26 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in Uncategorized, life, moments, retirement
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, bookcase, books, family, grandson, happy, imagined, moments, perfect fit, widow
so I’ve been thinking about where to put the 100 books, lol…
my housemate had a bookshelf stored elsewhere and we arranged to have it delivered…
it fit in the spot I’d imagined perfectly 😊…
took a while to empty the boxes and bag, but I was so happy when it was done…
and, in the end, the 100 books fit exactly…
25 Tuesday Aug 2026
Posted in business, family, garden, life, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, garden, grandson, jigsaw, moments, project, rail, Technology, tools, toy, widow
in the final process of replacing the stairs to the side garden, we discovered we needed a jigsaw…
so, of course, we had to go shopping for a new toy, lol…
in the end we found a reciprocating saw which would work for the current project and a variety of future projects…
and I thought it was much cuter than a boring old jigsaw…
we have learned to always buy the same brand as our other battery operated tools😀…
and now, the deck, stairs and rail project is completed… yay…
24 Monday Aug 2026
Posted in Uncategorized, life, moments, retirement
Tags
blessed, friends, big girl pants, widow, grandson, books, moments, declutter, moved, stair library, shop
my friend is decluttering, and donating many of her books to a local book sale…
when she mentioned this, I offered to help and shop at the same time…
we had great fun, going through shelves upstairs and down, as she decided what could go, and the few that needed to remain…
she’d give me reviews as the books came off the shelves…
I had brought a single grocery store box to hold the ones I would bring home, lol…
we made two trips to drop off the books…
when I got home, there was that box, a grocery bag and two cardboard boxes… all full👀…
refilled the stair library with a few of them…
still thinking about where the rest will go🤪…
19 Wednesday Aug 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, deck, family, garden, grandson, moments, pond, snoopervise, widow
while I was away for a few days, the back deck got replaced…
it was interesting how nervous I felt, not being there to snoopervise, lol…
luckily, I received photos and was able to check some of the work with the garden camera🤪…
once that deck was finished, they moved on to the stairs and small deck which leads into the side garden…
when I got home, I checked both spots out and am very happy with the final product…
one single board needs to be screwed in on the stairs by the side deck…
I am feeling a bit melancholy as these are the last of the decks that my beloved built… all the rest have been redone…
even when I had the pond rebuilt, I had them leave that deck just as it was…
time moves on…
01 Saturday Aug 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, fixed, garden, grandson, moments, temporarily, vinyl siding, widow
this morning my middle grandson arrived with a coworker to silicone the vinyl siding that he’d temporarily fixed a while ago…
they were here for less than fifteen minutes, and in that time fixed the siding and checked out an issue on the shed roof which he will come back to sort out when he has time…
and then, off they went 😊…
I certainly am blessed…
25 Saturday Jul 2026
Posted in family, retirement, travel, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chocolate, chocolate-covered, family, grandson, macadamia nuts, sarong, sea turtle, spoiled, widow
my housemate was away on vacation and just returned…
I was treated to an absolutely beautiful kitchen towel that has a sea turtle on it…
a light and airy sarong…
and 3 boxes of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts…
Costco used to carry them in a big plastic jug, but they haven’t had them for ages…
talk about spoiled 😊…
21 Tuesday Jul 2026
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, family, grandson, moments, silicone, vinyl siding, widow
I was surprised today when my middle grandson arrived…
I had messaged him on Sunday about a piece of siding that looked to be coming off the house and I was worried it might come right down…
today, he stopped by on his way home from work to check it out and see if he could fix it…
with a little bit of ingenuity, he managed to get the piece of vinyl back up, although we will need to pick up a tube of silicone and he will come back and do a permanent fix…
my job, when anyone is on the ladder, is to hold the sides and make sure the bottom of it is flat, lol…
24 Wednesday Jun 2026
Posted in business, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, drooling, family, grandson, knives, moments, new, old, sharpened, shopping, widow
took four of my most used knives in to be sharpened… and was advised they weren’t really worth sharpening…
made me sad as two of them were wearever knives that were my mom and dad’s… which did make them likely sixty or seventy years old…
so, then I bought some new ones… had fun with the salesperson who had lots of questions and made me hold many knives…
lucky for me, they were all reasonably priced, unlike those that my housemate has… the staff were drooling over his collection, which they had just sharpened and were the reason we were there, lol…
14 Sunday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, life, moments, nature, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, family, grandson, moments, monstera, moss, nature, plants, repotted, Technology, widow
the monstera has been struggling and leaning forward…
we picked up hardware cloth and made a tube for moss which apparently the monstera will cling to and grow up higher…
then we wedged in a few 2x4s to keep the moss tube centered in the pot…
the plant was divided into two pots and fastened to the pole… rocks, soil, and coconut husks were added and the two new plants moved into the living room…
we will see how they do;-)…
12 Friday Jun 2026
Posted in family, garden, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, big job, blessed, cover, emptied, family, garden, grandson, hot tub, housemate, moments, repaired, saw, screws, widow
the hot tub was emptied a few weeks ago and we’ve been waiting for a friend to look at the broken side of the lid to see if there is a way to fix it… they weren’t available so my housemate decided to see what he could do…
we finally got around to moving it away from the wall and looking to see what might work to repair it…
many screws have been removed, and we now know what the issue was regarding the right side lid…
all new screws and bolts were purchased and a new backing inside the body of the tub was installed on both sides to make the opening and closing mechanism stronger…
it took quite some time to get it sorted and then replace all the rusted screws that hold the eight panels around the tub…
while it was out and empty, a tiny portion of the deck that it sits up against was sawn off, which made a huge difference when the tub was back in place… now the side that rubbed against the gate opens easily…
next, the tub was filled and the pump turned back on… it will be another day or so before the temperature is back to normal…
the lid works properly… I am so happy;-)…
started with a new set of chemicals and looking forward to my first hot tub…
herbiggirlpants 