13 Saturday Dec 2025
Posted in business, life, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, colleagues, commemorated, memories, moments, retirement, Technology, widow, work
Facebook reminded me that yesterday commemorated my last day of work six years ago… it was a special and fun day…
I spent the day saying farewell to my colleagues and had lunch out with a former colleague…
surprising to think that so much time has passed… and how much I have enjoyed these past years of retirement;-)…
04 Thursday Dec 2025
Posted in business, family, food, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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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🤗…
09 Sunday Nov 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
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big girl pants, bird feeder, blessed, button, garden, memories, moments, poppy, remembering, Remembrance Day, widow
on Thursday I cleaned the poppy bird feeder and attached it to the front rail…
I noticed that I’d set it out a bit earlier last year…
I also dug out two poppies to put on my jacket and t-shirt…
last year I had purchased some little button pins to keep from losing them, lol…
I still make sure to make a donation as, before the pin, I ended up losing a couple and needing to replace them, lol…
07 Friday Nov 2025
Posted in business, family, health, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
afford, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cleaners, family, house, memories, missing, moments, tea towel, widow
my tea towel on the stove, folded very nicely by the cleaners who were here a few days ago, reminded me of how blessed I am…
for years we couldn’t afford a cleaner…
but for the last number of years I’ve had a company come in once a month to do the basics which makes me feel like the house is mainly clean, lol…
I am ever thankful to my beloved who made this wonderful gift possible;-)… I continue to miss him every single day…
14 Tuesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, food, health, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, dinner, dishes, family, food, happy, memories, moments, platters, thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dinner, widow
had fun preparing the table for Thanksgiving dinner…
planning on more company than I’ve had in years, so it made me happy to search out different plates and bowls to put the food on, and in…
from a platter and covered bowl from a dear family friend, to a gifted tray, special pottery pieces my beloved and I had purchased over the years, to a tiny handmade purple bowl, to a very old salt and pepper set that was my grandmother’s…
all set on a thanksgiving tablecloth with leaf napkins…
08 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, decorating, ghosts, halloween, hunt, memories, moments, pumpkins, spiders, thanksgiving, widow
recently I went through the Halloween and Thanksgiving boxes…
I went on the hunt for pumpkins for Thanksgiving and ended up putting out those as well as Halloween goodies;-)…
pumpkins, witches, ghosts, and spiders, lol…
glad to have set things out as I haven’t done that for a few years…
01 Wednesday Oct 2025
Posted in family, life, moments, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
basement, big girl pants, changes, family, fireplace, friends, grandson, memories, moments, pet, redecorated, remembering, widow
last year, around this time, my housemate decided to redecorate his space…
from removing the fireplace, to drywalling, to putting in new ceiling tiles, to painting the space with two colours, and reorganizing his stuff, he worked hard with help from friends and family…
it came out very nicely…
and he has enjoyed the space…
this fall he has been preparing for an interesting pet…
21 Sunday Sep 2025
Posted in business, family, life, loss, moments, retirement, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, big girl pants, blessed, family, memories, memory stones, moments, nature, Technology, wearing, weather, widow
when I went to the Park Cafe for brunch on Thursday, I stopped to check out the memory stones that the Ottawa kids had purchased for me;-)…
I’ve visited them enough that it is easy to find them…
sadly, much of the wording on the stones is wearing away…
19 Friday Sep 2025
Posted in business, life, loss, moments, retirement, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, electrician, family, fuses, memories, moments, power, widow
the power has gone off a few times over the last few days… only for a few seconds, and only in some parts of the house…
the only way to know for sure was the stove and microwave both flashing or showing 0…
many years ago we had an electrician tell us that there are two fuses that cover half the house each, but I couldn’t remember where they were, lol… my beloved had always dealt with those issues…
we called an electrician and he turned up early in the evening…
he knew right where those fuses were located (in a big gray box!) and then had to search online for where to find them as the electrical supply stores were already closed… so happy he found them and was able to pick them up and change them…
apparently this is an old way of putting electricity into houses, lol…
of course our house would have it, 🤪…
17 Wednesday Sep 2025
Posted in business, health, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, travel, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
Assiniboine Park, beautiful, big girl pants, blessed, flowers, magnolia, Mediterranean biome, memories, moments, nature, scent, tree, widow
this magnolia seems to be blooming one or two buds at a time…
saw some beautiful trees filled with magnolia blooms in Courtenay, BC, more than fifteen years ago and I still remember how amazing the scent was…
unfortunately, this tree is too high up to be able to enjoy the scent, but it is lovely to spot new blooms…
herbiggirlpants 