Exciting News – Semi-Retirement!

 December 6, 2024  Posted in MG Doodle Studio 2 Likes

November turned into a busy month! My husband and I had been preparing to retire from our livestock feed store for a while, and suddenly, it happened! Another business offered to take over, and everything happened quickly and mostly smoothly. Contracts were signed, inventory was moved, and voila—we’re semi-retired! I say semi-retired because we still have the ranch, which will keep us plenty busy, but now maybe we can actually have enough time to enjoy it!

Two gingerbread ornaments that my mom gave me many years ago.

It’s so new that we haven’t even had time to let it sink in. It’s wonderful! It’s weird! It doesn’t feel real! The feed store kept us very tied down Tuesday through Saturday. We had Sunday and Monday off to run errands (which included hauling inventory for the feed store) and to do all the ranch work. I think it’s going to be so nice to slow down and have more flexibility in our schedules.

Two reindeer, also from my mom. The bells were a gift from my friend in Japan.

I got out our Christmas decorations. We don’t have a lot of decorations, and they’re subtle and calming, which I love. I wrote out Christmas cards and mailed them, except for the ones to Canada. Our post office won’t even accept them due to Canada’s postal strike. Oh, I sure hope they resolve it soon!

Happy Gingerbread dolls that I sewed!

I’m decorating the dollhouse for Christmas today! I’ll show it to you in my next post!

Our nativity scene is a hand-carved piece of Olive wood. My sister-in-law brought it back from her trip to Jerusalem! The star turns to crank up a music box that plays Silent Night.

By the way, the Santa in my cover photo was a gift from my friend in Japan.

Author: Michelle

28 thoughts on “Exciting News – Semi-Retirement!”

  1. I’m so excited for your semi-retirement! Running a business is such tiresome work so it will be great for you to get a break from all of that running around.

    I love all of your Christmas decorations, and I love the idea of minimalist Christmas decorations. I go way too crazy with my decorations, haha. The nativity scene is incredible!

    1. Thank you so much, Stephany! So far, semi-retirement is amazing! But I can’t keep track of what day it is! 🤣

  2. I know I’m fairly new to your blog, but running a feed store sounds like a LOT, and I’m so very happy that the offer came along and that things sound like they basically fell into place. What wonderful timing and what a great gift to you and your husband. I’m sure running the ranch will be plenty, but how nice that you can do things at a new-to-you speed.

    The hand carved nativity is beautiful. I love it. And it makes music.

    I love all of your decorations. Mine are still in the basement *sigh* – one of these days. The last few years I hauled the decorations out while I was babysitting. The ‘big’ kids I sat for so enjoyed watching me crawl into the crawl space and carry the boxes upstairs and unveil all the stuff in them. My young crowd this year would not appreciate that, in fact – they’d be freaked out if they saw me go into the crawl space. Ha.

    Anyway, congrats! I need to add you to my feed, so I’m not so late to your next post. My grandma was very crafty and we still have some of the ornaments she made.

    1. Thank you so much, Ernie! Yes, running a feed store is a LOT! So far, the semi-retirement has been quite busy – but in a good way. Christmas is always a busy time of year. I hope you’ll get a chance to get out your ornaments without scaring anyone! I added your blog to my feed as well!

  3. Michelle! How wonderful. I’m behind on life and therefore behind on blog commenting, but I am so glad I finally showed up at the party.

    I am SO excited for you and your husband. Even a bit more rest and time for fun sounds wonderful. Selfishly, I’m hoping this allows for more gnome projects.

    The postal strike sucks. I’m with Nicole. I didn’t realize how much I enjoyed that rush of receiving holiday mail. But obviously that is insignificant compared to the real damage that is happening to small businesses and people who are already vulnerable and reliant on Canada Post. We will see what happens. I suspect the government will have to step in soon?

    Bring on the pint-sized Christmas cheer <3

    1. Thank you so much, Elisabeth! I hope I’ll have time for more gnome projects too! 😊 So far, the semi-retirement has been quite busy!

  4. Oh, wow! I’ll take my Canadian cards to the post office to see if they’ll take them. I usually just do a big dump in the blue mailbox, but that’s a good tip. I wouldn’t want my cards to get lost in the bowels of our local post office.
    Congrats on your semi-retirement! I hope it’s everything you are hoping for!

    1. Thank you, Engie! I’d be interested to know what they say at your post office. Mine had a big sign above the mail desposit, but I didn’t speak to an employee about it.

  5. Oh, my friend, how wonderful for you and your family! You truly deserve this time to nurture your creative spirit. I absolutely love this for you! PS—if only I could “love” comments because yours (and Nicole’s) never fail to make me smile. I’m holding out hope that you two will collaborate on a gnome book someday. 💕

    1. Thank you, Kari! I figured out how to like posts, but not comments. I like that idea, so I’ll keep working on it!

  6. Congratulations on your semi-retirement Michelle, it’s good to have some extra time to stop and relax a bit, decadent is good! I know we get older but I just couldn’t imagine retiring so when it arrived it was a shock – what to do with all that time, but now I do so much I welcome a week of doing nothing! I’m looking forward to your dollhouse decorations. I might post a few photos of mine this year.

