From Zero to Hero – Day 11 – The House is Completely De-Christmased

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Mama Cormier

Today’s assignment: leave comments on at least three blogs that you’ve never commented on before.

I understand the value of leaving comments on new blogs. I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t do that but it’s always good to be reminded of its benefits. Once people start coming to your site you might feel somewhat disappointed when you have a day or two when very few come over to read what you thought was an awesome post. Sometime though, as in my case, no one came over because when I pushed the Publish button (it appeared that the article was sent off and it even showed up on my Facebook page) it didn’t really publish and the next day I discovered that it was still sitting in a Draft file. I still don’t know why that happens but closing all my tabs before publishing usually helps.

Some of you may be uncomfortable leaving a comment but WordPress has all kinds of great suggestions on how to do this successfully. If an article resonates with me I want the writer to know how it affected me. I usually leave highly political or religious commentary alone. Once I got involved in a conversation that made me very uncomfortable and it wasn’t the author that caused the angst but the people who stopped by to comment. In the end I think that blogger had to moderate all her comments before she would publish any of them.

For the most part people appreciate your comments. Just follow the guidelines that WordPress has drawn up.

Day 11 – The Small Task That Ended up Being a Big Job

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I still had to put away my Christmas ornaments and decorations. I tried to do a little bit every day but the bulk of the clean-up happened today. I think it took me over two hours to pack up the remaining signs of Christmas. I even brought in the wreath that was hanging on the front door. The only thing I haven’t taken done is take down the outdoor lights. I’ll save that for another day, probably closer to the end of the month or even February.

Earlier in the day I read a book for school and I completed a sample for my art class. I loved how the day started and how it’s ending. Dinner is out of the way, dishes are done, the bags for the Goodwill are packed and ready to go in the car, two loads of laundry are done, my Zero to Hero post is written, I watched a pilot from the UK called Derek and loved it and it’s not even 6:30. Maybe I’ll have time to write another post about the art project and the book.

Cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Days 9 and 10

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Mama Cormier

Friday’s Assignment: Follow five more blogs and/or topics.

Saturday’s Assignment: Add and customize two widgets. For this task, you’ll add two widgets: one that adds a text-based feature, and one that adds something image-based.

On Friday I did search out some more blogs and I searched the topic From Zero to Hero. I came across some interesting new blogs and left a few comments along the way. As a result I’ve had some new visitors to my blog. When I first started blogging I routinely went to the Reader section and checked out at least ten new blogs a day. At one point it was suggested to me by a random blogger that to increase your readership all you have to do is click on the like button without even reading the post. I soon discovered that when people don’t actually go into your site and just click the like button it doesn’t register as a ‘view’. I couldn’t understand how I could have 10 likes and only 3 views on the same post. I have since made it a personal policy to only click like button after I have opened the post and actually read it.

Today I added a gallery widget to my already full sidebar. I love taking macro shots with my camera so I made a photo gallery of some of my favourite subjects, insects and flowers. I also updated my Milestones widget. I decided to make the topic this challenge, From Zero to Hero and my two goals for the month of January.

Day 10 – Task for the day

Other than cleaning the kitchen yesterday which is and should be a normal daily task, I decided to devote my time to spending an evening with my husband. No computers or extra cleaning tasks. After a nice meal we enjoyed a movie together, something I haven’t done with him in awhile. We decided to watch Rainmaker. It’s an older movie but we hadn’t seen it before which is surprising because my husband is a huge John Grisham fan. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a very entertaining legal drama, infused with just the right amount of humour from Danny DeVito’s character, plenty of well thought-out characters, brought to life by talented actors and interesting subplots. The reviews that I read were mostly positive. They weren’t outstanding but overall satisfactory.

