Long Weekend List.

Here in Canada, we enjoyed a long, warm, sunny weekend called "Victoria Day Long Weekend."

The original intent was to celebrate Queen Victoria,  hence the term "Victoria Day Long Weekend." For most Canadians, it's a  weekend to garden, visit with family and friends, travel and relax, after a long winter.

Our little family was very busy all weekend. We created a spreadsheet we would stay on track and that worked very well. Here's our list that we managed to accomplish from Friday night up to Monday night:

• cleaned the house from top to bottom in anticipation of guests all weekend
• trip to Costco for new garden plants and food for both home and for our company
• shot a commercial with our crew on Saturday morning outside
• reorganized the kitchen and moved the island to the side of the nook, opening up quite a bit of space
• cleaned the deck, hung the gazebo curtains and put out the cushions for the furniture
• gathered my planting pots and lined them up for filling with fresh dirt
• reorganized the garage so we can park, renovate, build and garden without tripping over items
• recycled, purged, donated, gathered the garbage and made many, many trips to our dumpster
• dug out the gardens and added new dirt in anticipation of planting the new perennials
• rewrote my service plan for our centre and looked over our documents for our meeting tomorrow
• had an impromptu dinner with our family, including my mom and her beau, who we ran in to while we were out and about today
• helped our son move his house contents to storage in anticipation of their big move
• wrote, checked and responded to emails and made notes for next week
• washed, folded and put away 6 loads of laundry and reorganized by clothes closet and drawers

Looking forward to closing my eyes and having a great sleep, after a great weekend and great work!

How was your long weekend? If you didn't have a long weekend, what did you do and what would have you done if you would have had a long weekend?

Hoping ....

.... to wake up to this: 

But so far, it hasn't happened. 

It's cloudy and warm. 

But no rain. 

So we tackle our gardening list

while it's cooler. 

And hope that the rain will

arrive as soon as we're done!

How is your long weekend going?

First Day of Preschool!

B will be coming to gramma's preschool in the fall, so we decided to have him come for a few classes between now and the end of the school year at the end of June. He was very enthused about visiting and despite between younger than the other kids, he fit right in . He played, sang, listened, followed, engaged and laughed thru the whole class. 

B playing with the dollhouse.

Exploring the light table
under the loft. 

Stopping for a quick drink.

Snack time - he earned it for sure!

Relief.

The charitable organization I created with my family and a dear friend was selected for a review recently. After operating for 16 years without any issue with our finances, we did have a conflict with the process of reporting T4's after discovering our former treasurer, an accountant and volunteer, had messed up the books a bit. Nothing illegal and all funds are accounted for. However, she failed to submit the proper documents in a timely fashion, did not report to us that she had not sent them in and then moved while this was happening, so we found out after she was gone and not reachable. I've spent time over the last year with my new, paid administrator trying to fix it all and when the Canada Revenue Agency (hereby referred to as the CRA) called us and offered a review to get on back track, we said "Yes!"

After our initial call, I started to get frantic about having the right documents in the right order. What if we fixed it but we did it wrong? What if they find something we didn't catch? So  many worries and I lost a lot of sleep. I like to have life in order and this drove me crazy, especially because we were contacted in January and the first available appointment was not until May. My board was not worried, my family was not worried but for some reason, I was beside myself, secretly thinking that at the end of the day, I'd be behind bars and my charitable organization stripped of it's worthy status.

Well, I am quite the silly worrier, aren't I? The CRA guy came on Tuesday and he was not just tall, light and handsome, but he was so sweet! And at the end of the day, not only was I not in jail and my organization in good standing, but we have a new way to calculate payroll in a simpler fashion and we were provided with a ton of accolades for working hard, in a timely way to fix the errors the accountant made. He loved the system I had created with binders and spreadsheets (instead of files) and even took a picture to show other volunteer groups. He shared with me how some organizations have gotten in to deep water and said it was a joy to visit with us because we were a very minor issue compared to most visits he has. I was relieved that all was well and proud I had worked so hard, with the support of my family and board of directors to maintain our status. To me, losing our charitable status would be like a death. The shame would be too much to bear and it would be news that I would not want the world to know but unfortunately, in Canada, when charities lose their status, it's big news!

