Good Morning All! How are you this Wednesday morning? I am grateful to be working from home today. We had a small amount of snow last night, actually I think before I went to bed. So the once cleared sidewalk now has a light sheet not even a blanket covering.
Last night right after I arrived home from work, I set my backpack and work things inside the house, locked the house and then carried on for a walk. It was so nice last night that I thought it would be a great idea to get out for some fresh air and exercise. On the way home, I stopped by the mailbox and picked up the mail. Inside were some Christmas cards from family and friends. I was doing an internal happy dance as I love to receive Christmas cards in the mail. I love to receive them period but most especially in the mail. Once inside the house, I took off my boots, set down the mail and carried on to the garage where I brought in the garbage bin as yesterday was trash pickup. Back in the house, I had a few things to do before supper so got them out of the way. Then supper (leftovers from Saturday’s Christmas party) went into the oven to warm. Once supper was done, I sat down on the sofa and munched away at my delicious supper. Missing my boy thought, it is way too quiet in the house and I have no one to snuggle with and not having him to go to bed with or to wake up to, seems very odd. My daughter sends pictures and videos often and he is definitely thriving in his new temporary surroundings. I think he is loving having two friends (Aspen and Milo) with him all the time and of course, his sister and brother-in-law. No stairs. New toys. Someone home all of the time. Good setup. One more week from Saturday and he will be back home. It was a good idea as I believe that we both needed a break but I will be SO EXCITED to have him home.
After supper, I did the dishes and turned on the dishwasher to wash the load that had been accumulating over the past couple of days. Then I just relaxed and watched some t.v. Quiet evening.
Countdown to Christmas: 10 days until Christmas Eve (and Alvin comes home with Aspen and Milo while the kids go to St. Albert for Steven’s family’s Christmas.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.
Good Morning ALL! I hope that your Sunday is going well thus far. I am freshly showered and feeling GREAT and Mr. Alvin is resting on the rug outside the office, so I am going to go out on a limb and say that he is doing great as well. Sky is overcast and it is windy.
I would like to wish my nephew in Heaven a belated Happy Birthday and to a friend here on Earth, Kris, a very Happy Birthday.
Today is I am going to do some shopping. I am hoping to pick up any last minute gifts and most of the groceries that I will need for the next while including for the Christmas parties, baking and Christmas. There will be another trip to the store later for those items that were forgotten and fresh produce. I will also mail my Christmas cards inside and outside of Canada. Yesterday I wrote cards and letters most of the day in between doing laundry, going for a walk with Alvin and some cleaning. A very productive day.
They started out in order but somehow the tree photo with only the lights ended up last, lol. Anyway more Christmas decorations photos, my favourite time of year. The bannister turned out great.
Time to head downstairs and make some coffee, then have coffee and then go shopping.
Have a wonderful Sunday.
Continuing to live my life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.
Good Morning ALL! Can you believe that today is November 6, 2022 already. Yikes. It has been a snowy snowy November thus far. Colder, too. Our clocks were turned back last night at 2:00 a.m. which has already played havoc with our minds and bodies. I will admit that I am happy that the time goes back as it gives us one more hour in bed and when it is a reasonable time in the morning – we can see outside without the aid of a flashlight. It was snowing earlier when we got up. In fact, we went to bed at our usual time last night as the Momma was tired after a full day of decorating the house in all of our Christmas attire and the much later than usual Friday night. Mr. Alvin was awake and had to go outside at 1:30 a.m. The one thing about winter and senior dogs. You cannot just open the door and let them go out or at least I do not like to, so it means grabbing my winter coat, boots and mitts before heading out and if it is dark outside, I need my phone and with help from SIRI, the use of the phone flashlight. It is a whole deal but I gladly do it, as I do not wish my boy to slip and fall.
With all this snow and all of the shovelling so far, I am thinking it is going to be one of those winters where the snow banks are taller than me me. My computer brought up photos of a winter since I moved to Edmonton where the snow banks were taller than me. Who really wants that memory jog? But it is history and I thought it was important for whatever reason, lol, to take the photo, so I will not delete it.
Mr. Alvin is finally pooping on the deck in the snow. Easier for me to clean up and less likely someone will get injured jumping off the deck into the snow. I am going to shovel some of the excess snow off the deck onto the grass area so he will not jump off. There is quite a lot down there now.
My friends Gillian and Signe are coming for coffee and a visit this morning. I need to get outside and shovel the sidewalks. A couple neighbours have already been out. I have been shovelling every day. But it is good for the arms and good cardio.
