This is going to be an unusual post for me, because it will be longer than usual – with only a few pictures in the beginning. I am posting it because this is what has been helpful for me while staying home because of COVID and retirement happening about the same time.

At first I thought, wow, I am going to love this. I have almost nothing to do! But soon that became boring.

So – I am going to tell you what worked for me – just in case it is helpful or challenges someone else. You can discipline yourself in any way you want – we are each different and in different stages of life. I didn’t realize that I would need extra discipline in retirement.

Remember, complaining is not an option

according to 1 Corinthians 10:10.

Do not grumble, as some of them

did and were destroyed by the Destroyer.

One of the new things I have been doing since COVID and retirement are keeping me home more than usual – is trying to learn new things.

I LOVE learning and doing new things!

Last Saturday I learned a new word – Teikei – when watching Virginia Farming on RFD TV.

Teikei is a system of community supported agriculture in Japan where consumers purchase food directly from farmers. The program I was watching was on developing healthy food for communities in the USA.

It prompted me to go to a nearby farm stand to purchase potatoes instead of adding them to my grocery store list.

This is probably the first year in my life that I had to discipline myself with a full-sized to-do-list.

I have always used a to-do-list of some sort, but mostly on a weekly calendar so I didn’t forget appointments, times to pick up children, groceries I need for the upcoming week, etc.

But when life really got slow this spring and I found myself becoming careless and getting almost nothing done some days, except the daily routine of getting dressed, making the bed, doing laundry, preparing supper, etc. I decided to make a to-do-list because I don’t like the results of procrastination.

I love seeing things checked or marked off. So I created a weekly spreadsheet on my computer of the important things I wanted to accomplish each day – starting with Bible reading, devotions, and posting a daily photo/Bible verse on my blog and Facebook.

This year I began listening to three fairly short devotionals online as well as listening to a Bible program of going through the Bible in a year. (Old Testament, New Testament, Proverbs and Psalms each day). I like to stretch myself spiritually and often change my devotional focus each year.

As you know, some mornings/days turn out to be a bit crazy, meaning things don’t happen in the order in which you plan.

I do my spreadsheet by the week – starting out my week with most fields empty (Sunday through Saturday) except the set weekly things, filling in my daily to-do-jobs and appointments at the beginning of the week. When I finish the job, I fill in the field (on my computer) with yellow – and do not like when a field has not been filled in by the end of the day.

I try to not be too rigid (for my own sake) and move tasks to another day if there was a good reason (other than being lazy) for not getting it finished. If I was just careless or lazy, I make myself do it the next day. That kind of punishment keeps me from being lazy. It also keeps me from trying to accomplish too much each day.

Sundays are for rest, so there are not work-related jobs in that column. When we have a busy day or are on vacation, I don’t add as many or any jobs for those days.

I have a line where I deep clean at least one thing a day – like a window, ceiling light or drawer – usually doing a similar thing each day of the week until all windows or lights in the house are finished.

If you are young, you may do an entire room in a day or all your windows in one day. That no longer works for me. I find doing small jobs work best and keep me from procrastinating or exhausting myself.

I try to alternate work times and rest times through out my day, scheduling counted cross stitch and working on photos when I want to watch a certain TV program.

I have a line where I “scan 10-12 old photos”, put them in a computer folder, then work on cropping, lightening, or darkening the next day and move them to a finished file – after they are dated and titled.

I added another line where I photo shop at least two dozen digital photos, title and date them before moving them to the finished file. On Sunday afternoons, I attach an external hard drive to my computer, go to the “finished file” on my desktop, and file them by family, friends, travel, etc. I learned that they stay in order by using the date first like: 2020-09-20 then title the photo. If two of our family members are in the same photo, each of them will get the photo inserted into their file.

I have a line for an hour of office work each workday – even if I do not have a mailing for TFC Global. I have a database of 29,823 names and addresses, so I can always be doing something to “cleanup” old addresses and each time I do a mailing, my online post office system gives me a list of addresses that need updated. I also have hundreds of old files – because the office has been here since 1990. I try to go through some of those on occasion.

I have a line to walk at least a quarter mile each day – either on the treadmill or outside. That may not sound like much to you, but it is better than not walking at all because I set my goal too high. It works better for me than making it a goal of walking one-and-three-fourth miles one day a week.

There is a line for yardwork. At the beginning of each week I fill each day in with something that needs to be done: weeding, raking, clean birdbath, etc. I will adjust that line to something else after it gets cold. Maybe work on more photos.

The last thing on the spreadsheet is: post a blog. I LOVE when I get to the last line and every “field” in my day is yellow.

One of the fun things I did was to find a few interesting programs on my favorite TV channels (HGTV-House & Garden), RFDTV) (Rural & Farm), DEST (Destination America), APL (Animal Planet), NGW (National Geographic Wild), and OUT (Outdoor) and made a weekly spreadsheet of programs that look interesting so I wasn’t carelessly watching TV. I almost never “just watch TV”. I am always doing something else like counted cross-stich, blogging, or working on the thousands of photos I have taken throughout my lifetime.

It took a bit of time and sometimes trial and error until I found what may be worthwhile watching. Thankfully programing stays similar for 4-6 months.

A few of my favorite TV programs:

FarmHer (RFD TV) is a program about women in farming. This week I was amazed by a woman who oversees crops on a large farm in the southwest and the amount of work and money involved in bringing healthy vegetables to our grocery stores.

One Room School House (RFD TV) is a program that you can also get on Facebook. Rory Feek is part of this programing, using the one room school house on his property. I told Cerwin if we were young and had grade school children, I would want them to watch this. They always have a guest teacher: park ranger, horse trainer, gardener, sign language, music instruments, etc. Some teachers are in person, others use Zoom or something similar. It is on at 2 PM EST. It is earlier in the day on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheOneRoomSchoolhouseReimagined It was created because of COVID and the many students who cannot go to school, so may be discontinued when life returns to normal – whatever that is.

When searching OUT TV programing, which usually involves hunting, I look for hunts that are from South Africa because of visiting there in 2018. We especially like to watch these because we can “feel” the surroundings. Cerwin is usually here in the afternoons, so hunting programs are important to him.

Don’t allow COVID to cause you to grumble.

Keep learning.