Job-Share

During the summer months things tend to slow down at the office and of course pick up at home. With my health the way it is I knew that trying to work 4 days at the office and balance the growing list of other duties from home would be difficult to manage. And rather than let myself become unraveled; I went to the board and had requested that for the summer I would drop from a four day work week to a three day work week. And had also suggested that since it was unlikely that I would be able to return to my previous schedule once September came, would it possible to create a job-share. My suggestion was that we'd extend the office hours/days so that one person (me) would would a three day week and another person be hired to work the other two days of the week. Thankfully the board agreed. It's now been a month since we've (Lea-Anne and I) have been job sharing the Administrative Assistant position at the office. It's been awesome, so far. We have the same work ethic and desire to do the job to the best of our ability. Job sharing was a way for me to take back more control of my personal life. It's not that I didn't like my job, quite the opposite, I attribute my decision to job share as a "quality of life" issue. A job share is a way for me to balance home and office better.

Since the busyness of summer is now only coming to an end, it's been hard to tell yet whether there has been any significant difference in my health. I'm hoping as winter settles in, I'll have a better chance of noticing a difference. It's seems that balance is the key to a healthy life.

Blessings

Patience

is a virtue, or so I've been told. Unfortunately, not one that I have yet acquired. It seems that I have the hardest time waiting. Whether it's in the grocery store, at the doctor's office, or even at a red light. It's during those "wait" times I find myself becoming annoyed, not only annoyed but anxious, frustrated, even to the point of getting angry. It's not like I am the star in a movie where all my movements are the only ones that matter and everyone else just has a small part to play. People around us all have things to do and places to be, so why is it that I am so disturbed when things or people delay me from doing what it is I want to do. gosh, that sounds soooo selfish. I mean who am I that my plans should be first and foremost.

Too often I ask God for patience and to give it to me right now! It would seem that patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.

God, give me patience as I accept the situations I cannot change, the patience to know how to handle each situation as it presents itself, and the patience to realize that there is a purpose in all life's situations.

Blessings

Sidekick

Today, was about as close to perfect as it could get. I got to spend the day, the whole day with my girl as her sidekick. Did we do anything special - not really - unless you count cleaning, running errands, playing a game, having lunch and baking, as special. boy did we bake. We made chocolate chip cookies, banana bread, apple spice muffins, cheesy tea biscuits, pumpkin pie and cornbread - I think they are set for a while. You can read about our adventure here.

Spending the day with her always bolsters my spirit. She is one of those people that you just want to be with. It doesn't matter what we're doing, I cherish the time together. So until next time.....

Blessings

Socialnomics

Did you know...

interesting and perhaps a little disturbing.

Blessings

Cookies, and Muffins and Pie, oh my!

oh my indeed!

Yesterday, I went on a bit of a baking binge...... and made chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin muffins, apple & pumpkin pie, mhm mhmm good!

Blessings

Insomnia

It seems that every few weeks I have a night or two where I cannot for the life of me sleep. I lay there awake, tossing, turning, trying to make myself relax, so I can doze off.

After several hours though, I tend to give up and try something else. Whether it's having a cup of tea, reading a book or sitting here at the computer, blogging.

There doesn't seem to be any special reason to these sleepless nights. It's not that I have alot on my mind, or that there are things that are happening around me that I need to process. I just cannot sleep. Thank goodness, I don't really have insomnia - and that my sleepless nights usually only last for one night, because I find it is very frustrating not being able to sleep.

Blessings

Autumn Indulgence

Today according to the equinox calendar marks the beginning of the Autumn season and probably my most favourite time of year. With the warm breezy days, cool crisp evenings and the distinctive scent of fall, I'd say we've been experiencing this season for several days.

As I was searching the web for a photo of this spectacular season; I must admit I got a little side tracked. With so many choices it was difficult to choose just one to display the grandeur of colour this season has to offer.

There's something about Autumn that gives me permission to slow down, to take time to see the beauty all around and to appreciate the many blessings I have in my life. It reminds me of how much I love the fall, and harvest, and bright orange pumpkins, and the sound of crunching leaves underfoot, and...... {sigh} I think I could live in perpetual Autumn.

