Over 14 000 Steps Yesterday and Already Over My Goal Today

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….the last two days have been good walking days

Yesterday I posted that walking 10 000 steps takes effort. By the end of the day I clocked in at 14 826. Most of those steps came from our morning walk where we covered about 5 miles or 8km.

This morning we did the walk again but went a little farther. By the time we got home I had walked 11 000 steps. Later this afternoon we’re visiting friends to see their new home and I’m hoping we’ll go for a walk to check out their new neighbourhood.

My fear is that tomorrow may not be a good walking day. It’s the day my husband goes to the hospital for his surgery but we’re hoping to get out early in the morning and get in some walking for the dog’s sake.

Here are a few more photos of things we saw on our walk today.

Travel Theme: Where Land Meets Water

Posted on July 14, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..Ailsa’s travel theme this week is where land meets water

Water and beach scenes have to be my favourite subjects for photographs……. from the shores of Ireland to the rocky coast of Lake Ontario and the sandy beach at Christian Island.

13 000 More Steps to a Healthier Me

Posted on June 13, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….after work I treated myself and my good friend L to a manicure and pedicure

I’m going to a wedding tomorrow and I really needed to get my toes done. It was L’s birthday last month so I decide to treat her to a manicure and pedicure after work today. Of course it made no sense to sit and watch her being pampered so I had to treat myself as well. Besides I’ve been wearing sandals to work for a few weeks now and it was a little embarrassing when my kindergarten students pointed out that my nail polish on my toes was chipping.

: Coca Cola Red on my toes

: Gel Polish

After about an hour of soaking, filing and applying colour we headed over to Marshall’s to try on some clothes. I chose nine tops to try on and left with two. When I got home my husband had just pulled out one of his homemade pizzas from the oven. Yummy!

After supper Frances was eager to go for her evening walk. Even though I was tired I knew that once I got going I would really feel better for it and I do enjoy it. The rain had stopped and it looked like it would stay away for awhile. I brought along my iPhone to snap a few pictures. Before I left I checked my Jawbone Up to see how far I had walked up to this point. It registered at just over 6000 steps.

Tonight we headed towards Col. Samuel Smith Park. I’ve been letting Frances dictate how far we walk and the direction she wants to go. When we got to the park I thought for sure she’d want to turn back but no she proceeded to head towards the lake and the naturalized area of the park. I kept my eyes open for some interesting shots and I think I managed to catch a few good ones. Here are a few things we saw on our walk tonight.

When we finally got home I checked my Up bracelet and discovered that I had walked almost 13 000 steps. This is the third day in a row that I’ve walked over 10 000 steps. Last week I averaged over 11 000 steps a day. I’m hoping that this increase in movement and watching what I eat will help me lose the pounds that I put back on. Luckily I didn’t put it all back on but more than I should have. I need to learn to get right back on track as soon as the first five pounds return.

Sunday Trees – 186

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..thanks to Becca Givens for hosting Sunday Trees

Now that trees in the neighbour are blooming like crazy I actually had to choose one photo over another. This tree looks beautiful but the smell from the blossoms is nauseating. After some investigation I believe this tree is called the Callery pear tree. If anyone thinks it’s something else I would appreciate knowing.

A Blue Woman and Coffins

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Mama Cormier

Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge 2015 – Week 23

……an impromptu visit to the museum earlier this week furnished me with some very odd ball photos for Cee’s Odd Ball Photo Challenge

The nice thing about having a membership to the museum or the art gallery is that you can walk in at anytime and spend as much or as little time as you want and not worry about getting your money’s worth. Last Monday after my husband’s procedure at a downtown hospital we met our oldest daughter and enjoyed a nice lunch with her and then proceeded to walk to the museum to see if there were any new exhibits. We checked out an exhibit of Mexican textiles and then discovered a floor with African and South American masks, tools, sculptures, paintings and other artefacts. The blue woman sculpture and the specialty designed coffins from Ghana, I thought, made excellent photo subjects for this week’s odd ball challenge.

