So Much Activity, Not Enough Time

When I was younger and worked a full time job and our girls were still in school, playing music and sports, I seemed to be a master at organizing our daily/weekly schedules.  I thought once I'd retired things would slow down a bit but my days are just as busy as the early days of my family life.  And, that's not a bad thing!  There is no way I'm ever going to be bored!


I have so many different things I want to do, the trick is trying to figure out how to fit everything into my schedule.  I need to resurrect my organizational skills again so that I can do more (activities) with less (hours in the day).   


My drum lessons and drum practice are a priority and so is fitting in exercise at least 30 minutes a day (although I know that is no where near enough for weight loss) but it is better than nothing.


The weekly big clean of the house and weeding the garden is the next priority.  I also go down to see Sara and Sophia a couple of times a week which is something I definitely look forward to!  I want to devote time to writing and photography several times a week (ideally daily) and I would really like to finish just one of the hundreds of books I've started over the past few years!  Leisurely reading has definitely taken a back seat to the other activities.


I try to pick up my guitar at least a couple of times a week to reinforce the picking and strum patterns I've recently learned.  And, I need to plan a couple of camping trips and hikes into the Rocky Mountain National Park this summer.  Then there is a lot of work to do for the New Horizons Concert Band which kicks off a new season in September.  I will need to put some time in with the Fort Collins Symphony Guild (not sure when that is going to happen) and I want to learn to swim "laps".  


Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled with having so many interests!  I'm just trying to figure out how to fit everything in.  

Springtime Schedule

It's spring...what a beautiful time of year; with the crocuses out and the tulips and daffodils not far behind.  Leaf buds are clearly changing the look of the deciduous trees and there is a hint of green mixing in with the brown dormant grass.  Knock on wood, our temperatures here in northern Colorado have been hovering in the 50s and 60s and most days we see sun. We are starting to tackle the usual yard tasks and spring cleaning is underway!  


As I look at the calendar our activities are picking up, too.  We are still having concert band practice twice a week for 3 hours each day and my drums and guitar lessons are once a week.  Mark's swing band has a concert tomorrow night and Saturday is Sara's baby shower!  Sunday is another concert that we'll be attending...our director's Pops Band concert.  


April is starting out busy, too, with an Opera and Tea fundraiser, a Wine tasting fundraiser, a dinner party, and another concert/dinner to attend.  And, with the weather getting nicer all the time, we want to start walking and biking more.  We're planning on doing some hikes in the Rocky Mountain National Park, too.  And, we hope to get into a drum circle soon, too, as one is currently being formed.


We had dinner last night with an old friend and former co-worker, Stu at the Oskar Blues restaurant in Longmont.  It was so nice seeing him again!  Sara and Zach were able to join us, too!  We are hoping that my sister-in-law, Stephanie's travel schedule works out so that she can spend a day with us in April, too!


I plan to take lots of pictures at these events and will post them here as they occur.  I hope everyone enjoys each day to its fullest.  Time is a precious commodity so do what you've always dreamed about doing.  You are never too old to try something new!  Just have the courage to try!

Daughters and Grandkids

If you didn't get to follow my previous blog which chronicled some of the thoughts and considerations that went into our decision to choose Colorado as our retirement destination, I'll quickly re-cap. It all boiled down to getting closer to our daughters and grandchildren; this is the identical reason I've found almost every time I've asked a retired newcomer here what brought them to Colorado!

Our oldest daughter, Holly is in California with her husband, Erich and two grandchildren, Zoe and Ezra. She has been living in California for over 10 years now. Sara, our youngest daughter, chose to move to Colorado "on a whim" since she was looking for a change from back East. It was actually Mark who said, "Why not try the Denver area? You love the mountains"! That was almost 4 years ago and today, she and her new husband, Zach, are living just north of Denver.

So, a couple of years ago, we set out on a quest to find a reasonably priced and fairly comparable home that we had been accustomed to that would be suitable for retirement. Or, at the very least, just find the area we would be happy to spend the rest of our lives at. Having lived in California twice over the years, we knew we loved the state and with our grandchildren out there, we started looking in earnest at houses.

No, nothing came close to what we were looking for and for what we were willing to pay. Oh, we did find a couple of homes about 5 hours away from them and close to my brother, Tom and his family, but those offers didn't pan out. Call it karma or whatever, we figured that a move to California was not in our cards.

That's when we shifted focus to the Colorado housing market. After a couple of visits with Sara and Zach, we were hooked on the beauty of the mountains and the wide open spaces.

So, about two years prior to moving, we started de-cluttering and getting rid of clothes that hadn't been put on this body in years! We made the decision to try the housing market and put our house up for sale the same time we took a trip to Colorado to visit Sara and Zach. This was in February and to our surprise, our house sold immediately; thus we were off on a whirlwind tour of homes in Colorado. In April, we had a door-to-door move and here we are today.

Our move was a difficult decision because although we wanted to be closer to family, we were actually moving away from family, too, specifically my mother, sister, and one of my brothers and their families. We looked at all the factors and determined what was best for us as well as where we wanted to be at in our lives in the future.

Now that you see what brought us to the Rocky Mountain region, I thought I'd talk a bit about daughters and grandchildren, THE best things to ever happen to us! I cannot imagine life without them, they are my heart and soul. We really are blessed to have awesome daughters with fantastic husbands and a granddaughter and grandson so full of personality and love that smiles immediately come to our faces just thinking of them! And, in just 5 short months, we will welcome another granddaughter into this world, Sara and Zach's first child!

To get to this point in our lives, there were many challenges: military moves, deployments, finding the best child care arrangements, sports injuries, teenage moods and hormones, worries at every stage of their lives and at every new event like teaching our girls to drive a car and then giving them the keys. Yikes!

These memories are so vivid yet occurred a long time ago. When you are living the experiences and watching your children grow up, you don't often hear a parent say that they wished time would "slow down". No, too often we rush through our lives, dropping kids off at school, or practice, working late, running to the grocery store, doing errands, trying to get dinner on the table, and doing a million other things that we let time slip away without really pausing to appreciate the time we have with our family. Enjoy your children each and every moment...they grow up and move away all too soon.

We are thrilled to have shortened the distances to our daughters and their families. We hope our East coast family can join us as they can, whether it be for a short vacation or a permanent move someday.