21 Monday Dec 2020
Posted in life, moments, nature, Photography, retirement, Uncategorized
Tags
beautiful, beloved, big girl pants, blessed, cold, home, memories, moments, sidewalk, snow, stay, weather, widow
what a beautiful view to wake up to on this first day of winter… everything was covered in a blanket of snow…
even more beautiful considering I don’t need to go out in it and can stay inside;-)…
well, I did shovel the sidewalk…
16 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in life, loss, moments, nature, Photography, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, cold, elm, elm trees, gone, grow, hoarfrost, hole, memories, moments, nature, pictures, widow
this morning I was reminded of how beautiful hoarfrost can be… the pictures I came across were from eight years ago and showed the elm tree that lived across the street…
it was cut down a few years ago…
I took a photo to compare and was surprised at how much the cedar in our front yard has grown… the photo also shows the huge hole where the tree used to be…
I sure do miss the trees that have gone…
15 Tuesday Dec 2020
Tags
chocolate, Christmas, fridge, gifts, her big girl pants, mail, memories, parcel, permission, presents, purple, ribbons, widow, wrap
a parcel arrived from the kids in Ottawa… once I received text permission to open it, I discovered 3 boxes, a package that said it needed to go into the fridge, and a small chocolate bar, lol…
I had fun wrapping them and put purple ribbons on them before adding them to the growing pile under the tree… they are the first gifts for me…
it was funny to wrap my own parcels, but was a reminder of the few times I might have purchased my own gift, wrapped and put it under the tree… although usually those items would go to my beloved and he would wrap them up, lol…
fun memories… nice that now I can mostly look back on them without tears…
13 Sunday Dec 2020
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, family, food, iPhone, memories, moments, parties, special, widow
came across some photos of a visit with Santa at a Rona Christmas party eleven years ago… it was such fun to take our grandkids and we had a great time…
it was before the store opened and was in the back… there were decorations and lots of gifts for all the kids with treats for everyone… iPhone pictures have certainly improved since then…
reminded me of the CN parties we used to go to when the girls were little… our dear friend Margaret took us for a number of years… they were fancy and great fun too, and the girls always enjoyed them…
I also have a dim memory of kids’ Christmas parties with my dad, where I helped him with set up… I can particularly remember the full size popcorn machine and making popcorn for everyone during the party;-)…
05 Saturday Dec 2020
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, technology, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, deck, garden, happy, hot tub, light, memories, miss, moments, nature, Technology, time, widow
sitting in the hot tub last night, remembering my beloved on what would have been his 72nd birthday, I was reminded of all the fun things we have done together during our forty plus years…
I’d been wanting a hot tub since our anniversary many years ago when he rented one for a weekend, but we couldn’t afford one until 2009…
once I chose the one I wanted, he built a deck to put it on, and then a deck to go in front of it… easy to get to, it is now perfect for dips… he never loved the hot tub the way I did, but wanted me to be happy…
when we had friends over (you remember that, right?) for a hot tub, if we needed a drink or towel or anything, we’d bang on the wall of the house and he would come out to see what was required, lol… he’d also take photos when I wanted them…
with the new security light/camera on the garage, I have to go to the side door of the garage and turn off the power so that the light doesn’t keep coming on while I’m in the tub… thankfully the deck goes right there so it is easy to get to and from…
some of our best talks happened late at night in this hot tub… I sure do miss him…
04 Friday Dec 2020
Posted in business, family, food, life, loss, moments, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
2020, beloved, big girl pants, birthday, blessed, commemorate, connecting, family, memories, moments, online, pivot, Technology, treat, widow
with everyone learning how to connect with family and friends over the last six months or so, my daughter reminded me that we have been doing this for years…
just today, a Facebook memory was of a gathering we had eight years ago… my daughter was in BC, my son-in-law was in northern Alberta, and the rest of us were here…
technology has come a long way since then and there are many ways to connect… the main ones I currently use are Skype, Google Duo and FaceTime… I’ve been using Skype Organize a Conference Call without going through my Skype account, but over the last few weeks going through my account is working much better… I think I need to learn a bit about Zoom…
still, always happy when it works fine…
03 Thursday Dec 2020
Tags
61st, beloved, big girl pants, birthday, celebration, commemorate, family, friends, memories, moments, surprise, time together, widow
it would have been my beloved’s 72nd birthday tomorrow… we’ve commemorated it a number of ways over the years and this year I plan on dinner from Modern Plate Catering, with my Ottawa kids on Google Duo…
we’ve had some wonderful birthday celebrations over the years…
one of my favourites was his 61st birthday… he was recovering from quadruple bypass on his 60th, so we couldn’t do anything special, lol… on his 61st we had dinner out at Fusion Grill with his boy friends and their partners…
during his illness he had three particular friends who went for walks, coffee, talks and visits with him on a regular basis… it was such fun to spend time with them all together… it was a great surprise for him and everyone had a lovely time…
last night I spent ages searching for this picture and did not find it… this morning it came up in my Facebook memories, lol…
fun to remember some of those special times… makes the days happier;-)…
02 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in health, life, loss, moments, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
beloved, big girl pants, blessed, blog, blogging, eighth, family, memories, moments, Technology, time, widow
yesterday marked eight years as a blogger and WordPress reminded me in the evening…
kind of amazing to think I have been writing nearly every day for all that time… it started with information about all the challenges and things I learned after my beloved died… from needing numerous death certificates, to knowing the right answers for insurance forms, to how to get the car transferred to my name, to setting up an estate account at the bank… there were so many things that I didn’t know I didn’t know and had to figure out…
I wanted to help others who might be going through similar circumstances…
it has moved from that to sharing a view of my journey as I move through life without my other half…
those big girl pants continue to be difficult to get into some days…
26 Thursday Nov 2020
Posted in family, life, loss, moments, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, blessed, chocolate, Christmas, family, memories, moments, palliative care, purple, silver, teddy bear, widow, wreaths
I added more silver and white ornaments to the tree and a bit of garland to give it depth, although I don’t like garland on the whole… many of the ornaments marked special Christmas times…
I also hung up some wreaths and brought up a teddy bear from the basement that I have always loved…
I was reminded of many previous Christmas trees and decorations… when my daughter moved away she promised to come home for Christmas and she did for many years… the first year she wasn’t able to come home she sent all of us a dragonfly glittery ornament to put on our trees… since then it has gone on the tree each year… for the rest of the year it is clipped onto a chocolate hanging in the hall… she loves chocolate;-)…
I also hung three wreaths… one I made the year my mom was in palliative care and at the same time my sister-in-law was losing her unborn baby… I spent hours at two different hospitals hand sewing the teddy bears and wreath they went on… amazingly stress filled weeks…
now I think back to those times and find great comfort in the memories;-)…
20 Friday Nov 2020
Posted in health, life, moments, Uncategorized, weather
Tags
ambiance, big girl pants, blessed, Christmas, cold, decorating, fish, Friday, friends, Google Home Speaker, happy, memories, moments, music, remembering, trees, visit, widow
spent a wonderful hour in the living room decorating the Christmas tree…
the fish were swimming around happily and there was Christmas music from Spotify blasting on my Google Home…
I missed my decorating buddy as she always does an amazing job and we have great visits while we are working;-)…
once I was done, I sat and read for quite a while, enjoying the ambiance…
herbiggirlpants 