Twenty Weeks ....

.... since we've been home indefinitely.

I'm grateful for our good health, our

cozy cottage, our busy jobs that can

be done from home, our amazing kids,

our helpful neighbors and sunny days.

All of these have made this a bit better.

I do miss all my colleagues, though we

talk all the time on Zoom and by email

and Teams. And we got together 2 weeks

ago today for a retreat (socially distanced!)

and that was amazing and so healing. I

miss meeting my clients in person. I miss

just casually heading out to the store. I

miss visiting my mom when ever I want to.

I miss travelling. I miss so many things.

But I'm grateful we have this time and

the chance to get through this so that we

are all very healthy, safe and thriving. It is

our new life and we are embracing it in

the very best way we can. I hope you are too.

Be well.

Stay safe.

~ Chy

Evening Meal.

Look who came to visit us tonight for

her evening meal. Our sweet mama deer!

No sign of her baby. We wondered if

maybe the little one was sleeping and

mama slipped away to get in a few

bites while she had the chance. Sweet!

~ Chy

Wordless Wednesday.

~ Chy

My Morning. Our Night. Thankful.

In the morning, I wake up to the sound

of sweet birds singing. I am so thankful.

At night, we sit on our front veranda and

watch the trees blow in the breeze and

the frog jump across the paths. We watch

the sky change in color. I am so thankful.

~ Chy

Heatwave!

Mother Nature is really not being kind to us this

week. After a lot of rain and dreary days, we have

all been so excited to see a week full of sun. Except

that the sun has come with extreme temperatures

and now we are under a "heatwave warning!" It

is nice to wake up to sun and we have managed to

figure out the best ways to keep our little cottage

cool when it's hot outside. We put the air on once

in the morning for about 20 minutes, then leave a

fan on (part of the system) to continue to move the

coolness around. We do this again before bed and

once more mid day if we need to. Windows are also

kept closed, along with blinds and shutters. We did

go outside yesterday and watered all my pots, the

gardens and the veggie patch. We also moved the

pots out of the direct sun onto the veranda so they

would be covered and cool. Little guy played out

yesterday twice but not for long. He got super hot

really quickly so back in to the cool house he came.

I'm fine with this heat, as long as it doesn't bring

storms in to the mix. So far, so good. It would be

the last thing we need at this time. Wish us luck!

~ Chy

Tik Tok Gone!

I was so curious what all the chatter was about "Tik Tok" so my daughter downloaded it on to my phone. And this morning, I took it off my phone. Yup, that Tik Tok is now gone from my life. Let me tell you why ....

It was only about 48 hours, but in that time, I became enthralled in the mini stories of people all around the World who shared their lives, their births, their deaths and everything in between. But I became very concerned and found it hard to wait for "part 86" of their journey. I worried about mama's who had lost babies. I wondered how someone was doing in labor. I felt tearful for someone's memorial video. I became anxious with ALL the "Karen" stories, especially those related to mask wearing (or NO wearing). It was a lot of lost time. I jokingly told my husband, who was away most of the weekend filming, that I had not once turned on the tv because Tik Tok was too entertaining! So this morning, after realizing I hadn't done my workout, I was negotiating with myself how long I can be on it for and realizing I was failing miserably at that choice, with no breakfast, and no shower, that it had to go! Dd wouldn't tell me how to get the silly thing off my phone, so I checked the Google and guess what? Simple 2 steps and it was gone, gone, I say, forever from my life!! 

Back to reality. I'm off to shower. 

Have a lovely day my blogging buddies!

~ Chy

Introducing Oliver!

Somewhere along the line, in the last

bit, we seemed to have been adopted.

A sweet, well cared for but won't come

too close to us full grown pretty cat.

We don't know if he is male or female

but from the beginning, we chose male.

And recently, we decided to name him so

we can call him something instead of "cat."

We would like to formally introduce you

to "Oliver the cat" ~ a sweet little mouser.

