15 Saturday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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beloved, big girl pants, Christmas, joyeux, parcels, productive, snowflakes, widow, wrapping
had a quiet, but productive day…
watched some tv, did laundry and wrapped all but one Christmas present… will do the final one tomorrow…
very happy with the wrapping paper… one side is covered in snowflakes and the other with the words Merry Christmas and Joyeux Noel…
it is nice and thick, which always makes wrapping easier…
missing my beloved as I work through the preparations for Christmas…
14 Friday Dec 2018
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A1C, big girl pants, black currant, bonbons, careful, chocolate, doctor, eating, Soma Chocolatemaker, stricter, the Chocolate Lab, week, widow
been a week since the conversation with the doctor about my A1C and how I need to work to get it down a bit…
happily we both agreed that I can do this with more control of my diet and without meds…
I think it was just the day before that visit that I ordered a bunch of chocolate from Soma Chocolatemaker and it arrived this week, lol…
one of the things I ordered was this blackcurrant flavour that I fell in love with after one of the Easter treats from my daughter… trying to figure out how I can have some without messing up the stricter eating plan…
one thing I did do was start cutting my wonderful Advent bonbons into quarters and just having one of them each morning… it has made me focus on the bite and I’ve really enjoyed the flavour of each one…
today I took the extra pieces and shared them with my colleagues;-)… made everyone happy…
13 Thursday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, canes, cherry, Christmas tree, gift, grandson, stuffed, tree, widow
a while back my youngest grandson and I were shopping and we spotted cherry flavoured candy canes… my favourite…
they’ve been stuffed up in the cupboard since then…
today after work, I pulled them out and put them on the tree…
there are sixteen of them and they fill the tree up quite nicely…
the plan is that when people are over they will take a candy cane when they leave;-)…
for many years I would make things to put on the tree for this purpose, but have simplified things, lol…
12 Wednesday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, blessed, capital, Capital Broadway, friends, lunch, memories, mussels, widow
had a great lunch out yesterday…
met a friend at Capital Broadway Grill and Bar…
hadn’t heard of it although it is only a few blocks from the office…
we started with a lovely tomato and coconut soup which was one of the day’s specials… yum… I had steamed PEI mussels and fries with white wine, bacon, tomato, roasted garlic… it was very nice…
my friend had the seared rare nicoise (gf) organic greens tossed with French beans, tomatoes,olives, boiled eggs, Dijon dressing…
always wonderful to spend time with special people…
the older I get, the more I enjoy and savour the special moments in life…
11 Tuesday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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alone, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, family, friends, help, many, melancholy, memories, poinsettias, sad, stocking, widow
this can be a melancholy time of year… often we think of those who are gone and won’t be with us to celebrate… I made sure to put my beloved’s stocking out where I could see it and remember the many wonderful celebrations we had…
it also seems to be a time when people are ill or feeling alone…
I was thinking of that when I took pictures of the poinsettias…
when you glance at them from one angle it appears there is only one, all alone… but when you look at them from another point of view you see there are many of them…
when I’m sad, I often get caught up in thinking I am all alone… good to think of the many who are there to support me…
the trick is to remember and be brave enough to tell them I need them… and then to accept the help, lol…
10 Monday Dec 2018
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big girl pants, people, photos, snow people, stairway, widow
had some fun on the stairway yesterday…
took a few pictures of the snow people;-)…
great reminder of each special piece…
09 Sunday Dec 2018
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big girl pants, buds, developing, flowers, moments, orchid, plants, surprise, treat, watering, widow
was wandering around watering the plants and had a lovely surprise…
usually I water on Saturday but was a bit behind so got to it this morning… was pleased that the paper whites have a couple of buds developing…
was at the mandevilla which has an orchid beside it – usually I keep the orchids for a year or two once they are finished blooming and then end up replacing them…
to my delight, I discovered four buds…
what a wonderful treat…
08 Saturday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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1993, big girl pants, conversation, end, friends, ReImagining, special, together, widow, women
since 1993 I’ve been meeting with a group of women regularly (nearly monthly) to discuss all kinds of things from religion, to spirituality, to politics, to healthcare, to family life… we’d have supper, check-in with one another, and then spend some time focussed on a topic of interest…
the size and membership of the group has changed over the years but there are a few who were there from the very beginning…
today we met to possibly end our gatherings… we had a wonderful lunch of chicken souvlaki, lemon potatoes, Greek salad and fresh buns… one of the meals we have enjoyed many times over the years…
we’ve met in one another’s homes, made food from scratch, brought food in from fancy shops, and ordered meals… it has always been about being together, more than what we were eating, lol… although we do love to eat;-)…
it was lovely to have the conversation about how important the group has been to everyone…
we’ve decided to continue to meet on a less regular basis, either around the equinox/solstice or a few times a year…
happy to know we will still gather as these are very special people to me… you don’t find women like this just anywhere…
07 Friday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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A1C, alarm, big girl pants, crazy, daughter, diabetes, doctor, focussed, health, quality of life, sleep, treadmill, treat, widow
crazy morning…
I usually set my alarm for 6:30 but always wake up before it goes off… I’ve been having trouble sleeping for the last week or so due to a sore neck so didn’t put on my alarm as it was my day off…
woke up to a call from my daughter at 7:51… unfortunately I had an 8 am doctor’s appointment;-(…
flew out of the house wondering what my blood pressure reading would be, lol…
was only a few minutes late as the office is close to home…
my blood pressure was great which was amazing but my A1C was not so great… still in the safe zone but it has been creeping up over the last year…
early on following my diabetes diagnosis I did not consume any sugar and was so strict with my diet that my life was overly focussed on food… the good news about that was how low I was able to bring down my A1C without meds… the bad news was that the strict eating was causing problems with my quality of life… since then the doctor and I agreed to relax my eating to find a happy medium…
today we decided that I need to find something between crazy strict and what I’ve been doing recently…
so, not so many treats… and I also think I need to be sure to spend a bit more time on the treadmill every day…
06 Thursday Dec 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, clever, garage door, new door, sky, stuffed, widow
had to stop and take a shot of the beautiful sky this morning as I was heading out to the garage…
lovely start to the day…
I’ve also been very happy to leave the house and get to the garage through the backyard… the cold has shifted the side garage door again and it isn’t closing again… for a while I was coming and going from the front door… rather a pain because I’d have to open the big door from the kitchen and then go out the front door… when I’d get home I’d have to walk through the house to click the door closer…
but recently I tried stuffing a rag between the door and the lock… it is a bit of a problem as I have to stuff it in whenever I open or close the door but way easier than having to use the front door all the time…
rather pleased that I figured this out, but in the Spring will need to have a new door installed…
herbiggirlpants 