A New Haircut and a New Lease on Life

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. at least that’s how I feel tonight

I came back from the cottage yesterday so that I could get my hair cut. I went into school this morning and managed to clear away all my ‘stuff’ so that the caretakers can clean my room. Well I guess it’s not ‘my’ room anymore.

I’ll probably go back next week to sort through some more papers and move some of my things to the library. I could leave it for the week before school starts but I think it’ll be too big a job and then I’ll start the school year tired and not refreshed. I have to come back to the city next week anyway to drive K to his doctor’s appointment.

I stayed at school until 3:00 and then I went home, showered and drove downtown for my hair appointment. After listening to the radio I thought I would be spending time in traffic but I actually got to the appointment early. They took me right away and in the next 45 minutes Dee did her magic and gave me a new hair style.

I called K and told him we needed a date night. We ended up going to a restaurant we hadn’t been to in almost 2 years. The owner recognized me right away and I brought him up to date on K’s health while I waited for him to join me. The restaurant has undergone a few changes, one of them being that Tony no longer does the cooking. He has hired a new chef who is passionate about good old fashion Italian cooking.

We had a great meal. I had the baked bass and a Mediterranean salad. I have to admit that I did have one glass of white wine. While there a young family came in and sat at the table next to us. The woman recognized me from when I taught at Hilltop. I was her Family Studies teacher and taught her how to sew and cook. Her partner and K had a long discussion about soccer.

It was a perfect evening and I felt like a princess. I’ve decided to use the picture that was taken at the hair salon as my first official ‘after’ picture. As I write this I’m not sure what I’m going to use as my ‘before’ picture but anything that was taken in the last 3 years will do the job.

Before After

Friday, July 13, 2012 – 23 pounds lighter. Who said Friday the 13th is unlucky?

Cheers!

17 More

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. only down 1 1/2 pounds in 10 days

I don’t have a scale at the cottage. I was anxious to weigh myself this morning. My weight has been fluctuating up and down; a pound up, 1/2 pound down, etc.. Before I left for the cottage my weight had levelled out and I was were I was on the July 3rd.

So in actual fact I’ve lost another 1 1/2 pounds since Sunday. The good news is I’m down a total of 23 pounds and weigh less than I have in over 4 years.

It’s going to be a scorcher today. I’ll probably sweat off another pound at school trying to finish cleaning my room. Keep you posted.

Cheers

Morning at the Cottage….coffee, views of the beach and a ladybug

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….morning is my favourite time at the cottage

Sleep! I sleep so well at the cottage. I think it has to do with the darkness, the silence and the fresh air. I rarely stay up past 11:00 and I sleep soundly for 8 to 10 hours.

I love mornings. I make coffee, prepare a simple breakfast of cereal and berries, sit in the sun on my deck and leisurely enjoy eating my morning meal, all while I’m still in my pyjamas. Often I read a good book and relax with a second cup of coffee.

Currently I’m rereading Half Blood Blues. I’m pretty sure I didn’t finish it the first time. Most of the ladies in the book club really liked this book. I’m giving it another go. Much better, so far.

Everyday since Sunday I’ve been walking along the back road or on the beach. Today I decided to go for a long swim. I can honestly say that I have never had such a great swim and it’s the longest distance I’ve ever covered. The conditions were perfect.

I look forward to going back on Saturday. I’m sharing some of the views I see when I’m on the beach at the end of our road. The beach looks out over the north bay of the island. It was an exceptionally beautiful morning and as usual it was quiet and under used. Weekends is another story.

Normally this thorny thistle is an unusual and somewhat unwelcome addition to a sandy beach; however, upon closer inspection I discovered a lovely little ladybug nestled on one of its spiny branches.

Off to the Wilderness

Posted on July 8, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….makes me laugh when I say it because there’s more wildlife here in the city than at my cottage!

We don’t have these at the cottage!

I won’t be posting for a several days because I have no access to electricity. There is electricity on the island just not at my cottage. If K has his way there will never be electricity in our cottage unless we invest in a renewable energy source. More on that another time.

I’ll be at the cottage by myself. I’m hoping I’ll have time to reflect, re-energize and refocus on my weight loss goals. I’m holding steady at my 20 pounds plus weight loss but I need to move forward for the next 20 pounds. Long walks/runs on the beach, swimming, raking the lot and cleaning the cottage should help with the fitness goals. I’m bringing my kettle bell as well.

