04 Saturday Feb 2023
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decorating, drawers, February, living room table, love, moments, red, seasons, widow
emptied the living room table a few days ago…
today I brought the LOVE letters down and put them into the squares…
it looks okay, but I am not sure if I am happy with the result…
hmm, may need something else added in…
the orchids look quite nice on it although the O kind of gets lost, lol…
03 Friday Feb 2023
Posted in business, family, garden, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fourteen, garden, grandson, hot tub, memories, moments, remembering, stress, time, trajectory, trauma, widow, work
my youngest grandson just turned fourteen…
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…
hard to believe it all began fourteen years ago…
22 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blurry, fish, garage cam, goldfish, in the garden, moments, nature, pond, raccoon, tail, Technology, weather, widow
I was surprised to see this on the garage cam yesterday morning…
it is a bit blurry, and at first I thought it was a cat, but then I recognized the tail…
thought these guys were gone for the winter, lol… although I don’t care if they come by when there aren’t any fish in the pond for them to eat;-)…
04 Wednesday Jan 2023
Posted in family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishwasher, escargot, family, food, home, lobster, memories, moments, New Year's, preparations, remembering, steak, time, treat, widow
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…
and the tradition continues…
01 Sunday Jan 2023
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
blessed, coal, dark, definition, family, first footing, garden, her big girl pants, home, loss, memories, moments, remembering, tradition, widow
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…
those big girl pants 😂…
31 Saturday Dec 2022
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beginnings, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, endings, enjoy, friends, Life, memories, moments, remember, struggles, widow
been thinking of those in my circle who are struggling… sometimes it is hard to remember that not everyone finds joy at this time of year…
holidays are often a time filled with grief and pain for many… and often it comes out of the blue…
maybe the rush to get everything done and perfect adds to the stress that then can bring on ill health or sad memories…
as one year is ending and another beginning let’s all sit in the moments and enjoy as many as we can;-)…
blessings to all…
29 Thursday Dec 2022
Posted in garden, life, loss, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cleaning, fish, fish tank, garden, happy, moments, murky, nature, outside inside, struggle, tank, water, widow
it has been a quiet few days here…
time has been spent watching bunnies and birds and squirrels through various windows…
but in the house there has been a problem with one of the fish tanks… it has been very murky… I’ve tried a few things without success…
Wednesday was spent taking about a quarter of the water out of the tank, deep cleaning the pump and filters and finally, adding fresh water…
yesterday I could see the difference… and I was very pleased with how clear the water is so far…
excited to see if it gets even better over the next few days…
14 Wednesday Dec 2022
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, happy, laundry, long sleeve, memories, moments, stain, sweater, Technology, widow
I’ve been taking the time to enjoy the moments…
one of those moments was my delight at finally getting a stain out of this sweater;-)…
seems like a little thing, but I had tried for ages to get it out… particularly as I have been wearing more long sleeved warm tops…
reminded me of my mom, who loved doing laundry, and could just about remove any stain…
13 Tuesday Dec 2022
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, family, gifts, memories, moments, parcels, preparations, time, widow
been wrapping presents and in the process, making a bit of a mess, lol…
things are now ready to pop in the mail and the finished parcels have found their way into the living room…
Christmas is coming and things are getting organized;-)…
almost ready;-)…
06 Tuesday Dec 2022
Posted in business, family, food, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
A&W, apple turnover, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, burgers, cheers birthday, dinner, family, food, happy, memories, moments, ordered in, Technology, time, treat, turnover, widow
Sunday we celebrated my beloved’s birthday…
the kids in Ottawa ordered A&W and I ordered it here… this was as close as we could manage to get burgers which were one of his favourites, lol…
ordering and having the meal delivered makes it easy to meet and eat at a specific time without going crazy in the kitchen trying to get separate meals ready…
we met online and enjoyed our burgers and chatted about him…
whenever we meet up we like to “cheers”… in person or over screens…
after we finished our call, I had one of their apple turnovers… he loved apple pie;-)…
it was a low key and enjoyable way to remember him…
herbiggirlpants 