06 Tuesday Jan 2026
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
got a ride to Ultracuts for a haircut… apparently the last time I was there was early October which explains why my hair seemed to have grown like crazy…
had to have the top trimmed a second time as it was still a bit long;-)…
what a difference a trim makes…
I feel much more tidy;-)…
04 Sunday Jan 2026
Posted in family, health, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, blowing, family, leaf blower, moments, nature, shovelled, snow, weather, widow
Saturday morning I wandered around the house going to each window to look out and take photos of the beauty outside…
it snowed a lot overnight, but the lovely light kind of snow… the trees were gorgeous…
sometime later my housemate was outside blowing the steps and sidewalks…
he doesn’t like to be photographed, lol…
on his return home later he made sure the driveway was shovelled…
I truly am blessed;-)…
29 Monday Dec 2025
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, door, door handle, family, fixed, grandson, housemate, loosening, moments, oven, widow
went to finish the chicken soup, and noticed the oven was on, so I tried to open the door and the handle came right off…
it had been loosening before and I would just tighten it…
my housemate and I couldn’t put the handle back on because the oven was hot… we left it to cool and then tried again…
when we went to open it, the inside sort of separated… I was hoping this allowed us to get to the window that we could clean…
unfortunately, it was not the one, although we did clean this portion…
next he went out and bought some loctite to make sure the handle stayed on… we weren’t able to get to the really messed up window, but the important thing was to get the handle back on the door, which was being held closed by the stepstool…
now it is fixed… we will see if it comes loose again…
28 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
appetizers, big girl pants, blessed, busy, Christmas, family, food, grandson, mid-day, moments, shrimp, weather, widow
my grandson usually arrives here on Christmas day around noon…
our current tradition is to have appetizers for our mid-day meal as he may have already had breakfast and will be heading out for dinner a bit later in the day…
we had wandered the aisles at the grocery store picking up things that looked fun…
we had shrimp dumplings, fancy cheese fries, tempura shrimp, wontons, veggies and dip, sausage rolls, and a shrimp ring… lots of shrimp on that list, lol…
this year we did stockings for each other, which was great… it has been many years since I had a stocking…
it was filled with a great many treats…
then the second round of presents were opened, and I was royally spoiled;-)…
although he only had a few gifts he was very pleased with them…
we sat around and visited before he had to leave for his next engagement, lol…
I truly am blessed to have this thoughtful young man in my life;-)…
25 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, Christmas Eve, face-to-face, family, memories, moments, Technology, treat, video, widow
all the jobs were done and the living room set up for our morning video call when I went to bed at 11 pm on Christmas Eve…
put my head down thinking I might nap for an hour and then have a Christmas hot tub around midnight…
woke up at 5:15, yikes… apparently no hot tub for me…
laid back down, didn’t really sleep, and got up at 6:30, lol…
made tea and texted a video of me banging pots and slamming doors, (possibly like I used to do when the families would be here overnight, so they would get up), to the kids in Ottawa…
we met and had a lovely time opening gifts and enjoying all of the loot…
what a gift to be able to meet with them face-to-face…
such a lovely Christmas morning;-)…
24 Wednesday Dec 2025
Posted in food, health, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
baton, big girl pants, blessed, cookbook, family, famous, moments, spinach dip, Technology, widow
had a bit of a giggle this morning when I went to make my ‘famous’ spinach dip…
I haven’t made it in ages and decided to check the recipe to be sure I remembered it correctly… took me ages to find where that particularly recipe was located… NOT in the recipe book I’d prepared a few years ago…
eventually I remembered that it was in the Baton cookbook that I’d help prepare when the girls were maybe ten and twelve🤪…
hadn’t forgotten anything and it turned out great 😊…
looking at that cookbook now reminds me how much things have changed in thirty years… at the time it was very well done… now I think it looks rather dreadful… although the recipes are excellent, lol…
23 Tuesday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, concrete, family, moments, nature, plows, shovelling, weather, widow, windrow
as my housemate was leaving the driveway on Sunday, the plows came down the street so he wasn’t able to leave…
he was quick to get a shovel to start shovelling through the windrow… he headed to the sidewalk and they saw him and did a bit of extra snow moving so he didn’t have nearly as much as imagined…
the plow drivers were amazing in how they move the snow… by the time they were done, there was just a small windrow to be moved before he could leave…
so happy he was here because you have to move it immediately before it turns to concrete and then I would have gone out to move it;-(…
after he left they came down the other side of the street… the first plow moved the snow up over the curb and the second one went exactly along the edge of the curb to clear it up…
they have great control over their equipment…
18 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in family, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, blessed, boxes, Christmas, family, instructions, moments, purple, widow
I’ve been enjoying my Advent calendars for these past eighteen days…
the boxes for the one have been on the stairs with a few elsewhere when all 24 wouldn’t fit…
as they’ve been opened I’ve rearranged them until now there aren’t any on some of the steps…
they have been filled with items from paper clips, a label maker, seeds, purple and handmade items, as well as a favourite chocolate bar ;-)…
the ones on the wall are turned once opened and I’ve enjoyed all the treats in them as well… from a variety of nuts to a few with chocolate in them;-)…
these are the hands that have filled all of them, some with instructions from far away, lol…
05 Friday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, life, moments, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, completed, done, family, mailed, moments, presents, Technology, tree, widow, wrapped
enjoyed time in the computer room wrapping up the Christmas presents…
this year there was just a small box to go to Ottawa which went into the mail a few days ago… a few items were ordered and delivered directly to them…
the remainder of the presents are now under the tree…
happy to have this piece of work completed…
04 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, Christmas stocking, family, grandson, memories, moments, Technology, widow, widowhood, WordPress
as I sit here quietly in the living room I am thinking of two big events that took place in the last few days…
the first was a congratulatory note from WordPress… on December 1st, 2012 I began writing about my journey into widowhood… and have continued that since then, moving into commenting on my life…
the second was today, which would have been my beloved’s 77th birthday… this year we had burgers here, one of his favourite foods, while the kids in Ottawa had an apple galette… he loved apple pie… we had a video visit between the burgers and galette, lol…
my grandson is going to use his Christmas stocking for the first time…
I sure do miss him🤗…
herbiggirlpants 