05 Sunday Aug 2018
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, travel, Uncategorized
relaxing day today as I focused on preparing for the camping trip… as we are leaving on Thursday after work decided to start gathering required items…
did laundry and started packing the hamper basket that I will be taking my stuff in…
the oldest and youngest came for dinner and we had Chinese food… nice to spend time with these two…
going to gather a few more things tonight… then a hot tub and bed…
09 Thursday Mar 2017
Posted in family, food, health, life, loss, nature, Photography, technology, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, clothes, packing, preparing, pyjamas, sandals, shopping, suitcase, summer, travel, widow
bought some new pyjamas on the weekend when I was shopping with the boys…
they are very comfortable… only problem is that the bottoms are about six inches too long, lol…
thought about just chopping them off but after checking the idea out with a sewer realized that wasn’t such a good plan…
today I took them to City Place to get shortened… will be ready tomorrow afternoon… just in time for the packing plan…
have all of the summer clothes out but haven’t had time to try them on to be sure they fit and decide on which pieces to pack… a Saturday job…
need to decide whether I need a new pair of walking sandals… guess I better make up my mind soon…
14 Monday Dec 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, technology, Uncategorized
another great day off…
worked on my list of prep for next weekend, and then Christmas… wrapped the last few parcels… put ribbon on the finished ones and made sure that each person had an ornament on one of their gifts…
then I sorted out which gifts will stay here and be opened on Sunday when we have our Christmas with everyone, and the ones that will go to my daughter’s house for our actual Christmas morning celebration…
also preparing to stay healthy by getting the shingles vaccine this morning… on my way there saw these two adorable reindeer…
had to stop and take a picture… very cute…
had a triennial medical appointment and picked up a few final items as I prepare for the holidays… think I got the last gift…
picked up these little numbers for me…
brought home all the groceries for the week and our Christmas dinner…
still on a roll, cleaned out the fridge and put everything away…
then a rest, lol… 
finally tidied everything up… looks lovely and I am feeling much better about what is left to do over the next few days…
was able to enjoy each piece of my day as I worked on my preparations…
11 Sunday Oct 2015
Posted in health, life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
anniversary, big girl pants, George, hibernation, ladybugs, preparing, romantic, roses, trees, walk
absolutely gorgeous day…
took a walk to the grocery store to pick up a few things for tomorrow’s dinner…
came across this beautiful tree… admired it when I passed it the first time and had to stop to take a picture when I came back…
also got a shot of some Virginia creeper berries…
there aren’t any leaves left on them… that frost last week did a lot of plants in…
the ladybugs have been out in full force for the last few days… yesterday there were five at once on the bedroom window…
today they were on the door when I left the house, landed on me as I was walking and were inside and outside the house…
not sure why they are everywhere… from a bit of reading it looks like the warm weather might have woken them up from hibernation…
I also spent some time preparing vegetables, more stuffing and cranberry sauce…
friends are celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary which made me spend a bit of time remembering ours… it was when I was in hospital with pancreatitis and waiting for gall bladder surgery… we had missed a trip to the coast to see the kids because I got sick…
on our anniversary George brought in a basket with 40 roses in it… it was amazing… at night they had to put it into the hall because the perfume was so strong, lol… he was such a romantic…
good times…
14 Wednesday Jan 2015
Posted in life, nature, Uncategorized
Tags
tomorrow is my soup day…
seemed to have trouble deciding what to make… been thinking about it for at least a week and didn’t make a final decision until today…
had everything at home so didn’t have to run out to the store which was great because we’ve had a bit of snow and my shoveler hasn’t made it over just yet…
had a good time preparing… cooked up carrots, celery, onion and garlic… first time I’ve used this new purple pot, lol…
put in spices, broth and tomatoes and simmered it for a long time…
just finished using my purple immersion blender to complete it… once it cools down it will go into the fridge and be ready for tomorrow’s lunch…
16 Tuesday Dec 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, chicken, food, good, potluck, preparing, safety pins, visitors
this morning at work I had to borrow some safety pins to make sure my pants didn’t fall down… they fit fine when I bought them… apparently I am losing a bit of weight, lol…
pinned up pants…
had some visitors this evening and we wandered around the house and checked out some of the items I am trying to divest… happily they walked away with a shoe rack and are thinking of at least a couple of other things…
then I spent some time removing the meat from the bones of a chicken, thinking all through the process of my colleagues who will be enjoying this chicken tomorrow at our potluck…
