Sunday, March 31, 2013

Happy Easter!

I wish everyone a very Happy Easter! I just got the blogger app, which I found out about purely by accident and I thought I'd try it out.

This is how Chase and I spend our weekend mornings. Even when it's Easter.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Spring update....also known as, yes I'm still alive

I feel like it's been a very long time since I've written a blog post.  Everything is  fine, I'm still alive, just rather busy with life.  I started a new course last weekend.  Which actually is a manageable amount of work, but does entail spending entire weekends cooped up at the York School Board offices.  When I was sitting there last weekend, I was sure that I had totally lost my grip on reality.  Working a course into an already overflowing life....and brain?!  But when I was hauling my tired butt out of bed on Saturday morning, I reminded myself that in July I will be enjoying my deck and the beach instead of spending 3 weeks taking the course.  That made it easier.  And I will FINALLY be done with taking courses for a while.  At least until I decide it's time to do the Masters I've been wanting to do.  But I will get some credit for all of the courses I've already taken.

In fitness/health news, I haven't been to the gym in a couple of weeks.  I hurt my back, which caused my dratted hip to flair up.  And now that's all feeling better, I have a cold.  The first cold of the year (yay homeopathic immunity shots!), but I spent yesterday afternoon falling asleep while watching movies and was in bed for the night before 8 o'clock.  I'm hoping by Monday I'll be feeling like taking my sorry carcass to the gym.  I may do a gentle yoga practice today or tomorrow, depending on how I feel.  My bones are feeling creaky.

I got my new glasses this past week.  They are fantastic, but took a few days to get used to.  I kind of felt like I was in a tunnel.  Which caused vertigo.  I have to say, that made me panicky, these babies cost a fortune.  But a few days later, and they're working just fine.  Except for the fingerprints.  I must get better about cleaning them daily.

Raised containers for vegetable gardenI have been pinteresting like crazy lately.  Takes my mind off of my crazy life, and I'm getting inspiration for the house and gardens/landscaping.  I found this, which I thought might be my solution to raised beds for my veggie garden that I am determined to plant this year.  Galvanized watering tanks.  And I love the way it looks!  But, not being a livestock owner, I had no idea what the cost would be.  So I went to the handy-dandy TSC website and found out they would cost over $300 a piece.  Not exactly cost effective.  I'm looking at at least 3, maybe 4.  I can buy alot of lumber for that much money.  If anyone happens to know a farmer in this part of Ontario that has leaky watering troughs, let me know.  You have to put holes in the bottom anyway, and if someone's replacing theirs, I would gladly take them.

Galvanized steel raised beds and link to a gallery of raised beds

Next I decided I love these.  Haven't priced them out yet.  Or convinced hubs to build them.




We'll see.  It may be best to just use regular old lumber.  I wonder if my dad has any scrap sawmilled boards laying around?  But, the whole point is that I want raised beds to plant veggies.  I have the perfect spot, a part of the yard that is essentially useless, next to the house, and the tap is right there for watering.

We're also going to redesign the beds at the front of the house and change the configuration of the walkway.  I'm not loving the patio stone walkway the builder put in, and we finally know what we want to do.  I have the picture in my head.  Should be really easy for hubs to see my vision (right?! No "discussions" over that.....)

I'm also trying to pick new paint colours for the house.  Hubs is desperate to paint, and he's right, it needs it badly.  All the nail pops need to be repaired, and lots of places that the paint is dinged and marks left.  I did make him promise to wait until after the course is done.  I will literally lose my mind and need to spend time in the psychiatric wing of the hospital if I'm trying to live through painting disarray and work and course.  It's amazing how many beautiful neutral colours there are.  Makes it difficult to choose.  

That's life in a nutshell.  I am so looking forward to warm weather, the snow to be gone (it's at that dirty time to go stage) and to get into my gardens.  The school year is zooming by, and before I know it I will be considered an experienced vice-principal.  Crazy that one year is the bar for determining experienced/inexperienced!  Since it's supposed to be warm today, and the sunshine is beckoning, I will be outside for at least part of the day.

Happy Easter!  Happy spring!









Thursday, March 14, 2013

aging gracefully? hmmmph!

I have come to an inevitable truth of aging.  It is expensive.  I just dropped a grand on new glasses.  That's right, between eye exam and cost of said glasses, a thousand smackeroos.  Once my insurance pays out, it will have only cost me about $400.  Honestly, what do people without the means do?  Umm, yeah, right, they just don't see very well.  And this is mainly because of aging.  You know, once you hit forty...yadda yadda.

So when you spend a fortune on glasses so that you can see to do your job, it makes the cash spent on other things to aid in aging seem reasonable.  Like hundreds of $$ on supplements to ease the passage from youth to menopause....perimenopause is an unforgiving bitch.  Just saying.  Supplements galore, and still experiencing night sweats and other unpleasantness.  Good times, let me tell you.

And I don't colour my hair or buy expensive facial stuff.  How much would that cost?  I don't even want to know.  I'm good with minimalist facial/hair care.  I can't afford it because I choose to be able to see instead :)

In other aging news, I visited the new family doctor yesterday.  It should be noted that he was confused that I've been on his patient list for three years, but he only met me yesterday.  The concept of not visiting the doctor frequently, and taking no medications seemed foreign to him.  But because I was obviously reluctant to become a frequent patient, he took me seriously.  He has ordered a boatload of tests, bloodwork, an ultrasound, and a referral to an endocrinologist with plans for a follow-up sleep study.  I'm not crazy about all of these tests, but it is nice to be taken seriously and not told to eat less and exercise more, or that it's all in my head.  I totally believe in naturopathy, but realize its limits.  It is time to find out what else is going on in my body.  I don't buy this "it's just a part of aging" crap.  I don't intend to die any time soon, and I fully intend to live life fully.  Since I plan to live to at least 100, I'm not even middle aged yet.

March Break is over half over, and I'm a little sad.  And apparently Mother Nature is experiencing perimenopausal symptoms too....warm one day, freezing and snowing again the next.  Last year on March Break we were wearing shorts and t-shirts.  This year I'm still wearing my full length down-filled coat.  I would like to at least wear my spring coat.  I can live without shorts, but seriously?!  Enough with the snow.

Spring cannot come soon enough, although as I look at my calendar, I realize that the next few months until summer are going to be crazy.  Good thing I will be able to see, at least.