Creative Paths

We discovered a new order to our retirement life... travel was paramount for awhile, but after that, especially if you don't have a bottomless bank account, there has to be something more to do--to sustain your active mind, your joy for life, the days upon days. You can't live on the beach forever, or can you? Some retired folks do move to Santa Cruz or to Florida!

One of our favorite destinations, Santa Cruz beach

One must really organize one's life and plan, after working for decades, because so many things filled your previous life, and then, all of a sudden, most of it is gone... whatever shall you do? Well, we had a whole list of things we wanted to achieve, to enjoy, to Do together and Service to others was one! Yet, there would be time for all of this... for now, we just wanted to relax, rest... to breathe.

There our Book was... on Amazon Books, Barnes & Nobles, GoodReads, Mashable,OverDrive and more!

Retirement

In the year following my retirement, I did nothing… no plans, no commitments, no clock watching or even noticing what day of the week it happened to be. Even Sundays no longer held their sting, tainted by dreaded Monday closing in. I was free, free to do or not to do… as I wished! Everything I had done my entire adult life… decades of working, commuting, dealing with snarled traffic, mean bosses, missed family events, and frantic Sunday nights, all vanished... poof!

I could finally devote time once again to our local newspaper, The Gold Country Times, that along with a silent partner and co-owner, Justine, I had published monthly since 2001. I was the editor, writer, publisher with a full staff, and it took all of us to ensure our publication hit all the marks for a lively, informative and fun newspaper. It was a labor of love for 14 years, but came to an abrupt halt after 14 years for several reasons, none health related.

In 2015, a few months after I had decided to step down from the newspaper, my writer's creativity needed an outlet of some sort. Constantly interrupting my daily enjoyment with Mr. Big (my severance pay splurge--a 60" Samsung 3D interactive color television) stories and half written paragraphs would zip through my brain. It became increasingly evident I still wanted and needed a literary outlet. I so missed being busy and part of a writing group.

My first published work in a book

So I joined an online writer’s group in Auburn, CA (several members had been my newspaper reporters over the years) called The Placer Gold Writers on a whim and I submitted an original short story, Stranger in Town, for a book collaboration. The interaction, proof reading, and creativity of this endeavor fired my brain up, and I loved every minute of the process. What a rush! There our book was, at the end of this amazing process, available for the world to read, on Amazon Books, Barnes & Nobles, GoodReads, Mashable, OverDrive and more! Even better, "Through Button Eyes: A Collection of Short Fiction" -- competing with 5,000 national and international entries -- was chosen as a 2017 finalist in the Anthology division of the prestigious 'Next Generation Indie Book Awards'! This was just incredible! Needless to say, our group was so jazzed! Check out our book and its various authors here! http://www.placergoldwriters.org/

What To Do Now

In 2016, I took on some graphic design jobs, website clients, and also landed a publishing job for a local marketing magazine, doing page layout/editing, and designing Ads. It has remained one of my jobs, but mostly I manage its Facebook presence and website which I designed. I am enjoying the role of Editor once again, as I scheduled Movie and Theater assignments, and edit them for our online publication. I am also engaged in some new website design jobs, which are very entertaining and further fuels artistic creativity. It's not work if you really enjoy it, is it?

I truly love the entire process. A favorite website I designed in 2001 after I first learned HTML is of a local Garden Center, Ridge Road Garden Center, full of lovely plants, trees and shrubs, along with wonderful selections in their garden shop. We have been buying their plants since 1998; we even grew veggies for them at one time (getting a Nursery License to do so, purchasing a small greenhouse to grow the seedlings. A few years ago, I updated their extensive website and I enjoy making the seasonal changes each year.

I challenged myself to learn new skills... and began a job as a Marketing Director with a local business... I manage their Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus and Houzz accounts, besides keeping their website and blog current. At the urging of several Facebook friends, knowing that I wanted to share my increasing knowledge of overcoming diabetes, our journey to being vegetarians, besides changing our meals to heart-healthy ones, I began this website/blog. As I increased my awareness of food through an amazing array of books, learning ways to increase not only our health but our vigor, brain function and even weight loss with vegetarian, non-diary meals, I shared the information on Facebook, besides with several vegetarian groups I had joined. To this day, I am learning more and continue to fine tune our meal selections and shopping. We are actually becoming more vegan although we still enjoy turkey and shellfish, although seldom.