A south Asian sculpture using teak and indigo to represent the region.

Coffins in Ghana are specifically designed to honour the deceased’s past while alive.

The owner of this coffin may have been a car dealer or used a car to earn his living.

This coffin was designed for a fisherman. My husband said that his coffin would be a guitar case.

One Word Photo Challenge – Dry

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Mama Cormier

……thanks to Jennifer Nicole Wells for this week’s photo challenge – dry

Share Your World 2015 – Week 21

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…..Cee has changed up the format for this week’s post

Instead of four questions, Cee has asked us to choose topics and list at least four items for each topic. Here are my choices:

Favorite Songs

Favorite flowers or plants: Gerbera Daisy, Sunflowers, Tulips, Gladiolas,

Favorites types of tea
Favorite types of animals: dogs, elephants, snow leopards, zebras

List of favorite blogs
Stuff that makes you laugh: silly jokes, funny movies, my husband, absurd answers that kids write on tests
Movies to cheer you up
Favorite actors/actresses
Good restaurants to eat at
Best desserts: anything with fruit and whipped cream, creme brule, real Black Forest cake, ice-cream

My broken birthday cake. It didn’t travel well on my husband’s bike.

Games to play with friends
Fun things for a rainy day: playing board games, reading, painting, talking on the telephone, baking,
Books I want to read
Things I want to have in my home (paintings, hot tubs, book cases, big screen tv etc)
Places worth shopping
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 I was able to organize the activities for Monday’s Forest of Reading Celebration. On the weekend I made my samples for the hand made journals, shopped for the gift bags and purchased some books for the students that had done an outstanding job with our reading challenge. I’m thankful for all the help from two of my colleagues, M and B who stayed late on Friday and helped me set up the supplies for the workshop. A special thanks to R for running the drama workshop and my boss, M for purchasing the pizza lunch for all our reading experts and the 40 students who qualified for our special day.

One final thanks goes to the parents and the school council for making this program possible with their generous contribution. Without their financial support we wouldn’t have been able to purchase the books for the program and hire the author who came to speak to the boys and girls on Monday.

This week I’m looking forward to our Jump Rope for Heart activity on Friday and to the Fun Fair on Saturday. This year the goal was to sell at least 400 wristbands before this Saturday. If that happened I agreed to go into the dunk tank. The children have been taunting me for weeks that I was going down into the tank but I replied that unless they sold those wristbands that wasn’t going to happen. Today they met the goal. My principal is over the moon that it’s going to be me this year and not her going into the tank. Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted as to how I survive the ordeal.

I leave you with a few images from last week. On Saturday my husband and I took a trip to the Junction to check out the first day of the weekly Farmers’ Market. I looked up and photographed some of the interesting facades of the older buildings in the neighbourhood and we checked out a few interesting stores and of course stopped for coffee.

Weekly Photo Challenge – Motion

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….this week’s WP photo challenge involves motion

My photos for this challenge include Lucy running towards us, a swan stretching his wings, a ride in mid-air at the CNE, a wind surfer, a young boy skipping a stone while his father fishes and seagulls scrambling for bits of food.

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Geometric Shapes

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Mama Cormier

…some of my favourite black and white geometric photos have appeared here more than once so it was time to create some new ones

My all time favourite geometric photos are those of the new addition of the ROM here in Toronto but I’ve used them before and didn’t feel right about using them again. For those who may not have seen them, here are some thumb-nail shots.

So Cee’s Geometric Challenge drove me to walk around in my neighbourhood and look for interesting shots of geometric shapes. I live in an older neighbourhood of Toronto and many homes are being renovated. A number of people have opted for a modern geometric style of architecture. People either love it or hate it.

Back in March, my friend D and I went to the new Aga Khan Museum here in the east end of Toronto. Persian art features some beautiful geometric designs.

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