Category Archives: About Me

The Curse is Lifted

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…..I didn’t gain weight

Yesterday I told you about how a friend used to insist that I had lost weight and when I weighed myself I would discover that I had actually gained weight. This week I received similar compliments from numerous friends and I was afraid to get on those scales. If I had been exercising regularly and watching my calorie input I wouldn’t have worried, in fact, I would have been weighing myself regularly looking forward to seeing how much weight I had lost.

Today I stepped on the scales and discovered I hadn’t lost any more weight (not a surprise) but I also hadn’t gained any weight. I’m still down 32 pounds.

I’ve learned a couple of things about myself. First and foremost I’ve discovered that I can eat carbs and not immediately gain weight. A couple slices of bread, a little pasta and even an occasional sweet isn’t going to put all my weight back on. Basically the way I’ve been eating has been a maintenance diet.

The problem is that I’m not satisfied with the weight that I carry now. I’m still overweight and am still considered obese. I hate that word. I feel better than I have in years but I know that I can do better. It’s time to start anew.

Tomorrow I’ll start the school day coaching soccer and at the end of it I’ll be out running with the girls who are in Girls on the Run. I’m going to stop into the gym on the way home and make an appointment with a personal trainer. In the morning I will have a high protein breakfast with lots of vegetables and lunch will be a large salad with chicken. Dinner will be more vegetables and a protein. I need to drink more water, so I will keep a water bottle close at hand all day. My good friend, D, told me today that she used to keep a one litre water bottle by her desk and made a daily vow to herself that she wouldn’t go home until she had finished all the water from that bottle.

I feel like I am starting all over again, except this time I’m starting 32 pounds lighter. I know I can do it. I will do it. I am doing it.

Taken in February at the weight I am now. My mid-way before picture.

Taken in February at the weight I am now. My mid-way before picture.

Cheers!

The Curse and a Hazy Moon

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…..it never fails, when people tell me I look like I’ve lost more weight…..

Years ago a good friend of mine often commented that I looked like I had lost weight and when I checked the scales I was always heavier. As much as I loved this friend I dreaded hearing those words from her.

This past week I’ve had numerous people comment that I’ve lost more weight. I shudder at the thought of stepping on those scales this week. Why? Has the curse returned? To be honest I haven’t had the best food week. Way too many carbs. As for exercise I feel I could have done more. For weeks now we’ve only done our walks together on weekends and I haven’t been to the gym in over a month.

Today I started the day coaching the girls’ soccer team and then at the end of the school day I spent an hour and a half with Girls on the Run. I ran with the girls but I found the ground too soft for my liking and I only ran 1 lap (.6k). Tonight my husband and I got out with the dog and we walked for 3.9k. It felt good and I was happy that my husband was up to doing a second walk today.

On our walk I took the camera in hope of finding some interesting subjects to photograph. I love that the days are longer. When we started the walk it was just starting to get dark and by the time we got home it was completely dark. The moon had a slight haze over it. I wasn’t sure that my camera could handle the low light but I played with some of the settings, hoping for the best.

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Thanks, I’m at 10 000 Views!

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Just a short post to let all my followers know that I’ve reached the first of my goals before the end of April. I’ve reached 10 000 views. My second goal was to get 300 followers. I’m at 288 and need 12 more followers to reach my second goal. That’s 1.3 new followers each day over the next nine days. Can I do it? It’s up to you.

Sunshine, Tulips, BLTs and Working Outdoors

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…..a lot of things to be happy about today

I slept in this morning so I missed out on the walk/run with the dog. I’ve been getting to bed too late this week so sleeping in felt wonderful and I’m feeling completely refreshed. Now I just need to climb into bed earlier during the week so I can have that same feeling for the rest of the week.

This morning when I checked the blogs that I follow I came across one that completely inspired me for the rest of the day. Kate’s Creative Space from Great Britain posted some beautiful pictures of purchases she had made earlier in the day. Pictures of the freshly baked bread and the fresh cut flowers resonated with me and I had an immediate craving for a BLT sandwich. We had everything we needed, except the bread, so my husband (also craving a BLT) and I bundled up warmly, gathered up the shopping bag and walked  to the top of the street to our local shopping strip known as Lakeshore Village.

