…..thanks Cee for hosting the Odd Ball Photo Challenge
An odd way to take a selfie.
Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge 2015 – Week 46
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Category Archives: About Me
Share Your World 2015 – Week 45
….thanks Cee for hosting this challenge
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “fun”?
Fun for me is painting or drawing, either by myself, with a group or a class of children. It’s like therapy for me.
What is your favorite time of day?
My favourite time of day is early in the morning when the sun is rising, especially in the summer or early autumn. My other favourite time of day is late at night when everyone has gone to bed. This is often the time when I’m most creative. The older I get, however, I find it more difficult to stay up too late.
Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want have an evening with?
I’d have to say I’d want an evening with my entire family and closest friends. If I had to choose one person it would be my husband and if it had to be someone outside of my family I’d love to have a conversation with Oprah Winfrey. I’m not sure why but we’re close in age and I think she’s led a very interesting life.
Complete this sentence: Something that anyone can do that will guarantee my smile is…
…..smile at me first. Smiles are contagious.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for spending the day with my daughter in Hamilton and being able to help her around the house. Two days later we all got together at my oldest daughter’s house for her birthday and I was pleased that my very good friend AB was able to meet Miss Winnie for the first time.
I’m also pleased that my colleague from school and I were able to pick the girls’ basketball team. Now we can work with the team and prepare for our tournament later this month.
This week I’m looking forward to getting some work done at school on our PD day. My office is quickly becoming an organizational nightmare. I’m also looking forward to going out for lunch with the staff on Friday and then again on Saturday with my husband. Hopefully I can find some Winnie time on the weekend. Did I mention that she’s already rolled over at four weeks. I thought it might have been a one off thing but apparently she’s doing it regularly.
Cheers!
A Trip to Hamilton, Hot Sauce and Baby Time
…spending the day with my daughter and baby Winnie
November has been a blessing as far as the weather goes. We’ve experienced Indian Summer in the last two weeks. Temperatures were in the double digits, well above normal. People were back in sandals and lightweight clothes. The trees are finally dropping their leaves, leaving beautiful carpets of colour all over the sidewalks. 
My daughter still has hot peppers in her garden. Her husband has been busy making numerous batches of hot pepper sauce.
Miss Winnie is now over three weeks old. She basically eats, sleeps and poops. She is starting to lift her head and she is beginning to focus on objects in her surroundings. When I arrived she had just been fed and she was sound asleep. I held her for awhile and then we decided to take advantage of the good weather and go for a walk. We bundled her up and buckled her into the stroller. I’m not sure why she needs to be buckled. She’s not going anywhere.
With Lucy at our side we walked through the neighbourhood. It was fun seeing all the left over Hallowe’en decorations on people’s front lawns and the last few remaining flowers making a final showing before the frost sets in. We stopped at a local cafe and bought chai lattes to go and a little something to take home and eat. We would have stayed but we had the dog with us so G stayed outside while I went inside to order.
When we got home the baby finally woke up and of course she was hungry. She ate for a long time and then she became quite fussy, probably due to a little gas. I laid her over my lap and rubbed her back. It helped a little but after an hour the only thing that worked was more time with mommy. She finally fell asleep again. 
Super Heroes, Princesses, Cheerleaders, and Ghoulish Monsters
….plus an assortment of other interesting characters
Ah, Hallowe’en! An excuse to dress up and express our creativity.
Every year at this time I wrack my brain to come with an original idea for a costume. In the past I’ve been a gum ball machine, a jellyfish, the lion from the Wizard of Oz, and an assortment of witches. My favourite costumes, however, are those that are a play on words. For example I’ve been a chipmunk where I’ve dressed as a monk and then pinned potato chip bags all over me. I also dressed up in a bird costume and put a large clock around my neck and called myself ‘Time Flies’. Another time I hung a huge quarter around my neck and carried a large hammer and called myself a ‘Quarter Pounder’. This year I designed a costume that was an interpretation of my last name ‘Cormier’.
Three days ago my friend L called me and asked what I was going to wear on Hallowe’en. I was stumped. I felt burned out and that there were no more creative juices flowing. I told her that I would probably just recycle one of my old costumes and go as a witch. She had already decided to go as her name so she was going to be a cat with a tail announcing her love for music (she’s the music teacher). I glibly said that I’d have to be an apple ‘core’ and she got very excited. We talked for a few minutes more and when I hung up I had my costume in my head. Here’s what I came up with.
Core + Mi (as in doh, re, mi) + eh! (a Canadian interjection)
Every year I’m always amazed at the wonderful costumes that the teachers and children parade around in (literally). At the end of the day we have a big parade that the entire school participates in. We walk around the school which borders on two streets and the parents and the community are out to witness the ‘spook..tacular’ event.
Hope you enjoyed your ‘Halloween’ weekend in your part of the world as much as I did!
Cheers!
Closing the Cottage
….closing the cottage took place later than normal
Traditionally many people close their cottages on the Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. For us this year that date was pushed forward by two weeks.