I will post photos of Christmas decorations once I have taken a few more. I am almost done my shopping. As per usual, I am supporting small business and direct sales. That is the way to go. Helping where I am able. I do have to get some photos printed of our “family photo from summer” to pop into the Christmas cards. This year I am cutting back on the cards that I give to people that live near to me. There are a few that look forward to the card and photo so I will continue hand delivering those. I hope that stamps stay at the same price. Then baking. The big question. Everyone has been asking me. Are you doing your baking this year? What are you baking? That has not been yet decided. I will for sure do some but whether I give boxes of treats to 50 different families, not sure. I will do my best. I do know that everyone appreciates the treats.
Time to head downstairs. Get that walk shovelled. Put on the coffee and be ready for company.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.
Good Morning ALL! Well only TWO more sleeps until Christmas EVE Day. Wow, I am excited to see everyone. We are not having a big crowd that is for sure – especially with the latest variance of COVID. I wonder just how many more of these we will have OR if this will be our new norm? Time will tell. All we can do is to be safe and take care of ourselves and each other. If that means being vaccinated, do it. If that means wearing a mask, do it. If that means staying at home, do it. If that means, not travelling, do it.
On the lighter side of things. Last night one of our friends and neighbours popped in to give us a Christmas present. She always thinks of Alvin and brings him some freeze dried liver, which he loves. Arlene did not know that we had a guest and who knew that Cookie liked the FDL, but she did. She tore around the main floor like she had ants in her pants. So excited for company other than me and Alvin? LOL. We had a little visit in the foyer before she left for home. We had a pretty good sleep last night. She is beginning to get used to our home. I am happy to report that she did her business (both) on pee pads this morning. She did not eat much other than one bite this morning. I keep trying and she nibbles. I am not used to a pup that does not eat much. Alvin loves his food and he inhales it.
I noticed that it has been snowing a bit so looks like more shovelling in my future as I want to keep the snow shovelled for our company on Christmas Eve. Now that the days are getting closer to the BIG DAY, I can start to do some things – well not until tomorrow. Like taking some things out of the freezer to thaw, do another load or two of laundry, quick dust and the like.
Yesterday, I wanted to get the mail at my lunch break. I did not know what to do with Cookie knowing if I opened the door she would be out before I could stop her. Only thing I could think of was to put in her the main floor bathroom while I stepped out. It took a few tries because she always got out before I could close the door. Finally success! I already had my coat on and my keys in my pocket, putting on my boots as I got to the door. I was happy to see a mailbox full of more than just flyers and junkmail. I had TEN, yes, TEN, Christmas cards and letters. My heart was full. I love, love, love receiving Christmas cards and letters and even the odd photo. It was so much fun reading each card. Last night I hung them up on the string that I leave up all year long. It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Oh and Miss Cookie survived being in the bathroom for like 5 minutes. She was not happy with me but she was okay.
Well on this Wednesday, December 22, 2021, I say to you – have a wonderful day. May you be surrounded by love and good health. Happy Wednesday.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude.
Always, Carol, Alvin and Cookie.
P.S. you never know what life is going to give or bring you!
Photo taken just after house was decorated in November
Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We are well. Had kind of scary few moments earlier this morning when I let Alvin outside realizing that we had freezing rain earlier and the deck was a sheet of ice except for a smallish pile of snow. Alvin had to go out and I figured he would stand a chance of remaining upright but the poor little guy slipped about trying to go down to the grass area and then trying to go up the steps to the upper deck while I called out to him to “STOP.” I was so scared that he would slip and wrench one or more of his legs and then we would be right back to where we started from or worse. Luckily he ended up over by the snow and of course had to walk into it but in the end he had a pee. It was horrifying for a few minutes before he got safely back to the house. Just after we got up, I quickly went outside stepping onto the mats on the deck just outside the door with ice pick and shovel in hand I got to the snow and starting shovelling and throwing it all over the deck. Hoping then he would have some traction for his next visit outside. It is warm out so unfortunately it will likely melt but with the plus temperatures over the next few days – the snow will likely all melt on the deck anyway. The sun is beginning to rise with the blue night sky slowly starting to dissipate. Well I will have a shower after this post. Followed by some cleaning. I brought up and put away the last of the laundry that was hanging to dry and put away before I started this post. Made the bed and arranged the pillows. Does anyone else make their bed anymore? It seems like most of the younger ones do not but I like it made. A personal preference or perhaps a generational thing, I do not know. But anyway.
