It’s been officially a month since we moved into a smaller home and I have to say: it’s been a busy one. Here’s my one-month recap in no particular order…
- Packing, moving, unpacking and ALL that goes with it really can mess with a person’s good intentions. Hence no blog post AT ALL last week. I told myself that I was taking spring break, maybe because the weather was so nice? But then, right smack dab in the middle of the week and despite the near-zero temperatures on either side of Wednesday, we got a blast of minus 30. It was just one day but I got to wondering – was that my fault? Did my smugness about the weather produce a smackdown? Oops. For insurance purposes, I have decided to get back to my two-blog posts a week. If March comes in like a lamb, you have me to thank. You’re welcome.
- My bookshelves are still in flux. (See above.) Because, reading emergencies besides, organizing my books is just not as important as work and sleep and feeding ourselves. (Oh, and Amazon Prime as we take our near-daily dose of re-watching The Mentalist from the beginning.) But also, I am trying a new thing with my books – shelving them by color. I’ve always filed my books in a particular order that allowed me to easily track them but author/podcaster Anne Bogel of What Should I Read Next? inspired me to go this crazy route. Crazy also because I’ve always been someone who kept the jackets on the books and now that I’ve removed them all, I don’t recognize any of my books anymore. It’s like going to a family reunion with amnesia.
- Remember how we cancelled Christmas? And New Year’s? And basically the first couple weeks of January because everyone around us (but not their dog) got sick? Well, Family Day weekend we had a do-over at my sister-in-law’s with turkey and taters and games and some general holiday hanging out followed by turkey sandwiches and two Oiler wins to boot. A very merry February Christmas indeed.
- My article Mom in the Driver’s Seat came out in the February/March 2020 issue of Our Canada magazine. It feels good to get some publishing traction again. But it also was good to remember the story of my mom finally getting her driver’s license when she was well into her fifties! I knew the story, but her grandchildren didn’t. (This is why we need to tell stories.) What a testimony to keep doing hard things even as we get older and “the things” get harder.
- I finally got to see the new Little Women movie with my dear friend Rhonda in a quaint little original theatre in Vegreville. Living 40 miles apart, we have no qualms about meeting anywhere within a hundred-mile radius for some good story telling like that, especially if Meryl is in the lineup – and she is the best Aunt March ever. And bonus: Rhonda introduced me to a gem of a restaurant in Veg: Loco Burro Fresh Mexican Grill. Yum. Go eat there now.
- And speaking of YUM – we used a gift certificate last weekend with two of our boys for a restaurant whose very name made them happy: MEAT. It was a seriously fun eating experience (not to mention the food was DELICIOUS) and our server Andrew6167 made it even better. (Thanks for the MEAT, Sydney! You always know the best places to eat!)
- Strathcona is such a fun place on a Saturday night and after our MEAT, we walked down the back alley and then piled in with all the other late night fans for some Made By Marcus ice cream. The. Best. Ever. Ice. Cream. Ever. Period.
- We went to Vegas in Vermilion with our good friends Cliff and Caroline (THE MAYOR) McAuley which was hosted by the Good Life Institute. A fancy meal followed by some fake-money gambling – but the chips made it look like the real thing. The highlight of the evening for me was hanging out with the group of senior ladies that hired Len’s Party Bus to ferry them to and from the event! What a fun bunch!
- I went to the Inspiring Women Conference in Lloydminster and was…well, inspired. My favorite: the panel session with Canada’s first female professional chuckwagon racer Amber L’Heureux, silk artist Bonny MacNab and the first female CEO of Lloydminster & District Co-op Leanne Hawes. Not to mention the keynote with Carrie Doll, brilliantly timed just when the afternoon sleepies want to hit – but Doll kept me very entertained and interested. She has a great story and a great podcast, The Inner Circle, where she gets many other Edmonton locals to tell their stories.
- My husband and I are enjoying a blast from the past as I am re-reading the Harry Potter books out loud to him every night. We started reading them aloud as a family in 2003 so a revisit is long overdue. We’re just getting into The Prisoner of Azkaban – Large Marge has been deflated and Harry has escaped the Dursleys for another year. Yay Hogwarts!
Okay, I didn’t know I did that much stuff. What a fun re-cap! See you Thursday!