Comments On Article: How Do We Cope?

Sheila G,

I am in the midst of rereading Miss Reads books myself! They are so calming and charming..... I read them when I feel like the world is just too much. I made a trip to England after reading them the first time. 

I have spent time this morning transplanting starts and putting them into the pop up greenhouse for hardening off before planting them out.

Housework done early because in this nice weather I have a tendency to neglect it in favor of being outside. 

Last 3 small acorn squash are cleaned and in the roaster cooking, they keep so well. I save the seeds and plant every year.  Garden will be tilled this weekend and hopefully I can commence with the planting.  Digging in the dirt is a great solace for me.

Joyce C Yes! I have my standbys when I need to "be" someplace calm and dependable: Miss Read's Fairacre and Thrush Green, Gladys Taber's Still Meadow and Still Cove (I just bought and read Taber's daughter's book about living in NYC), Botswana via Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books and, of course, Mitford courtesy of Jan Karon; I enjoyed the latest Mitford book so much I'll reread that again soon :)

And, perhaps, strangely I enjoy Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple books; maybe because justice is always served? and the universe comes right again, if only briefly :)

I'll be planting butternut squash soon; I have seeds from the little honey nut ones that I love but I love acorn squash too! 

Sheila g: I enjoy all of Agatha Christie's writings, also. I downloaded a free complete Miss Marple books and stories on Monday. I can always reread a good mystery from the old authors. I used to own all of her books, but I passed them along when I could no longer read the smaller font of print.

I have Kindle Unlimited and I read so much it pays for itself monthly. Most of you, most likely, know what Kindle Unlimited on Amazon is, but for those who don't I will give further information. Kindle Unlimited is like a lending library of books. You can borrow up to 10 books at a time and simply return them when you are done reading them. It is around $11.99 per month, but there are thousands of books in all genres to choose from. Most of the old mysteries are available.

Today I finished pulling garlic mustard (an invasive species here) in my woods for the year, and got about halfway done ripping out a patch of periwinkle near the house, where I'm working on replacing most of the non-native  ornamentals my family has planted over the years.  When the weather turns cool and rainy again, I will be planting native woods phlox and celandine poppy there.  I think the purple and yellow will look nice together.  Also did laundry and baked cookies.  That's about it. 

Sheila G, Sounds like if you do get a hammock, you better keep Jed away from it!

nice; free books are always a win! I have a broken set of the dark blue leatherette Christies and some big paperback compilations but I'd love to complete the leatherette set one day when I come across a bargain :)

Tea S you're not wrong :))

How lovely to hear that Miss Read has made it across the Pond.  Back in the day, I read all her books and they are so relaxing, as you step back in time (and I wish the world today could do the same!)  I loved any books in which people moved to the country to live, and the books of Derek Tangye, set at Minack in Cornwall, were an absolute delight.  Has anyone else read them?  Also, Hovel in the Hills, by Elizabeth West, where she and her husband moved from the city of Bristol to a North Wales hillside where they battled the elements whilst having virtually no money to live on.  Truly, a dish of herbs was a meal in late winter . . .  They were extremely practical.

Yesterday it was my turn for a tidy up of a very untidy room, which is where my stock is kept (not all of it either!) for the antiques fairs I still do.  My late husband and I downsized here 6 years ago now and so had a lot of furniture to squeeze in a much smaller space despite selling lots of the bigger antique pieces with the house.  I have a Fair early next month, so I hope some of the boxes will come back emptier.  The Knives book btw, is one of a pile of Militaria books my husband had collected.  He specialized in Militaria and WIndsor chairs (like the 3 towards the back in the photos).  He was very skilled at mending antiques and making things from scratch too.  

The photos show it as a work in progress.  The chair at the front is going to the Fair, and the boxes right and far back behind the table.  Today, I shall work on the old velvet quilt . . .

I have caught up on reading some blog posts and wanted to comment, albeit a week late. I read through everyone's messages, but didn't take notes on names, so I am sorry I can't respond to specific people but I wanted to share certain thoughts. 

Thank you Grandma Donna for keeping an 'old fashioned' blog like this when so  many are stopping their writing or monetizing it. It is a breath of fresh air.

To the commenters who mentioned family members who served in the military - yes, that is true; my husband is retired mil and went overseas many times and he would say the same thing about biased mainstream media. The servicemembers are not making the decisions.   

To a few people to talked about customer service: the other evening I went for dinner to a local cafe with a friend. Each thing I tried to order (sandwich, salad, tea) had part of a component out of stock, the bread, the salad dressing, the flavor of tea. I just found another item and went on with my order. The cashier was embarrassed and gave me and my friend each a free tea and a free baked good, but it really didn't bother us, we were content with what we were able to eat. It was a generous gesture, and I wonder how many other people would have handled it.

