Wednesday, July 9, 2025
1. What’s an adult problem nobody prepared you for?
All the phone calls you would have to make? I’m talking to your insurance provider, internet provider, water company, electric company, credit card company, etc.
All the apps you have to get to run your stuff? Ugh! I don’t want any more apps!
2. How tuned in are you to all the recent food related health news? Have you gotten rid of your scratched cookware? Did you pay attention to food additives before they made the news? What’s one healthy eating/cooking/food shopping habit you need to adopt?
Kind of tuned in. I have all stainless steel cookware from Costco because our cooktop is an induction cooktop and my old stuff wouldn’t work on it. I think that is the story Tom told me.
I grew up on frozen foods, canned foods, artificial coloring, and all the processed foods. I didn’t really think about it until I had a student a couple of years ago that was super healthy and would yell, “red dye number 40” an awful lot for a Spanish class. If someone said their favorite candy was Skittles or Twizzlers in Spanish we knew this was coming.
I need to buy more vegetables and less packaged snack foods.
3. What’s getting worse and worse as you get older? How about better and better?
My tolerance for toxic people and wasting my time is getting worse.
My mom would drag my Dad to lots of things – dinners, plays, musical events and he did enjoy many of them, but many he did not. I would ask him if he had fun and his reply was usually, “fun is a strong word”. I get this now.
I am not sure what is getting better. Sometimes I think I am more relaxed but then something happens and I am not relaxed about it.
4. Are you more of an indoor person or an outdoor person? Elaborate.
I am more of an outdoor person when the heat and mosquitoes are not present. See, my tolerance for those two things is really low right now.
5. If you had an expert personal assistant today, what would you have them do?
I would probably have them go through my totes and take things to donation centers. I am having a mental block about doing it.
6. Insert your own random thought here.
I have officially been off of work for a month and I feel that I haven’t been very productive. I’ve done all the regular household maintenance and some deep cleaning but I guess I feel that I should have done more decluttering (see above). My sister said I have been grieving and healing in this time – the loss of my mom, my career, and just life as I knew it. I’m sure she is right. Is this just the teacher productivity brain talking? Maybe.
Do you have any answers to these questions?
Amy
Coffee and Cocktails at the Casa 
For me, if I’m to be productive, it has to be a conscious, thought about effort. Otherwise, I won’t be productive. The hours pass so readily at home for me- I don’t feel like I’m twiddling my thumbs at all but at the end of the day, I’ll think back to what I accomplished and often it’s… not a lot! But it’s not like I’m doing nothing, either. For me, I know that I have to have the goal of getting X done on X day and ideally in X amount of hours. It’s likely not going to happen organically for me (though sometimes it does…). The phone calls, ugh! I had to do ’em on Monday and I didn’t like it!! Have a great day!
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They really do pass quickly. I can’t figure it out. I do start each day with a list. I sometimes write it the night before. After 3 p.m., it’s only dinner that I feel I can do. I’ve lost productivity!
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Nodding along to both your answers for number 1 & 4! I love the outdoors when it’s not hot/muggy and there are no bugs biting/buzzing me. I’m not sure I could be more aware of food related health new and feel like my whole family might up and leave if I was; they are so sick of hearing me rant about additives and the arsenic in rice nearly pushed them over the top last week.
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Yes! I hate to keep complaining about the mosquitoes but they really do ruin it for me. If I want to go to the trouble of long sleeves, bug spray, my new Thermacell and my fan I stand a chance. Add that to the heat and I just want to stay in!
I know – it’s hard to balance what my people would eat with what I prefer to eat.
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Ahh! I had to make a lot of phone calls yesterday and I hate speaking on the phone so it was draining! I remember a life without apps, it seemed so much easier!
I eat better food now than I did when I was growing up so it can’t be a bad thing.
I am with you on having a low tolerance for toxic people and those who waste my time. The older I have got the more I have thought life is too short for those people in my life.
I don’t think you have to be productive, you have only been off work a month and it is such a big life change for you, as well as everything else that you have had going on. Don’t be too hard on yourself.
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It sucks away your day, too. I have tried to make Monday my admin day.
I am so used to the grind that it is hard to slow down.
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Fun is a strong word – I LOVE that!!! Ha!!!
Who says every day has to be productive and what does that even mean? I think you are doing exactly what you need to be doing. Your sister is right, you are dealing with a lot of loss and change.
xo,
Kellyann
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It always made me laugh.
You’re right. It’s just hard to turn that off. I will try!
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Your sister is a smart woman. That is exactly what you are going through. Give yourself time and grace. That is all the advice I have. You deserve it and need it XO
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Yes! Thank you for saying that. I will try. It’s hard to turn off the productivity mindset.
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I hate the phone call thing too. If it’s something I fear will be confrontational I get my hubs to do it as he loves the challenge of getting someone to come around to his side lol. I think the first couple months of retirement are for decompressing. Don’t beat yourself up. You’ll find a new routine eventually and I think will also allow yourself to not be productive all the time. That’s hard for people who have always been do-ers. Plus you’re in the middle of grieving a big loss and that takes up space in your life. Hope you have a good day.
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Amy, Your Nuts! You have been very productive. I agree with your sisters, relax!
When I retired I was a little lost, I had to find my new self, I felt very guilty about not going to work, I went through this thing about not contributing to my family/household, guilty my husband still had to go to work, and that was crazy, I was/am still getting a very nice paycheck once a month and not every other Friday. Now as I sit here I don’t know how I did it. The 10 hour days the fires I had to put out every single day,
You will find just where you belong, but don’t rush it. It’s been a month!
Have a fun summer, and I don’t say it enough but I look forward to reading your blog everyday!
Cheers,
Missy
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I hate all the phone calls!!
Give yourself time; you have retired and experienced a devastating loss. I retired from teaching in 2015. When I saw the school bus go by my house on that first day of school, I cried. My hub passed away in 2018, and I started working with my daughter. My daughter was a pharmacist and owned her on business. My daughter passed away in 2020 (heart problems) and now I am back teaching part-time. I just couldn’t nor did I want to stay at home by myself.
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I am interested to here how you feel in August when you don’t go back to school like you have for so many years. I’m sure there will be some joy at now having to do the parts you didn’t like but what else.
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I am so with you on apps. For example, we switched to ATT and I went onto the web to see my bill and it kept erroring out. I had to call and they said it’s an issue on their end. I got the app and of course, that works. ugh.
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I swear sometimes the food info can be overwhelming. I try to stick with the basics but you know – that can be boring too. Haha
I agree with you on all the phone calls. I’ve had lots recently and I’m adulting too hard.
Give yourself grace – life, in good and bad ways, looks really different for you. I know it all has to be a big adjustment .
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I don’t think I’ve had to make as many phone calls as I used to. But, I will wait until the very last minute to do it! I have gotten rid of scratched pans and now use an Always pan. I don’t know if that’s better or not. I definitely agree with your sister. You are grieving two huge losses. Hang in there! It does get better…until you’re old enough for Medicare…then, the calls never stop!
https://marshainthemiddle.com
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I’m a list maker, so when I want to be productive . . .I make a list of all of the tasks I need/want to do. I feel productive as I mark them off the list :-).
I think your sister is probably correct – grieving and healing take time and energy. Extend grace to yourself during this time.
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Oh the phone calls. You are right with that. I also do not like the heat or mosquitos. Blah. Outside of that, outdoors is great :). Continue to grieve the losses and celebrate the future. Enjoy the day by day.
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