Today we took turns chopping up the ice on the porch, stairs, walkway and sidewalk. It was considerably warmer today, well above freezing but the rain and warmer temperatures actually made the ice slicker and more dangerous. Once again we didn’t go for a walk in the neighbourhood. We did, however, drive over to the Junction and did a little bit of shopping for dinner. When we got home it was my turn to chop and clear some ice. K’s hands are pretty sore from the constant pounding of the spade onto the ice. He didn’t notice it at first until he went out a second time to do some more clearing. I will probably feel it in the morning.

Tonight I chose to clean one of the counters in my kitchen which had become quite cluttered and to organize the lower corner unit where I store a lot of food containers and vases.

: Before

: Before

: After…neat and tidy

I’ve boxed a number of bottles and old Tupperware containers that I don’t use any more. I’ll be making another trip to the thrift store tomorrow to drop them off.

I’m already into day 11 but the assignment won’t show up for awhile. Time to go to bed. See you in the morning.

Cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Day 8

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Mama Cormier

DAY 8: MAKE YOUR “ABOUT” PAGE IRRESISTIBLE

I have to admit that it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my About page. When I saw today’s assignment I thought “why not?’.

The first week back at school has been a tough one. Everyone is exhausted. It’s been extraordinarily long and I thought Friday would never come. Today I went out for recess duty when it wasn’t my turn. I simply forgot that I had a made a change with one of my colleagues weeks ago. I went back inside because I did have a scheduled duty later in the afternoon.

I started my day with a 7:45 basketball tryout session with 32 grade 4 and 5 boys and I ended the day staying late, trying to figure out how to open up the report card system so that teachers could start recording their marks and comments. Normally it’s a pretty straight forward procedure but we had a few changes in staff recently and we had to call the help desk for some assistance. Of course the help desk was very busy as well so there was some waiting on the phone before we could talk to someone. Our problem wasn’t as easy to resolve as one might think but after a half hour on the phone, some running back and forth and paging a few staff members most of the glitches were fixed and one last problem, we were assured, would be resolved by the morning.

I have to admit that I am extraordinarily tired today. After cleaning up after dinner I have no energy for any extra jobs today, although I did pack up one more box of Christmas stuff. I got a little bit of exercise on yard duty today. I don’t like just standing around so I walk for the full 15 minutes when I’m outside, especially when it’s cold.

Check out my ‘new and improved’ About page.

Cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Day 7

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Mama Cormier

Today’s assignment: create and upload a simple header, or test out a few different backgrounds.

Todays post is going to be short. I’m constantly changing my header and I just recently put the present header in place so I’m not changing my header today. I’m just not feeling it. A while back I discovered that I could change my background and I went from a solid colour to a bin of yellow peppers to what I have now which is a piece of my artwork. Not everything you’ll try will work. Simple and bold seems to work best. Anything with a lot of detail just gets lost behind your text box.

Today’s Job

Today I spent a lot of time in the kitchen cleaning and putting away the things that tend to get left out on the counter. I also swept up all the pine needles from the Christmas tree that the garbage truck finally picked up today. One box of ornaments has been packed up and the Christmas stockings have all been removed from the living room. It’s a slow process but I’ll do a little bit everyday until it’s done. Hopefully the last of the decorations will be safely packed away by the end of the weekend.

Update on the heating problem at school:

The library was nice and warm today but the custodian did say that it was pretty cold in the morning when he arrived. His solution was to turn off all the fans and that did the trick. The fans seemed to be pulling in the cold air from the outside. The kindergarten rooms now have heat but two of the portables were still without heat early this morning. One of the classes spent half the day in the library again but by the afternoon the problem was fixed.

I was outside for a short spell this morning and I walked through the halls during first recess but my goal to move has been seriously hampered by the weather. The temperatures, however, have been getting warmer everyday so hopefully tomorrow I can resume my walking routine without any fear of getting frostbite.

Till tomorrow, cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Day 6 – Cold Weather

Posted on January 7, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..today’s theme is publish a post that has a new-to-you element

I’ve used many forms of media in my posts, including Youtube videos, Vimeo videos, photographs and URL links but I’ve never had any success with Sound Cloud. So here goes another attempt to insert music that isn’t attached to a video.

