I am ready for some beautiful weather and finally getting to be around people again. Even if we need to do so cautiously, it will be nice to resume life again.
I think that it is safe to say that all of us are thinking the same thing. We all just want to get back to what we were doing before, even with precautions in place.
As for me, things will get better at work because I won't have to do as much as I did before unless I volunteer to do so. It may mean that I will have to work on Saturdays again, but that is ok. I am still working, and that is what is important.
I am still looking for a good place to live, and hope to move very soon. I'll be working on packing as I look and finish purging my things so that I don't have to take unnecessary things into my new home.
I finally finished working on my Outlander blog, with plans to do other things with it, I finally decided that I should just go for it and get it updated while the last season aired. I will probably start doing the re-reading on the novel in the next day or so.
Since I now have my health and dental insurance, I will be able to do some things that I wasn't able to do. When the pandemic is over, and the last of my financial issues are resolved, I will do them. I can't wait! I feel like an average person with these benefits right now.
In the middle of August, I will be able to add two more benefits to my life: vacation and 401k. I am looking forward to both of these because I haven't had either in many years. I am trying to get my future in order. I am also hoping that once I get everything done with moving and with playing catch-up on everything, I hope to open an IRA at my bank.
I think that as I am getting older, there are things that I want to make sure are in place for my life so that I feel more comfortable. I had already decided when I turned fifty that I was going to make sure that my future was going to be better than it has been. I want to take vacations, have a retirement plan, have the insurances that I need to take care of myself.
Once that IRA and everything in that direction is settled, I will work on the simple things that I have neglected in the past...driver's license and a car.
I did open a secured credit card last October as a safety measure for the future. It works like a normal credit card, but I had to put down a certain amount as a deposit, which is also the limit. Since I got the card, I have used it a bit, but because I am looking ahead, I have tried to ignore the due date, and pay off increments or replace what I used on paydays...sometimes, even making two or three payments a month and making the monthly payments on time (this month, I will be late on my payment by a few days, but the bank said that because I made payment amounts that equal out to the minimum throughout the month, I won't pay a penalty or late fees). I have been doing really well with this card, and it comes through my bank.
At this point, I have finally settled down financially, with the credit card, I even opened a checking account...this goes hand in hand with my savings account and a debit account that I have (this account is the main one that money flows into, and I turn around and transfer to savings and checking-the checking is for writing checks for bills, the savings is for the future, and the debit account is the budget that I am allowed to spend during the week, plus the bills that are paid online). These accounts are necessary to keep me on track for what I need to do, and what I want to do in the future.
It will all work out, I just need to make sure that I stick with my plans.
Recently, I have been wavering on my religious outlook. It seems that I am going towards the past there as well. It seems that I am being called back, but I am not sure yet what that means. It may be because I had spent a year with this universal religion for a year before becoming part of its family fifteen years ago, and right before I started studying another spiritual path...I wavered on both for years then too, but something keeps trying to bring me back to the first.
I may mention it again in the future, but for now I need to spend time thinking about what I am being called for and what I need to do with it.
I have been knitting a lot more recently. It is an easy thing to do while watching television or listening to an audio book. I want to do something with it. I love the feel of yarn in my hands and the needles producing something so awesome. I have a few projects that I am working on now that are easy to do, but I am longing to learn more stitches so that I can make more elaborate and beautiful things.
I may have mentioned this before, but I want to learn how to spin wool into yarn, and to dye yarn so that I can make projects practically from scratch. It would be so cool to be able to say that I made that from spinning the wool into yarn to dying the yarn and then to knitting the project. Someday I may try my hand at learning how to create my own patterns...not sure that would ever happen, but it's always a possibility. I love the yarn arts, and may get the gumption to try my hand at crocheting again in the future.
During this time, I have also been devouring cookbooks and been obsessed with baking. I am trying to find new recipes for the time that we are able to gather together again. I am also going online and going gaga over pots, pans, bakeware, and other kitchen appliances. I want to be able to contribute dishes for functions. Part of me is just plain tired of microwaving dinner or ordering Door Dash. I am also tired of eating meals out of a can or eating a sandwich.
There is so much on my mind, and so much I want to do with my life for the rest of this year, I can only forge ahead, figure things out, plan, and make short term goals to get me through this time. Once things are figured out, learned, then set into motion, I think that I will be in a good place to set up my future after fifty.
I want my life to be comfortable going into the next decade, and I want to start getting settled into how I want it to be. I call it my dream life or living comfortably in the future.
Please continue to be safe!
