Category Archives: family

starting…

23 Saturday Jan 2016

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spent the morning at MBlog 2016 with a room full of bloggers wanting to grow… many great tips on organizing and content creation… a blog is a conversation advised Kyla Roma… we spent time looking at our own blog and working through our brand and who we wanted to be having the conversation with…

  
as the speaker, Kyla kept us moving forward so that by the end we had lots of content to work with for the coming year… 

I spent time remembering that the reason I started to blog was to share some of my experiences following my husband’s death and my desire to share as I move forward in my life’s journey…

it was energizing to hear the sound of wisdom being shared and see the animated faces of the bloggers as everyone soaked up knowledge…

  
left the event filled with ideas floating around in my head…

once home I watched figure skating on tv and had a nap… hadn’t slept well last night… snow started just after I arrived home… 

  dreamt of my beloved coming in after shovelling and when I woke up thought he was in the basement watching tv… took a few moments to realize that he wasn’t… 

maybe a combination of thinking of his loss, snow falling, and the skating, brought on the dream… my neighbour and I would call one another whenever skating was on to be sure the other didn’t miss any programs… I would watch upstairs while George would watch his programs in the basement… shook me up a little…

vanish…

22 Friday Jan 2016

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on my way out to the car this morning — with my hands full of various bits and bags for work — I had to stop and take a picture of the pink sky…

 
my driving buddy thought I’d fallen as it took me a few extra seconds to get to the car, lol…

 took lots of pictures as we drove downtown… you never know, when the sky is so beautiful, when it will vanish…

  
at lunch I went for a walk with my daughter as our yoga class was cancelled… did well, particularly as I hadn’t planned on walking… had a spare jacket to put under my coat and pulled up my hood… only my legs got cold…

then my grandson met me at the office and came to shovel… afterwards we had leftover lentils with brown basmati rice along with roasted brussel sprouts and mushrooms… 

  

he chose the menu and prepped the veggies… we had a lovely visit and he headed home on the bus…

what a treat…

brighten…

21 Thursday Jan 2016

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this morning I took some pictures of the orchid… it is lasting amazingly well… 

  
sure does brighten up the living room…

have been doing a bit of reading on orchids and discovered that the roots hanging out of the pot were not as healthy as I thought… apparently they might need to be repotted…

  
snow fell off and on during the day in those big huge flakes again… so peaceful…

when I got home I took a few pictures of snowflakes on the mailbox…

  
but I didn’t take any with the camera… too lazy to dig it out so just used the iPhone…

opened up the sliding door for the first time in months so I could get a shot of the snow on the chair and table on the deck…

  
really enjoying the longer light each day… 

final picture of the day was of the skyline as the sun was going down…

 
the extra light certainly brightens my day… 

sparkly…

20 Wednesday Jan 2016

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last night as I went past the window on my way downstairs I spotted the bunny making a trip through the garden…

it was too dark to get a picture so I just stood still and watched… hopped and stopped and hopped some more… at one point it stood up on its hind legs to have a good look around… such fun to watch… then it hopped out of the yard…

tonight, as I drove home huge snowflakes were gently falling… it was so beautiful…

just looked outside and spotted the diamonds in the snow, sparkling like crazy… 

winter can be filled with such stunning beauty when you take the time to see it…

  

serendipitous…

18 Monday Jan 2016

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took this picture of the beautiful sunrise this morning…

  
am always amazed at how I walk by the window at just the right moment to catch something so lovely… what made me look out this time and not just focus on getting down the stairs… interesting…

had an appointment after lunch so needed to get a few things done in a short amount of time…

stopped in at the credit union and after making the deposit asked about when we could meet with the locksmith to drill out the key to our safety deposit box… it was serendipitous that the locksmith was on the way there for another reason…

I waited a few minutes and when he got there and opened it, we discovered that the box was empty, as I had imagined… we had that box since 1979…

 
was hard to see George’s signature on the document… brought a few tears… never know when things will hit hard…

after a quick grocery shop, I headed to Toyota to have them check the silly remote starter… met up with my sales guy and he took me to the place down the street that did the install… they checked it out and said it was fine… they gave me a lesson in how to use it and I drove away within half an hour… need to wait in one place, double click in another, and turn the key a certain way… will see how it goes, lol…

  
was so pleased with how quickly the visit to the dealership went that I decided to take her for a car wash as she was very dirty…

was a bit nervous about what I had to do when I got there but it was easy… left her at the door…

  
went in and paid, and discovered that the cars don’t stay in the same line they started in, yikes… a nice person helped me figure the system out, I found her and drove away in a lovely clean car…