Cooking for myself and not worrying about other people’s dietary needs is helpful as well. The only problem is I tend to forget the time up there and eat at odd hours. I’ll be fine as long as I get in my three meals before it gets dark. I also have to make a concerted effort to stay hydrated. The spring water we draw from is excellent but it wasn’t working when I opened the cottage last weekend so I’ll be bringing large bottles of water just in case.

I do have a phone at the cottage and a battery powered radio so I’m not completely isolated from the rest of the world. And before you think I’m living the life of a hermit I do have neighbours and there’s always someone close by.

I need to get a move on. I still have to buy the water and propane to run the fridge and BBQ. Looking forward to a few days of R&R.

Cheers!

The Heat, the News, my Classroom

Posted on July 6, 2012 by Mama Cormier

.…. it’s all getting me down

I’m not used to being in the city this long at the beginning of the summer. I forgot how much the heat keeps me from moving. That depresses me. My classroom is taking much longer to clean than I planned on. That depresses me. The news about teachers is all bad and once again the ‘hate on’ for teachers has begun. That depresses me.

I worked in my classroom for about 4 hours today. We’ve hit record breaking temperatures again and my classroom is situated on the south side of the school and we don’t have air conditioning. I need to clear away as much as I can so that the caretakers can come in and clean the room. I’m feeling the pressure and I couldn’t get it all done today. I need to go back. Sigh!

When I got home today I was so exhausted from the heat that I fell asleep. I need to exercise and I can’t find the motivation or the energy to do it. A few degrees cooler would help.

Our teacher’s contract is up at the end of the summer and for months we’ve been hearing the word “strike”. The provincial government has basically come in and told us that there would be a pay freeze for two years. Most teachers are not upset about that. It’s all the other things that they want to take away that took years to negotiate that upsets teachers. What’s the point of collective bargaining if the government can step in and do whatever they want without any consultation or ratification? The school board hasn’t even gotten involved yet and they’re typically who we bargain with.

Of course the media makes the teachers look bad and all the teacher haters come out of the woodwork. It’s always the same old arguments. Teachers get 3 months paid vacation (we get paid for 10 months of the year), they have a great pension (which we pay heavily into) and they only work 6 hours a day (too bad they don’t see the hours after school and on the weekend that most of us put in).

Retirement is looking better all the time but I love teaching and I’m not ready to let it go.

The Cottage is Open!

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….. very little evidence of mice or water damage.

Every year I dread opening the cottage because I don’t know what lies before me. In years past I’ve had coolers full of water and dead floating mice or acorns strewn all over the place because squirrels had inhabited the place over the winter.

For that reason I don’t like going up by myself to open the cottage. Since June was so incredibly busy at school and with my aunt being in the hospital, I didn’t have a chance to get to the cottage earlier this year.

My good friend L, drove up with me on Saturday. I picked her up before 9:00 in the morning and we arrived at the ferry dock by 11:00. The drive across the island was uneventful and we saw little evidence of new cottages going up. The lot next to ours has been leased for 3 years now but building hasn’t started.

The outside of the cottage looked fine. The lot needs to be racked and a few branches need to be cleared from the winter fall out. After we removed the plywood that covers our main door we carefully entered cottage. Surprise! It was exactly as we had left it. There was very little evidence of mice. I forgot that we left cloves all over the place so initially I didn’t know what I was looking at. Apparently rodents don’t like cloves and will avoid the areas where they’ve been left out.

I think some water may have come in after the snow melted off the roof but the bowls and coolers that we left out were empty. So far I’ve found no dead anything. L and I moved the propane fridge outside (I don’t trust it), set up the BBQ, emptied the water barrel, swept the deck and the outhouse and took all the cushions out of the plastic garbage bags and set up the couch.

When we had finished all of this we had a nice picnic lunch on the deck and then we headed for the beach for a nice swim. The weather has been so warm this spring and especially in the last 2 weeks that the water was actually swimmable. Georgian Bay is such a large body of water that most people don’t go swimming until August because it usually takes that long to warm up.Yesterday the water was refreshing and a nice break from the sweltering heat. It was difficult to pack up and leave.

Did I tell you that we only went up for the day. We caught the 4:00 ferry back to the mainland and drove back to Toronto so that we could attend our book club meeting.