Our first grandchild was due to arrive on October 4th and we wanted to be close to home when she made her way into the world. As a result we didn’t venture too far from home from October 1st on. One week after the due date was Thanksgiving, which we spent with our daughter and the following weekend it snowed up north. Snow in mid-October is pretty rare in this part of Canada so we weren’t prepared, physically or emotionally, to drive in 15 cm of snow this early in the year.
Earlier this week we had beautiful weather and all the snow up north had melted away. We left after rush hour and made it up to the ferry dock on time, so we thought, to catch the 11:30 boat. What we didn’t know at that moment was that the schedule had been changed in early September when the kids on the island went back to school in Midland.
A nice young man came over to the car and told us that the next boat wouldn’t be for another two hours so we decided to drive back into Midland and have some lunch. We had Frances with us which meant that we had to find a place where we could eat outside. Luckily it was warm enough to do that and one of my favourite restaurants in town still had their patio tables and chairs outside on the sidewalk.
After a delicious lunch of butternut squash soup and a couple of grilled sandwiches we drove back to the ferry dock where I got out of the car and took a few photos of the surrounding area and gave the dog a little bit of exercise while we waited for the ferry to be loaded.
When we finally got to the cottage we quickly started to do what needed to be done. I stripped all the beds and bagged and stored away all the pillows and blankets. I removed all canned and bottled foods from the cupboards so that they couldn’t freeze over the winter. I removed all paper products from the counters and put them into sealed containers so that the mice that move in couldn’t shred them for bedding materials. My husband brought all the outdoor chairs and tables inside and moved and covered the barbecue. We loaded up the car with the bedding and clothes that needed washing and all the canned food. The last thing we did was board up the door so that the snow couldn’t blow in and to keep the glass window from shattering.
We took one last walk on the beach with the dog, keeping her on the least so that she didn’t go swimming. There’s nothing worse than having to drive for two hours with a wet dog unless of course that dog has been sprayed by a skunk.
We left in good time to catch the 4:00 ferry but when we got down to the loading dock we saw that the ferry was on the other side of the lake. I guess that this scheduled time had been changed as well. When the ferry got closer I could see why the time had been changed. The ferry was loaded with high school children coming home from school.
When we finally got on the ferry we were allowed to drive on, front end first, instead of backing on. What a treat! After 20 minutes on the ferry the car ride home took just over two hours.
Another great summer at Christian Island has come to an end. Thank goodness we were able to close on such a beautiful day.
What’s the Significance of the Number 1337?
…..the other day WordPress notified me of a milestone
When I started this blog three and a half years ago I had no idea that I would still be blogging this far down the road, never mind posting 1337 articles.
Congratulations on writing 1337 posts on Mama Cormier!
My question, however, has to do with the number 1337. Why is that number a milestone in the blogging world or at least at WordPress? When I think of milestone numbers, 500, 1000 and 10 000 come to mind. Am I thinking in metric terms? Is 1337 an important number in the Imperial system?
What am I missing? If anyone can help me I’d be most appreciative. In the meantime I’ll celebrate this recognition doled out by those wiser than me at WordPress.
Upon doing further research I did find in Urban Dictionary that 1337 means ‘elite’. Is this the answer?
Share Your World 2015 – Week 43
…debating, tea, strongest sense and a title for my autobiography
Four more great questions from Cee. I had to give two of them a bit of extra thought.
If you were on a debate team, what general subject would you relish debating?
Seeing we’ve just come through a very long election campaign, by Canadian standards, I’d have to say that I enjoy debating about politics. I’m actually pretty passionate about it and I find people who make rash statements, quote political ads as facts and make sweeping generalizations very frustrating.
What’s your strongest sense?
No question that my strongest sense is visual. I have good colour sense and I love to explore the smallest detail in my photographs. My husband thinks that I have selective hearing and my sense of smell is very weak. I love the taste of most foods but I’m not sure I could pass a sommelier test.
What would you name the autobiography of your life?
This is probably the question that stumped me the most. Here are a few titles that I might consider:
Learning to Appreciate the Small Things in Life
Being Loved, Giving Love, Loving to Learn
My Life – It’s Not What I Thought it Would Be
Happy Being Ordinary
Always Looking for the Next Adventure
List your favorite flavors or types of tea.
My favourite tea at the moment is a good strong orange pekoe tea from Ireland or Britain. I still enjoy a good cup of spicy Chai and in herbal teas I like anything with ginger and lemon.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I pretty much wrote about what I was grateful for from last week on Sunday so I won’t repeat what I’ve already said but if you missed it you can check it out here. One other thing I am grateful for is being able to work with such wonderful people. As you may or may not know, teachers, here in Ontario, are going through some pretty tough negotiations and we’ve been without a contract for 14 months. Everyone is getting pretty frustrated and even though we’re still in the classroom doing our jobs and still running extra-curricular activities for the kids, the media is relentless and the rumours are frightening. Needless to say tensions are high but for the most part people are supportive and forgiving.