We picked up a nice freshly baked whole wheat bread from the Portuguese bakery and then made our way to the green grocer, just a few stores down from the bakery. We picked up a few vegetables and I treated myself to a couple bunches of tulips. The big difference between flowers here and flowers in Europe is the price. I think Kate mentioned that she paid 1 pound for a bunch of flowers compared to $5.00 for a bunch here.

When we got home I tried to arrange my purchases into an interesting grouping to photograph and I soon realized that there is a real skill needed to do this well. Kate is an expert at it and I need more practice and perhaps some lessons on how to do it properly. The shopping bag behind the food is one that I picked up yesterday at Winners. I couldn’t resist the picture of the Dachshund. It reminded me so much of Frances and the proceeds from the bag go the Canadian Women’s Foundation.

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After doing my ‘photo shoot’ I started making the BLTs. Bacon, ripe red tomato slices, lettuce, toasted whole wheat bread and mayonnaise, topped with a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Yum!!!!!! I made the classic one for my husband and on mine I reduced the mayonnaise and added soft ripe avocado in its place….my new favourite sandwich topping.

P1000929 P1000930 P1000931 P1000933 P1000934 P1000935After lunch I needed to get outside some more so I decided it was probably a good day to start cleaning the yard. It was definitely the sunniest  day we’ve had in awhile and after raking the grass and pulling weeds I didn’t feel the chill in the air. Call me crazy but I always get a feeling of satisfaction after I finish a chore and can see the fruits of my labour. It literally makes me happy.

A good start.

A good start.

The 'fruits of my labour".

The ‘fruits of my labour”.

 

City of Crafts – Spring Show

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…..a nice diversion on a cold ‘spring’ day

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Yesterday, my youngest daughter and her friend, S, had a booth at the Spring City of Crafts show in downtown Toronto. The venue was at St. Paul’s Church and was considerably smaller than the venue for the Christmas show.

The girls displayed some of the products that they sell through their blogs and they set up a photobooth where people could choose from the props they brought and have their picture taken for free. On Monday they can go to G’s or S’s websites and download their photos. Uschi and Kay     Have and Hold Design      Becca Gilgan – Photographer

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There were numerous vendors there selling anything and everything from dolls, clothing,  pottery, soaps, bags and plants and everything in between. The thing that always stands out for me is how young the vendors are. Their wares tend to be very hip and trendy but there seems to be something there to suit a wide range of tastes. As you can see from my photos I tend to gravitate to hand crafted and sewn items. Some of the vendors were present at the Christmas show so I didn’t take pictures of those same items. Enjoy!

 

April 20….it’s snowing

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…..just a few flurries but snow nonetheless

When I woke up this morning the skies were overcast, the temperature was sitting close to zero degrees celsius and flurries were swirling above the ground. The sun appeared for a few minutes and I had a ray of hope that the day might be bearable.

As I write this the room has darkened which means that the sun is hidden again behind a wall of grey clouds. I turned to observe the world from my patio window and am presently confronted with small pellets of white hail bouncing onto my deck. O whoas me, what is to become of my daffodils?

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Well it is April, and the weather can change in a blink of an eye. After posting these photos the sun has reappeared and the hail is all but melted. Maybe there’s still hope for this day.

 

I’m Okay, Crayon Prints on Fabric and Sure Signs of Spring

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….maybe I should have broken these topics into separate posts

After yesterdays post I’ve had people ask me all day if I was okay. I’m fine. I was literally, just tired. I need to get more sleep and it was after all an exceptionally busy day yesterday. The headache I complained about hasn’t returned and I feel much less stressed today. Now, the kids, on the other hand were more exhausting than usual and I wasn’t the only one complaining. Is there a full moon looming? I think it’s partially due to spring fever. We’ve had a couple of warm days and it is Friday as well.

I hope everyone enjoyed the those warm moments because the temperature is about to go down again. When I got home tonight my daffodils were in full bloom so I took a few pictures before the winds started. When I went out later I noticed that some of the flowers have already been knocked off the plant.