I began to take photos of our meals as we tried new recipes, new foods and ways to prepare them. We even developed our own recipes with what we had on hand. Then I started a digital recipe portfolio on the computer. We began to incorporate favorites into our weekly menu. They were delicious! My husband began to eat a rainbow of vegetables, and he learned new ways to season food. Chick peas have become one of his favorite vegetables as is eggplant! Processed faux meat replacements are a good transition into a new way of eating, vegetarian or vegan, but at some point, they shouldn't provide the bulk of your meals and we are learning to use these products less often. They are sodium heavy and have other ingredients you don't want to eat all the time, like soy and fillers, plus chemicals. If we keep comparing meat alternatives to the meat that we used to eat, it stays connected in the brain and creates a constant longing of sorts. Personally for us, it never did. I do however, still miss items like Spam, bologna, and Hot dogs that I grew up eating as a child!

We were so used to having a trifecta of meat, starch, and a veggie on our dinner plates that this way of eating, filling our plates with vegetables, no meat, little starch, few fruits was at first a huge effort. We had to consciously put large vegetable portions on our plates. Now we had to learn to think in terms of 'plant-based meals' or 'Whole Foods meals and snacks', and we learned to be very conscious of it all. Grocery shopping easily became a 2-hour affair as we read labels thoroughly to weed out high sodium, fat and carbs.

It was very interesting to me, though, because of the wide array of vegetarian foods available... seems like there are whole aisles devoted to faux meats, cheese and non-dairy items, besides unusual condiments and spices I had never heard of. I learned about Sesame oil which gives a fragrant and rich taste to stir fry's with just a few shakes of the bottle... I wanted more of these spices I was reading about, used in Indian cooking, that colored and flavored foods, like Garam Masala. I want to try Gomashio spice and Harissa, also. Many of the veggie cheese selections we tried were so delicious that grilled cheese sandwiches tasted like they always had before, melty and yummy without the dangerous fat! These still have fat, though so we cannot overindulge. Tim created great tasting broths and soups of green goodness filled with those tasty glass noodles I love. This wasn't being deprived at all!

A delicious dish of mushroom pasta!

We began to enjoy meals of vegan mushroom patties, seitan or quinoa, couscous, eggplant, cauliflower, roasted carrots and different kinds of beans! I loved the roasted butternut squash cubes I would put into our salads or combined with quinoa and cheese, then baked to a crusty goodness. There were so many different types of vegetables prepared in different ways that it never got old... fennel and lemongrass were new cooking options for us. Grocery shopping became an adventure--reading labels, looking for low sodium, low sugar, low fat, and all with less than 5 ingredients. It's been since August 2017 when our 2-week trial began, and we haven't looked back. We do it for heart health, for animal compassion, and for our environment. And we continue to do it because it's just so delicious! By August 2020, we are still eating plant-based meals and loving it.

I've read countless books since we began this journey in 2017, and I am amazed at the wealth the library offers on just these three topics... Vegan, Vegetarian, and Diabetes. I have a digital library of photos and recipes on my computer... countless images with wonderful recipes. We have tried many of them and never been disappointed. So our retirement continues… new avenues yet to explore, new vegan restaurants to try, and yes, perhaps even travel very soon; I miss our road trips! Most certainly, new experiences in vegetarian meal planning and cooking. We received an Instant Pot for Christmas from my son and family in 2018. We are excited to try making our own non-dairy yogurt, and even a whole grain cake in it, soon! So far, we have made meatless chili, quinoa, beans, a rice dish and even spaghetti. Yet our favorite Polenta is the best dish, smothered in vegan mushroom sauce. Delicious.

In the interim, Tim also began a new career which he is enjoying. He drives for Common Grounds, a local non-profit outfit that provides Meals on Wheels in two counties, 3 times a week. Once a week he transports the disabled and elderly to a grocery store or doctor appointment. This is a new addition to his job and his first client will be in the month of July, probably next week. We serve and help where we can and for whom we can as countless others have done for us over the past few years. Our extended family continues to grow!