Foto Friday

Hellooooooooo!

It's been a busy week and today is a catchup kind of a day. Since I last posted, which was a week ago today, I've helped a friend move, done a million or two things around the house, and then looked after my brother after cataract surgery which was a by-product of his surgery last year for a detached retina. He is doing well although he continues to have some vision problems. When he looks at something he sees some zigzag outlines with his left (bad) eye.

He thinks this may not go away and that it was caused by the original detached retina. Complications also include being far-sighted and having one eye that is distinctly worse than the other. After he heals up he will get different lenses in his glasses to try to improve his vision but the distortion may always remain. He's not entirely sure at this point that it's better to have distorted vision that has been made more clear or whether it was better when the distortion was a bit blurry. This is my brother who is an oil painter and teaches painting for a living. Yeah. To his credit he never complains and "seems" to have taken this major setback in stride though I'm sure he has had some dark moments when home alone.

One of my sisters also had eye surgery recently - she lives about a 4-5 hour drive away from me. She is being helped by her son and a few friends and seems to be making a brilliant recovery so far. She is able to email and go on facebook a few times a day to keep us updated.

My friend, Troy, moved back in with her mother for a number of reasons. She wants to be able to help care for her nephew who has leukemia. Due to his cancer treatment his pancreas has been damaged and he now also has Type 1 diabetes, permanently. He just turned 4. He has a 1 year old sister who has some vision problems and both parents, while gainfully employed, are near the end of their benefits and need at least one of them to go back to work. Tough situation. Troy's mom, the boy's grandmother has been doing a lot of babysitting to help them out. Troy wants to help out with care for the kids and financially if she can but her work contract is up at the end of May so she is also looking for work. She is 50 years old this year.

Sometimes life is really hard. I'm trying to appreciate my own good health and not take it for granted.

I am also checking my phone every hour or so as my sister-in-law's 95 year old mother is in palliative care in hospital and her death is imminent. My sister-in-law has been coping wonderfully but she's been at her mother's side for weeks now without respite. I worry that she'll get sick from the stress.

So there you have it...it's a time for caring for family and friends. On the bright side my sister and her husband who live in PEI  are coming to visit family and friends in Ontario starting next week. They will arrive at my house next Thursday. I think she picked a good time to visit!

The kitties are well and are having a restorative nap as I type :) and Kazi is in Detroit to watch some season opening baseball - yes, she took her heavy duty winter coat, hat, boots, scarf, mittens etc as it looks like it may be the coldest start ever to the baseball season! (Yuck!)

So....what are the pictures from one year ago today?

I was walking the track at the BMO centre (I haven't been there one single time this year!)

I spied some strange creature emerging from the bathroom vanity.... looks like a black widow!!??

....but thankfully NOT...it turned out to be my daughter's hair extensions...

...which motivated me to clean out said vanity, install some new shelf liner and a shelf...

 ....MUCH better!

 Must go - have some activist work to do (a sit-in at our local MP's office!) and the sun is trying to peek out after a week of absolute gloom and torrential rain and snow.

See you again soon!

2015 or BUST!!

I'm glad a new year is coming up soon - hopefully it will give me the fresh start that I desperately need.

Christmas was good - Kazi wishes we were a bit more exciting I'm sure but it is what it is.  She had a rough Boxing Day working retail and ended up coming home early with a migraine. "Worst Christmas Ever" were her exact words I, believe!

We spent Christmas Day with my two brothers, my sister-in-law, my nephew and his wife and my great-nephew. Kazi made her world-famous guacamole and it was gobbled up by everyone- she should have made twice as much! There were more treats than we could possibly eat and then we had a huge traditional turkey dinner!! Oh my!

Here's Ollie playing with his favourite toy of the day - a remote control dinosaur complete with many sound effects including FARTS!!  No wonder it was his favourite!

 The dinosaur's eyes glowed a variety of colours indicating his mood - green is good!

We had a good time opening gifts - I received a gift card for Indigo Books (PERFECT!!), a book about David Bowie (my nephew knows my musical interests) for my "reading nook", another very special book about my dad's navy days put together by my oldest brother, leg warmers!! (the last pair of those I owned was in l982!!), a metal lantern with decorative holes to let the light of a candle glow through and the notes that my mother wrote for her novel about an Inuit boy. These were greatly appreciated as I have put some "writing time" into my schedule for the new year!!

My oldest bro checking out a gift - not sure what it is?!

My nephew - giver of the David Bowie book :)  He's a pretty cool "hipster dude" and works as a graphic artist.

My beautiful daughter - she's wearing one of the tops I bought her at Topshop in Norwich, England! I was a little worried as she has very particular tastes when it comes to jewelry and clothing but she liked everything I got her, even the Icelandic wool socks! Phew!

She gave me a necklace, an infinity scarf, grey hand towels and washcloths for my upcoming bathroom redecorating and other stuff I cannot recall at this moment!

There's my other brother, squinting as he is wearing his glasses over top an eye patch he's still wearing after his surgery for a detached retina. His vision is slowly recovering.

Dino nuzzling up to my sister-in-law's shoe - she better be careful as his mood can change at any moment...

 ...as you can see in the next photo!! Hang on Gord - we'll get him off your nose!

We didn't stay TOO late as most of us get cranky if we don't hit the hay at our usual time!! On Boxing Day I called my two sisters who live too far away to join us on Christmas Day. NO SHOPPING!! Then I decided, since it was +8 outside, I would go for a walk and thought I'd add a bit of a challenge by strapping this light weights around my ankles.

See? However, it wasn't the best idea in the world as I pulled a muscle in my butt while walking!! Well, I assume it was while I was walking - it didn't start to hurt til a couple of hours later. And I'm supposed to hike tomorrow! Hmmppff!

So I'm either using a donut pillow to sit on from my "bad back" era or standing at the kitchen counter to use my laptop. Fun, fun, fun! Therefore, I'll be taking it easy today - I have some cooking to do while I listen to Kazi yuck it up while watching "The Interview" - the movie about the North Korean leader that was initially banned, then offered for limited viewing at a few theatres and on youtube.  It sounds pretty funny judging by the amount of laughing going on!

That's a wrap for today. I'll be sharing my new 2015 budget with you soon as well as goals for the New Year. I don't make resolutions as I just can't stick to them. The good news is I ended the month in the BLACK with almost $300 left in my chequing account - I'm impressed! That will get socked away into savings!!

Do you have SAVINGS goals for 2015?