Tag Archives: gift

grateful…

30 Wednesday Sep 2015

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today I celebrated six years at my current work… I was so excited that I barely slept last night…

  
had been thinking for weeks about what I could make as a thank you gift for my colleagues…

decided on coasters with some of my photos on them… 

  
had a hard time choosing the pictures… going through my albums I needed thirteen but picked about fifty… decided to make them all, lol…

  
that was a good plan because I wanted everyone to be able to pick one they liked, not get stuck with something that didn’t speak to them…

spent time on Pinterest looking for a good process and then spoke with my daughter about best practices…

  
tried Modge Podge on a few, but that didn’t work… was very nervous about trying the resin but it was very simple once I got the hang of it…

as I worked, I thought about which person would choose which picture… I was right for about half…

  
my workplace is pretty special… I have been able to expand my “job” to fit my skills and likes and that is quite wonderful…

my colleagues are all great people who care about one another and the people we work with… 

in my work life I have been blessed… I haven’t really seen my positions as work, more as a calling… and this position has been no different… 

I am forever grateful to have these people in my life…

simple…

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

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a gorgeous evening… 

  

the temperature right now is 27 degrees and I am sitting on the back deck by the pond enjoying the sounds…

well not really… as I write this an ambulance is going by and the neighbour is running his shopvac, lol… up until that point I was listening to the waterfall and chickadees flitting about the garden and watching a little red squirrel dash across the main deck…

the canna is blooming again… bright and beautiful, it was the first thing I saw when I looked out the window this morning…

  
I am continually surprised by how much happiness a blossom or two can give me…

  
on a recent walk through the English Garden at the Park I got a lovely shot of some Lisianthus…

  
next year I am going to grow some, although I’m not sure where I will find plants…

there were very few water lilies open but this one caught my eye…

  
some of them have the most interestingly patterned leaves while others are simply green…

simple things really do make me happy… 

once again, as I spend these precious minutes steeped in the beauty of a late summer evening, watching the fish swim around the pond as the light fades, I realize what a gift my life is and how blessed I am…

sky…

08 Friday May 2015

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early this morning the sky was looking very ominous…

  
on our drive downtown we wondered what the weather would have in store for us…

been a full week and I decided to treat myself to supper… ordered from Clay Oven through Mobile Maitre’d… great to be able to have it just turn up… and it was delicious… enjoyed every bite…

spent time today thinking about what I do… it is quite a gift to do something you enjoy every day, with people you want to be around… doesn’t happen to everyone…

mainly overcast and cold during the day, but just took this shot of the sky…

  
nice way to end the week…

gift…

27 Monday Apr 2015

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view out the window during our BS gathering tonight… was compelled to get up and take a few pictures of the sky…

  
had a wonderful time… the five of us haven’t all been together for a couple of months… there have been vacations to California, Florida, Costa Rica, the West Coast and Cuba, work trips to Saskatchewan, and family visits which have affected us…

we have been gathering for many years and continue to enjoy every opportunity we have to spend time together…

tonight we must have spent an hour trying to find a day and time for a birthday celebration… we may have to start having one for everyone at once as we are all so busy…

always feel filled up at the end of Monday evenings…

  
what a gift these women are to me…

project…

27 Saturday Dec 2014

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last year I made bookmarks using pictures I took at Chihuly Garden and Glass when we were in Seattle following our Alaskan cruise… the other side was the word gratitude with the names of things and people for which/whom I am thankful…

many of my colleagues still have it up in their offices… felt I needed to do something equally as nice this year, lol…

finally came up with the idea of note cards using some of my photographs…

spent a lovely time looking through pictures I’ve taken in 2014 and picked about thirty… used Publisher to produce 15 pages with two pictures on each…

went to my buddies at Staples and they printed, cut and scored them… picked up envelopes and folded and stuffed them…

put five together and wrapped them with ribbon… then I put nice labels on them and they were all done…

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when I gathered them up into the groups of five, I think I managed to make each group different… quite the feat…

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everyone liked them so I am happy… it is such fun to make something for others… particularly with help from technology…

memories…

04 Thursday Dec 2014

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a good day… very few rough moments, which was lovely… birthdays have always been special in our family so marking George’s is important…

started the day by taking the last of the antibiotics, yay… been using George’s pill container as I need to take the pills with my breakfast now…

last of the antibiotics...

last pill…

Crystal and I walked over to the Burger Place and picked up burgers and milkshakes for our supper…

moon through the trees...

moon through the trees…

made her hold everything while I took the picture on my phone… met up with all the boys at home and then FaceTimed with the kids in Ottawa… they had picked up burgers and milkshakes at McDonalds… we had apple pie in both places as well…

supper was busy and we shared various favourite memories of Dad/Grandpa… from reading every word of a very long story to the little boys, to always starting a new conversation when someone was trying to hang up or walk out the door, to working with the boys around the house and a love of the garden and ponds…

he would talk to any and every person he came in contact with… and he would know lots about them afterwards… just today I was mentioning how that is one of the most difficult things – not having anyone here to share with…

it was good to all be together, even if it was over the airwaves with the iPad… we continue to talk about him so that we won’t forget how special he was…

all of the kids...

all of the kids, some being naughty…

today’s Advent gift was a bottle of Baileys so I had just a little bit after everyone left… it will be interesting to see what that does to my blood sugar, lol…

what a gift to have met and married my beloved, and spend over forty years together…

a year of blogging…

01 Sunday Dec 2013

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well, a year ago today I wrote my first blog… the time has both flown past and taken forever, lol…