He loves to lounge on our sunny back deck, on

the bench in the front in the Secret Garden, the

tiny deck at the potting shed and he has now

discovered the bench in the Memorial Garden.

Looks like he might be tracking either a mouse here

or a frog. We've only had an incident with mice the

first year we were here. A mouse or two got in to our

garage but we quickly got rid of it/them and since

then, our daughter puts out a bag of used litter from

her cats and changes them out each week. Since she

started this, we've had no mice in the 4 years since

we had the first incident. And now, we have Oliver!

~ Chy

A Writer?

What makes a writer? Who decides one is?

I watched "The Walton's" growing up and

the lead character John~Boy capturesd life

on the mountain with his words. In time,

he became a published author ~ his dream.

I share this dream and love to capture our

tiny life here in the woods. I've also been

writing a book for several years now and

this week, took a writing course. I hope

to publish one day, but does that that make

me a writer if I haven't been formally trained

or have the credentials to be a writer? This is

a question that has been mulling around in

my head a lot lately. I was asked what I do

for self~care, and I talked about writing

every day, that I have a blog, and a book

in the works. And the individual who had

asked me to share what I do for self~care

(we were in a group setting) said "ah, so

you are a Writer!" Hmm. But truly am I?

Are you a Writer?
Have you published a book?

~ Chy

Cozy in Bed.

This is me today! Still cozy in my warm, comfy bed.

I was instructed by dh to take a day off and so I am!

But the plan is to get up soon and have a lovely, long,

warm shower, have some lunch, sit out in the sun, read

my new book, fold laundry and put it away, tidy up the

master closet so we're ready for the week, water all the

plants inside/out, and once dh is home from filming, take

the compost bin down the lane for it to be picked up

tomorrow and figure out dinner for tonight. It might

be movie night as we missed that this week. Busy day

but lovely to just go at my own pace and not have to

watch the clock or have deadline. Have a great day!

~ Chy

Just Because ....

My guy sometimes, out of the blue,

will come home with a surprise for me.

The other day, he brought home this

sweet basket of tiny potted mums. Love!

~ Chy

Friends. Life.

I love artist Susan Wheelers with her whimsical and colorful prints. Some favorites of mine to feature today. Two mama's, with their two little ones, spending time together. This was my early life while parenting. I joined a mama's fit program when our first baby was just a few months old. I truly didn't need to get back in to shape as I had only gained 16 pounds when she was born and lost 20 at birth. I was in great shape but secretly, I had no friends that had babies in the moment. I met some amazing mama's and this helped me as I learned to parent and still have a friend life. 

Over time, as we moved from one house to the next, trying to get closer to our dream of a cottage in the woods, I had a number of great friendships. I found with younger kids, it was easy to strike up a conversation at the park or while we all waited outside in the school yard for our kids to come out. We always lived in neighorhoods with young families, so just stepping outside often meant a conversation with someone! I joined a local group that was for moms who had chosen to be home with their children and that created a very lovely circle of friends. We still sometimes connect.

But as our kids got older, the friendships became less involved and were harder to form. After our healthy kids had been born, we went through a very difficult stage where we lost our next babies through stillbirth and miscarriage and that created a void as some friends (even family) didn't know what to do with our grief and drifted away, though we did end up with some amazing people in our lives, because of their own shared losses. In time, I finished up the last bits of my post secondary, so then I became busy and that created another void. And then we created our family centre, a Legacy Project in memory of our babies, and there was a further void. Finally, I was hired by our local hospice (not even looking for a job but that's a whole other post!) and my fulfilling work became intensive but very time consuming. 

