past, I will also be the first to recognize that our lives may or may not have turned out as well as they have.

We are where we are today based on what we did in the past. Changing something that was done in the past might also mean that our lives may or may not have followed the same path that they have followed.

True, looking at the positive side of the equation, one might think that had we done things differently, our lives might have been better than what they have been. But then again – being the realist – who is to say that our lives might not have gone a direction completely opposite of what we had expected, down a negative path instead. The grass isn’t necessarily greener on the other side!

I read an article recently that suggested a few things we could do to make life more interesting and sort of shake things up a bit if for no other reason than to spice up our lives and make retirement life more interesting.

Thought I would share them here in case anyone else is interested in making their days seem different and thus not boring. We are away at the moment (and the reason my posts have been sparse to say the least) but upon our return, I intend to instigate several of them in our daily routine.

1. Cook breakfast for the entire week. This is something several of my children already do and I am going to try it. One thing it will do is provide us with a healthier breakfast as it will get me away from always eating cereal for breakfast.

2. Create a schedule for daily workouts – primarily stretching exercises and my daily walks. I feel so much better after I do this so actually scheduling a time to do it and then following through will make my days better.

3. Just to shake things up a bit and not feel like I am in a rut – I am going to swap Saturdays and Sundays. By that I mean I am going to do on Saturday what I normally do on Sunday and vice versa.

4. While it is true when one is retired, we really do not have to dress for success anymore, but some days we wake up and have places to go while other days we wake up and know we have certain projects to attend to so, I am going to make it a point to lay out my clothes for the next day, the night before and in doing so will take the guesswork out of figuring that out as soon as I wake.

5. I am also going to read up on “Slow Cooker” meals and get in the habit of preparing our meals using the slow cooker so that we do not have that discussion we seem to have every evening around dinner time – what do you want for dinner? Some nights we actually prepare something while other nights it is a “fend for yourself night” and we end up eating anything and everything in sight. Bad for the diet and waistline.

6. This next suggestion I must admit I tried and while I may do it again, thought I would add it into the mix just in case anyone is interested. Download a relaxation application on your phone and use it to go to sleep at night. For me, sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t. Your call.

There were a few others that I am going to pass on for my own reasons but will briefly mention them here in case those reading this might think they would be good for you.

They are (a) Volunteer, (b) Put flowers in the kitchen, and (c) Take a hot bath 90 minutes before bed on a Sunday evening.
There you have it. Doesn’t sound like much but every now and then change is good for us.

Like I said, we won’t be instigating these changes for two or three more weeks but I do intend to see how they work going into the last quarter of the year.

What about you? What are you doing to keep your days different and active?

Until next time!

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