Tag: @retirement

My Side of the Mountain

Posted on September 11, 2025 by JANET L BARKER

“The Secret Garden” “Tom Sawyer” “A Present for the Princess” “My Side of the Mountain” Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty”, “Snow White”, “The Wizard of Oz” and Dad’s soothing, animated voice lulling me to sleep, assuring me that all is well in the world and that… Continue Reading “My Side of the Mountain”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #camping, #fall, #hiking, #Nature, #pleasureway, #retiredteacher, #solowomencamping, #travel, #travelinggrandma, #writing, @retirement, life, pacific-northwest, prairie-creek-state-and-national-park

Oh, the Places You’ll Go

Posted on May 23, 2025 by JANET L BARKER

2 Comments

“Every time my surroundings change, I feel enormous sadness. It’s not greater when I leave a place tied to memories, grief or happiness. It’s the change itself that unsettles me, just as liquid in a jar turns cloudy when you shake it.” ~ Italo Svevo… Continue Reading “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”

Category: #central coastTags: #cambria, #centralcoast, #classof2025, #faith, #grace, #graduation, #hope, #mindset, #ohtheplacesyoullgo, #passages, #peace, #retirement, #sansimeonbeach, #travelinggrandma, #writerslife, #writing, @retirement, blog, life, love, mental-health

The Three Bears

Posted on February 24, 2025 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

For those who have never lived on their own, might be afraid, anxious about silence, worried about fixing things, the idea of cooking for one, being responsible for paying one’s bills—-don’t be. You can do it. You can handle it. I know because not… Continue Reading “The Three Bears”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #California, #cambria, #faith, #grandmother, #hope, #livingmybestlife, #peace, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #roomofmyown, #thelittlethings, #vanlife, #writerslife, #writing, @retirement, blog, coastal-california, family, life, love, mental-health, retired-teacher, san-luis-obispo-county, tiny-home

Princess for a week

Posted on February 9, 2025 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

I poured my cousin’s prune juice into my coffee this morning. The cabin was dark, and I was stunned out of a glorious sleep-in sleep by room service or a stewart (not so sure what staff is called on a giant cruise vessel). Shadowy… Continue Reading “Princess for a week”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #adventure, #cruise, #cruiselife, #cruisingintoretirement, #enjoyinglife, #feelinggood, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, #livingthevidaloca, #love, #loveeverymoment, #princesscruise, #retiredteacher, #retirement, #travel, @retirement, cruises, cruising, cruisinggrandmas, cruisingwithfriends, cruisingwithfriends, happinessisprincesscruise, princess-cruises

Trust The Women

Posted on December 12, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

1 Comment

For all the years I’ve been visiting my daughter, I rarely explore The City solo. That’s the best way to learn, when you have to figure it out by yourself. Like learning a language, when all roads lead back to you, you eventually get hip. Or… Continue Reading “Trust The Women”

Category: #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, UncategorizedTags: #adultchildren, #bestlifeever, #family, #grandchildren, #grandma #travelinggrandma, #lifeizgood, #lostinmanhattan, #loveofgrandchildren, #manhattan, #newyorkcity, #nyc, #peace, #retirement, #travel, @retirement, coffee, columbuscircle, family, food, life

But today, it is.

Posted on May 26, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

Moss hangs from a sea of aged oak trees, dancing in the wind outside my friends’ forest-shrouded home in Atascadero, California. I’m residing here for a weekish, babysitting their two precious mini dachshunds as their mum and dad vacation in Kauai. Their original dog… Continue Reading “But today, it is.”

Category: #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, @retirementTags: #bestfriends, #dogsitting, #faith, #findingpeace, #friends, #friendship, #happiness, #housesitting, #lessons, #memorialday, #Nature, #peace, #poetry, #relaxing, @retirement, life, love, spirituality

This Life of Mine

Posted on May 10, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

The Last Breakfast. The Last Sunset. The Last Frog-choral Midnight Concert. The Last Dinner with Friends. The Last Patch of Starry Quietude before heading south toward family and the past. “You could have stayed there forever, a small child in a corner, on the… Continue Reading “This Life of Mine”

Category: #camping, #gmashavingfun, #grandparents, #hope, #lifeizgood, #teaching, @retirementTags: #California, #cambria, #camping, #centralcoast, #findinghope, #hope, #maryoliver, #Nature, #peace, #retiredgrandma, #solograndmascamping, #solowomencamping, #travel, #writersontheroad, @retirement, birding, birds, love, photography

Lucky Enough

Posted on March 15, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

The sun warms my shoulders as the ocean re-charges my gaze as the gregarious Snow White singing birds kerchief my ears as teeming black tea stimulates my soft-focus high school yearbook portrait ala 1970s brain. Adjust the lens and it becomes clear, sharp, bursting… Continue Reading “Lucky Enough”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #50threunion, #bestfriends, #cambria, #camping, #faith, #findinghope, #god, #godslove, #grandmashavingfun, #hope, #inspiration, #peace, #pleasureway, #retiredteacher, #ruhs, #solowomentraveling, #thebeach, #theocean, #vanlife, @grateful, @retirement, jesus, life, love

Really, not really

Posted on March 2, 2024 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

Home, not really. South Bay, not really. Schedule, not really. Ambition, not really. Stress, not really. Anger, frustration, blame, regrets, not really. I’m here, sitting on a camp chair overlooking the blustery sea in my sister and cousin’s unfinished Palos Verdes Estates home, a… Continue Reading “Really, not really”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #birthday, #grandma, #gratitude, #growingold, #home, #hope, #lifeizgood, #palosverdesestates, #pleasureway, #purpose, #rvlifestyle, #solowomen, #solowomencamping, #southbay, #thenextchapter, #travel, #travelingwithgrandma, #travellinggrandma, #whatsitallabout, #wisdom, @retirement, celebrations, comingtopeace, fallinginlove, family, gettingolder, grandparenting, momsok, traveling-grandma

The UnKnotting Process

Posted on October 16, 2023 by JANET L BARKER

Leave a Comment

Life on the Road, Installment 9 America, she be beautiful. America, she be kind. America, she can cook up some bodacious Southwest foods. America, it’s been good gettn’ to know you. America, our time together is helping me understand myself. What I like, don’t like,… Continue Reading “The UnKnotting Process”

Category: UncategorizedTags: #eclipse, #findingpeace, #harvesthost, #hope, #hummingdesertalpacafarm, #loveeverymoment, #newmexico, #pleasureway, #solograndmatraveling, #solowomencamping, #vanlife, @retirement, love

1 2 3 »