Romanticizing My World + Updates

Hello there! Here’s this weeks vlog link. Romanticizing MY WORLD? Can it be done? lol. It was a fun week to try anyway. I hope you enjoy the vlog.

Why I’ve Not Been Blogging More

I have not blogged as I said I would since getting rid of the To Do List. So what have I been doing with my time?

Well we have had fundraiser events, a wedding, an anniversary, Magi box Packings, going to yard sales, taking Mom to tour assisted living, long videos to edit, videos to vlog, hotels to book, a close friend was in the hospital, and the normal laundry and housework and routines have either been kept up or ignored.

But to be honest, a lot of my time has been spent researching and buying a new iPad, playing around with iOS 26, installing Good Notes on said iPad, learning how to use an Apple Pencil and more recently downloading Good Monday’s Paper, a digital planner to try once again to see if I can have luck at going digital with my planner – mainly from a YouTube video planning aspect, and also for the calendar as a whole. For someone in their 60’s -I have to take my time, watch videos and see what I can learn. Now to test it out. So far I’m finding it challenging to write with the pencil in the text boxes on the calendar itself but I’m getting better. ;-). One thing I do love though is the Apple Pencil and being able to write on the iPad in Good Notes, and in my own writing.

I am going to be honest with you though. I’ve found myself tired and weary of vlogging the last 2 to 3 weeks. It’s been a push to vlog and edit and do all the things while so many other things going on too, many of which take us away from the house on a daily basis. It seemed to slow down some for a couple of weeks but we have been dashing here and there. And it seems like a lot to me. I don’t want to just sit and rot, but I’ve just been less able to keep up with it all. I’ve also allowed myself more down time – reading and watching and just doing what I want -which helps, but I think the housework suffers some. It’s the least thing I want to do so it gets pushed to the last, and shoved to tomorrow.

Plans for the YouTube Channel

However, the plan is to ramp up things for the channel. I have made some decisions to go forward with allowing sponsorships, affiliates, and brand deals with the hope that it won’t be a horrible time consumption. I’m not big enough for it to be a big deal and I’m not going to do it until after the first of the year. It will be like I’m in business for myself though, with George’s help. I spend a lot of time on the channel. It’s already like a PT job, maybe even FT when you consider all of it. I don’t mind sponsoring products I like. I already share things with everyone that I like and endorse them so, why not get paid for it. We could use the $ toward my insurance and equipment that I spend.

It is not cheap to do the channel – you have to have camera equipment and the various tripods, cards, batteries, readers, and gadgets needed for shots. You have to pay for the editing software (Final Cut Pro), and I pay for the music (Epidemic Sound) so I don’t get copyright issues, I pay for iCloud storage so that I can house all the videos and clips without struggling for space. I also had to upgrade to a paid blog on WordPress because of the website storage space. Now I’ve upgraded the iPad, mainly to be able to plan videos, make notes, and have a planner/calendar that integrates with Apple software and devices to make it easier to orchestrate and see the time layout in the weeks.

Vlogmas and two upcoming trips are making the video schedule a little hairy and complicated, but it’s nothing planning ahead won’t fix. And so I’ve had to upgrade to a paid Good Notes account to be able to have more than 3 notebooks, sadly. Only 11.99 per year, but gosh. I had to buy the digital planner which was 16.99 on discount. I am not worried so much about that as I buy a planner already every year. But I needed one that I could plan my videos on so not sure I’ll be putting my every day things on there yet. So that said, means I’ll be buying an extra planner a year for THAT.

So yeah, it’s just been a little busy lately. My life and my brain kinda feel like the above picture all the time. This time of year always gets busier. It’s fun but busy. At least I’m not working right? In a way, I think physically retirement is more challenging because I don’t get to sit down like I did at work – ha ha ha. But at least now what I do, I’m doing for me and not “the man” as they say, which doesn’t make sense in today’s world as it all corporate hubbub. lol. And I’m still loving retirement every day. I’m just always still fighting over time which honestly surprises me so much. But I guess I love life, love living, and want to do it all. I’m just realizing that I’m older and slower and so even in retirement with more time, it takes longer to do things that I used to do. That is very discouraging.

But I’ve been happy doing what I can do each day and I love being geeky with my Apple Devices as long as I can figure it out.

So when you look at the number of weeks from now to Christmas and what we have going on, it takes your breath away. We have a lot going on it seems. And it is truly requiring a balancing act – even in retirement.

I am having the hardest time trying to get any of my extra projects done but that is what next week is about. I’ll be vlogging “Productive Week in Retirement” in which each day I will push to get some things off the list. It won’t air til 10/25 though. Next week is “Storage Solutions on 10/11. And the following week is “Finding Balance in Retirement” on 10/18. See I’ve been doing some planning. I hope it helps the channel’s growth. It’s slowly receding, which is depressing. There’s just so much competition and the algorithm has changed (again) to an AI situation and it’s causing havoc to even the big channels.

Mom’s Assisted Living Tour Went Well

Well, Mom agreed to put her name on the Assisted Living wait list. It is usually a year before they have an opening. But at least there’s that. Honestly I think she could use some help and I hope she doesn’t need care before the year is out. Right now I think we are teetering on risk at best. Anything could happen any day now. She has had more and more “less good” and “problematic days”. And with winter coming on, not expecting it to improve, you know?

So anyway I need to get on with my day but I love blogging and bringing you the vlog link weekly if nothing else. It is my intention to blog more as when I blog it is the way I “check in with myself” because my thoughts come out on the screen. I hope you all have a super day.

Here’s the video link again if you need it. Watch it HERE.