Retirement - am I ready?

Good morning! 


Recently I joined the many and took an early retirement. Even the thought had a certain kind of appeal to me.  I thought of all the things I could do to keep myself busy.  Bake, read, watch the sunrise. 😊

I spent a little bit of time thinking back on all the jobs I have held over the many years.  For me my job experiences have been many.  And I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.   I'll be the first admit that I have jumped around with jobs. I guess I never really found my niche in the workforce.

When I was young my first job (after babysitting) where I received an actual paycheck, was spent rouging corn and milo fields during the summer months the summer before 9th grade.  Up at dawn and working until 2:00 p.m. when it became too hot to work.  The summer mornings were almost cold but by noon the summer sun had heated up those cool mornings.  It was hot and dirty work for a 14 year old. But it did allow me to buy my very first 10-speed bike.  Which at the time I thought that was pretty cool.

During a summer while in high school, a new department store opened up in my home town (anyone remember Alco?). I worked there during the initial set up of the store and then worked part time for a while after school and weekends.  It was there that I met Brenda, who would become a life long friend.


Girls day out. Brenda and I 

Kenny and I with Pat and Brenda

Do you remember those jobs we had as teenagers working in fast food restaurants? My fast food work experience was Taco Tico. Does anyone remember that taco place?   I even worked at a flower/gift shop for a short time in high school.  When I was first married I worked as soda fountain clerk at a local drug store and at one time I was a checker at a grocery store.

After getting married, to make extra money, my husband would take on extra odd jobs. For the most part those jobs involved shingling roofs. That was a challenge to me.  I had to get over my fear of heights.  When our children were old enough to help they were set to task picking up nails and old shingles off the ground (they hated that). I also helped him build a few wood fences, ....mainly I stirred the concrete in the wheel barrow. Ha!  But I learned how to work side by side my husband which came in handy later on.

When the kids were small I stayed home most of the time. I did a lot of baking when the kids were small.  Cinnamon rolls, pies and pumpkin rolls.  It was another way to make some extra money.

It was in the late-80's my husband accepted an offer to co-own and operate a custom furniture business.  At the time I was working part time at the florist shop for the second time.  My husband soon found he needed extra help so I quit my part time job and joined him.  We worked together for the next 10 years.  Our young children spent a lot of time there (not to their liking) but it did allow us to keep our kids out of daycare.  It must have had a positive influence as one of our sons has developed quite the carpenter skills.  A 'chip' off the old block, as my mother-in-law said.

Coffee table David made.


It was there at that custom furniture store that I learned how to finish new furniture Kenny built for customers. When we added stripping and refinishing to the business, I learned that as well.  Then when we added custom picture framing, where I learned how to custom picture frame. I learned a lot about owning a business, too.

Even though we enjoyed working side by side those were lean years, and some of the most difficult years of our marriage.  When the 'experts' say never go into business with family, take heed.  But we made it through and survived and even became stronger because of it.

After almost 25 years of marriage, and 13 years in the furniture business,  we closed the business and we moved out of our home state to find a new adventure in Colorado.  Within a month of moving to Colorado I found a job as billing clerk in a physical therapy office.  Another new skill to learn....how to submit insurance claims and how to work with an office full of women. Ha!  I made friends with all the women in the office but there was one woman in particular I worked with that became a close friend. Her name is Val and to this day we have remained friends.

After 6 years in the clerical position, I opened my own coffee business with a drive thru coffee shop which had been a long time dream of mine.  My husband being the carpenter that he is, built the building for the coffee shop from the 'trailer frame' up. Yes, the coffee shop was built on a mobile home trailer frame. I owned and operated it for 7 years until the opportunity to sell it came about and sell it I did. Onto another adventure!

Pi Kappa Cino Coffee 

I thought I would stay out of the work force after selling the coffee shop, but soon found myself working a part time job as a secretary for a friend, then I took on a second part time job that turned eventually turned into a full time job for a time until.....I was looking for something else.  A job with more money and better hours presented itself.  Unfortunately, it wasn't a good fit and I found myself, by my choice, unemployed once again.

As things go, my retirement didn't last long.  A previous employer happened to have my old position open up recently and I stepped right back into that old job almost as if I'd never left.  It has a kind of warmth and familiarity to it that I like.  So here I am back in the working world and retirement can wait for now.

A lot of us tend to look back on our lives as we get older and have 'what if' moments.  Don't do that to yourself.  Your life is what it is and every thing you have been, done and experienced has made you who you are today. I can say that I have been quite fortunate through my life and I thank the good Lord for that.  I believe we should celebrate those good things in life and not dwell on those things that haven't turned out the way we 'pictured' our life would be.  I do believe everything happens for a reason.  Even the heartaches.  We learn from all our experiences.

So my word to you, appreciate your life.  Keep in touch with those former coworkers who have become friends.  You never know where you might end up.

As I close, there is one thing that has held constant in my life and that is my of love of baking and I enjoy sharing with friends and fellow co-workers.  And speaking of baking, we had our friends, Pat and Brenda, come out to visit us this past weekend to our new house 'on the prairie'.  For their visit I whipped up one of their favorites.  Cinnamon rolls!  They even took the leftovers home.


Cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven.


Here's a song to put a smile on your face this morning. 
Good morning Starshine!


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