I forgot that my friend Gillian’s husband celebrated a birthday yesterday. Happy Birthday.
I received a message from Teddy’s Mom saying that they were coming back into the City and could Teddy spend the night. I hope that this freezing rain stuff does not stop that from happening. Safety first, of course. Not sure what the highway is like. I know that the QE2 (Queen Elizabeth Highway #2) had a major accident yesterday with several tractor-trailer units. I hope everyone is okay, I was scared to check further. Teddy’s Mom also mentioned that perhaps while she ran errands tomorrow that possibly Kobi could stay with us. I said “YES” of course. Alvin will be over the moon to have his best bud sleep over and visit. I cannot wait, fingers crossed that the roads are okay. Coming in from the country you never know.
The Christmas Cards were all done yesterday and then last night I thought of two more, one to post and one to hand deliver. Just two so that is not too bad. I am mailing 33 I believe and hand delivering 16 for a total of 49 which is the least amount that I have ever done. I used to write up cards for my coworkers and some others from work that I know well and that was a big number and I used to mail 75-100 but there are cutbacks everywhere including my Christmas Cards. Besides the ones to the office, I don’t have people’s addresses except for one. So I am mailing her a card. Everyone else will receive a verbal “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year.”
Well I suppose I should go and hit the shower followed by some coffee and breakfast and then do some cleaning.
I hope that you have a wonderful Sunday wherever you may be!
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude.
Good Morning All! We hope that you are doing well. I have recovered and feel great. It is amazing what a day of sleep will do for someone. Alvin was a good boy and other than the odd visit outside, he slept right beside me. Note to self: when you aren’t feeling yourself it is okay to take a sick day. We all need some extra rest sometimes. I am so grateful to be feeling great.
In the early morning the sun was shining so bright but was cool. Just after my shower it feels hot in the house so it must be warming up outside. We are to have plus celsius temperatures tomorrow and Saturday or was it today and Friday. Anyway some warm days ahead. We have been so fortunate to have a good fall. There were a few bla days but all in all it has been great. I wonder what winter will bring? Officially winter does not happen until Tuesday, December 21, 2021. So this is fall. Spring officially comes in March.
Alvin is just laying on his belly in the hallway staring at me. I wonder what he is thinking? I am thinking that I have not had a cup of coffee since Tuesday morning and I am going to enjoy a cup or three this morning.
I did not get any of my cards done up to be hand delivered so perhaps tonight. I would like to get them done so that I have them ready to be delivered. I am happy that our photos arrived so that I can pop some in with the Christmas cards both being mailed and hand delivered.
Today is the birthday of my eldest niece. I can still remember the day that she was born. Seems like yesterday. She is all grown up now, and has a daughter who graduated from high school this past year. My how time flies. Happy Birthday Dee. We hope that you have an awesome day.
It remains dark at this time but won’t be long until the sun begins to rise in the morning sky. In the meantime, while it is still dark, I will pop on the Christmas tree lights and enjoy them. Wishing you all a wonderful day. Be safe and well.
Oh, my goodness, how could I forget. Happy Thanksgiving to all our neighbours to the south. Wish you a wonderful day. Be safe and enjoy your time together.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude.
Good Morning ALL! How are you this Monday morning? Hard to believe the weekend is over already. Where does the time go? Alvin is patiently waiting in the hallway for me. He is laying on his tummy. I finished the Christmas cards and letters to be mailed yesterday. So once the photos arrive and are placed in with the cards and are sealed – they will be ready to be mailed. The mail to date is for December 2, 2021. I think that I read somewhere that our postage is increasing in the new year. Isn’t everything? It is pretty scary to think that there may be some shelves at the grocery store empty over the next days, weeks and months ahead. Items that are stuck in transit or just are beyond the reach of the grocers. I see very likely that our diets will change accordingly. With the recent events (flooding) in the Fraser Valley – the farm area – it will definity affect all of us. The farmers will be reeling from the loss and it will then turn to the consumer. Then there are the storage containers stuck in port in both Canada and the U.S. We may be reaching the end of the Pandemic or are we? I have not looked at the number lately but I have hope that people will get vaccinated and slow down the variants. Who would have thought that all this would happen? It sounds like a movie. I just take one day at a time. Keeping all those affected one way or the other in my thoughts and heart. It is surely getting crowded in there but you know I am feeling a lot of gratitude for my life. I have a nice home, Alvin and I are in good health, I am employed and able to work from home, I am able to plan my meals around what is accessible, I have clean drinking water, I have heat in my home, I am surrounded by good neighbours, I have a wonderful family and so much more. So everyday I am grateful. It is gratitude for my life and all those in it that get me through each and every day. No matter what has happened or will happen, I am grateful. Grateful that the sun rises each and every morning. Grateful that when Alvin wakes up – I can get up with him. Grateful that I wake up each and every morning. Grateful when I sit up and swing my legs over to the floor that my legs and feet will carry me whenever I need to go. There may be some moments when I am scared or nervous or stressed but I try very hard to keep those moments to just moments. Changing your thoughts to those of gratitude can certainly make a huge difference in one’s life. Life is seldom 100% silk and satin. There is always roughness along the way. The way we think and feel determines the difference between silk & satin and roughness. Feeling grateful for all that we have smooths away the roughness leaving the softness of silk and satin. I hope that you have more silk & satin in your life than roughness. Remember the mindset …… GRATITUDE. Truly it makes all of the difference.