So what is the point of my post today? Here I am, at this stage and age in life, realizing I have also drifted and my friendship circle is so tiny, I'm not even sure it exists! As I work with women of the same age, some who are mourning the loss of their spouses, time and time again I keep hearing how lonely they are because they themselves didn't nurture a friendship as they got older. Now I have a new task on my list of things to work on .... build a new and strong friendship circle. I don't want to be all on my own if something happened to my partner. I don't want to laugh alone (outside of him and our kids), or grieve, or have something exciting happen and not have anyone outside my family to share it with. I have amazing co~workers and we just did a fantastic Team Building Day last week, so this has also inspired me to let my guard down and be okay with developing relationships with my team, without the fear that they'll leave. We are a solid group on a solid path and it's time to see work as a social circle as well. I also participated in a writing group the other night and connected with at least half the group and will be asking if the moderator, who is a friend and neighbor would ask at least 2 of the women I connected with if we could exchange contact info if they are interested in chatting further. Excited to try.

I think I have sabotaged some friendships that could have been amazing, with the knowledge that we aren't your typical family, or couple, and my work and passions are "different" than the norm. So I keep to myself so I don't get hurt or have to ever feel defensive about any of the life choices we've made. However, at the end of the day, that leaves me feeling extremely lonely, even in a room full of people. The time has come to now change this pattern. The pictures above evolved from the young mama's conversing and enjoying time together, to the older mama's chatting over the fence. This is where I am now but the other side of the fence is empty, so I'll need to find ways to fill it up.

Where are you at in your life with friendships?

Have they stayed the same or evolved over time?

~ Chy

Nineteen Weeks.

We've now been home for just over 19 weeks. Life is comfortable and personally, I could just be here forever. However, we are fortunate because we live in the woods and are away from the noise and the drama of city life. We have food, there are many tasks we can work on (and do), we have our studio to create in, we have books to read, shows to watch, gardens to tend to, decks to stain and daily work to complete. There is no boredom ~ far too busy for that! But the one thing that has been hard is when we do venture out, I've noticed a level of fear and longing to get home as quick as possible. And yesterday, after picking up an item for our daughter (masked and distanced), picking up some groceries and some items for my mom (masked and distanced), and dropping off said items at her care home and chatting with her care manager for a short time (masked and distanced), I was totally exhausted! I didn't even drive, dh did and he's such a good help but I was wiped out. I bet we were only gone an hour. Had to nap when we got home. Ugh! I'm sure the stress of being out where the virus could live was the cause but I find I'm going out less and less. And I mean in to town. I'm fine being outside and chatting with neighbors. But driving in to our little hamlet, completing our tasks and coming home has become an exhausting experience for me. I'm going to have to work on this before life gets back to normal. Or our new normal. Can't afford to be off my game if I'm exhausted from just going to where ever I need to be. Hopefully this will improve. Now that I'm conscious of it, I'll have to do some work.  

How is your energy level?

Do you find tasks make you tired?

~ Chy

Purple Vetch.

We live next door to the original owner

of all the land in our little subdivision.

He's been a wealth of information for

our family. Always living in town has

meant everything we've had to do out

here has been a huge learning curve.

I have appreciated his wisdom but on

a few occasions we have not agreed.

One example is naming noxious weeds

vs. real plants. Three years ago, he told

me all our Daisies were the ones on the

"list" and would have to be eradicated

or the County would heavily fine us.

So I started to pull them up, then went

on the web and discovered our Daisies

are actually just fine. I left the rest and

to this day, he has not mentioned them

again. Last year, he tried to tell me the

sweet and viney purple plant above was

Creeping Bellflower. Once again, I did

a quick check on the web, then took

pictures to our local greenhouse, who

confirmed my own hunch that it was not

Creeping Bellflower but Purple Vetch.

Some people do truly pull it out as it is a

very big spreader but out here, we love

the vibrant color and how it's added to our

small garden spaces. It looks so pretty in

the meadows too, blowing in the wind.

Reminds me of the Bluebells common

in Great Britain. We won't be pulling it

out but I'm sure he'll remind me soon.

For now, we'll let the Purple Vetch continue to grow

wildly and enjoy it's beauty as a natural flower

in the big woods. I haven checked and none of it

has spread to his lawn, so he should be just fine.