To those who are having trouble getting started decluttering/cleaning/tidying, etc. Just do one thing at a time. Someone else mentioned Dana K. White on youtube and I really enjoy listening to her. She has a couple of tenets which help the process "a no mess decluttering process."  One is "if this item has a home, where is it/where would I look for it?" Then "put it there now." She says this prevents future piles or "stuff shifting." This has been so helpful for me!! I have found things that I need to keep but are not where I would look for them first, so naturally if I needed them, I would have bought more as I would not have considered looking where the item was.  She also talks about "the container concept" which is not keeping more things that the space you have to keep them. It is so basic, and yet, I am an expert on making more room! Ha!  Have faith and just set a time for :05 minutes or :15 minutes and just get done what you can.  I have been doing this for a few weeks and even today, went through and found 2 sets of sheets for an air mattress we no longer have. We are not planning on getting a new air mattress and have the sheets we need for other beds, so I can give these away. I was able to sell two things on FB marketplace (though it is stressful and a bit of a hassle for me to do so but I was glad to have a few dollars from the items).  There are things I have brought into my house which are good and useful but no longer, and some which I should never have brought it but now have the hindsight to tell politely to leave. It is a slow process but I find myself becoming internally calmer when things leave and /or things are rightly ordered in their natural homes within my home. 

I love to read, scour thrift stores, search the library, etc. Years ago I discovered the Miss Read books and read through all the Fairacre series (which I Loved). Now slowly working through the Thrush Green series. I hadn't heard of the other authors so I will see if I can find them first through my library system.  I am in the US but I often enjoy British authors.

Oh goodness, there are so many replies to this post!  I glanced through them but don’t have time to read them all at present.

We’ve had a slow roof leak discovered this week and are appealing to the insurance company to cover the repairs.  They say any appliance leak of more than 14 days isn’t covered, and that based on the damage ours was more than 14 days, even if we didn’t see it.  Well, this isn’t our washing machine or dishwasher, which we would know was leaking — it is the air conditioner which is on the roof and connected through the attic.  We have sent documentation and the company we were planning to use for repairs is also adding to the appeal.  I remember last time we had a leak the insurance company immediately denied that claim as well, but we had been on a trip for 3 weeks and came home to the damage, so the appeal was approved.

I truly hadn’t expected the first 4 months of retirement to have so many expensive issues!  One dog had a “near bloat” (stomach started to twist and cause symptoms but we got to the vet immediately and they were able to stop it) and required overnight emergency care, and then later had an ear infection, and the other dog had to be seen for unexplained vomiting.  One car needed new tires despite them only being 3 years old and having fewer than 10K miles on them.  I had multiple urgent care visits in March.  Now we have the leak issue and already had to pay to have the A/C repaired (insurance doesn’t covered the cause of the damage no matter what) and will have to pay at the minimum our deductible and coinsurance for the repairs, or perhaps the entire bill.

Maybe these things always happened and I didn’t pay a lot of attention because there was income coming in.  I do have budget for most of these things but now I think I need to move things around and budget more.  The repairs will have to come from savings.  It is so different to be retired!  I am trying not to be stressed but it’s hard not to be.

Now we also think we need to spend the money to replace the A/C with a unit that isn’t on the roof, as this is the second leak related to the A/C in 10 years.  We just don’t think we can leave it up there and risk it happening again as the A/C gets even older.  The A/C is 17 years old so just trying to move it doesn’t make much sense financially.

I’ve been staying away from my computer much more, which I know is what I really want to do.  I can hardly cope with the news, so I have to stay away.  My craft/sewing room is in good shape, so it is a good place to go to help me cope with life right now.

This week I sewed a simple strip quilt top (lap/baby size) and pieced some matching fat quarter fabrics together to make a backing, but I probably will hold off on quilting and binding it until I learn more about the new sewing machine I bought at the end of the year.  I’ve also been coloring in a thrift store coloring book I bought ages ago, with markers I already had.  It seems simple and perhaps even a little silly, but it fills the time when I am tired and might go to my tablet.  Today I cut out a plant I had colored in, to use in paper crafting.  I finished a couple more dish cloths.  I’ve been embroidering by hand which I truly enjoy.  I’ve also been reading more, because I do have more time on my hands when I don’t go online as much.

To-day I've vac'd the floors to keep them tidy as bits of grass keep creeping in downstairs, and upstairs it's just wear and tear with dust and bits of fluff etc.  All nice and clear again anyway until the next time.  We did a quick trip out to the trawlers as they were coming in and bought a kilo of lovely fresh caught prawns for lunch (some left for tonight as well) plus some headless green prawns which we've peeled, marinated and frozen for stir-fries.  We buy fresh from the trawlers to support our local market.

Yesterday we had our diamond (60th) wedding anniversary so went for a nice long drive into the country and had lunch at a local pub to celebrate.  Nobody else remembered so it was just the two of us.  

Tomorrow is Anzac Day here and we will remember the sacrifices to make this country free.

Congratulations Pam on your 60th anniversary!