One Part Inspiration...

My husband and I have been catching up with "Letters from Wingfield Farms" on T.V. It is a one-man show. Ron Beattie does all the characters. And yet there is no mistaking which one has taken the stage. We enjoy watching because it is almost as if there is a video camera hidden on our farm and they are using us as material. The show is about a stockbroker named Walt Wingfield who scales back his job in the big city to do some part-time farming on a hundred acres in mythical Persephone Township, an hour north of Toronto. Walt gets to know his neighbours - all of whom have lived in the county for most of their lives. They endear themselves to Walt with their quirky ways and perspectives on life. These are the kind of people who have your back, in spite of their sometimes unconventional ideas on how to go about it. It is great entertainment, and making us want to be the kind of neighbours Walt enjoys. In many ways, it feels like we have landed in such a neighbourhood. Last year ...

Back in December, I got an invitation to be part of a celebration of 100 th anniversary of "The International Day of Women". A group in Ireland has been putting together a display of postcards from around the world, to celebrate women. I am not very artistic. But I thought it would be fun to put in a submission, for posterity. For a while, I thought of gathering pictures of women around the world, and putting a caption " You are Beautiful ". But then life got in the way, and I didn't get to it. A few weeks ago, my boss (who's sister-in-law is heading up the project) reminded me about it. She wondered if the "Art and Music" group I run might want to put in their own submissions. I thought that was a great idea, and set them up with their own postcards. However, my submission got put on the back burner, until this week, when I was enjoying poor health. When I found this picture in my archives, I decided to pay tribute to my own sweet Mom. [The posti...

Ah yes. The eternal internal argument. I feel lousy. Should I stay home tomorrow, or go to work? How bad does one have to feel before it is o.k. to decide the night before, that work is not an option for the next day. The problem that arises is,that if I don't go to my job where I get sick benefits, I can't really show up at the other ones where I don't get sick benefits. It's not "Kosher" in my vocabulary. So far this week, I have cancelled three of those jobs. It's a costly decision - not that I have to give the money back, but at the end of the month, that's money that won't come in. I have been trying to circumvent the symptoms - downing hot lemon and honey, like I have stocks in the company and been sucking on Strepsils like they are candy. This has resulted in a throat that is less sore, but still scratchy. One moment, I feel like "Hey, I think I'm on the upward swing". The next, my husband is elbowing me in the ribs to jostle...

[With apologies to Sesame Street] Greetings. I am zee count. Do you know why they call me zee count? Because I lo ve to count things. Hah! Hah! Hah! Today, I am going to count sheep. Hah! Hah! Hah! One! Count them. One woolly sheep. Two! That's two woolly sheep. Three! Three, fat, woolly,pregnant sheep! Four! Four, fat,woolly, very pregnant sheep. Seven! Seven cute little lambs, looking for their mamas. Hah! Hah! Hah! I lo ve to count sheep. ZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZz

Many evenings when I am waiting for my son to finish his soccer practice, I end up at the library. It is a low-cost way to while away an hour. If I step foot into a store, I am guaranteed to spend money. Coming to the library helps me avoid that temptation. One thing is for sure. Libraries ain't what they used to be. My #2 brother often walked downtown to the library in the city where we lived. Sometimes he invited me on the trip. It took a long time to walk there (he strode, and I hip-hopped/walked to try and keep up) - I think it was an hour...or maybe it was just a very long twenty-five minutes. Every time I arrived at that building, I was awestruck. It was such an imposing place to a little girl. The building was tall. The stairs leading up to the entrance were many. And once we actually entered the building, there were certain unsaid rules as to what was appropriate and what was not, which added to the formidable feeling of actually being in the library. There were a ton of bo...

I had a most excellent Valentine's Day. I always look forward to it. The anticipation of being "St. Valentine's helper" fuels me through all the basic routines of work and home. So how did I spend the day, you ask? I'm so glad you did, because I would love to tell you. First of all, I met my mother-in-law halfway to work, and we carpooled. This was very special, because it was like 'the good old days' when we would carpool to a shared workplace. I dropped her off, and because I was that much early for my own work, I went through the drivethrough and treated myself to a muffin and coffee. It was such good coffee. And it powered me through the morning, which turned out to be extra busy with the sessions I had planned. Then about three quarters through the morning, my husband called to see if I was free for lunch. I cleared my schedule (didn't take much) and said "Of course". We met for lunch and enjoyed 45 minutes of 'us' time. And th...

What do you think of when you hear the word 'Valentine's'? I think of sugar cookies. It is one of two times a year I make them. This is a time-consuming job because it requires making the dough and rolling it out, and then cutting it out, and then salvaging the leftover dough to roll it out again. You get the (flour) drift. So I usually save this activity for Christmas and Valentine's. It is a random activity, so I doubt my family even knows that is my M.O. They love the cookies, but there's no sense in raising their hopes by making it a regular occurence. This year, I scored big, by finding two cookie cutters at 50 cents each. I couldn't help myself. It sure beat crawling into our storage area and trying to find the other ones in my collection. When the kids were small, I made an even of sugar cookies. I had a big collection of cookie cutters and let them cut out the cookies, while I tried to keep ahead of them by rolling, and rescuing the dough from going in...