Grandma takes a Blog Break: Forging New Tracks

Mom used to say she had a one-track mind.

What my mother thought that meant–and I did, too–is the inability to handle more than one endeavor at a time; the opposite of multitasking.

Actually as it turns out, having looked it up, a one-track mind is something different: a singular fixation or obsession over one thing.

Still, I am my mother’s daughter and I lean into her interpretation of a one-track mind. So where is this leading?

Taking a Blog Break

I started “Call Me Grandma!” in June 2019. While I love blogging and sharing my grandma tips, sometimes, I just need a break. Because, my “one track” can only do the blogging and not much else on the days when I’m working on the next post.

To start some new personal projects, I need to clear the deck, and clear my head.

So, beginning this week, I am taking a blog break from “Call Me Grandma!” to return on May 7.

What I’m Doing on my Blog Break

As usual, I Iike to make a list of what I hope to do during this period so I can measure my accomplishments (or lack thereof). Here’s this year’s “to do” list:

Projects that Involve Creating

I need uninterrupted time to work on these projects:

• Finally, I plan to make the craft kits I’ve been gifted by Miss T and one of my sons from Christmas past, including building a miniature water and landscape garden, assembling a 3-D bookend of a Japanese cherry blossom scene (complete with operable lights), and learning to apply “gold” leaf.

• Make videos of the grandkids, holidays, and vacations; show them at our Friday night dinners.
• Do some watercolor painting–rekindling a passion from my college arts classes, part of my fashion design curriculum.

If you’re not traveling this summer, make a staycation plan.

Learning Projects

I want to dedicate some time to learning something new:

• Become a better iPhone photographer–I’ve subscribed to a few online photography and editing modules to study.
• Tap into learning all the capabilities of my i-devices because I aspire to be a power user. At the same time, I want to clean up and organize my iPhone and iPad apps; delete apps I no longer use and organize the remaining in more logical folders.

• Learn to care for my garden better. I paid for the Picture This app that is supposed to identify healthy or sick plants by taking a photo, and suggesting remedies to solve specific plant problems. The jury is still out on the app’s effectiveness. It seems to be able to spot diseases, but not bug infestations.

Social Outreach Projects

Our social life has diminished since the pandemic and we need to revitalize it:

• Invite one or two friends for lunch in our garden–I’ll just fix a simple meal, but it would be an opportunity to reconnect with a few old friends.
• Host a small garden party for our neighbors.

Longer-Term Projects to Work on

These are my long-term projects that I have yet to get a handle on:

• Scan photos from my own children’s albums to upload to the cloud (this is a project I’ve neglected for years and is always on my recurring to-do list).
• Plan a fall vacation trip. We’ve borrowed tons of travel books from the library, which I must plough through to create a travel schedule.

• Finally, work on new story ideas for “Call Me Grandma!” I’ll try to focus on inexpensive projects and activities, in keeping with tumultuous economic times.

I hope I won’t fritter away my time as I did last year because four weeks will fly by. I expect to post occasionally to Facebook and Instagram with updates.

My friend Terri says that the reason time flies at this stage of our life is because, in retirement, we get to do what we WANT to do; not what we HAVE to do. So, time zips by because we are having fun. I think she’s right.

See you next month!

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