grandparents…

17 Sunday Jan 2016

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fun day…

went to the Renovation Show with my daughter… we are OK, or so said the stamp on our hands, lol… didn’t get to see Brian Baeumler, but wandered around and picked up some very helpful information…

  
had quite a good time… picked up a couple of things…

  

a gelcool pillow which makes me very happy as it will make my head feel cooler so I don’t have to do my regular flip of the pillow in the middle of the night… 

also this beautifully designed toilet cleaner brush, which looks like a piece of art, or an arrow, as my grandson suggested…

and a new Tupperware measuring cup to replace the one I’ve been using to make popcorn, which is kind of ruined, lol… exciting because they have just reintroduced it…
found a new natural system for the hot tub… will use enzymes instead of the current chemicals I put in, and way less will need to be added… 

finally picked up a paring knife which fits my hand perfectly… been looking for one that is comfortable in my palm forever…

picked up the last few items for our taco supper, came home and finished it up… 

had quite the start this morning as I was chopping tomatoes… looked over and saw this…

 
nearly jumped out of my skin because I thought it was a spider… just the stem from one of the tomatoes, lol…

supper was gobbled up… I am so happy when everyone enjoys our meal and time together… two and three helpings were had, and the littlest one even ate the meat happily… in fact he had two plates of taco salad before he ate his usual taco… 

such fun to see them begin to try, and enjoy, new things…

as I enjoy my Sunday afternoons and evenings with my grandkids I realize how lucky I am to be in close proximity to them… many grandparents I know only get to see their kids now and again, and I am able to see them grow every week…

grandparenting is one of the best jobs I’ve ever had… life is good…

inspiration…

15 Friday Jan 2016

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today I was up very early to attend an all day event with 750 others… mostly women…

from the beautifully presented breakfast for staff…

  
to the inspiring presentations by the eclectic group of women speakers…

  
to the cool headshot lounge where hundreds of pictures were taken…

  
it was an inspirational day…

great opportunity to reconnect with so many people who I haven’t seen in a while…

I particularly resonated with the comment suck it up buttercup and put on your big girl panties, lol…

the focus of the event was to believe in yourself and your abilities… and encouragement to move forward…

seems like a reminder for my life as I continue along this path of widowhood…

every forward step is a good one…

pain…

11 Monday Jan 2016

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took a picture of my Japanese maple this morning… wanted a baseline for the next few months as the leaves start to produce again… poor little thing struggles every fall when it comes into the house…

  
lots of conversation tonight about some of the things I learned after George’s death… the discussion brought back some of the pain from those early days… 

we talked about the importance of sharing our thoughts about our final wishes with our family and friends – if and when to pull the plug – what we would hope for in a funeral/memorial/ gathering – where needed information is located… made me think that I should review the when mom dies file that I’ve prepared for the girls… when the time comes it should be as easy as possible for them…

  

on our way home caught this great shot of the sky… excellent to have things to remind me of my wonderful life…

utensils…

10 Sunday Jan 2016

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this morning I woke early, but went back to bed for a bit… when I got up I made breakfast and used my cute little steamer again… getting the hang of it more each time I use it…

  
I have committed to eating vegetables at each meal and all I had left this morning were brussel sprouts… so, I had brussel sprouts with poached eggs and IKEA rösti…. very tasty…

ran out and picked up groceries, so now I have lots of vegetables…  also went for a wander in Bed, Bath and Beyond… took quite a while, but was lots of fun…

picked up a rotating container for kitchen utensils… about the fourth one I’ve purchased in the last year or so, but I believe that this might be the last one I have to buy… think it is going to work perfectly…

  
to fit everyone’s schedule we had a late lunch instead of supper, so when the kids left, it was still light…

 
sun was just going down as they headed out… still really cold out, but we’ve really been enjoying some beautiful temperatures…

beloved…

09 Saturday Jan 2016

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this morning I spent a bit of time in the kitchen… while I was cleaning the stove I was thinking of my beloved…

he had the strongest hands and arms… anything that needed serious scrubbing ended up as his job… that stove would have been spotless had he cleaned it, lol… he could also wring things out so there was no water at all left in them…

 
for breakfast I cooked some spinach in my new cute purple steamer… second time using it and it worked much better than the first time… cleaned up nicely as well… also used some of the frozen spinach for my lunch smoothie… came out great, so I can use frozen next time I run out of fresh, lol…

sun was shining all day, although it was -34 with the wind chill… got a nice shot of a couple of garage roofs which have squirrel paths all over them… not sure I’ve seen tracks on the neighbour’s garage before… 

  
while I was doing laundry I also went through all of the tops in my closet… filled a box with things that are too big… a friend is going to pick them up for a swap event they are having…

  
always happy when I’ve been able to do a bit of decluttering… George would have been proud…