It’s been bitterly cold for the last two days. Today the windchill factor brought the temperatures down to – 40 degrees celsius. We had indoor recess all day. If that wasn’t bad enough, school buses were cancelled and the heating system in the kindergarten classes and two of the portables didn’t work. All day the library became a temporary home for several classes and tomorrow looks like there may be more of the same.

I didn’t mind sharing the space today but at the end of the day, right after 3:00 the heat in the library and several classes at my end of the hall ceased to exist. I thought at first it was just my imagination but other teachers who walked into the library immediately noticed the drop in temperature. My colleagues across the hall also complained about the chill in their rooms. The thermostat in V’s room registered a 15 degree drop and her hands were literally turning blue by 3:30.

Is it possible when they fixed the heating problem at the other end of the school they messed with the controls at my end? I guess we’ll find out tomorrow morning. In the meantime we left a note for our day time caretaker who arrives super early in the morning.

Day 6 – New Task

Today I debated whether to pack up the Christmas ornaments or clean out the kitchen junk drawer, you know the one. I decided on the junk drawer because I could barely open it and I couldn’t find what I needed when I did get it open. The Christmas ornaments, which are off the tree and the tree is by the curb side, will have to wait for another day.

It turns out that I have too many utensils and knives and I really can’t afford to have a junk drawer. I ended up throwing away things I haven’t used in years and will probably never use. I also found a number of things that I thought I had lost for ever.

I took all the hardware and tools to the work bench in the basement and I put all the warrantees and appliance manuals in a special accordion file that I keep in my office.

Another job done. I’m really liking this ‘task a day’ challenge that I’ve created for myself. I’m hoping that the temperatures warm up a bit so that I can start walking again.

I think Sound Cloud worked. Yahoo!

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/zero-to-hero/

Cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Day 4 and Saying Good-bye to my Son

Posted on January 5, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….a challenging day overall…lots of company and one last meal with B and Az

Today’s assignment: follow five new topics in the Reader, and begin finding blogs (and bloggers) you love.

One way to increase readership is to follow other people’s blogs and make comments. Invariably they will come back to your blog to check you out. Today we are encouraged to branch out and investigate topics that we haven’t considered before. I’ve chosen the following five topics (some suggested by WordPress):

Stereotypes: Livicatherine and You’ve Got to be Kidding and Rural to Roaming

Flaneur: The English Department and Around a Red Table

Coffee Culture: Cody Delistraty and Just Add Attitude and Filter(ed)

Owls: My Eco-centric Life and Owl Moon (it’s amazing how many sites pop up when you type the word owl)

Humour: Singing Pigs and Life With the Top Down

Day 4 – The Daily Task

Today was a busy day with saying good-bye to our son and his fiancé. My friend, L came over to say hello and good-bye all at the same time and A and J came for an hour to say a final farewell. I knew that today would be a difficult day to tackle something new so I did what I said I would and that was finish reading the book The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone. Reviewers used words like, charming, delightful, hilarious, compelling, unforgettable, unique and clever. I guarantee that you won’t want to put it down.

It’s been snowing off and on today, but mostly on and right now it’s very wet and heavy. Unfortunately I didn’t get out for my daily walk. I’ll have to do double duty tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a safe and uneventful flight back to the Netherlands for both B and Az. I miss you already. Love, hugs and kisses. Mom

From Zero to Hero – Day 3

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Mama Cormier

….. in a previous post I told you I didn’t fix things that involved electricity…I lied

Today’s assignment: write the post that was on your mind when you decided to start a blog.

This post is one that I hesitated to publish because I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I was feeling somewhat melancholy after spending 3 wonderful days with my entire family. I think I was at a peak of euphoria when everything around me seemed to crash. Luckily the feeling was short lived and I’ve had more memorable moments with my son. For that reason the following post has been altered somewhat to reflect on the positive more than the negative.

