Share Your World 2016 – Week 13

Posted on March 28, 2016 by Mama Cormier

….lucky week 13

Are you left or right handed?

I’m left handed but I’m able to do a lot of things with my right hand. I write and draw with my left hand. With my right hand I knit, play ukelele, bowl, bat, golf, throw a ball, play tennis and control the mouse and scroll bar on my computer. With both hands I can iron, use scissors, brush and blow dry my hair and use a saw.

If you had only one TV, would you prefer the TV in the living room or another room?

We only have one TV and it’s in our TV room in the basement. We didn’t want it in the living room because we didn’t want it to be a distraction when we have company. Too often we’ve seen people go straight for the TV instead of sitting down and having a conversation. They might as well stay home. I also don’t like having a TV in the bedroom. When we were younger, we’d fall asleep and wake up to the white noise of the test pattern on the TV. I guess I’m aging myself. Today’s generation doesn’t even know what a test pattern is.

Have you ever participated in a distance walking, swimming, running, or biking event? Tell your story.

When I was younger long distance walks for charity were all the rage. In high school I walked 32 miles around the city to raise money for a charity I don’t recall. I do remember collecting pledges for every mile walked and stopping at check points to verify that I’d walked that leg of the walk. We started early in the morning and I finished at city hall, and it was already dark. I remember there being hundreds of people waiting at the finish line and when I arrived the first thing my father did was hug me and step on feet. Ouch!

Four years ago I ran my first 5k run. I worked with a group of young girls at school and we participated in Girls on the Run. The first year I did this I had just started to lose weight and was down about 18 pounds but by the end of the run I thought I was going to die. I think I had a bit of a panic attack and couldn’t stop crying. The following year I did it again but this time I was down 30 pounds and I had been running more consistently. It felt great.

I’ve done one other running event after that, two years in a row. The Railpath Run in the Junction raises money for The Stop to increase access to healthy food in a manner that maintains dignity, builds health and community, and challenges inequality. This particular run I’ve done with my oldest daughter who lives in the community. It’s a lot of fun and both times I’ve done the community walk/run portion. This year I was only going to walk the course but once I started I couldn’t stop running. I’m not very fast but I’m consistent.

Complete this sentence: Love is…

• a smile from my granddaughter

• flowers waiting for me when I arrive home from work for no special occasion

• when the whole family gets together

• the dog greeting me at the dog, her whole body gyrating… she’s so happy to see me

• my husband hugging me and playfully teasing me

• my husband’s home cooked meals

• my husband’s complete acceptance of all my flaws and imperfections

• my father’s weekly phone calls

• the pride I feel when I speak of my children’s accomplishments

• continuing to worry about your children’s well being even when they’re adults

• is get togethers with close cherished friends

• is supporting family and friends in good and bad times and in sickness and health

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 short work week and a very long weekend. I was grateful for two days of beautiful weather and being able to get out for a long hike with my husband through High Park.

Our dog, Frances, was very ill ten days ago so I’m very grateful that she’s on the mend and pretty much back to her old self. I know she getting better because she actually wants to go outside and walk but the vet told us to not exercise her too much. That’s a hard thing to convey to a dog, especially one as active as Frances.

I’m also very grateful for time together with the whole family (not including our son in London) during the Easter weekend. We had a wonderful dinner here and our granddaughter provided us with a lot of laughter as she fed herself sweet potatoes and cauliflower.

This week I’m looking forward to another short week at school (4 days) and more success on the scale. I’ve lost 6 1/2 pounds this past week and look forward to more healthy eating and walking. My husband is doing this with me so it makes it so much easier. I’m starting to look at clothes for the wedding this summer and I’m hoping to lose another 20 pounds. I think that’s pretty doable in the next 13 weeks.

For more Share Your World posts check out Cee’s blog.

Share Your World 2015 – Week 9

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Mama Cormier

….March has finally arrived but winter doesn’t want to leave

How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?

It depends on the day. I feel at least 10 years younger than I am, most of the time. Last week when I had trouble standing up after falling while skiing I felt much older. If I have to put an age to it I’d say I feel like I’m in my late 40s or early 50s. Having said that there are days that I think I’m in better shape, physically and mentally than many people who are actually in this age range.

Are you left or right handed?

