Personal/Family/Work Life

 At the last Sunday service before her MAID, one of the guys asked Christine to send a sign. I repeated the request at her farewell "soiree". 

Her scarves were draped over the ends of the pews at her funeral. They were offered to the attendees at the end of the service, but I had to dash out to deal with the reception. By the time I got back to the sanctuary I thought all the scarves were gone. At the front there is a plant stand that Russell uses. There was a scarf folded up on it, and it was purple, my favourite colour.

Yesterday I was at the church tidying up. I made the mistake of going out the crash door leaving all my keys inside and locking myself out. I'm standing there wondering what I'm going to do next and kicking myself for my stupidity when a car pulls into the parking lot. It's a Volvo, it's Doug and he has a church key!

D.

Labels: Personal, Work

# posted by Deb @ 9:28 AM 0 comments

 Made whole wheat pancakes for breakfast but they were stodgy. Went for a walk. Started the HR Evaluation in light of previous years but need more work? Had a shower and mended a flannel sheet. Packed the car and tidied up the cottage (forgot beer cans). Went to lunch with the old neighbours expecting the mum and one daughter but all three daughters showed up. I didn't really get to talk with the normal attendees. Went back to the cottage expecting to leave but the weather was too nice so I read on the dock until mid afternoon. Then I shut down the cottage and headed home. It took ten or fifteen minutes longer than usual thanks to construction between Gravenhurst and Severn Bridge. Unpacked the car in stages when I got home. BTW, there were only a few mosquitoes and no deer flies all week.

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 6:29 PM 0 comments

 It was raining hard when I got up. Had my cereal inside while it was clearing. Went for a quick walk and then to the Dwight farmer's market looking for a painter. It was big! Bought a green catchall for the top of my bureau. Found the painter but he didn't have the picture I wanted in the size I wanted (small dock at Dorset). Worked on HR strategic plan-I think I need to pull in previous year's goals. Stopped at Tristan's for poutine on the way into town to pick up a few things. Then had a nap. Read on the dock for the rest of the afternoon. After no supper (still full), continued watching Seal Team season 2 while snicking beans. 

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 9:38 AM 0 comments

 Slept poorly again. Went for a walk, then had oatmeal on the dock. Started Hard Reset successes on the dock which also came together much faster than previous years. Had tomato soup with couscous for lunch. Did some mending-restrung PJ pants and sewed buttons on grey slacks. Went for another walk. Had a Montreal smoked sandwich for supper. Went for another walk, then watched more of Seal Team season 2 while snicking beans. 

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 8:16 PM 0 comments

Slept poorly. Blood sugar was sky high this a.m.-I've been overindulging. Went for a walk, then had cereal for breakfast on the dock (heard a loon call and blasting). Started Hard Reset challenges (on the dock) which came together faster than other years. Had a caesar salad for lunch, then laid down for a nap. Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the dock. Went for a short walk. Had whole striploin steak, fried mushrooms and baked potato for supper. Went for longer walk, and then started Seal Team season 2. 

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 6:59 PM 0 comments

Went for a walk, had a shower and went to the local church. It was disappointing. I got there early, and there were a lot of cars, but no people in the sanctuary. They were all in the back having coffee. I should have gone back there but I didn't. The service was live streamed from another local church which I could have driven to. I got cornered before I could get out the door. I should have gone into town. I was the only cottager who showed up.

I did the last of the stops on the Artist North Studio Tour but didn't see anything I liked. I did pick up a business card from a young woman who does prints. She was working on one of Erika's Bakery in Dwight. Went for another walk (drizzled), made butter chicken and watched the rest of Seal Team season 1.

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 8:09 AM 0 comments

 Had coffee with sweetener on the dock this a.m. then went for a walk with weights. Weather was beautiful, sunny and warm with a bit of wind, so I had breakfast on the dock. Started HR schedule, then went meat shopping and stopped at an artist studio in Dwight. Bought two half-price pottery spoon rests, left one at the cottage. Had a Montreal smoked meat sandwich for lunch. Visited four more artist studios (saw a $200 paring knife), then went grocery shopping. Had a nap, then went for a walk. Had lumpia for supper on the dock. Watching more of Seal Team season 1. 

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 9:50 PM 0 comments

 Finished packing, loaded up the car and headed up to Barrie. Traffic was light for a summer Friday morning and weather was good for driving. Dropped off a belated birthday card for my granddaughter and had a cup of tea with my daughter. Got lost in Port Sydney looking for an artist studio that I had already been to. Paid too much for a picture of a dock with two Muskoka chairs (saw it and liked it last year). Made it early to lunch with two public school chums (grilled cheese was OK but lime cheesecake was yummy). Stopped at LCBO to pick up some sweetener for my coffee. Got  to the cottage, unpacked the car, set up the laptop and went for a walk on Maplehurst where a lot has been completely flattened. Started watching Seal Team season 1. 

