18 Sunday Jan 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, calendar, family, flowers, handcrafted, happy, mail, moments, widow
recently, a package came in the mail from my daughter in Ottawa…
in it was a delightful handcrafted calendar that is a bouquet…
it is going to look different every month as the twelve pieces move from front to back;-)…
I am so blessed;-)…
15 Thursday Jan 2026
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
apples, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, crisp, family, food, housemate, moments, snow, vacuum sealer, widow
my housemate decided to make apple crisp with all the apples he purchased and then forgot to eat, lol…
I found a recipe and we peeled, cored, and sliced what felt like a ton of apples before they went bad…
next he mixed in the sauce and then used the vacuum sealer to package two bags of the apples…
when he decided to make the apple crisp, he gathered the ingredients for the crisp portion, put everything together and baked it in the oven…
it came out delicious… reminded me of my beloved whose favourite thing to bake was apple pie;-)…
14 Wednesday Jan 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
advent calendar, big girl pants, blessed, calendar, moments, nature, phases, phases of the moon, weather, widow
one of my Advent calendar items was a phases of the moon one page calendar…
it is very cool and it has taken a while to decide where to put it…
it finally went on the bathroom door…
it is the one place that I pass all the time…
10 Saturday Jan 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, Christmas, dishes, family, grandson, moments, putting away, step-stools, widow
spent a little bit of time in the kitchen…
went upstairs and brought down the regular mugs and changed them out for the holiday ones…
next, with help from my housemate, I changed out the dinner plates and saucers… it is always a bit of a process as one set comes down from the top of the cabinet and the other goes up…
step-stools are involved and I am always surprised at how much the Christmas plates weigh, lol…
04 Sunday Jan 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blowing, family, leaf blower, moments, nature, shovelled, snow, weather, widow
Saturday morning I wandered around the house going to each window to look out and take photos of the beauty outside…
it snowed a lot overnight, but the lovely light kind of snow… the trees were gorgeous…
sometime later my housemate was outside blowing the steps and sidewalks…
he doesn’t like to be photographed, lol…
on his return home later he made sure the driveway was shovelled…
I truly am blessed;-)…
02 Friday Jan 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, boxes, Christmas, grandson, moments, ornaments, undecorating, widow
spent New Year’s Eve and New Year’s morning undecorating the Christmas tree and putting away the ornaments (with a little assistance from my housemate)… even found a few for the pass-along box… the snow people also found their way into the appropriate container…
it always seems to be a much quicker process than decorating, lol… and I put some plants back into the window…
finished by putting away the trees which, besides being on the stairs, were in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom;-)…
likely I will still find one or two ornaments that were missed, lol…
28 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
appetizers, big girl pants, blessed, busy, Christmas, family, food, grandson, mid-day, moments, shrimp, weather, widow
my grandson usually arrives here on Christmas day around noon…
our current tradition is to have appetizers for our mid-day meal as he may have already had breakfast and will be heading out for dinner a bit later in the day…
we had wandered the aisles at the grocery store picking up things that looked fun…
we had shrimp dumplings, fancy cheese fries, tempura shrimp, wontons, veggies and dip, sausage rolls, and a shrimp ring… lots of shrimp on that list, lol…
this year we did stockings for each other, which was great… it has been many years since I had a stocking…
it was filled with a great many treats…
then the second round of presents were opened, and I was royally spoiled;-)…
although he only had a few gifts he was very pleased with them…
we sat around and visited before he had to leave for his next engagement, lol…
I truly am blessed to have this thoughtful young man in my life;-)…
25 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, Christmas Eve, face-to-face, family, memories, moments, Technology, treat, video, widow
all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…
put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…
woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…
laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…
made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…
we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…
what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…
such a lovely Christmas morning;-)…
23 Tuesday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, concrete, family, moments, nature, plows, shovelling, weather, widow, windrow
as my housemate was leaving the driveway on Sunday, the plows came down the street so he wasn’t able to leave…
he was quick to get a shovel to start shovelling through the windrow… he headed to the sidewalk and they saw him and did a bit of extra snow moving so he didn’t have nearly as much as imagined…
the plow drivers were amazing in how they move the snow… by the time they were done, there was just a small windrow to be moved before he could leave…
so happy he was here because you have to move it immediately before it turns to concrete and then I would have gone out to move it;-(…
after he left they came down the other side of the street… the first plow moved the snow up over the curb and the second one went exactly along the edge of the curb to clear it up…
they have great control over their equipment…
22 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, Blizzards, grandson, moments, nature, neighbour, snow, snowblower, weather, widow, wind, winter
we’ve had our first blizzards of the season… they sort of happened over two days…
Thursday, a good amount of snow fell and then the winds came… later the snow stopped and returned the next day with more wind…
I had to cancel two outings, so was able to stay home and watch through the living room window…
on day three my housemate spent over an hour shovelling the sidewalks and driveway… there was a lot of snow🤪…
thankfully, a neighbour a few houses to the north came with his snowblower and dealt with the area closest to the garage which saved another hour of shovelling…
the back door had about a foot of snow covering it and the deck… now it is all clear…
we will see how long that lasts;-)…
herbiggirlpants 