Category Archives: Family

Share Your World 2015 – Week 50

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….thanks Cee for 50 weeks of great questions

Favourite thing to photograph? Write? Or Cook?

I love photographing nature. When I discovered the macro feature on my camera I’m became somewhat obsessed with taking close-ups of flowers and seed pods and when an insect appears on the subject, I’m in heaven.

I like to write about my daily life. It’s like keeping a personal diary that I share with the world. I’ve dabbled in Haiku which I quite enjoy.

I like baking but I don’t do very much of it because I would eat it and be even heavier than I am. I’ll probably  do some Christmas baking because I like to give it to my neighbours and friends.

Did you like swinging as a child? Do you still get excited when you see a swing?

I’m not sure that I really liked it as a young child but when I got older (preteen) we used to hang around the swings and challenge each other to go as high as possible. I can’t say that I get excited when I see the  swing sets in my neighbourhood. The thought of going on one actually makes me a bit nauseated.

What has surprised you about blogging? 

The biggest surprise about blogging is that I’m still here, almost four years since I started. I’m also surprised how my focus has changed and how many photo challenges that I take part in.

List at least five favorite desserts.

I have to admit that desserts are a weakness. When I’m good I can go without for a long time but once I start eating sweets it’s a slippery slope. Here are some of my favourite desserts:

Anything with fruit – apple strudel (authentic is the best)

– apple or fruit crisp

– fresh fruit torte with whipped cream

Poppy seed cake

Creme Brule

Key lime tarts

Bread pudding

Ice Cream with fruit and whipped cream

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 dinner and time spent with a group of friends last Friday. On Saturday I got out for a long walk with my husband and dog and I managed to log over 15 000 steps for the entire day. On Sunday my family and I drove out into the country to a Christmas tree farm and cut down three trees for each of our homes. It was a cold and dreary day and the first time that I’ve done this when there was no snow on the ground. Afterwards we went back to my youngest daughter’s place in Hamilton and warmed up with coffee, gluehwein, hot home-made soup and grilled sandwiches.

Today the girls played in the West Conference Finals for basketball. They won their first two games and in the final game they lost in a very good game, 16 to 14. It was a difficult loss for them because it was so close and they missed out going to the city championships because of one basket. On the plus side they earned a second place banner for the school.

This week I’m looking forward to hearing the choir sing at the Holiday Concert. We’re having our staff party on Wednesday and on Saturday I’m attending another Christmas dinner with another group of friends. Friday is the last day of school and I have about a week to finish my Christmas shopping and get the house ready for family get togethers. The thing I’m looking forward to the most is seeing my son on Monday. He’ll be flying in from London, England and spending about two weeks with us.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 49

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….thanks to Cee for coming up with four more interesting questions

What would be your ideal birthday present, and why?

I love birthdays and I love to be surrounded by family and friends on my birthday. My ideal present would be a big party with all the important people in my life present

What colour would you like your bedroom to be?

I’ve had grey in my bedroom for years and I’ve hated it. I recently bought a neutral cream colour which I think I’ll much prefer.

Would you prefer snowy winters, or not, and why?

I like snow but I also like it when it melts away in March. Last winter it hung around way too long.

Would you rather go a week without bathing, but be able to change your clothes, or a week without a change of clothes, but be able to bathe?

I think I would prefer to bath every day and wear the same clothes. At least the clothes won’t get as dirty if I start out clean every day. I would probably hand wash my underwear every night.

Bonus question: What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up?

Last week I was grateful for a very mild weekend. I managed to get out on Saturday for a walk with the dog and then meet up with my daughters and their families at the Junction Christmas Market. All in all I walked 16 000 steps that day. I also got to spend some time with Miss Winnie. She’s starting to smile more and when I changed her diaper she gave me a huge smile. She makes my heart melt.

Last week, the girls’ basketball team played in their first tournament. They won all three games and have moved on to the West Conference Finals.

Yesterday we hosted our annual Craft Night at the school. We invite the students to bring their parents back to school in the evening and go from room to room and make whatever craft is being featured. This year we had numerous crafts that included golf ball snowmen, melted snowman ornaments, Minion ornaments, cookie decorating and paper crafts. I usually don’t have time to go around and take photos of the different activities but this year I did manage to go to a few rooms close to the library before we became busy. Here are a few of the great things that the children made. It was all over in an hour. It’s almost like preparing a big Christmas dinner where you spend hours and hours cooking and making preparations and then it’s all over in 20 minutes.

For the rest of the week I’m looking forward to having dinner with a group of friends. On the weekend my husband and I are planning on driving to the countryside with our daughters to cut down a Christmas tree. This will be my youngest daughter’s first Christmas tree in her new home. Ideally it would be nice to have some fresh snow but the temperatures are suppose to remain well above freezing so that’s very unlikely.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. Till next time.

Carol

 

Share Your World 2015 – Week 48

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…..it feels strange to have missed a week so I’m glad to be back to answer Cee’s questions for Share Your World

Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?