Blessings

Sudoku

As I was cleaning out the cupboard in the bathroom I came across a sudoku puzzle book.

According to Wikipedia

Sudoku, is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 sub-grids that compose the grid (also called "boxes", "blocks", "regions", or "sub-squares") contains all of the digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid, which typically has a unique solution.

Completed puzzles are always a type of Latin square with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions. For example, the same single integer may not appear twice in the same 9x9 playing board row or column or in any of the nine 3x3 subregions of the 9x9 playing board. The puzzles were popularized in 1986 by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, under the name Sudoku, meaning single number. These became an international hit in 2005.

A sudoku puzzle... ..and it's solution numbers marked in red. After putting everything back into the cupboard I sat on the floor and had to complete a puzzle cause yeah I am hooked!

Blessings

Jogging

or it could Yogging - I don't know the "J" could be silent..... apparently you just run. quoted from Ron Burgundy in Anchorman

To be honest I never understood the fascination with running, until now. A couple days ago when it rained intermittently throughout the day preventing me from being able to go for my walk outside, I decided to walk on the treadmill. After a couple of minutes I thought 'hey why don't I try to jog'. I was so impressed when I could run for 15 minutes and that I was still able to breathe. ~.~

So for that past several days I've tried to do a little more each day and was quite pleased today, when I passed the 25 minute time mark and ran for 2.8 km. hurray for me!

Blessings

100 days and counting

until... Christmas. I am not sure whether that's good news or not..... how about you?

Personally I'd prefer to just enjoy the Autumn season first before heading into the Winter. Although with all the cold weather we've been having it seems like Winter might be just around the corner.

Blessings

Distracted.....

These past few days I must admit I have been very easily distracted not unlike "Dug" the talking dog from Disney's Pixar movie UP.

From Wikipedia - distraction is explained as "the divided attention of an individual or group from the chosen object of attention onto the source of distraction. Distraction is caused by: the lack of ability to pay attention; lack of interest in the object of attention; or the great intensity, novelty or attractiveness of something other than the object of attention. Distractions come from both external sources, and internal sources."

It's not that I lack the ability to pay attention, it's more a lack of interest in the object of attention. For example - today, I should be cleaning the house, doing the laundry, would love to get out for walk, I have new books from the library that I'd love to start reading and yet, here I sit distracted at the computer.

With so much to do: laundry, cooking, cleaning, going for walks, grocery shopping, canning, working outside the home, lawn care, bookwork, flowerbeds, baking, reading, it's no wonder that I am so easily distracted.

Where to start? and perhaps the better question is, will I have to do it all over again tomorrow? I find it gets quite tiresome day in and day out doing the same thing over and over and over again. It's like being in a hamster wheel, always running but never getting anywhere

~ ~ well that's enough ranting, time to go!

Blessings

Where were you?

It seems that when a major event happens we can easily recall where we were when we heard the news. For those a little older than me you can probably recall where you were when you heard that JFK was shot, or when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Those closer to my age can remember when John Lennon was murdered or that Elvis had died.

Do you remember where were you when you heard the news that the twin towers had been attacked? I do. I was in my car driving to work and just like when you hear any devastating news, my mind could barely comprehend what was being said. Once I had returned home and saw the news footage, I stood in shock watching those planes as they crashed.

Today as I reflect on the 10th anniversary, I'm reminded of this song that Alan Jackson wrote a few weeks after the tragedy.

Each time this song plays on the radio, I see those images from the newsreel, and I find myself remembering those who died that day. The words in the song made it easy for people to see themselves in the poignant lyrics. Perhaps that's what makes this song, though it's 10 years old, one of Alan Jackson's greatest hits.

The last line of the chorus Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us, And the greatest is love is quoted from 1 Corinthians 13:13 New International Version (NIV) "And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

May those words be a gentle reminder to us all.