Well time to go and put on the coffee pot. Work in a little bit. Still dark outside. Sunrise in a bit. Have the strength to have the gratitude for your life.
Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, understanding, love, laughter and gratitude.
Always, Carol & Alvin
P.S. I baked some yummy cookies as I needed some sweet treats. Chocolate chip with some Halloween treats – smarties, cut up twix bars, and M&M’s. So yummy. That is what I did yesterday afternoon after our walk.
Good Morning ALL. How are you doing this wonderful Tuesday? I am doing well. Today marks “9 sleeps/days until Christmas Eve Day. Time is definitely zipping along. Well our cold snap appears to be dissipating which is good for us and I heard on the weather report yesterday that Christmas Eve is to be about plus lower single digits temperatures. WOW! If the report is correct and Mother Nature does not throw a wrench into things we will have nice temperatures until at least Christmas. Oh and I do not blame Mother Nature on our weather as we have done enough damage to the environment ourselves. But let us move on from this spot and keep it light and positive. I have mentioned this before that I send Christmas Cards and letters out each and every year at Christmas. This card and letter writing started when I was very young, the first card I remember making was for my grandparents at age 6. I also made them Valentine’s cards and Birthday cards. When I was 11 years old my family spent the winter in Texas (yes, United States) in a city called McAllen which was located not far from the Gulf Coast. I wrote my best friend back in Saskatchewan, Canada letters as often as I could. When we moved from the farm in Saskatchewan when I was 14 to British Columbia, I continued writing my grandparents and my best friend. I made cards for birthdays, Christmas and other occasions. It was much later that I actually starting buying for special occasions and bought them I did. I send cards to all my family and friends for every birthday, Easter, Valentine’s and Christmas and everything in between. I love receiving cards almost as much as I love to send them. Yesterday I received THREE Christmas cards in the mailbox. One from my Aunt & Uncle who live in British Columbia and the other two were from Regina, Saskatchewan. Both friends and past co-workers. There were letters and photos. One of the best things about Christmas and the Holiday Season is cards, letters and photos. I was hoping that perhaps with so many people being at home due to COVID19 that maybe the art of sending Christmas cards and writing letters would make a comeback. This is one thing that is easy and inexpensive to do. The positive impact that it has on the both the sender and the recipient is huge. So good for mind and soul. We all could use a bit of that right now. Right! It is not too late. You can even write up a nice card or make one and give it to your neighbour down the street OR mail it to your Aunt who is alone.
Last night after work I delivered two more gifts and more treat boxes to my girlfriends. Alvin walked with me to make the first delivery and it was cold out so I brought him home and then I made the second delivery alone. We are going to hold our Annual Christmas get together via ZOOM. I was hoping that perhaps I could figure out how to do it via my new smart television set but am thinking not OR maybe on my phone. I am getting there – for the phone that is. Would be easier that using the computer upstairs and besides would feel more like a Christmas party if I was close to the Christmas tree and decorations. I have a few upstairs. Might have to move my smaller tree that is sitting on the upstairs landing and place it in the office. We will be able to take our walk today as it is warming up.
I wish you a bright and happy Tuesday. Alvin and I are hoping that you and your family are safe and in good health. We continue to be safe, in good health, bright and happy.
Living our lives with kindness, respect and compassion for all others.
