Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Retirement

I retired earlier this fall and I have to say that I do not miss work. I miss seeing the folks I worked with, but I do not miss doing the work. I guess that means that it is a good thing I left! So, what have I been doing with my times since I retired?

I read a lot. A few of the books I read get reviewed in this blog--maybe half of them. I have been doing a lot of sewing. I made quilts for Natalie, Rob and Maggie in October, November and December. Right now I am working on a quilt for Baby Floyd Johnson, and I am thinking about the quilts I will make for Liz, Shelby and Jill in the upcoming weeks. I am knitting, but not as much as I thought I would. Probably because of all the sewing I have been doing. There really are a lot of things I want to make. I sometimes go to quilting on Wednesday mornings at the Seward United Methodist Church, and then I stay for the Knitwits meeting. The Knitwits make baby afghans for each baby baptized at the church and prayer shawls and lap robes which are distributed to those who need them.

Dave and I joined the YMCA in Fallbrook (a Lincoln neighborhood). Our plan is to go work out 2 or 3 times every week. So far our workouts have all been the Water Fit class. This is good because we have not hurt ourselves! We have been providing child care for Sammy, who has been sick several times this fall, and that has cut into our workout time. We also spend time with Eleanor. Dave sees her every day; I don't go as often. Maybe after the first of the year we can get back to our original goal, and also try out some of the other classes and equipment.

I spend quite a lot of time on Facebook, and reading various blogs and on-line news, as well as email. I recently "unfriended" about 20 people on Facebook. There were different reasons--some people I really did not know very well and rarely see, so I decided I didn't need to read their postings on Facebook, and some people posted things I found offensive, silly or just plain stupid. My favorite thing to do on Facebook is play Scrabble with my cousin Jim. He has beat me every single game that we have played, but I think I may have a chance in the current game--I believe it is game number six. Fortunately for me, he still wants to play!

One thing we have not done is travel. We talk about place we would like to visit, especially Mexico. Maybe next year.

Monday, December 20, 2010

Birthday Party

Granddaughter Maggie turned 7 years old on December 18th. She had a slumber party with her friends on her birthday and then the family party was on Sunday evening. Quite a bash--9 kids and 11 adults, and lots of loot for Maggie! She really would like to have a dog, but Mom and Dad say no for now, but she got a great stuffed animal dog from her Grammy Lynne. Not sure what she will name it yet.

I made a quilt for her, but didn't get a picture of it. She also likes frogs, so I picked a novelty fabric with lots of frogs on it--also turtle, lady bugs, worms and flowers. It is quite colorful!