WHAT NEXT?

Retirement naturally brings adjustments. The first year brings a round of new experiences. For the first time, I will be on my own -- if not home alone -- while Mike puts in hours at work. Time will not hang heavy on my hands. The days seem to melt away no matter what I do.

During the New Year’s holiday, I took time to review the year just past and to organize for the year ahead, making notes in my new “weekly planner” (which happens to be Nature’s Sketchbook by Marjolein Bastin). My notes serve as reminders as to what I want to accomplish this next year. I don’t call them resolutions because I don’t want to set myself up to fail. But I believe I am bettered by an introspective of this sort if only because it serves to focus my thought. And it includes the daily challenge to improve the caliber of my thinking.

While Mike watched football New Year’s Day, I took myself to Jo-Ann’s Fabrics for a much needed break (from football). As the clerk cut a yard of off-white linen for me, she commented, “This would make a yummy summer suit.” “Yes, it would,” I said, “but I’m making a doll.” (I wonder where she would wear that summer suit anyway.) Arriving back home, I set up the ironing board and transferred the doll pattern to the linen. I laughed to myself that my mother probably wouldn’t have let me handle that part of the project. Many wonderful things we didn’t do just because we didn’t make a start. So, on New Year’s Day 2008 I made a start on a project I’ve wanted to do for 33 years.

You might be surprised to know what else I did. I researched 8-inch dolls, both vintage and modern, on the internet.