spent a good portion of Thursday out and about shopping… I am getting much braver these days although I still wear a mask everywhere…
were in Home Depot and Rona, getting bits and pieces to fix a few things in the house… then we wandered up and down every aisle at Costco and picked up a few items…
our final stop was Safeway where I was able to obtain some flowering plants and a few bunches of flowers…
around 5:30 vehicles began to arrive with boxes and furniture, as my grandson moved into the basement for the next while… of course, by that time it was snowing and blowing…
the empty space was all of a sudden filled up with stuff again, in a very messy way… yikes…
after all the stuff was brought in, we had pizza and wings to thank the helpers and celebrate the move being completed…
I was happy because I got a heart-shaped one, ate half of it, and saved the rest for lunch the next day…
my grandson and I have been working away in the basement…
we have now been through all of the boxes from after the 2013 hot water tank flood… apparently I didn’t really need the stuff that was in them… we have tossed out, recycled, and packed up a huge amount to give away to the pass-me-over folks…
we even went deep under the stairs and discovered lots more stuff that has nearly all been dealt with…
looked like a bit of a disaster down there, but it is coming along… always interesting how the process moves from stuff everywhere, to more stuff everywhere, to finally organized… apparently it was so bad, I didn’t even take photos of the worst period, lol…
the space was nearly emptied, an item was sold, a few things will be going online for sale, items were given to a small business that helps women starting fresh… and there was a big pile of things for donation… besides filling the garbage bin, a large collection of items is in the garage waiting for the next few garbage days…
we have done a great job and I am thrilled to have this all done;-)… a great stress has been removed from my shoulders…
it is Heart month and I dug out the hearts from various spots around the house and put them out…
the stairway came out quite nicely;-)…
every time I go up or down the stairs, I am reminded of my beloved…he dealt with a number of heart issues over his last few years…
he had been in good health, until a virus caused serious cardiomyopathy and later he had a quadruple bypass… all of that before he was finally taken with a heart attack… his father also died from a heart attack…
this month I will be making a donation to the Heart and Stroke Foundation in celebration of our wonderful life together…
brought back a number of memories as his birth changed the trajectory of my life…
because I refused to miss his birth, I ended up leaving a job I had been at for ten years, as the boss wasn’t pleased that I had taken away time from my position… a lot of trauma occurred over the next while and eventually I was walked out of the office…
one good thing that came out of that was the hot tub, as I was awarded a year’s salary due to my wrongful dismissal and purchased it with some of those funds…
there was huge stress and tension and the hot tub has helped with that for many years now;-)…
after a number of months I found the perfect position where I flourished for nearly ten years before my retirement…
lots of things to sift through…
this photo was taken in 2020, when I was still keeping my distance from everyone, but it does show him and the hot tub together, lol…
for years we celebrated New Year’s Eve with steak and lobster… this started with friends before we had kids;-)…
at some point it moved to New Year’s Day as the kids wanted to participate but were off celebrating on the night before…
this year I enjoyed the preparation as I worked on getting escargot stuffed mushrooms, baked potatoes, fried mushrooms and sautéed Brussels sprouts ready…
the kids arrived, got the barbecue going and then grilled the steaks and lobster tails…
dinner was delicious and we had a great time…
on Monday, as I emptied the dishwasher and put away all of the pieces we used, I revisited the fun and special moments…
we have done first-footing since I was a little girl… for us, it meant that just before midnight on New Year’s Eve my dad, who had dark hair, would jump in the car and drive around to all our aunts and uncles and grandparents’ houses and take them an offering – it always included coal, bread and sometimes oranges and a little drink of something… I also remember how my dad would have to search out new coal every year because no one ever kept it from year to year, lol…
from Dalhousie Castle:
“Stemming back to the time of the invading Vikings in the 8th and 9thcentury, it is believed that the first person to enter a house, the “first foot”, can bring luck – or misfortune – for the year ahead. In Scottish tradition good luck comes in the form of a tall, dark-haired man being the first footer.” Dec 7, 2020
I spent time this morning looking back at some of the different ways it has happened for me…
my daughter being the first female to cross the threshold first when she was here in 2017…
my middle grandson taking home a bag and making sure to bring it and be the first one to cross my threshold…
my daughter arranging for friends to come by with a box of items she had sent to them…
while visiting the kids in Ottawa, having a diamond necklace in the bag because there wasn’t any coal, lol… and I did have to give it back🤪…
this morning I went out the back door in my housecoat, walked around to the front door, and first-footed myself…
herbiggirlpants 