    1. Thank you, Polly! I think you’re staying quite busy in your retirement, doing all kinds of fun things. I hope you post photos of your dollhouse!

  7. Hi Michelle! Happy “newfound life” aka “semi-retirement”! It took me a loooong while to get back into the “me-groove” which surprised me very much because I’ve never had a minute’s doubt about what I like to do! LOL! But life has a way of inserting it’s own agenda… I finally got ruthless and made myself “go to work” by a certain hour every morning five days a week… it was such a relief even though it was just going downstairs to my favorite crafting table!!!! And it worked really well to just put me in the “zone”…. but I am sure you will find your way to the “restful and creative” life you know you deserve! And I am so eagerly awaiting Christmas in your Gnomes… er…. Dollshouse!!! :):):)

    1. Thank you, Betsy! Scheduling your creative time is a great idea, because as you say, life has a way of inserting its own agenda. I enjoyed seeing your dollhouse Christmas trees on your blog!

  8. Congratulations; that is excellent news! You are going to love it, and I am sure you have a whole host of things that you want to do with your time now that you will have more of it. I think semi-retired is a good way to go, as you kind of ease into not having the obligations of work. I am so happy for you!

    1. Thank you, Kyria! I have a feeling that ranch work will use up a lot of that extra time, but in a much different way than an 8 to 5:30 job. So far, it’s a delight to come home at 3:00 p.m. and be done for the day! It feels decadent!

  10. Yay! Congrats Michelle!!!! I’m so jealous (though I’m 6 months out from joining you!)

    I didn’t know that the PO won’t take Canadian mail, so I will hold my Canadian Xmas cards for later. Sigh.

  11. Congratulations!! I am glad the sale came together seamlessly! My parents ran a business for 40+ years (electrical contracting) and my brother in law took it over but it was a 10+ year transition process. But when it was all final, it was the best feeling for them! I’m so happy for you to have more freedom!

    The Canadian post strike is so awful. I mailed my cards before the post office stopped accepting them. But I wonder where they are sitting. What a truly awful time of year for a strike. I don’t know what I would do without the mail, especially this time of year when it’s such a joyful experience to get our mail and see all the holiday cards!

    1. Thank you so much, Lisa! So far we’ve been busy catching up on stuff that we haven’t been able to do for some time, which feels good. Can you imagine how backed up the Canada post will be when things get going again? Not fun.

  12. OMG CONGRATULATIONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! I’m so happy for you! This is SUCH great news, what a perfect serendipitous thing, to have the perfect offer at the perfect time. Yay!!!
    Your Christmas decorations are absolute perfection. I love them so much! They are all different but they are just so “Michelle.” I love it! That creche is so gorgeous. I would love love love to go to Jerusalem, I have wanted to go for decades, but I am not sure if I will ever go in my lifetime, for a variety of reasons, all of which you can probably guess at.
    I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE DOLLHOUSE DECOR.
    *sobs forever about the postal strike* I knew that holiday cards were a huge part of the celebration for me, but I didn’t realize HOW huge. It’s pretty huge and I have one (1) card that arrived in a FedEx-ed gift from a friend, and while I treasure that card, I miss so much my usual exchange. I have a stack of cards just waiting to go and who knows how long it will be. Well, I hope you enjoy the card you’re going to get next July! *sobs again*
    Anyhoo, enough whining from me. I am so happy for you Michelle! You know, I just looked it up and we are a mere 10 hour 28 minute drive away from each other…now that we are both kind of retired…I’m just putting it out there! Maybe we should meet in the middle, maybe we could coerce Suzanne to come back to her home state…I don’t know! Something to think about maybe? Also now that you’re semi-retired, we can think about our GNOME ILLUSTRATED BOOK that we are totally going to write together! Am I selfishly planning your retirement for you to meet my deeply-held wants? YES I SURE AM!
    Lol I have been leaving EPIC comments on blogs today, and I don’t feel done with this comment but I’ve kind of run out of things to say. Oh I know! The gnome you sent me is in a special place on the tree! I should take a photo and send it your way. It’s the cutest thing.
    Okay I’m done this comment now! *Michelle turns away slowly from the computer, disturbed*

    1. Nicole, you are such a delight! I enjoyed your comment very much! I also enjoyed reading your comments on other blogs, and I’m sure that everyone else did too. ❤️ Yes, we’re practically neighbors – although even more-so when you lived in Calgary. It would be fun to meet up somewhere, and we definitely need to make the gnome book happen. I’m so pleased that the gnome has a special place on your tree. Your comment made me smile so much! Thank you, Nicole!

  13. Wow, you make it sound amazing and so freeing. I hope it is, and that it gives you more freedom to do some fun stuff as well as keep working on the farm. 🙂 Maybe paint, craft, knit, play… 🙂

    Your decorations looks lovely, thanks for sharing. Merry December!

    1. Thank you, iHanna! Yes, I definitely hope there will be lots of time for crafting, sewing, etc.

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