Blessings

Salsa Making 101

whew! what a busy day! Krystle & I decided that today was a salsa making day. Salsa Recipe:
8 cups tomatoes (scald in boling water, peeled and diced)
1 cup each green and yellow pepper (chopped)
6 jalapeno peppers (no seeds) (chopped)
2 jalapeno peppers (with seeds) (chopped)
2 cups cooking onions (chopped)
3-4 cloves minced garlic
Mix together and add
3/4 cup vinegar
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp basil
3/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp parsley
Combine and cook uncovered for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until thickened. Remove from heat and add 2 small tins of tomato paste. Pour into jars and seal. So we spent the next several hours, scalding, peeling, chopping, stirring, cooking, pouring and sealing the many jars of salsa. Even after 10 batches, which gave us 39 jars of salsa, Krystle was still able to be silly. Blessings

in the que

so it must be said "i like to blog" i mean i really like to blog - although much to my mother's dismay I tend not to have a regular style to my postings of said blog posts.

i am great at coming up with different titles to the posts, but then i like to percolate my thoughts about what i want to be said in each post ~ i'm a bit of a thinker and to be honest it takes me alot time until i can get my thoughts and words put together

so until each post is ready i leave them sit in the que ~ waiting ~ until i have more time to process all my thoughts - then more often than not i'll post 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 posts "all at once", giving it a feast or famine feel to it

sometimes i feel that i should apologize to those who check my blog regularly for updates, those who are patiently waiting for new posts only to wait for days and then BAM there are several posts waiting to be read, but... . .. i won't

i hope that explains it mom ~.~

Blessings

Celebration

Wayne & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary, today. Wayne surprised me with a dozen long stemmed red roses, and we went to McGuiness Landing in London for dinner. I highly recommend it - the food, the atmosphere and even the prices were all amazing!

Between dinner & dessert, Wayne gave me an eternity ring {it's in the rose but my pic didn't turn out quite the way I had hoped} ~ it is a beautiful addition to my set!

We also got a $25 gift card from my parents, a beautiful picture frame from Wayne's boss and "the kids" surprised us with a family photo session from a local photographer, AND a beautiful scrap book album {that Krystle spent the last four years working on} filled with pictures & captions of our journey through the past 25 together.

Blessings

Baby, it's cold..... outside

Um, excuse me but isn't it still summer? Gosh it's cold out there. And since it's too cold to be outside while we're "camping" we decided to be in the house playing a game. Darcy loves to play RISK and since he usually wins the rest of us don't like to play as often as he does. But with the afternoon ahead of us and not much else to do.... well it was game on.

Since Gerard had never played before we asked Darcy to explain the rules. He goes to the computer and plays this:

We all thought is was quite humorous and again asked Darcy to explain the game, to which he goes to the computer and plays the YouTube clip again. Three more times we asked and three more times he went to the computer. okay, okay enough already! just explain it!!

The game finally begins and within the first half hour I am out. I totally lost all my Infantry, Calvary and Artillery as I tried to quickly to "take over the world". Still though, it was fun to watch the others play. Two hours later Gerard's armies were destroyed. Another hour after that, Krystle too had to accept defeat - leaving Darcy with World Domination and winning the game.

What a great way to spend an afternoon!

Blessings

Camping fun

What better way to spend the long weekend than camping at the farm with the fam. Well almost the whole family. Unfortunately Kyle & Teya were unable to take time off from work.

With campfires each night, sitting in the hot tub, spending time at the beach and just hanging out together it made for a weekend full of fun.

Blessings

they say it's your birthday

I'm singing, I'm standing in the kitchen and I'm singing ~ I'm singing "Happy Birthday" to my dear, dear son Kyle who today is celebrating his birthday! It's so hard to believe that it was 23 years ago today that we brought this "wee" bundle of blue home. With his many antics Kyle has made our home a place to laugh many, many times! So many memories flood my mind. He's all boy that's for sure! It's been a tremendous joy these past 23 years watching Kyle grow and mature into the amazing young man that he's become. Dear Kyle ~ It's been an incredible journey so far and as you continue to develop into the man that God has created you to be we pray that you will seek his will first and follow the plans that He has made for you. Knowing that we are always here for you and willing to lend a hand or two anytime. Happy Birthday Spike! Love Mom & Dad Blessings