Feeling a Little Melancholy

Posted on January 4, 2014

….after three wonderful days with family

I knew that when my son came to visit, he would need to spend time with his friends. I just didn’t know that it would hit me so hard. I’ve looked forward to his visit for so long and when things didn’t go exactly as had been planned I experienced deep disappointment. There were times when I felt I was doing a lot of sitting around and waiting for things to happen. So unlike me. I usually make things happen.

On the 30th of December, my son and his twin sister celebrated their birthdays. Earlier plans changed slightly to accommodate extra guests that been invited. Originally G and Az were suppose to prepare the meal at G’s place and we were all going over there for a big Iranian feast. G’s place, however, is just too small so the party was moved to my place. All in all it turned out to be a great meal and the important part for me was that I had my family together again.

I’m not complaining. I’m just overwhelmed and emotional. I love all my children and they all left the nest years ago. I wasn’t one of these moms that couldn’t cut the apron strings. When they left I was happy that they were starting on a journey to establish their own lives and when they call or visit I’m happy. My son, however, moved far away and I haven’t been able to hug him and reach out to him. So now that he’s here I think I expect more from him.

B and Az left on Thursday and took a train to Montreal for a three of day adventure. They’ll be back late tonight and then on Sunday they fly back to the Netherlands. Sigh!

Now I have a wedding to look forward to. The dates and the venue haven’t been decided but Turkey was mentioned as a possible destination. Smiling!

Day 3- My Task for the Day

Early this morning I fixed the lamp. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was not comfortable doing anything electrical but the lady in the store, yesterday showed me how easy it was to replace the part on the lamp. She was right. Here are some pictures documenting this momentous occasion.

Here is the part I had to replace.

Notice how I use my dining room table as a work bench.

Success!

The lamp with its brand new shade.

Once the lamp was repaired I checked my list to see what other job I would tackle today. I decided to wash and organize my night table and the ledge on the bay window behind my bed. Over the holidays and probably some time before that those two areas had become dumping grounds for my jewellery, hair accessories and creams and cosmetics. I love costume jewellery and never seem to have enough. As you can see from the before and after pictures it had become quite impossible to find anything.

On the window sill I needed to reorganize my jewellery and dust off the pictures. I actually threw a few things away and found a new home for some of my heavier and longer necklaces (in my closet). I really do have too many pieces and I should probably separate the pieces that I wear all the time from the ones I never wear. What I do with the latter I’m not sure but I’m sure I can find them a good home somewhere.

I was on a roll and when I finished this area of my bedroom I also decided to clean off my bookshelf which also becomes a dumping ground. Here is the after picture.

I’m enjoying this job a day challenge. Tomorrow might be a bit more difficult. My son and his fiancé are leaving for the Netherlands in the late afternoon and company is arriving tomorrow to see them off. One of the ‘jobs’ that I have to complete is read The Rosie Project before Monday and I need to start on some books for school. So I think tomorrow’s jobs will involve reading.

Day 3 – Walking

I was worried that I might not get out for my walk today so I made sure that my husband was up for a walk after dinner. It’s warmed up considerably since yesterday so the walk was very pleasant. In fact, on the way out we were almost too warm but coming back we were walking into the wind and were glad for our warm coats and mittens. In total the walk covered 3.7k.

From Zero to Hero – Day 2 – “What’s in a name?”

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..the challenge is to change the name of the blog

The name Mama Cormier has been with me for a long time. My daughter first used it when she was coming up with a user name for my email account. It’s a name that has just stuck with me all these years. Are there advantages to changing it at this time? I guess my biggest concern is confusing those who already follow me. I have considered using Mama Cormier with an added phrase but nothing grabs me. On the other hand, I have expanded the tag line that follows the name. It used to be ….memories and so much more and now it reads….my journey to a healthy life, making new memories and so much more.

I like having an eclectic blog where I can write about whatever comes my way. Maybe my readership would increase if I had a main focus but that’s not who I am. My life is eclectic. I have eclectic taste in music, art, design, clothing, and furniture. I like to try new things and explore different places.

