What If

I was reprimanding myself this morning about not exercising. I have a good excuse for being unable to do some kinds of exercises but there are plenty I can still do with one bad knee and a new knee that’s not fully recovered. Living alone I have two options when it comes to having a conversation. I can talk to the dogs or I can talk to myself. I do both but since it wouldn’t have been very productive to fuss at the dogs about my lack of discipline I said to myself, Sherry what if you had been doing these exercises all along. My response was a big sigh followed by that feeling of I’ve blown it again, I’ve wasted all this time, what the heck is wrong with me. All of that started a discourse in my brain about those two little words, what if. My first thought was I hate those words followed by a hesitation and then a wait a minute. Yes, I thought what if I had, but hold on a minute, what if I do?

I believe those two words are not so little when it comes to retirement. If we allow ourselves to get caught up in all of the what if I had of’s it can cause a life filled with regret and remorse Sure, what if we had saved more, spent less, eaten right, exercised more and a million other things we could have done better. I think the better question to ask ourselves is what if I do? What if I learn to cook healthy foods, start a little exercise program, do that thing I never had time for or just took time to enjoy what I already have. We often hear about not getting caught up in the have nots but I would say it’s equally important not to focus on what life would be like if we had done certain things but instead focus on what it’s going to be because of the what we can and will do. 

Every morning of our lives we are faced with the what ifs. We can ask ourselves what if I had, which often leads to regret that leads to discouragement that many times zaps us of motivation. You know the feeling, what’s the use? Or we can ask ourselves what if I do which leads to possibilities, hope and energizes us to give it a try.

I love this quote. “If the path you’re walking on seems to be leading you to nowhere, stop and choose another. It’s never too late to change direction.” C.S. Lewis said, “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” What if we set that goal today or dream that dream? What if we try something new? What if we finally tackle that project we have been putting off forever? What if it turns out wonderful? The possibilities are limitless! Let’s give it a try!

A Week of Country & Classy

This evening will be the first one in almost a week that I will not be out on the town, so to speak. The activities actually started at home last Wednesday. A women’s small group meets at my house on Wednesday nights and this past week was our last official meeting for the year. We will get together once in November or rather they will since I will be out-of-town and then once in December for a Christmas party. Currently there are 18 women in our group who love to talk and laugh so Wednesday nights my house is full of life. I love it!

Thursday night was dinner at Olive Garden with friends followed by a movie, More than Funny with comedienne Michael Jr. It was a much-needed time of belly laughter and laughing till you cried. He’s a funny guy.
 

Friday night actually got canceled, or rather I decided to sit it out at home. We had rain, lots of rain, all last week in Texas. I had plans to go to the high school football game where two of my grandchildren play in the band. It was homecoming but sitting in the cold and rain didn’t really appeal to me so instead I stayed home and watched a cute and clean movie, In-lawfully Yours, on Netflix. If you like cute, clean, feel good movies you’ll like this one.

Saturday night I went to church and then out to dinner at Cracker Barrel with friends. There are four of us that have eaten together there after church for almost 20 years.  We laughingly call ourselves the Cracker Barrel gang. In the beginning there were seven including me and my husband, two other couples and a widowed friend. A lot has happened to our little group through the years. The wife of one of our couples passed away as did my husband. As time went by her husband quit coming. One friend had a stroke, but he is doing well. So now it’s usually just the four of us. We’ve never gone to a different restaurant and haven’t grown tired of the menu yet.

Sunday night was our church Volunteer Banquet. It was a night of

glitz and glam at a local country club and tons of fun. The theme was semi-formal black and white. I took advantage of the opportunity to wear the dress I purchased for my daughter’s wedding earlier this year. The food was delicious and there was a great band. Everyone received a nice leather journal engraved with our church’s name. I can’t wait to write in mine. My hubby and I loved to dance so watching instead of being on the dance floor was a little hard but it was a great evening. 

Monday night I was back at Cracker Barrel having dinner with another women’s group a friend and I’ve co-led for over 10 years. We call ourselves the Dining Divas and meet once a month at various restaurants. We choose a different one every month. There were 7 of us there last night. We shared lots of laughs, comforted some of the ladies going through difficult times and celebrated one of the Diva’s recent retirement. It’s nice to have friends to go through life together.

Retirement life is full. Mostly it’s full of friends and family, laughs and tears and joy that comes from things money can’t buy. I may have to budget carefully and watch what I order when going out to eat but its’s not the food after all that you remember but the stories and laughs shared with friends. Today I’m feeling grateful and blessed and admittedly a bit tired. I’m ready for a quiet evening at home.

Beary Good Company

I have some "beary" good company this morning. My Wednesday night ladies group did a fall outreach. We chose our children's hospital prayer bear program. Every child that goes to the ER or is admitted receives a bear that has been prayed over from the one of the chaplains. It was such a fun outreach but not without challenges. Turns out bear hunting was harder than we anticipated. Stores don't seem to stock very many stuffed animals this time of year. Our ladies were determined though and bought every bear they could find. I love teddy bears and especially those on a mission!

Even Though We Ain’t Got Money

There was a popular song way back in the day called Danny’s Song by Kenny Loggins.  The most well-known lyrics of the song went like this: Even though we ain’t got money, I’m so in love with you honey, everything will bring a chain of love. In the morning when I rise, you bring a tear of joy to my eyes and tell me everything will be alright.  

I couldn’t help but smile while listening to the song again. My late husband, Lawrence, always told me when I went shopping, money is no object. I would laugh and reply, yes that’s true, we don’t have any so it’s really no object. It wasn’t that he didn’t earn a fairly good living because he did. It was just that with 6 kids, 5 of them being boys, they pretty much ate up a big chunk of our income. I guess you could say they really took a bite out of a dime. Sorry I couldn’t resist!

Because our budget was spread pretty thin some things we either had to do without or figure out how to do it ourselves. I wanted the kids to have great birthday parties, so I learned to decorate cakes and throw some awesome DIY celebrations. To this day I don’t believe they ever felt deprived because they were part of a big family. On the contrary they all say you haven’t done Christmas until you’ve done it with our family. As time went on and the kids grew up and left home money wasn’t so tight anymore and it became easier to purchase ready-made rather than making it myself. Until recently that is.

My only daughter is expecting a little girl in November. She and her hubby currently live in North Carolina but came to Texas last month for a visit and some of her friends gave them a baby shower while they were here. I told them I would help with it and set out to come up with some fun decorations. I was asked if someone was making a diaper cake for them to which I replied, not that I know of and I certainly don’t know how. Well what do you do next? Look on Pinterest of course and my daughter in law found not only a diaper cake but a jeep diaper cake. For those of you who may not know what a diaper cake is, it looks like a cake, but it’s made out of diapers and baby things. The dad to be is a huge Jeep guy who owns one and my immediate response was, oh they have to have that. My next response was no way when I saw the price was $130.00.

I recently wrote that DIY has an entirely different meaning to a widow. We have to learn to do things ourselves that we did as a couple. Some are just little things like for me bringing in the groceries or making the bed. We shared those chores along with meals and dreams and laughs and life. But there are other reasons to be a do it yourselfer and one of those is money. It seems I’ve come full circle on this one. It’s not that I can’t have some things, but it just may take a little effort on my part. Although in retirement I ain’t got money what I do have is time and You Tube. So, I proceeded to find a diaper jeep tutorial and did it myself. Not only was it affordable this way but it was fun. I was inspired to make several other decorations and had a blast while doing it. You know what else it gave me confidence. I can do this. I can make it work. Even though I ain’t got money everything will be alright.