The Certificate arrived – late!

It certainly took awhile to get here but it finally arrived yesterday almost exactly three months after graduation.  So now I am officially, official.  My dear mother said, “I do hope you will frame it.  Congratulations!”

I am delighted to finally have the actual paper and will frame it but where to put it?  Don’t know yet but perhaps it will come to me.

A week with my mum!

My week with my mother in residence went well and we had a very good time.  It was a different week with the focus on her and what she needed.  Mum is very sharp but her body is not as strong as it once was nor is her eyesight as she has MD (Macular Degeneration). We made a point of going out every day which was an adventure. The weather was very peculiar going from -13F last Saturday and then going up to +51F and everything in between. Our driveway becomes a skating rink and thus a real challenge to getting in and out of the car.  Mum still managed to get up our stairs and into the car and back out again.  I would go behind her up the stairs with my hand on her back to reassure her that I was there and then going back down the stairs I would go in front of her so if she fell she would land on me.  She did not fall but the reassurance was a good thing.  We went out for dinner twice, once was a disaster of a meal but a great time with lots of laughs and the second time was a very good meal and good friends.  John went away overnight so we had a girls night and invited our good friend to join us.  Again, lots of laughs.

My routine changed quite a bit but I did get a good walk in most days and breakfast was fine but despite trying to stick to a salad for lunch we ended up having quiche quite a few days and a salad with it along with a glass of wine.  Dinners were great with steak and pork tenderloin and chicken but the addition of potatoes is unusual for us but something that is part of her diet.  Lots of broccoli and brussels sprouts and butternut squash.  Needless to say my sugar levels are not as good as they were when we were on the sugar detox so next week I am back on it.  It is so hard to keep to a plan when you have company in the house (or traveling) and you are trying to make them feel welcome.  This coming week we will have our grand-daughter, who is 10, with us but she and I work out what we are going to eat together.  These two weeks are a perfect example of why our generation is now called the sandwich generation.

Amusing/interesting find at the grocery store

One of the adventures that Mum and I went on was to a grocery store and butcher shop in a little town at the end of our lake called Ayer’s Cliff.  Our town has 688 year round residents, the other end has about double that.  Neither is very big or what you might call cosmopolitan.  While in both stores we noticed something quite unusual in the meat case.  If you click on the picture you will see a larger version but the case contains crocodile and kangaroo along with elk, red deer, duck and bison.  Astonished to find this in a little, out of the way grocery store in a wee town in the Eastern Townships.  I had to take a picture.  It says it is for Chinese Fondue.  Truthfully, I don’t know what that is.  If anyone has tried it, let me know.

On the road again

Katie’s moving adventure is starting this week and we are in New Hampshire to help begin the packing before we head back to Canada with our grand-daughter for the rest of her holiday.  We came down especially to hear our grandson Jack sing in the Choral Ensemble at Proctor Academy on Sunday.  Every single one of these talented kids can sing and by the look on their faces they absolutely love singing.  Many of the pieces were six part harmony and they did it really, really well.  What a joy to come back to a place I loved where I worked for nine years and to experience what the parents and grandparents experienced when I worked here.  So very special.

Get out the packing tape and away we go.  Have a wonderful week everyone.  The fur babies are cuddling!