Other than this one issue, we all get along with

him without any concerns and are happy to have

such great neighbors! Very handy when a tree falls

in the stormy wind or the snow needs to be pushed

off the big road. Neighbors out here have to get

along so we can all help each other as needed.

Do you have great neighbors?

Are you happy where you live?

~ Chy

Isn't it awful?

Our landscaping continues. This is the

corner that I hate but we have plans!

Here our air conditioner is housed, the

dog run for our pup who is no longer

with us. We hope to have a new pup

in the future, so it's clean and ready to

be used then. We have 4 lamps on the

left (only 3 are visible) and there are

some weeds and a scraggly tree that

planted itself! So what are the plans?

We started today and cleared out the

weeds, leveled the ground, picked up

any large stones we could find, moved

the 4 lamps to their mutually agreed

upon spots, extended the tiny walk way

with the recycled tire stepping stones,

decided where we would put the extra

rain barrel we have and put the falling

apart straw bale into the trees in the

middle of the trees. Next we'll fill the

open space with mulch, dig around

the tree and fill it with fresh dirt, and

then we'll be bringing in some clay

and dirt to build up the space beyond,

Pictures to follow of our progress as

we go. It's hard work but so rewarding!

~ Chy

Special Dinner.

We celebrated an anniversary yesterday.

Not our Wedding anniversary but our

"we became a couple" special day. I won't

tell you how many years it was .... but it's

up there! It wasn't an exciting day but we

did do some work around the house and

then showered and went in to our town to

to a wee bit of shopping. Later, we had a

lovely dinner at home and watched our

Netflix. And our choice for last night? A

movie called "Marriage Story" and we

both agreed it was very well done. Still 

thinking about it today. Both Adam Driver

and Scarlett Johansson were so amazing.

Our Wedding anniversary is next month

and it will be a bigger celebration then!

~ Chy

Mulch Magic.

After over 4 years of constant weeding

in our little gardens, we are so tired ....

.... but then our landscape artist made

a suggestion to layer fresh cedar mulch.

We did one bed last year and waited

to see what would happen. No weeds!

So now we've been carting mulch from

the driveway to the gardens. I need to

add more to the Secret Garden where

our little bench is. Almost done here!

This spot faces south and was the worst

spot for weeds. I'm excited to not weed it!

It looks so much better and it defines

where the gardens begin and end. Very

thankful for our landscape artist. She

and the magic of mulch have made

our lives a bit easier now, especially

on the weekends. Love our gardens!

~ Chy

Sweet Sisters.

I grew up with a younger brother.

But I always wished for a sister.

When we had our first child, our daughter, 

I remember saying that I had my girl and

it didn't matter what we had after that day.

And then we went on to have 2 sweet boys. 

In between, we lost a few babies early

in our pregnancies. But we hoped for

one more healthy baby and kept trying.

It didn't matter if it was a boy or a girl.

To this day, we are forever grateful for the

healthiest, tiny baby girl, born on International

Day of the Midwife (May 5th) who rounded

out our family by becoming our 2nd daughter

that day. And our 1st daughter ended up with

her long awaited baby sister! They are 8 years

apart but are great friends. With their great

gramma in the 2nd picture. They were 14 years

old and 6 years old then. It seemed they were

so far apart but now they are so close! I hope

they stay close all their lives and continue to

be great supports to each other. This is LOVE!

Do you have a sister? Or two?

If not, do you wish you did?

~ Chy

Cozy Comfortable.

We had a super wicked storm last night that knocked our power out for about an hour and a half. So scary with the wind whipping the trees around. None thankfully broke or fell down but it was hard to watch and worry. I was worried the sump pump would fill with water and then not be able to eject the water out but thankfully the rain was not heavy and as soon as the power came back on, it kicked in to gear and our pit was empty again. I was ready to do some bailing but didn't have to go that route. The thunder was loud, the lightening minimal but it soon ended and the sun came out again. But the wind did pick up throughout the night at times and this morning, despite the bluish/cloudyish skies, it's pretty strong again. I'm hopeful that the rain, the thunder and the lightening stay away for today and that the wind will die down and go away. I have gardening to do!

