There are, as I write this, 110 days left before I walk out of work and hang up my vest for good. By the time you read this, the number will probably be a little closer to 100 days, and I will be a few days from turning 57. While I am super excited to close the professional chapter of my life, I have small nagging concerns about life after working for long. What kind of concerns, you ask? Well, let me explain.

I’ve Been Working for 40(+) Years

I started babysitting when I was 11, and continued to do that until I was old enough to get a “real” job at the age of 16. Actually, I secured my role as an early morning switchboard operator with the local school district a few days before turning 16. And with the exception of about a year off combined following the birth of my children, and an 18 month break between being laid off in February 2016 and returning to the workforce in August 2017, I have maintained steady employment ever since. I’ve worked two jobs at times, and I’ve worked side hustles as well, but for more than 40 years, I’ve held a job in one form or another, since I was 11 years old.

Even when I took that 18 month “break” in 2016/2017, I was running my own business, and as anyone who’s ever done that knows, it’s a harder grind than the corporate world. More fun, for sure, but harder.

What Worries Me

You might be wondering if my concerns stem from whether or not I’ll be bored in retirement. They do not. But I do worry about not being active enough. I have concerns about sitting on the couch too much. I am worried about not getting enough exercise. Why am I worried about those things? Because on the weekends, all I want to do is sit on the couch. But I think that’s probably because the weeks are super draining, and I am just tired all of the time. My job is mentally very demanding, and by the weekend, I just want to sit and stare at the television.

I do know that when we take a vacation and we stay home, I’m usually over the “sitting around” stage by the third day and that makes me feel a little better. By the third day, I’m generally ready to start doing things. Surely, after a few days of retirement, and not feeling constantly beaten down by work, I’ll be ready to be active again.

It Hasn’t Always Been This Way

There was a time when I’d come home from work, play with the kids, do homework with them, cook dinner, andget them ready for bed. Once they were in bed, I”d then retire to my studio for a night of stitching or the dining room table to study. On the weekends, I’d spend the time either running kids around to various events, in the studio, or working on my degree, depending on if they were with me or their biological father. I was productive and I got things done. I was pretty active overall.

Then I started this job, and while I have found it personally highly rewarding careerwise, it leaves me drained. I come home from work drained of the desire to do anything but have dinner and watch television. On the weekends, I mostly want to sit on the couch and just relax. My brain is so tired when I get home, I just want to not have to think about anything else.

Making Workout Plans

I am the world’s worst lately at making plans and then not following through. Tired, remember? But I am making plans for retirement, and quite frankly, I’m going to have to push myself to follow through on them.

One of my biggest concerns is that I won’t be walking as much as I do right now, which frankly, isn’t nearly enough. I don’t want to be lax on exercise, so I plan to walk daily around the neighborhood. That will be fairly easy in the winter, when it isn’t blazing hot. What about during the summer, though?

I don’t know if I want to spend the money on a gym membership (retiring, after all, and budgets will be a little smaller), but I can do some things like yoga and free weights at home. My current plan is to exercise at least 20 minutes each weekday. As I build my stamina up, I will increase the time, eventually working up to an hour a day. I haven’t consistently worked out since I had shoulder issues many years ago, and it shows. I’m not ruling out walking in the summer, but it will have to be fairly early in the morning, because hello, I live in Houston!

Home Projects

I need to spend some time when I retire working on things around the house. Most of these projects are organizational in nature – getting the kitchen lined out, cleaning out my closet, and making my home office functional. Some of these things are decorative – decorating the living room, hanging curtains throughout the house, etc. I’ve mentioned before that when we moved in to this house, it was the busiest time of year (December) for us, and we just sort of threw everything into “for now” spaces. Well, almost four years later, and nothing has really changed. We haven’t had time to decorate, or straighten out areas where we just put things “for now.”

I’m making a list of all of the areas I’d like to address. I’m not planning them out to the degree of, “I’ll clean out my closet the week of December 7th, and tackle the kitchen the week of the 14th.” But I am making a list of things I’d like to accomplish, so that when I’m ready to start, I already have a list of tasks. I’ve also started pinning some ideas on Pinterest (maybe I’m still the only one that uses Pinterest, but I am totally addicted). No matter your personal way of managing household projects, I think we can all agree that keeping a list of them is important.

Creative Projects

Let’s not forget the creative projects I’ve been hoarding for years now. I have a lot of fabric, projects, designs and patterns I can’t wait to tackle. Our house may be covered up in quilts, machine embroidered projects and sewn accessories by the time I die, but at least I’ll be having fun. I have seen so many cute things I want to make for the house, and for others. I have collected so many of those things, and I’m ready to make them!

I thought my first big creative project would be a Kimberbell event, but alas, it’s being held in store, not virtually, as I originally thought. I guess I’ll have to wait until next year to take that one.

The studio can definitely use some more work, and I plan to spend some time to make it more functional when I’m no longer working. I started yesterday by consolidating moving my Kimberbell embellishment kits into a drawer in the cutting table, and clearing out the top row of my Kallax unit yesterday. I want to use that primarily to display things so I don’t worry about dropping heavy baskets on my head.

I may start a new page on the blog that lists the projects I want to tackle and then update it as I progress. hmmm. That’s actually not a bad idea.

Do you have any home improvement projects planned? I’d love to know about them, and how you plan to tackle them!