For the rest of this week I’m looking forward to finishing up some of the art assignments in my classrooms so that I can display them in the halls and share them with you. I’m also looking forward to Hallowe’en. I have no idea what I’ll wear this year but I may go with a traditional costume. I’m glad that the 31st is on the Saturday. The weather is suppose to improve by then and I won’t have to rush home from work to carve out the pumpkin.
Here are a few more photos of the Farmers’ Market that I visited on Saturday and photos that I took on our walk.
Share Your World 2015 – Week 42
….thanks to Cee for four more great questions
Are you usually late, early, or right on time?
It depends on the situation. For appointments I’m almost always on time or early. The only time I’m late happens if I get caught in traffic because of an accident. For parties or social events I’m sometimes ‘fashionably’ late. If I do arrive on time I find that I’m the first one there and end up waiting for others to arrive. If someone has made a reservation for a specific time I try to be there on time. For this blog post I’ve been late recently because of my circumstances in my personal life. Cee would probably say that I’ve posted this in the time frame given but when the next set of questions come out the next day I feel like I’m late.
If you were or are a writer do you prefer writing short stories, poems or novels?
I don’t know if I have the patience to write a novel. I would probably prefer a short story or a poem.
Where did you live at age ten? Is it the same place or town you live now?
When I turned ten I lived in Oakville, a small city between Toronto and Hamilton. We only lived there for four years and my father used to commute to work in Toronto every day. By today’s standards that’s not a very long commute but my father hated it and we moved back to Toronto when I started grade 5. I’ve lived here ever since.
Would you rather be able to fly or breathe under water?
I think I’d rather fly. Flying is faster than swimming and being underwater I think might be somewhat claustrophobic.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for walks in this lovely crisp autumn weather. I love the colours. 
I’m grateful for a dinner and tickets to the opera, downtown, with my friend D who treated me for my birthday. My blogging friend Judith over at Curious to the Max says that after 50 you can celebrate your birthday season for as many days as you are old. So even though my birthday was in August I can still celebrate for six more days.
I’m also grateful for a fun evening with friends and colleagues from school. We went to a great sample sale, where I bought gifts for Christmas, something for my daughter and a couple of things for myself. Afterwards we had a very nice dinner in a great Italian restaurant, Caffino, in Liberty Village.
As always, I’m grateful for time spent with my family. On Saturday, my husband and I picked up our daughter, A, and her partner, J and we all drove to Hamilton to visit G and her new baby girl. My sister, CJP, drove down from Chatham and her son came in on the Go Bus from Toronto to visit as well. It was like a mini reunion. 
Our little Miss Winifred is starting to show her true colours and was a little fussier than I’ve seen on previous visits but this morning after I checked in with my daughter via What’s App she reported that she was able to get more sleep last night than she’s had in awhile.
While we were in Hamilton we went for a walk and I discovered more wonderful shops. Everyone is so friendly and I spent quite a bit of time talking to the shop owners. One of the shop keepers ended up being a former student that I taught in middle school. She made the connection before I did. What a small world we live in. Shine is the name of her store.
Next week I’m looking forward to closing the cottage for the season and spending more time with Miss Winifred.
Cheers!
Sunday Trees – 206
….thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees
Share Your World 2015 – Week 41
….she’s finally here
I waited before posting this week’s Share Your World because I didn’t want to report that the baby still hadn’t arrived. Well on Tuesday, October 13th at 10:39 in the evening my daughter, G, gave birth to a healthy 7 lb. 15 oz. baby girl. Mother and baby are doing extremely well and Dad is over the moon.
It’s been a few days since I’ve posted anything. We’ve been a little busy driving back and forth to Hamilton. So here are my answers to Cee’s questions.
What genre of music do you like?
I like lots of different styles of music. On Thursday I went to an afternoon concert and listened to chamber music but I have to admit that I am a fan of Pop and Jazz. I don’t like heavy metal or Rap music.
What is the worst thing you ate this last week?
The worst thing that I ate was a crispy chicken sandwich from Tim Horton’s. I usually like sandwiches from this food chain but we were a little suspect on how they could make such a crispy sandwich in such a short span of time. I also had a chicken breast from Swiss Chalet which is also normally very good but this one was dry. The first meal was consumed while visiting our daughter at the hospital and the second one was at the airport where my husband and I met my sister from Calgary on a 4 hour layover.
Would you like to be famous? In what way?
I don’t want to be famous. I just want to be remembered in a good light as a kind and caring person. I used to think that fame would be fun but I do like my privacy and I think that often you lose that when you’re famous.
Complete this sentence: This sandwich could really use some …
….of my husband’s mustard pickle or tomato jam. This summer my husband has experimented with some new preserves and these two are wonderful on sandwiches.
Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?
I’m grateful for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my family but most of all for the safe delivery of our first grandchild a couple of days later. I think she’s beautiful but I’m sure all grandmothers say that of their grand babies.
In the week coming up I’m looking forward to spending more time with the new baby but I’m also in the mood for art. I need to reorganize some of my art supplies and start framing some pieces for Christmas gifts.
Thanks to my daughter, Gaelan and her husband, Brendan for letting me share these photos with you.
Introducing
Winifred Josephine
Born October 13, 2015
Mama Cormier 