Day 2 – Walking

Today I decided to try walking again. This time the sun was shining and the winds had disappeared. It was still very cold, -20 celsius but the lake had calmed down and the waves moved slowly like molasses with thin crusts of ice floating on the surface.

: So much better than yesterday

: The city skyline is back

: The sun glistening on the lake

: Ice floating on the lake

: ….more ice

The lake hardly ever freezes because of its immense size so when you see ice on the lake you know it’s cold out there. The city skyline came back into view today and only wisps of fog settled close to the surface of the water.

The three of us dressed warmly for today’s hike (Frances always wears the same fur coat) but the salt and the frigid temperatures were too much for our little dog. We headed back home after a very short walk to the park at the end of the street.

I recently purchased special booties for the dog but she didn’t want any part of them when I tried to put them on her today. Oh well, too bad, so sad, I went for the walk on my own. I was already dressed and I wasn’t the least bit cold today. I walked all the way to Col. Sam Smith Park and proceeded to the lookout by the yacht club.

It was eerily quiet today. There were very few people out walking and there were stretches where I didn’t see a soul. In the last couple of weeks there have been sightings of coyotes in the area and my mind started to think about the possibility of meeting up with one or two of them along the walk. What would I do? I took some comfort in the fact that I had my cell phone with me and if need be I could always call 911 if I got into some kind of trouble.

As I got closer to the point I finally ran into another walker and his dog. I told him how glad I was to see him and he told me that he had seen the coyotes a couple of times in the last two days. He assured me that if I made some noise that they would probably stay away from me. I remember my friend D, telling me that I should sing if I was ever in the woods alone and that would keep away any wildlife.

After I said good-bye to the dog walker, I headed back towards the college and I started to hum and sign O Canada. If anybody heard me they probably thought I was a bit off my rocker.

Closer to the campus there is a great new figure 8 outdoor skating facility and lo and behold other people were also out today enjoying a skate on the ice. I watched for a few minutes while I took some photos and then realized that my morning coffee was pressing against my bladder and that I needed to quickly find a washroom. This is the down-side of going for long walks at my age but luckily there was a Tim Horton’s close by on the campus.

After using the facilities I purchased a medium coffee to warm my insides and keep my hands warm. Actually the down mittens that I was wearing were so warm that I had to take them off periodically because my hands started to sweat. For awhile the coffee cup kept them warm but in -20 degree weather the coffee didn’t stay warm for long.

When I got home I tracked the distance on Google Maps and discovered that I had walked a total distance of 5.15k. Not bad considering the conditions but I have to admit that I really enjoyed being out in the sun today.

Day Two – Job

I’ve written down numerous jobs that I want to tackle this month. One of them is fixing a lamp that I painted years ago. The electrical hardware had come loose and the shade wobbled back and forth. I wasn’t sure why it did that or how to fix it so I took it to an electrical lighting store today.

The clerk kindly unscrewed the parts and informed me that the thread on the one part had become stripped and needed to be replaced. I could leave it with them and wait three weeks for it to be fixed or I could purchase the part and do it myself. I chose the latter option but they didn’t have the part in stock. I bought a new shade from them and then drove to the closest Canadian Tire and found the part there.

When I got home tonight I was going to fix the lamp right after supper but when I sat down to check my emails I discovered that I had forgotten about a get together with friends tonight. I had started supper already and my husband told me not to worry about him and go and enjoy myself. I made sure that everything for dinner was well underway and I quickly got ready to go out.

I didn’t get home till after 11:00 so I didn’t finish the lamp and I wasn’t even sure I’d get to writing this post but here I am about to finish it. Tomorrow is another day. The lamp should only take a few minutes to fix and I can think about the next project I want to start. I decided when I started this challenge that the jobs that I chose to work on didn’t have to be finished in one day. Some of them may take several days to complete.

Well I’m going to add a few photos and then off to bed. Oh my, it’s almost 2:00 in the morning. Good night!

Cheers!