So here we are, set for the future, with our records in perfect order and no worries for me to carry! Worth the work but hopefully, a process we will never have to endure again. 

Breathe!

I have a crazy, busy 

week coming up. 

Between meetings, counselling
sessions, paperwork, along with
housework, family time
and a concert, 

I will have to write myself a

note or two to remember to breathe!

A Favorite Thing.

In my world today, "A Favorite Thing" is the beautiful flowers given to me for Mother's Day by our youngest dd. 

She knows how much I love 

pink, green and white together, 

and did a wonderful job in 

choosing these blooms!

Looking forward to gazing
at these for the next week.
Thank you dear CJ!

Thank you Claudia
for another great week
with "A Favorite Thing!"

Sunday Night Chit Chat.

Exactly 17 weeks ago, we were feeding the sheep on Salt Spring. In 7 short weeks, we'll be back there again, without winter jackets this time and with two little lambs to meet. 

I love Carla's "Sunday Night Chit Chat" each week. Some weeks, I participate and other weeks, I just read what the other bloggers have contributed. So interesting to read how everyone's week was. 

Here's my submission for this week:

Reading?

Bereavement manuals for creating new training modules. Not fun stuff but a good time to read while it's quiet. And the bonus? I'll have more facilitators which means I can do less facilitating. 

Listening to? 

The movie we are watching. 

Watching? 

Bridesmaids. A silly, fun movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon. 

Cooking? Baking? 

Nothing at the moment but we should warm up dinner soon. We enjoyed an amazing Mother's Day bbq on our deck last night with family, as my dh had a hockey game tonight and our oldest dd and grandson had to be away until 7 tonight. Yummy leftovers are waiting for us!

Happy you accomplished this week?

Gathered all the documents and bits of paper for our upcoming review by Canada Revenue for our Charity that we operate. We've never had a review so this is exciting and terrifying all at the same time. Think I'm all ready. And the reviewer sounds great so hopefully all will be well. Wish me luck!

Looking forward to next week? 

Teaching the teen group tomorrow. Review on Tuesday morning and grief group in the afternoon. Day off on Wednesday and meeting a friend for tea. Going to Fleetwood Mac in the evening. Lots of counselling sessions on Thursday. Preschool classes on Friday - love the little guys. So fun to work with! And then blissfully, a long weekend to enjoy. So far, no plans, other than gardening and enjoying the projected good weather. 

Thankful for today? 

I got to sleep in. Had the most amazing breakfast in bed, with lovely presents - flowers, gift cards (books and clothes) and a really nice case to carry my laptop in, with long straps to go over my shoulder. Long, hot, bubbly bath. Trip to the greenhouse to buy some lavender. Home to relax and watch a movie with dd. Bit of paperwork that I can leisurely do without interruption. What am I thankful for today? My dear family, my cozy but colorful home, my work, my organization, my health. I feel blessed to be at this time in our life in good health (most of the time) and enjoying all the small moments!

Bonus Question: Do you ever gamble, play the lottery, Bingo, sweepstakes, etc.? 

We bought our first Lotto 649 ticket when the lottery first started in Canada in 1982. We had just bought our first house and though not gamblers, we thought the $1 per week was pretty harmless on our small budget. We used a combination of our birthdates, our anniversary and our home address then to create our 6 number combination. We've played every game since then, never missing and winning often, though not large amounts but enough to offset the actual cost. We don't buy any other lottery tickets or gamble, play bingo, etc. We've never, ever changed our numbers - it would kill me if we did and then our numbers were pulled. Innocent fun that is a very tiny amount in our overall budget. We don't drink coffee or buy junk food, so it's our little indulgence! It would be so much fun to win, to share with our family and to expand our charity. Fun all around!

Well, now that you've read my contribution, hop over to Carla's to read what everyone else wrote!

Happy Mother's Day!

Heartfelt wishes to all the

momma bloggers who are

being celebrated today. 

I was spoiled with a yummy

breakfast in bed that included

turkey bacon, cheesy brown 

eggs, organic raspberries,

blackberries and strawberries in

yogurt, real orange juice and

a warm Cinnabon cinnamon bun. 

So good!

Wherever you are, good wishes 

from my little corner of the world

are sent to you today!