Five White Shirts A Week

This blog is mostly about my life as I transition into retirement. Now, that I am home full-time and Jim is back to work, I am washing five white shirts a week. I offered to do Jim's laundry last week since he is working and so tired on the weekends. I have never done his laundry except when he has been ill. When I married him, I was thrilled to find a man who did his own laundry! There was a time after he became principal of SHS when he took his shirts to laundry owned by the parents of one of his students once a week to be laundered. Jim hates starch in his shirts, but his shirts kept coming back starched. He asked the owner to not starch the shirts, and he kept getting light starch in the collars and shirts anyway. Again, Jim requested "no starch." The owner, a wonderful Chinese man, replied to Jim's request with, "No. You the principal. Must look good. You get starch."

Now, I am the one who is taking care of Jim's shirts. He isn't getting starch, but I am thinking I really should touch them up with an iron. Goodness, is this what retirement means???

Yesterday, Jim forgot his phone, so I had to take Jim's phone and a thumb drive to him at work. It was my first visit to Pitts since he took the reins over the Ponies. I walked into the lunchroom since his secretary had informed me he was on lunch duty. It was filled with eighth graders eating lunch. It had been a while since I had seen that many eighth graders in one place. I was pleased to see that it seemed to all be going well and was quite orderly. Then a fight broke out. I saw it first and told Jim. I'm not losing my touch! When he returned to my side after getting things taken care of with the two fighters, I said, "I need chocolate. This place makes me want to eat chocolate." Funny, the reaction I had. I have had two weeks of not eating any sweets of any kind, and the middle school lunch made me mad for sugar. We left and went to his office before I could give in to my cravings.

I don't mind being home and taking care of things here while Jim is away. I am cooking three meals a day most days so that we eat a bit more healthy. I am learning to cook again. That is ok too. In fact, yesterday, when Jim got home for dinner at 5:00 I had a pork loin roast ready. (A breeze to cook in my new slow cooker!) It was served with wild rice, spinach, and apple/raisin/celery salad. After dinner I finally gave in and ate two pieces of dark chocolate. Chocolate is a MUFA, so I gave in and ate some. Jim was able to nap before going to the SHS alumni meeting at 7:00. I worked on professional development courses that I will teach and prepared for the Romano presentation scheduled for the 30th until he came home. So, I put in 2 1/2 hours at the computer working in the evening. It's all good.