chicken, ready to go…
only last night I was talking with a group of women about taking the time when preparing food to think of those who will be enjoying it… I always find that it makes the task much more enjoyable for me and I think people can sense the effort I have put into whatever it is I am making…
life is full, and good…
07 Sunday Dec 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
Tags
big girl pants, Christmas, decorating, jammies, parcels, preparing, tree
spent the day in my jammies…
had a lovely time preparing parcels, listening to the Christmas music of Neil Diamond and Michael Buble…
wrapped parcels went by the tree…
might add a few more ornaments as I go through the remaining boxes, but it looks pretty good…
the coffee table looks exactly how I imagined, but still needs more purple balls… with any luck I will find more as i go along…
the little boys helped me decorate the stairs with trees when they arrived for supper… things are sticking out a bit more than usual… it would make George crazy because he didn’t like stuff taking up space on the steps…
beginning to look a lot like Christmas…
10 Tuesday Jun 2014
Posted in life, Uncategorized
up at 5:15 to clean out the hot tub and fill it before heading to work…
beautiful morning and the birds were singing… thankfully I got it all done in time…
now just have to wait for the temperature to rise…
been a year since I got home from my Alaskan cruise… wow, time sure flies… and now I am preparing for Cyndi and Ron’s arrival…
and getting ready to scatter George’s ashes, which is why they are coming…
20 Friday Dec 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
had a meeting with my finance guy this morning… we made a few adjustments to my portfolio (sounds way more impressive than it is) and put some money back into the slush fund…
sleigh full of presents…
then I finished the wrapping and labelling of the parcels… all done…
spent a bit of time preparing for the guests who will be arriving tomorrow…
kids came over at supper time and we picked up subs for the boys and after they ate the grownups ran over to Costco for a few groceries and maybe a present or two…
lights in the base of the Norfolk pine…
I got some lights to put at the base of the Norfolk pine and after Jeff put them up it looks great…
put out the wooden nativity that George made and thought of him in the process… Crystal was missing his shoulder massages today…
been a full day and I am looking forward to bedtime…
11 Wednesday Dec 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Advent, big girl pants, George, get organized, important folder, important papers, preparing, when mom dies
had a conversation with someone about how they needed to clean up all their paperwork in the event that something should happen to them… currently they are sorting through boxes of a parent’s documents…
got me thinking about my folder in the filing cabinet which is titled “when mom dies“… sounds a bit maudlin, but when I was searching through many filing cabinet drawers for all of the information that I needed when George died, it made me realize that the more I got organized for the girls, the easier it would be on them…
in that folder are things like my birth certificate, marriage certificate, a few pictures from when I was younger, copy of my will, power of attorney, health directive, with some information about George as well…
they know who my financial advisor is, and my accountant, and between those two they will be able to sort out all the money stuff…
but it was those other bits and pieces that were difficult to find and gather into one place…
George and I hand wrote our wills when the girls were very small and we were heading off together on a plane trip and wanted to have something written down in case we didn’t get home safely…
after that we didn’t think about the wills again… when he died I knew exactly where the will should be, but couldn’t find it for weeks… not a huge problem, as everything was coming to me as his spouse, but at one point the credit union was insistent on having a copy of the will to set up an estate account…
I had searched the house over trying to find that darn will and eventually I discovered it at the back of the drawer where I knew it should have been…
then there was the (sort of) funny part where the young person at the credit union wasn’t sure they could accept a hand-written will as she had never seen one… I knew it was legal from my time working in a law office, but it was very stressful for the three or four days it took the credit union to accept it… the reason we needed an Estate account was that the cheques that were arriving were all made out to the Estate of and couldn’t be cashed if they weren’t in an Estate account… red tape can make a person see red sometimes, lol…
both George and I thought all our stuff was organized and clear but I discovered that wasn’t really the case… since then I have recommended to all my friends that they have the hard conversations with their husbands and families and make sure that everything is accessible and all decisions have been discussed by families…
must go and check out that folder and see if there is anything else that needs to get popped into it…
and do some more shredding so that the kids don’t have an enormous task ahead of them at a time when they will already be under tremendous stress…
preparing isn’t just an Advent thing, lol..
trees on the stairway – from a very organized Christmas box…