I’m definitely a hugger. I like bear hugs from family members and close friends. I’ve read recently that hugs can reduce your stress and the longer the hug the more effective it is for calming you down.

What is your favorite toppings on pizza?

I love kale and sausage (no tomato sauce) and mushrooms, bacon, caramelized onions and cheese (with tomato sauce). My husband makes fantastic pizza.

If you were the original designer of one existing corporate logo, which one would you select?

I love the Volkswagen logo.It is so recognizable.

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Complete this sentence: Where I can seek my solace is… 

….anywhere where I can paint and/or read. The place that comes to mind first is my cottage.

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 that my father finally got to meet his first great grandchild. My daughter and her husband made the two hour trip to my Dad’s place. My husband and I picked up lunch and joined them and we enjoyed a simple meal together. I think that this photo says it all.

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I’m also grateful for perfect walking weather. I’ve averaged about 12 000 steps a day. My principal was gifted a Fit Bit for her birthday and she has made it very easy to get in my steps for the day. Every spare minute in our day she asks me and anyone who will join her to walk around the school. It really helps. Thanks M!

Warmth in November, Frances has a Bath and a Destination Wedding

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….what a glorious day!

For two days in a row, I’ve slept for a solid eight hours and I’ve reached my walking goal of 10,000 steps for seven consecutive days. Yay!

It is hard to believe that we’re half way into November. I dressed warmly for our daily walk this morning only to disrobe half way through our trek because I was too warm. I took off my scarf and gloves and opened up my jacket and the fleece I had on underneath it. Every day like this from here on in is a blessing.

When we got back from our walk we decided we could no longer stand the smell emanating from our little dog. I don’t know if she rolled in something or if it was a just a combination of swims in the lake and running through the fields that produced that rancid smell. None the less, we plopped her into the tub and scrubbed her down with doggy shampoo and warm water. After a couple of rinses we dried her off with some old towels. She didn’t particularly like the experience but she smells so much better. She even feels nicer to pet. We also threw out her old bed and I went out and bought her a new one. The old one was beyond washing again.IMG_6859

Our entire family has an app called WhatsApp. It’s very inexpensive to purchase (it was free and then went up to 99 cents) and we’ve never experienced any problems with it. What it does is allow us to text message and phone anywhere in the world, free of charge, to friends and family who also have the app. You can also put a group together so that everyone in the group gets the message at the same time.

Today our son in London texted all of us and informed us that the plans for his wedding were starting to move along and that Italy was back in the plan. He put some dates out there for all of us to mull over and it looks like there may be a wedding in July. I don’t want to jinx it so I’m not giving any more information than that. Now we just have to wait and see if the ‘farm’ apartments can be booked for the whole family and what day B and A choose for the actual wedding. Her family would also have to travel, so there’s a lot to consider in a rather short space of time but I’m glad that we’re not waiting another 18 months before this wedding takes place. I’m so excited!

Taken two year Christmases ago when they first got engaged.

Taken two year Christmases ago when they first got engaged.

It looks like this warm weather may stick around for a few more days. Wonderful!

Cheers!

Frankenstein’s Spooktacular Castle

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…..check out Igor in this video

My oldest daughter works at the University of Toronto School of Dentistry. She is a medical illustrator and specializes in computer animation. Every year her department at the school of dentistry participates in a friendly competition to see which department can come up with the best display for Hallowe’en. This year they turned the department into Frankensteins’ castle with props, lighting and sound effects. The staff all took on different roles and dressed up and applied make-up to look like their characters. My ‘quiet’ daughter is Igor. Check out those eyes.

Needless to say the department won the competition. It took about a day to put together.

If you’re interested in seeing some of my daughter’s work you can see it at the U of T School of Dentistry Chanel on YouTube. She created the video on Early Embryonic Facial Development

A Trip to Hamilton, Hot Sauce and Baby Time

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…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. IMG_6741

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. IMG_6748

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Master Pumpkin Carvers

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….in the Cormier family

This is my husband’s 37th pumpkin that he’s carved and my son-in-law’s first. I think my husband has some serious competition.

Yesterday I luckily found this large beauty. In my neighbourhood they were almost completely sold out when I finally got around to purchasing one and they weren’t reduced in price. It weighed a ton and I was glad that I parked close by.

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This year I had the pleasure of cleaning the guts from the inside of the pumpkin.

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Now that the messy part was done, my husband could focus on the design and carving out the face of this year’s Jack O’lantern.

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Here are the two finished pumpkins, side by side. You be the judge.

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It was a perfect night for trick or treating. Both my husband and I sat outside with a glass of wine in hand as we greeted about 46 children. That may not seem like a lot of children to you but last year we only had 2. I leave you with a few more photos of Hallowe’en at the Cormier and Turner house. Enjoy!

Share Your World 2015 – Week 42

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….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. IMG_6523 IMG_6513 IMG_6552I’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.

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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. IMG_6563 IMG_6564

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!