Good Morning ALL. Well I am hoping that today will be clear blue sunny skies with warmer temperatures so that Mr. and I can head out for a walk. He does have a good winter coat and I know that but it is his little paws that I worry about. He is arthritis and walking on the cold sidewalk cannot feel very good. Most of the sidewalks have a bit of snow on them which is actually good for pups when they are out walking. Gives some insulation against that cold cement. I love to walk and so does Alvin so the winter months can sometimes be hard on us. We are both aging (no surprise there) and no one wants to slip and fall and break a hip or arm or some other body part. So we are careful. I can see the sunrise out of my office window as it faces south. I believe it is going to be clear skies today. So happy, doing a little dance on my chair. A “bum” dance. LOL. So grateful that we successful made it through another week well rather I made it through another week. Work wise. Back to the colours of the sunrise, so beautiful. Mother Nature’s paintbox is breathtaking. She certainly knows what she is doing.
I was also thinking at noon when we go for our walk that we would stop and drop off Christmas cards at our neighbours down the street. They have been ready to go for a week or more now. Just wondering how many people out there do Christmas cards? Do you add a letter or perhaps add photos? Do you mail them or just hand deliver or both? I have been doing Christmas cards since I was about 8 years old. I started out making them for my family and then over the years as I had money to buy them, I started to buy cards. Of course, I have made my fair share of them over the years as well. Crafty girl here. I used to mail and deliver between 100-200 years per years and then once the postage was basically a $1.00 per card I had to pull the reins in a little bit. I still mail about 30 cards. Those cards contain the most recent photo taken by my daughter of me and Alvin and some have a letter or at least a note. The art of letter writing has pretty much fallen by the wayside over the years. But I am old fashioned that way and I love to write letters, well I love to write, so I keep up the tradition. I still believe that most folks love to get a card in the mail or post especially these days when most of the mail is flyers and such. Maybe this is the year that you purchase a box of cards (you can do that online, even) and send those relative and friends that live at a distance a nice card and maybe even a photo and a letter. Trust me it gives one a good feeling to do this.
Well Mr. Alvin is doing the whining thing. Likely has to go outside or perhaps he just wants me off of the computer. I know that he does not like me on the phone. Anyway, such as life.
I hope that you have a wonderful Friday. Tonight I am visiting our friends down the street after supper. Looking forward to that. I will be back here tomorrow. Please drop me a line if you mail Christmas cards and letters.
Continuing to live with kindness and respect for all. Are you? Will you?
Good Morning ALL. A bit colder outside this morning. Well I had a good day downtown at the office. My daughter picked me up in the morning. Alvin was not really sure what was going on as I have only been away for the entire day twice since March 19, 2020. Can you imagine? I have been away to the office three times since March 19, 2020 but one was for a few hours to attend a meeting. My neighbour Sonja came over and checked on him a couple of times letting him outside and giving him one of his cookie/biscuit treats. The parcel from Steeped Tea did not arrive and the status went to pending but finally this morning it is showing an arrival date of today. For some reason they pushed it to today. Likely got behind in deliveries, I get that. It was nice to see a few people. Three in fact. That was all of the people that I saw at the office. Everyone practicing the COVID 19 safety protocols. I am grateful. I was able to get everything done early and then had time to actually put the postage on all of the letters / packages I had stuffed. First time using that fancy new machine. It worked pretty slick. I was so happy that I could help out our Support Services team. They work so hard. My daughter picked me up about 3:50 p.m. and we headed to Shoppers before going home to Alvin. I had a couple of parcels, card to go overseas and other Christmas cards within Canada. So happy to get everything posted. The gal in the “Post Office” said that it was so busy earlier and she was working alone. Isn’t that always the way? Also, I remembered to pick up extra stamps just in case I forgot to send a card to someone. Amanda and I always have good conversations on the car rides. I mentioned to her that one of the Support Services team was curious if I was following politics. I asked him “do you mean the U.S. elections.” He said “Yes.” So we chattered about the results. He thinks that there is voter fraud and I was very surprised to see that he sided with Trump. Not necessary Trump himself, but the Republicans. Anyway, I shared my knowledge of the U.S. Elections and was shocked by my articulation of the process. I have done lots of reading and I actually know stuff. Everyone is entitled to their thoughts and opinions. Realizing that I don’t know as much about our own government, I have vowed to do some research. I used to know the details but over the years have kind of forgotten. Time to do some reading.
The Pampered Chef order arrived yesterday so that was good.
Well it is time to head back downstairs, put on the coffee, put on the poop and get to work. I had to hit the “snooze” button this morning.
Living with kindness and respect for all. “Even when people do not have the same beliefs and opinions as ourselves.” (most importantly then).
My New Life @ 51 