21 Monday Oct 2019
Posted in family, life, moments, travel, Uncategorized
I’m not sure why but I love bendy buses…
I’ve ridden in them in Ottawa, when visiting my daughter and son-in-law… there are lots of them there…
there haven’t been many here until recently…
for whatever reason they’ve been driving down the street by our office and I got a photo the other day…
not sure why, but when I see them they make me smile…
16 Wednesday Oct 2019
Posted in family, food, life, moments, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on everyone…
Tags
big girl pants, everyone, family, fish, shopping, sushi, time together, widow
recently had a wonderful afternoon with my grandson…
he picked me up and took me to vote at the advance poll… then we went out for sushi and a visit to what is becoming our favourite fish store…
from there it was on to Costco, where everyone in St. James appeared to have decided to go at the same time as us, lol…
home and he helped put everything away, including all of the items that needed to go downstairs…
then it was off home to make supper for his siblings…
15 Tuesday Oct 2019
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, dinner, fish, fun, garden, goldfish, grandsons, hiding, home, nature, pond, snow, stirring, supper, thanksgiving, why, widow
what a busy day yesterday… I’d prepped everything for our dinner ahead of time… good thing…
my three grandsons and a friend arrived at 1:30 and we were busy until around 7…
the younger two shovelled the driveway and the older two started working on getting the condo ready for the fish… they cleaned the tank, washed the gravel and rocks, spent time placing the rocks and then put in pond water and tap water…
all of them worked on catching the fish in the pond… that didn’t go so well as they only caught seven and one of the teeny babies… there must be another fifteen still out there, lol… hoping that the daddy will be able to collect the rest…
my beloved was always very patient in the catching process, although sometimes in the spring we might find one that hadn’t made it inside…
at about this point we discovered that the pump in the tank wasn’t working so the two older boys ran out to the Pet Store and were able to get a replacement…
then we finished getting supper ready and on the table… it was fun because I gave each of them a task to complete…
the middle grandson wanted to know why I did this every year because it was a lot of work, lol… he was stirring the gravy;-)…
supper was delicious and we had great conversation… they headed out shortly after we finished and I had a rest before starting on the disaster in the kitchen;-)… seems like the more helpers you have, the bigger the mess…
finished cleaning up this morning and had a very tasty plate of leftovers for my lunch…
13 Sunday Oct 2019
one of the things I love about Thanksgiving is the preparation…
today is my day for prepping… I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner for decades and I’ve got it down to a science, lol…
I do miss my beloved’s help… besides making sure the house was clean and tidy ~ particularly the front closet, lol, he often made apple pie from scratch… yesterday a Facebook reminder from ten years ago mentioned the smell of apples being peeled for pie…
used the mandolin to slice up the rather tiny turnip… next up was getting potatoes peeled and cut up… I made extra so the boys can take home leftovers to get through the week…
then on to the stuffing… used two large loaves of bread because the boys requested “extra, extra”… hand ripped the bread and the mandolin worked great for the onions;-)…
table is nearly set although I couldn’t find the box of Thanksgiving decorations, lol…
12 Saturday Oct 2019
Tags
big girl pants, cold, driveway, garden, groceries, moments, nature, online, Save-On-Foods, snow, Technology, widow
the snow fell for two days… my driveway is covered and I wasn’t sure that I could get out, and then back in…
I needed groceries for Thanksgiving dinner with my grandsons on Monday so yesterday I shopped online at Save-On-Foods…
you pick your items, many from the list of previous items you’ve purchased in the store, choose a delivery time (usually the next day), pay with your credit card and you are done;-)… it costs $10 for this service…
they call you in the two-hour window when they are nearly at your house, bring in the groceries and advise if there have been any substitutions…
then off the driver goes and you get to put away your groceries…
although, I need to work on figuring out how much things like mushrooms and Brussels sprouts weigh in kilograms, lol…
08 Tuesday Oct 2019
had a lovely treat… this morning two of my boys came to the house and changed the tires on Indi…
then they came and got me at the office and we went to Boston Pizza for lunch…
and at the end of the day I came home to the grass mowed, outdoor furniture put away for winter and the pump running in the pond…
was just in the hot tub and spent the entire time listening to the beautiful sound of the water running;-)… I have missed it over the last few weeks…
03 Thursday Oct 2019
Posted in family, life, technology, travel, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on maps…
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, google, maps, moments, paper, Technology, widow
a few years ago my daughter introduced me to the Google maps app…
I have really found it to be helpful…
I’m a visual person and like to know where I am going, so looking up an address and then seeing a picture of the spot, or something close by is very reassuring…
I have to take back the crutches I rented from the hospital and now know exactly where I have to go… takes the stress out of finding a new place, lol…
reminded me of trying to find things in the past with a paper map… trying to unfold and refold, depending on the spot we were trying to get to… and rarely getting it put back correctly… sometimes there might have been some grumbling…
technology can be wonderful;-)…
21 Saturday Sep 2019
Posted in family, health, life, loss, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on cane…
been thinking a lot of our dear friend Margaret…
she was my parents’ neighbour and our good friend since I was about fifteen…
I remember our Chinese food parties on payday Fridays… my beloved and I would go over and mom and dad would come from next door and we would have a delicious dinner…
she enjoyed the girls when they came along and loved spending time with them…
the cane I am using belonged to her…
I can remember saying to her later in her life “you have to put the cane on the ground, not just carry it”…
lovely memories…
19 Thursday Sep 2019
Posted in family, life, loss, Photography, Uncategorized
Tags
2500, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blogs, Life, memories, missing, moments, moving forward, one step at a time, time, widow
today marks my 2,500th blog post…
seems like an amazing accomplishment for me…
hard to believe that on December 1st, 2012, I started writing this blog so that I could share about the changes to my life and the things I’ve had to do following the death of my beloved…
there was such a learning curve about all the issues I have had to deal with as a widow…
it has morphed into more of a daily journal of my life and what I see around me…
it is also hard to realize that my beloved has been gone for 7 1/2 years – that’s 90 months – 2,751 days… an instant… forever…
although I am truly blessed, I sure do miss him…
15 Sunday Sep 2019
Posted in family, health, life, Uncategorized
≈ Comments Off on knee…
Tags
big girl pants, breakfast, emergency room, family, knee, leg, widow
well, yesterday did not turn out as planned…
my grandson was coming over around nine so we could have breakfast at the “A”… then we were going to be picked up and go to St. Norbert Farmers Market… from there we were planning to stop at some grocery stores for a few goodies…
I got dressed, put on a jacket and started walking to breakfast… I just made it past the end of the street when my leg basically stopped working… it was so painful that I couldn’t put any weight on it…
I called and had my grandson pick me up from where I was… he practically had to carry me to the car… we went home, picked up my medical card and drove to Grace Hospital…
he knew just what to do… ran in, got a chair for me, and then took me right to the registration clerks…
I really appreciated this as I was not able to put any weight on it… he volunteers at St. Boniface on a regular basis…
I saw the triage nurse right away and then we waited… were moved into a room and met with a physician’s assistant who decided on an X-ray, ice and some pain meds… eventually they decided on a walker or crutches and keeping my leg elevated at home… we decided on crutches and were home by three…
then there was the entertainment of getting up the three steps and over the threshold into the house… not really that fun…
neighbours came out from both sides to see what was going on and I discovered that one was a nurse… she gave me her number in case I needed her;-)…
this was me laying on the pullout couch on the main floor with a tv going and a bag of frozen peas under my knee… a friend was by, tidied the kitchen, set me up with tea, snacks, additional pillows and a reminder to take it slow;-)…
going to be an interesting few days I think, lol…
herbiggirlpants 