While I munched on my brekky this morning (leftovers from the party weekend!), I thought of how fortunate we are to live in this area, despite the recent storms. A sweet cottage that is cozy, secure careers, even with Covid, great kids and amazing grands. It's a cozy, comfortable life and I'm thankful every day. We've had extremely hard times (don't get me started!), we've failed, we've won, we've loved, we've fought. At the end of the day, we do feel a deep gratitude for what we have, what we've achieved and that we still have dreams to chase. I'm also proud we give. We provide. We care. We throw ourselves out there for others. And we are blessed. In this time of Covid, reflection is helping me personally get through each day and hope it helps others. We have no idea when this will end, but like the storms we've had lately, as scary as it is while we're in it, we know that it will end. We'll pick up the broken branches and sweep off the veranda. But we'll still be here and we'll keep going. 

Wishing you all, my beautiful blogging buddies,

a day filled with sunshine and love. And hope!

~ Chy

Rain and Sun.

We've had crazy amounts of rain again

this year. You've heard me talk about it!

It makes for dreary days at times but

we always find something to do inside.

Like art projects, reading books we've

wanted to for a long while, working out

or my new favorite ~ repainting the

entire house. When the sun is out, the

house is empty! We'll sit outside for

the longest time, taking it all in. I do

love both ~ the rain keeps us inside,

cozy and warm ~ the sun brings us

back out to be warm and free. Which

do you like the best? Rain or Sun?

~ Chy

Birthday Baby.

This sweet baby had a birthday yesterday.

I can't say how many little candles were

on her cake as it makes me seriously feel

very old! I can say that she is old enough

to be an amazing mama, a caring nurse, an

intentional voter and the best grown up

daughter ever! She arrived naturally, safe

and sound, just 8 hours after my water

broke and well under 6 hours from the

time I had my first contraction. With a

head full of dark hair that soon turned a

lovely shade of blonder, we still feel so

very blessed to have had not just her as

our first baby, but all our calm and sweet

babies that arrived later. We truly lucked

out when it came to kids! Very blessed!

~ Chy

Home Alone.

Since we first came home to quarantine, now over 119 days ago (17 weeks today), I have always been here with most of my family or at least one or two others. Yesterday, for the first time since March 12th, 2020, I was home alone. Completely alone. Except for dd's little puppy. It was eery and weird and I'm not so sure I liked the experience. Too quiet!

My day was full though. I had a little break in between clients and while I usually do all my calls and Zoom sessions in our little turret home office, yesterday I was down on the main floor, snuggled on the warm couch, while the rain fell from the sky again outside ~ shocking that was raining once again, right? Before I sat down, I did venture in to the front of the house to take some pictures of the living room and the dining room now that I'm done painting both. You'll see the curtains haven't been hung back up just yet. That was the whole reason for the new paint refresh .... because I had to replace the original curtain rods and that meant filling holes, which of course requires painting all the walls! I love have clean everything feels again after painting. Please know that the walls all look like different shades of lavender but they are actually all the same. Just the lighting from the dreary day outside (or should I say "lack of lighting") make it look like each wall is off in color. I do apologize they aren't the best pics. Sometimes hard to take good inside pictures when the sky is super dark outside.

Today, I have a couple of counselling sessions and a couple of meetings and then I can relax. Tomorrow is super busy! I'm glad today is quieter. My energy is low and I'm feeling down but I'm pretty sure it is the weather. One day of sun in the last 2 weeks was NOT enough! Next week is looking better. I sure hope the predictions are correct. At least we're just getting rain and no storms. A bit of thunder last night but it was minimal. Other areas around us have been hit hard with wind, hail and torrential, flooding rains, so I'm thankful we are not in those zones. We have been lucky here.

Wishing you a beautiful Thursday and hope you are well, safe and loved. Namaste today and always.

~ Chy