Lee and Ken are alive and well and living in Nova Scotia

 It took far too long to realize that structure in your life revolves around routine. When you retire from work, regardless of the vocation, there is a routine and therefore structure. That is the basis of getting on with things. X must happen because you have to leave for work in 10 minutes. Y must be done now because you can't do it on a work day. Retirement wipes that out in one fell swoop and then where are you?! X can be done any time. Y will happen when it happens. And your structure erodes. Where in the name of all things important am I going with this, you wonder? Well, here is a little life lesson - when you retire, you will be one of two people. You will determine that nothing needs to be done on a schedule and do nothing - that way leads to huge issues for your physical and mental health, not to mention your kitchen counters. Or you will find a new schedule and a resultant routine, supporting your mental health, physical well being and most importantly clean kitchen counters!

There are a million things that fall out of this little moment but suffice to say, your new schedule and routine will be flexible - that's what makes retirement worthwhile. Mine includes taking Sunday off - no cleaning, no worrying about the items not crossed off of this week's mental list of to-do's; rather it is a day to do just what I want to do.

Last evening, HeWhoFilesPreserves in the nether reaches of the cellar (basement would be giving it delusions of grandeur) could not source the mint jelly. He is male. Males have no radar - we all know that. So, flashlight in hand and giving each downward tread a loud shake to divest corridor of anything that should remain unseen, off I went to retrieve the jelly - when what do my wondering eyes did appear but - you guessed it, apricot jam! A couple of jars of apricot jam, nestled snugly next to lots of strawberry and blackberry jam and just down from the remaining marmalade. This was all confined to the cistern room rather than being front and center at the base of the stairs. Several jars accompanied me up the stairs. Nothing followed so the zombie apocalypse is not forming in the basement - yet . . .

This morning, as I had coffee one of the day, the apricot jam came to mind. Baking in recent weeks has been non-existent with the exception of the birthday cake. This week brought a large carton of fruit and nuts (see photo evidence that follows). This is a once a year acquisition that might have happened in October had we not shared our plague with our friends in PA and abruptly returned home. Our great friends were not deterred, ordered our fruit and nuts and mailed them!!!

Not wanting to wait, this morning the pecans and dried apricots came to the counter (at the ready because of routine, you remember!) and apricot, orange, pecan muffins were created (with a spoonful of my apricot jam in the center). There is simply no substitute for this company's fruit and nuts.

So there you have it - retire, create a routine to provide structure to your life and when it's all done - make muffins!

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53Siggi Schrauber, Hilary Cottier and 51 others