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Yesterday I told you about a new project that I started with my grade 2 students.  I had these fabric crayons given to me many years ago and I wasn’t quite sure how I would use them. I knew that there were quite a few students in my grade 2/3 class that had finished the last project and the rest weren’t far behind. I packed up all the fabric I had along with the iron and ironing board and hoped for the best. I hadn’t even made a sample or tried out the crayons to see if they worked…..not always a wise move.

We took the rough copy paper we had used on the last project and on the unused side I instructed the students to make a drawing using the fabric crayons. I gave the dimensions they were to work in but I gave them free reign as far as the subject for their design went. I demonstrated how much crayon they needed to use in order to get a nice print and I suggested that if they didn’t want to draw something realistic they could draw a doodle design and fill in the spaces with lots of different colours. Away they went. Creativity at it’s best.

When people looked at what  the grade 2s had done, many thought that I had drawn the design and they coloured it in. Not so. From start to finish the entire piece was their own creation. Through trial and error we discovered that we had to use quite a bit of pressure with the iron and if we went over the piece several times the print would become more intense. The other thing that we learned was that synthetic fabrics produce a more vibrant print compared to the cotton fabrics. I liked both. Each had it’s own special quality. When you see the examples, I included the original crayon drawing and then displayed the one or two prints next to it. Enjoy!

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I’m Physically Exhausted

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…..arrived at school at 7:40 and left at 5:15

It wasn’t the long hours that made me tired, because I often stay later but more importantly is was what I did in that time. I arrived early for the girls’ soccer team tryouts. At lunch I played floor hockey in the teachers vs students game. I scored the turn around goal. The noise from the fans watching the game was incredible. My ears were ringing for awhile.

Right after the game I went straight to my art class with my grade 2/3 class. It was a very busy class. I introduced transferring a design from paper onto fabric using fabric crayons and a hot iron. Of course I did the ironing. The resulting prints were beautiful and I will photograph them tomorrow and share them with you in the next couple of days. This project was so popular that students wanted to stay in class through recess so that I would iron their print onto a piece of fabric of their choice.

After recess I headed down to my grade 2/3 class that I usually take to the library but today they had a special dance workshop with an artist from Arts Express. For the next 40 minutes I participated with the students and did the warm up activities and learned a few hip hop steps. At this point I’m really starting to feel the exhaustion set in and I still have to do ‘Girls on the Run’ from 3:00 to 4:30.

After the dance workshop I headed back to the previous class and ironed one more print and then went back to the library to read up what I had to do for tonights ‘Girls on the Run’ activities. The girls were particularly excited tonight and it was difficult keeping them focused on the lesson.

After dinner I headed off to my pottery class. Despite a wicked headache I worked on my jar for over two hours, carving a design onto the lid. I took some pictures so that you could see my progress. I’m going to cut it short tonight so that I can get to bed and do it all again tomorrow.

Cheers!

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New Zealand, Bravo!

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…..13th country worldwide to legalize same-sex marriages

As a mother of a gay child and a friend to numerous gay couples, I am always saddened by individual people, organizations, political groups and religious orders that are threatened by the happiness of the LGBT community. So many of these homophobic groups feel that the institution of marriage will be threatened if same-sex marriage is legalized.

Same-sex marriage was legally recognized in Ontario in 2003 and the first same-sex marriage in the world took place in Toronto in January of 2001. Today New Zealand was the 13th country in the world and the first Asian-Pacific country to legally recognize same-sex marriage.

MP, Maurice Williamson presented an impassioned speech supporting the passage of the bill that would legalize same-sex marriage in New Zealand. In his words,  “All we are doing with this bill is allowing two people who love each other to have that love recognized by way of marriage,” he said. “We are not declaring nuclear war on a foreign state; we are not bringing a virus in that could wipe out our agriculture sector forever.” Bravo! Well said, Mr. Williamson.

The bill was passed with a vote count of 77 in favour and 44 against. After the victory the spectators in the public gallery broke out in spontaneous song supporting the bill’s sponsor, MP Louisa Wall. The song was Pokarekare Ana, a love song in the country’s indigenous Maori language. Have a listen. It brought tears of joy to my eyes.

I am NOT interested in hearing from people who cannot rejoice in this victory. I will NOT use this post as a platform for groups who want to use passages from the Bible, Quran, or  other religious or sacred documents to vilify any group of people that they choose to discriminate against. Peace be with you.