I’ve posted nearly every day since then… lots of things have taken place over this year…

commemorated George’s birthday for the first time without him… first Christmas without George and with Cyndi and Ron not coming home… took my kids to Mexico for a winter vacation… went on an Alaskan cruise… had two unforgettable days in Seattle… spent some wonderful time on Vancouver Island… had the pond rebuilt… spent some great time in/on the water over the summer… celebrated Cyndi and Ron’s trip through Winnipeg with a fabulous Champagne Bubble Party…

today I finished the Christmas project I’ve been working on with help from a lovely young woman at a local store… then Crystal and all the boys came over early and helped me with a number of jobs around the house… we put up and decorated some small trees, and put up the snow people…

cleaaning the aquarium... took 4 boys to get the job done...

cleaaning the aquarium… took 4 boys to get the job done…

finally, the boys changed the water in the aquarium and cleaned the pump… oh my, it was dirty… George would not be pleased with me, lol… still need to get a new filter but it is already looking much better…

for the last few weeks I have been struggling much more with the loss of my beloved, but today I may have turned the corner…

I’ve been working on a small gift for family and friends… George and I often produced hand-made gifts over the years… we would design them together, and he would usually be the one to make them… I decided to do one this year and enjoyed the process, but was also missing his input… the project is complete and may have helped me realize that he was with me throughout the process…

I have been wearing those big girl pants more and more and some days they fit very nicely… other days they feel enormous…

I will continue to take one step at a time on this new journey…

massage…

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

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was talking with someone about Reiki and it brought to mind massage…

George was great at giving massages… he got as much enjoyment out of giving someone a neck rub, back rub or complete massage as the person receiving it… he was gentle but was able to melt away all the knots that were hiding…

he didn’t have any formal training, although he took a few short courses and read a lot on the subject…

for a while he was considering taking one of the few programs that were available at the time but the cost was prohibitive in those days…

it was a gift and he was always happy to share… still have the massage table he used… guess I should get rid of that…

we also talked about people who do healing touch and what a gift that is… again, it feels like one of those things where someone has a gift and then it is enhanced by training… one of my friends has saved me a couple of times from debilitating migraines…

April 2011 fun in the hot tub...

April 2011 fun in the hot tub…

tonight, as I was sitting in the hot tub, I was thinking about what fun it was when we would go in together… another person always adds to the water level and it was a game to be the first one in and then have the water rise when the other climbed in… we did some of our best talking in the dark while we sat enjoying the steamy water… of course I don’t have any pictures of the two of us in the hot tub, lol…

I miss that..

 

the kettle…

11 Monday Mar 2013

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yesterday when I was making my morning tea, looking at the kettle reminded me of when it came into my life…

my friend, Dobby, was here to take care of me after my cancer/hernia surgery in July… she did a wonderful job of tempting me to eat with lovely snacks and drinks throughout the day… she cleaned and tidied, organized my fridge and freezer so that when she left I would have food to eat, and we figured out how I could get water to drink…

the deal was that I wasn’t to lift anything over 5 pounds for 6 weeks…  five pounds isn’t very much and I was being on the careful side because I didn’t want any complications which might slow down my recovery which was slated to be about 10 weeks…

once I was able to move around a bit Dobby would help me onto the deck where I would sit for a while and have some delectable tidbit she had created… just sitting there would raise my feeling of well being and helped with the healing… every day I sat out longer and eventually could take the steps down to the garden where I would sit and soak up the peace and beauty…

before she left, she went on a quest to find a kettle that wasn’t too heavy so that I could make tea, and this is the one she found…

my perfect little electric kettle...

my perfect little electric kettle…

it is perfect, because it fills my carafe exactly… my other kettle was beautiful, but held about twice the water that was needed and so was also that much heavier…

my tea carafe...

my tea carafe…

really, how would I have managed without such good friends…  they are such a gift…

 

 

 

Struggling…

18 Tuesday Dec 2012

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a few people I know are struggling with family situations… often it is with mom or dad, or even a spouse who is not well and needs care, but don’t necessarily want it…

I remember when my mom was dying and in Princess Elizabeth Hospital… I watched a dozen people move into and out of her four bed ward while she was there… it seemed if they didn’t have family who came regularly to see them, that they would soon be drugged and basically sleep through whatever time they had left… I was in the amazing position of not working so I could be with her every day… it was a special time… we had the opportunity to say all the things we felt and grew close over those last months…

she was dying of esophageal cancer, which spread to her brain… the radiation treatments she had before being transferred from Grace Hospital slowed the brain cancer and kept her basically pain free, until the end… she had smoked all her life, but stopped for a few months once she went into hospital… but while she was in the palliative care ward she started to smoke again – in those days, there was a room that you could smoke in, not like today… many thought she was nuts, but it was really the only thing she had control over… everything else was decided by someone else: when she would eat, sleep, take meds, get dressed, washed… basically everything… and really, she was dying anyway, what difference would a few cigarettes make…

I was blessed with the time and space to be able to be with her every day and it was truly a gift to walk that final journey with her… as difficult as it was, I wouldn’t give up one moment…

she came home for Christmas that final time, and we had a great day…  she wanted to stay here to die, but I didn’t think that the girls could handle it at the time, so took her back to the hospital the day after Christmas…  she died two days later…  I climbed into her bed and held her as she took her last breath…

walking the halls of St. Boniface...

walking the halls of St. Boniface…

George was with me, as he always was in times of trauma and difficulty… my best friend and beloved…

I hope that I will be able to hear when my kids are telling me I need to make changes in my life, and I hope that they will be able to hear me…

all of this reminds me again how important every moment we have is…  whether we are experiencing the highs of life, or the lows…  they each need to be savoured…  life is a gift and it is important to enjoy every second…