I’m left handed. I write, paint and eat with my left hand but I do much with my right hand. I bat with my right hand, play the ukelele and guitar with my right hand and knit with my right hand. When I golf and bowl I use my right hand. I iron and type with both hands.

If you HAD to change your name, what would you change it to?

I’m really struggling with this question. I’ve gone through the alphabet trying to pull up names that would suit me. I’ve tried thinking of people that I admire but my husband would leave me if I chose Meryl or Hilary. I’ve gone back to my German heritage but people can’t pronounce most German names and Heidi is just too cutesy. My name, Carol, comes from Charles so I thought I needed to find a more masculine name but Carla, Karen, Connie and Karine are too close to Carol. Then I turned to numerology and settled on a name with German roots and one that suits the number 8. My new name would be Erika.

Where do you hide junk when people come over?

Everything goes into my bedroom. Don’t ask me for a tour of the upstairs of my house. I’d be too embarrassed.

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 special day spent with my friend AB. We met when I first started teaching in 1976. Our rooms were next to each other. I was the Family Studies teacher and she was the art teacher. We had a special relationship right from the start. She is God mother to my children and we’ve stayed close all these years. She’s 11 years older than me and has been retired for awhile. She’s looking forward to the day I retire so that we can ‘play’ again.

On Saturday morning she called me to see if I wanted to look at a condo building with her. She has been preparing to sell her house and down size to a condominium. Both my husband and I thought we were just going to look this place and then walk away so that AB could think about this major purchase. We were blown away when she took out her cheque book and made a down payment on a unit. We were touched that she wanted us there to help her with this life changing investment. We love the location. In fact my husband and I lived in the same location for two years before we bought our own house.

The other thing I’m grateful for was being able to drive to Oshawa with my oldest daughter and her partner on Sunday and help my Dad pack up some dishes and clean the fridge before the mover came on Monday. We drove over to their new apartment and filled up the new fridge with food from the house. They were both very pleased with their new accommodations and I was happy to see the place first hand.

This week I’m looking forward to going to Kiwanis with the Grade one classes to hear them sing. My friend’s father, Ray Cattell is having a major art show at the Arts and Letters Club and the opening for the public is this Sunday. I’ve already had a sneak preview and it’s a wonderful show and I can’t wait to share it with my family. I’m also looking forward to a new on-line art assignment from Carla Sonheim this Thursday.

Share Your World – Week 11

Posted on March 18, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….what ice-cream would I be?

If you were an ice cream cone how many scoops and flavors would you be and why?

This is tough. I love ice-cream and I love having a variety of flavours. I think I would go for two scoops (in a cup, not a cone) and hopefully my partner in crime would have two different scoops so that I could sample some of his. The one flavour that comes to mind immediately is coffee or mocha. My second scoop would be cinnamon (a specialty flavour at Greg’s) or a rich French vanilla ice-cream with a swirl of chocolate, nuts and cherries. Yum!

Are you left or right handed?

I am left handed. My mother was worried about that because as a girl she was forced to write with her right hand and would get her knuckles rapped if she tried to use her left hand. Luckily that archaic practice had ceased to exist when I started school. I’m actually quite ambidextrous and I bowl, bat and knit right handed. Years ago I taught a knitting class at the community school and my mother owned a wool store. One of her customers took my class and she went to my mom to ask for some advice. I use the European method of knitting and since all my students were right handed I instructed them to follow my mirror image. Little did I know at the time that I knit right handed and I was forcing my students to knit with their left hands.

Before making a phone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say?

It depends on whom I’m calling. I never rehearse social calls but when I used to do demonstrations at home parties and I had to cold call people to book parties I definitely rehearsed what I would say. I hated cold calling.

How many rings before you answer the phone?

I usually let the phone ring three times or until the call display comes up. If the number is a 1-800 number I often let it go or I’ll say ‘hello’ twice quickly and then hang up if no one answers back after the second hello.

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

I am grateful for four days with my sisters in Calgary and for the beautiful weather we had last week. Who knew travelling west would be almost as good as going south. This week I’m looking forward to another concert put on by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, featuring Yegor Dyachkov on cello and Jean Saulnier on piano.

I’m also taking an on-line art course for the next two weeks and learning about abstraction and how to paint an abstract. I’m finishing my first assignment and will be posting it shortly.

For more Share your World posts check out http://ceenphotography.com/2014/03/17/share-your-world-2014-week-11/