From Zero to Hero – Day 1

Posted on January 2, 2014 by Mama Cormier

…..new goals for January

When I signed up for the Zero to Hero challenge I didn’t realize that it was meant for people just starting out on their blogging journeys. I’ve been blogging for almost two years but when I read the description I thought that I could learn something from this challenge so I signed up.

Our first task is to write about me. Hmmm! What can I say that I haven’t already said. Well I’ll start with the fact that I’m not in my 20s, 30s, 40s, or 50s. I was 59 when I first started blogging and celebrated my 60th birthday and a 30 pound weight loss after documenting my journey for five months. Initially the blog was a platform to record my weight loss, the trials and tribulations of my journey and a way to keep me on the straight and narrow. I thought that if I put it out there for the whole world to see I would remain focused on the goal.

It worked for awhile. I’ve managed to maintain the weight loss but I haven’t been able to lose more. I quickly became interested in many different aspects of blogging. I started to experiment with my camera and loved posting photographs and taking part in photo challenges. I posted some recipes and the blog became a venue to post my art and the art that my students produce.

Occasionally I write about issues that I feel strongly about but I try not to make my blog too political, even though I’m very political and have been involved in numerous election campaigns, working on behalf of other people. This blog has also become a venue to record everyday and special events in my family. I have a son who lives overseas and a sister who lives across the country and I know that they check out my blog to see what I’m up to.

I’m learning so much through blogging and reading other people’s blogs. I’ve tried numerous recipes that have become favourites in our house. I’ve learned how to recycle old clothes and make them into new articles of clothing. I’ve been inspired by other people’s successes with weight loss and running. In the last 18 months I’ve run two 5k races, something I could never have imagined just 2 years ago. I started taking photographs and experimenting with different settings and posting my results. I’ve become a huge fan of the macro setting on my little camera. I just received a new iPhone for Christmas and I’m told I’ll never go back to my camera. I doubt that unless I can figure out how to take macro shots with it.

What do I hope to achieve by following this challenge? To be honest with you, I haven’t been moving very much in the last couple of months (partly due to the fact that I’m on this computer so much) and I never seem to get to things around the house that need to be done (also partly due to being on this computer so much). So I was hoping that my Zero to Hero challenge for the month of January would be to get out and move everyday. I love to walk so my main activity would be walking but it could take on the form of yoga or going back to the gym (I still have a membership that is woefully underused). By the end of the month I hope to be back in form to start running again.

I never seem to find time to do the extras around this house, like reorganizing cupboards, purging closets of old clothes, painting my bedroom, reading (except when I’m under pressure to get a book read for discussion), and working on my painting and drawing skills. Yesterday I made a list of things that I hope to get done. My goal is to work on one small ‘extra’ job everyday. By the end of January I hope this will become a habit and I can start feeling better about my environment. When I’m away I’m going to bring books and sketch books with me and take some time to work on my hobbies.

Day 1

I actually started walking again yesterday. It was cold but I managed to walk 4k with the dog. Today, however, was another story. Both my husband and I bundled up and started on our walk with Frances (our dog). We could tell that this would be a challenge today. With the wind chill factor we were facing -30 celsius temperatures and the wind coming off the lake was pretty strong. The waves were high and because the water temperature was warmer than the air today a fog settled over the entire lake. The city skyline was completely non-existent today.

Half way through the walk I had to readjust my scarf to cover my mouth and nose but in doing that my glasses fogged over and I couldn’t see where I was going. After about 1k into the walk we decided to turn around and come home. It was just too cold today.

When I got home I decided to tackle cleaning out the refrigerator. We’ve had so much company over the holidays and prepared so many meals that we lost track of what we actually had in the fridge. When new items were bought some of the older items were pushed to the back of the fridge and forgotten about. Needless to say I found some pretty unsavoury and unrecognizable food items at the back of this ice box. After a couple of hours of throwing out spoiled or expired food items, washing out shelves and reorganizing the shelves I felt elated to have completed one task on my list.

One day down and 29 to go.

Cheers!