A Moveable Feast: the Restored Edition

The book that we were discussing was Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Most members in the club hated the book and rated it very poorly. L and I, on the other hand quite liked the book and had a completely different perspective. As it turns out, the two of us read the restored edition that was published in 2009. This new edition had new chapters added, chapters moved around and sections of the book were replaced with Hemingway’s original drafts that the editors in the past had changed.

This restored edition is apparently how Hemingway wanted the book published. During our discussion it became clear that the two books are considerably different or at least different enough to give the reader a completely different perspective on the man himself. L and I quite liked the Hemmingway we read about and the rest of the group despised him.

Earlier in the year we read The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. I loved the connections I could make between the two books. McLain’s book is historical fiction and based on Hadley’s and Hemingway’s marriage and life together in Paris. In the restored addition of A Moveable Feast, it was abundantly clear that Hemingway truly loved Hadley. The group that had read the original version did not share the same conclusion.

I rated the restored addition of A Moveable Feast 3 1/2 out of 5.

The De-cluttering Has Begun

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. my husband laughed at my attempt to declutter

It’s a good start. I have to admit that I haven’t really dealt with what I’m doing with many of the items I have removed. Some are going to the cottage tomorrow (books, art supplies, some clothes) and I have started a recycling bag and a garbage bag.

Unfortunately much of what you don’t see has been pushed to the other end of the room that you don’t see. K says that we need a dumpster at the bottom of the window on that side of the room so that I can just push it right out the window. Anyway I have given myself till the end of the month and every time I have a spare minute or two I sort through more stuff. While I was waiting for these pictures to upload I managed to hang a few more things in the closet and throw some more things into the recycling bag.

My mother would be mortified if she were alive to see me post these pictures. I find it therapeutic and if it helps me get the job done, then so be it. It’s like losing weight for me. Talking about it on a blog and sharing it with whom ever reads it keeps me on track and honest.

I apologize in advance to my children and immediate family if this embarrasses you. Trust me, in the end it will have been worthwhile.

Before After

Reached My Goal and Beyond

Posted on July 3, 2012 by Mama Cormier

….yesterday I was 1/2 pound below my goal but was hesitant to share with you

As often happens when I reach a weight loss goal I go up the next day. Because of that I was hesitant to share my joy with you. I’m ecstatic today. When I got on the scale this morning I was down another pound, for a total of 21 1/2 pounds.

My next goal is another 20 pounds for a total of 40 pounds. I hope I can reach that goal by the end of the summer. It is exactly 8 weeks before my next BIG birthday, nine weeks before Labour Day and 11 1/2 weeks before the end of summer.

The last date is probably the most reasonable date to choose for my goal. With 18 1/2 pounds to go, Labour Day is also doable. I don’t want to jinx myself so I think I’ll just leave the actual timeline open for discussion.

I’m keeping today’s post short. I have to go into school to continue the clean-up and then I’m off to see a new doctor this afternoon.

Cheers!

Happy Canada Day!

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Mama Cormier

…. a beautiful, hot day with lots going on in the city but very quiet at this end of town

No one was free to go to the cottage this weekend and I didn’t want to drive by myself so I started on my bedroom. I’ve even bought the paint. I think renovating and gardening are very Canadian things to do on the long weekend, next to going to the cottage. The streets are pretty quiet but Home Depot was busy.

Of course I can’t paint till I’ve removed the clutter. I’m starting at one corner of the room and working my way out. The problem is that the things I’ve cleaned up are spilling into the hallway. I need to decide what to do with the items I’ve removed and find a new home for them, preferably Good Will.

De-cluttering is a bit like losing weight. You have to stay focused and not stray from the goal. Don’t bring more things into the room than you take out (calories in vs. calories burned), celebrate the small accomplishments and don’t beat yourself up when you have an off day. Recruit help along the way. My blog family has definitely kept me on track with my weight loss. Now I need to find someone to help me remove the clutter from my life. Anyone interested?

I’ve started at the easy end of my bedroom, the side that I frequently organize so that when you walk by my bedroom it looks pretty good. The difference is that this time I’m removing even more items than I would normally. It’s when you take a couple of steps into the room when you really notice the chaos.

Oh well, I shan’t perseverate. On with the job. I’ll let you know of my progress when it’s noticeable.

Cheers!