My Retirement Project

Welcome to Monday Musings, where I share a bit of what's been going on in my little part of the world.

Happily, this last week was almost devoid of the stress I've been carrying since learning we that, surprise, we needed to take a timeout from our backyard remodel in order to get structural engineering plans drawn up for the expanded backyard balcony. But with the plans now completed and submitted to the city, I can finally start to relax a bit!

This Week's Monday Musings

1. I was asked to consider becoming a local hike leader for the Sierra Club. This absolutely falls under the umbrella of volunteer activities near and dear to my heart, so I pretty quickly said, 'Yes!' I have a 35+ love affair with being active outdoors, and don't see that changing anytime soon, so I'm very happy to contribute where I can. Plus, I hold the current leaders in the chapter in very high regard, and would very much enjoy spending more time with them in the capacity of an O-1 L…

I stumbled across the reflection above recently, and it really gave me pause. 'How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives.' Meaning, at least as I interpreted it, that the choices we make each and every day result in the sum total of how we really do spend our lives, rather than the less frequent highlights.

Some of you might be thinking, 'How much more could this mad hiker-biker-kayaker-traveler possibly do?' Well, I am here to assure you that the answer is 'quite a lot.' I struggle with making meaningful choices over the course of my day just as I imagine many of you do. And really, it's why I started this blog. I wanted to hold myself more accountable for my choices in order to not look backward at some point with regret for roads not chosen.

My point being that while I have a lot of highlights in my life, I also have a lot of non-highlights, or what I tend to think of as time-wasters. Things like mindless internet surfing, or the occas…

I was honored recently to be asked to write a blog post about the experience of relocating in retirement by Sue over at the most excellent Sizzling Toward 60 & Beyond. In that the post just went live, I'm happy to share news of it here, in the hopes that you'll hop on over using the link below, and enjoy perusing it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Thriving In A New Location by Tamara @ My Retirement Project

And after you've read it, I hope you'll continue to return to Sue's blog, which I list in my blog roll here. The array of topics she covers all relate to thriving in our 50's, 60's and beyond, and it is consistently one of my favorite reads.

The article has also just been listed here on The Blogger's Lifestyle as well, a blog full of interesting links to articles about living large in our 50's and beyond. Well worth checking out!

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Make it a great day wherever you are!

Welcome to Wellness Wednesday, where me and a group of other like-minded bloggers share our progress on making 2018 our best year yet!

As a review, here are the goals I set for myself for 2018:

My Ten Wellness Goals For 2018

1.  Reduce processed sugar calories to no more than 100 per day.
2.  Increase water intake to 8 glasses per day.
3. Add in 2x a week of strength training.
4. Add in 2x a week of yoga.
5. Train for one long distance biking event.
6. Train for one backpacking event.
7. Limit gluten-containing items to no more than 100 calories per day.
8. Begin meditating 2x daily, five minutes each time to begin.
9. Initiate internet-free Sundays.
10. Lose ten pounds by signing up for an internet support program.

And here's how things are going:

Update On My Ten Wellness Goals For 2018

1.  Reduce processed sugar calories to no more than 100 per day. In progress. Just as I discussed here in my March update, sugar is an ongoing battle for me, so clearly it's important that I ke…

Greetings and Happy May Monday! Today I'm joining in with some other bloggers via The Blended Blog to answer 15 questions All About Entertainment, a topic near and dear to my heart, so here we go!

The Blended Blog Asks:

1. Comedy or Drama?Drama for sure. Comedy is so iffy - I prefer smart comedy, the kind that you have to ponder for just a moment before getting the joke, and it's sometimes hard to find. A good drama, on the other hand, always satisfies. Most recently we viewed 2018 Oscar nominee Phantom Thread, which I loooved, even with it's rather gothic plotline.
2. Fiction or Non-Fiction?Fiction for the win. Although I do read non-fiction, and in fact just finished the most excellent memoir The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, I read fiction far more frequently. (See Q. 6 below for a list of my all time fiction reads!) 3. Movies in Theater or At Home? Gosh, I think I have to go with At Home here. Although our TV screen is a relatively modest 44", it's so, so nice…

If there's one thing I've learned over the course of the many, many trips we've taken throughout the USA since retiring, it's that there are a whole lot of opinions about my native state of California from a whole lot of people that have never lived here. For the most part I find it endlessly entertaining, such as being asked what it's like to live among movie stars. Well, we don't actually because most of them live behind locked gates in very exclusive areas. Or, if it's true that we can sunbathe year round? Sadly, no, though for sure you can do anything other than sunbathe year round!.

And while much of what I've heard opined about is accurate, such as traffic - yep, we have it, but primarily because 10% of you all live here! - much of it is not. For example, doesn't our whole state catch fire every year? Well, no, though the news makes it sound that way. Remember that we're a pretty darn large piece of real estate, so even if a story about C…