I can’t believe I haven’t written since late January.  Being retired and all, I had thought I would do nothing but write.  It turns out that writer’s block is a real thing.  I can’t imagine the stress of deadlines and such that come with being a full-time writer. 

During my unplanned writing hiatus, we enjoyed a 10-day get away to the Dominican Republic in February.   Again, we found the people there very friendly and enjoyed great food, fun and sun.  We met some new friends and enjoyed time with our existing friends.  Despite our age, things got a little crazy a couple different days. A few bumps and bruises but luckily no broken bones that we know of. Our new friend Ken did some lasting damage to the bushes out front of the resort but some how avoided bludgeoning himself in the process.

March found us in Florida for three weeks.  We checked the Grand Ole Opry off my bucket list on the way down and enjoyed food and drink at our favorite watering holes.  Our two-week stay in an Airbnb included a short visit from my kids.  Our first and hopefully not the last family vacation since my kids have been married. Unfortunately, it also found Scott and I both sick in bed for a few days as well.  Still, we managed a few trips to the local beaches and fun outings with more friends.  For over 40 years now I have shared my birthday with a close friend and we have gone to dinner at Red Lobster for many of those years.  This year we had the pleasure of doing it in Florida.  We returned home in time to attend the wedding of Scott’s niece on my birthday weekend. We didn’t have a party for my 60^th but are still talking about having something when it warms up.

As the weeks have gone by, my friends started asking when I was going to write again.  I started writing some mini-bites on Facebook entitled 60 things I wish I knew before turning 60.  I’ve decided to carry that over to my blog.  Hopefully this new twist will keep you entertained as we live day to day in our post-stem cell transplant life.  We continue to learn new things and have come to the conclusion that while he is over the worst of it, it will be in our lives forever.  He catches every cold or sickness that comes around and more often than not he’s bowing out on activities or taking nap breaks.  Since the new year, I think we have had maybe 3-4 weeks where he or we were not battling some type of cold or flu.  We plan things with the understanding that there is a fifty-fifty chance that we will be able to do it when the time comes.  We are both working through the challenges of his new personality.  I can no longer accurately anticipate his wants and needs as his opinions and thought processes are not the same as they were.  Yet we continue to push onward.  Speaking of moving forward, here are a couple of my first observations of being over 60.    

In no particular order, Observation #1.  Had I only known I could spend a Wednesday with friends, old and new; reliving our childhood days of 4-H and more. Sewing bears for charity. Followed by a visit to see my Granddaughter (and parents). I could get used to this.

Observation #2: I’ve remembered that I love to sew. Little did I know that the little gadget on the left would be my new best friend! Fellow seamstresses will know what it is!

My friend Cynthia is an avid quilter and is always working on some type of charity project.  Never looking for credit; I hope that her community appreciates all she does.  Her latest project came out of selling her quilts and other hand-made gifts at craft shows in Florida.  A lady was admiring her teddy bears and asked if she ever gave them to firefighters or police to hand out to children involved in accidents and fires.  She thought about it a while but decided she already had enough charity projects on her plate.  The next show the narrative was almost the same.  This time the lady added that if she wanted to do that, she had a lot of fabric that she would donate to her.  Any sewing person knows that no one says no to free fabric.  Cyn was telling me about her idea and had planned to make it a 4-H project this coming fall.  I thought it sounded like a really fun project and told her if she wanted to get a head start that I would love to help out. 

She contacted her sister and her cousin and the four of us met for a day of sewing and comradery.  We had a great lunch and along with our finished bears, we took home some cut and ready to finish up before our next meeting.  I had thought that the bears were cute, but after creating one myself I realized it’s much more than making a bear, it’s like birthing a little being.  I’ve since made five for myself and three for the project.  I’ve run out of batting and eyes so until my Amazon order arrives, I’m at a stand-still.   I’ve also learned that in my quest to sew and use up my stash of fabric in the cedar chest, it’s taking a good deal of additional expense to use all those stored crafting supplies.  I might have been better off to just toss the stuff out! 

Not only does using all this fabric require new coordinating fabric and project supplies, it’s required some new tools.  Since the eyes aren’t what they used to be, I first had to find a need threader.  Luckily, I had a couple of them in my stash; never dreaming that I would actually ever get to the point of needing them.  Another necessary tool was better lighting.  No longer able to see details after daylight ends, I got myself an Ott Lite with the magnifying feature.  It’s amazing the difference that good lighting makes.  If you are on the fence, just buy one.     

Right now, I think that Amazon is getting the bulk of our retirement earnings.  Parts for the square body truck, woodworking tools, sewing notions and supplies, they have it all.  Luckily Scott and I are keeping our spending at a pretty level pace so neither can complain about the other.  All things we didn’t include in our retirement budget so we probably need to revisit that with our financial advisor.  It’s amazing to see the price tags on all those things in my craft supply drawers and compare them to today’s pricing.  With today’s prices; had I retired earlier, perhaps JoAnn Fabrics wouldn’t be filing for bankruptcy.