Labels: Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 9:25 PM 0 comments

 Cottage memories are coming up on my FB feed, but I'm not up there this year because of the sale of the church building. Maybe later in August. 

Labels: Family, Personal, vacation

# posted by Deb @ 9:59 PM 0 comments

 Last week in one day, I:

1) went swimming for noon only to discover people already in the pool. Swimming had started at 11 (distracted by a phone call).

2) ran around the house like a chicken with its head cut off looking for my seed box. It was where I left it but not in the usual place.

3) burned my green beans for dinner, and I was steaming them. I like burnt so I ate them anyway. 

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 3:05 PM 0 comments

 The living weather vanes arrived this week at the neighbours.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 8:16 AM 0 comments

 When I retired, I said my full-time job was looking after myself, but this is getting ridiculous. I'm seeing a hand specialist for my trigger finger, a cardiologist for my back pain (it's not my heart!), and my dentist is working on a root canal and two cavities. I am NOT falling apart!

D.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 10:03 PM 0 comments

 Easter was two weekends ago. Good Friday I went to church. We had our last Lenten study after the service. I went home and started baking babka and then cornbread for Easter breakfast at church and dinner at home. I was going to make the cornbread gluten-free but I forgot and put regular flour in it so I had to start another batch. Saturday morning, I started making lemon meringue pies and puridzkis (pineapple crescents). After lunch, I started working on Easter dinner for my son and I-big ham, mashed potatoes and roasted brussel sprouts. I got him to buy some frozen mac and cheese to save me some work.

 I went to church early Sunday morning to set up for Easter breakfast. I brought some of the puridzkis, babka with marmalade, mandarin oranges, yogurt and the gluten-free cornbread (the woman who needed gluten-free didn't show up). I forgot the cheese. I think I went overboard but I wasn't sure how it would go over the first time at King City. It was a dying tradition at York Pines. We had a ton of food, but most of it went. One of the guys asked if we could do this every Sunday. There was a young family walking in front  of the church when I was putting my stuff in my car so I offered them puridzkis. Then I went home, did the dishes and got stuff started for Easter dinner-more mashed potatoes, butternut squash, Pillsbury crescents and a relish tray. I reheated the ham, leftover mashed potatoes and brussel sprouts-making dinner a day ahead is not a bad idea. My daughter showed up with her kids, wine and more mac and cheese (her turn). My son and grandkids spent the afternoon roaring around on a four-wheeler he rebuilt for them (he had gone up earlier to buy them helmets). After that, they did a little bit of target shooting. He was supposed to come in and make his own dinner so his stomach would be OK for work the next day, but he ended up having ham dinner twice. 

Labels: Family, Personal, Work

# posted by Deb @ 8:54 PM 0 comments

 Finally saw my first robin yesterday, actually a  flock ---> at least one more snow.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 5:27 PM 0 comments

 A guy at the pool asked me what my priorities were. I said God, kids and husband. Another fellow corrected my list with God, kids, wife, dog and self. He was right-I had forgotten about myself which is pretty typical for women, but you should "put your own oxygen mask on first". I said when I retired that my full-time job was looking after myself. My revised list is God, kids, husband (if I had one), self and dog (if I had one).

D.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 12:33 PM 0 comments

 For the past week, I have heard and then seen snow goose on the wing. It's a little early/little late for migration.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 1:48 PM 0 comments

 I think I overdid it yesterday: started organizing undecorating/shovelling/showing at the church, went swimming, went directly to dentist to finish root canal and then went to church for showing & shovelling. I woke up at 5 this morning and didn't fall back asleep until 6:30 or 7. Slept in after that. 

Labels: Personal, Work

# posted by Deb @ 1:44 PM 0 comments

A bus was in the ditch at the end of our driveway when I went out for my morning walk. He said he was turning around, and it was dark and the snow was white (?). He backed right in in front of the beekeeper's missing Lloyd's Lane or even our driveway. This seems to be a common occurrence lately, third time this fall. A new bus line has taken over this route, and some of the drivers transferred over but not all.

D.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 10:00 AM 0 comments

 Yesterday, I replaced the furnace filter, covered a few plants in the garden (in the dark after getting home late from a church meeting) and moved the potted plants into the back porch or closer to the house. This morning we got our first frost, and the furnace came on. I think my lone nasturtium is a goner.

D.

Labels: Personal

# posted by Deb @ 9:19 AM 0 comments

The past week has been the perfect storm of busyness-tiff shifts at the airport, Council & merger church meetings and garden harvesting of potatoes.  

Labels: Personal, Work

# posted by Deb @ 10:16 PM 0 comments