Taking Care of Kat

by annemariedemyen, posted in family

Like most people, we are responsible pet owners, so today we made that painful trip to our veterinarian.

To be clear, Kat is fine – for the most part.  She had her annual check-up, received her rabies shot, got a deworming pill, renewed her city dog license and got a bottle of Aventi Omega  3 oil (which is amazing stuff for keeping her nose and paws soft and healthy).   

Then the painful part of the visit kicked in with a $220.00 bill. 

I do not really believe the bill was unreasonable, all things considered.  Most everything Kat received is good for at least a year – the Aventi only five months – but well worth the price. And of course, as clients, we have to pay our share of office and administration costs.

The painful part kicked in with an estimate we received for getting Kat’s teeth cleaned (under anesthesia) – which was recommended. All the bells and whistles included, we are looking at twelve to fourteen hundred dollars.

Yikes! Sadly this is far from the first surgery we have sprung for over the years and chances are it will not be the last. But YIKES!

Pets are such an important part of life (at least in North America). They bring love, companionship, security and joy to our lives. It is unconscionable that anyone would have a pet and not provide proper healthcare but how do most people afford it?

Kat & Friends Bacardi and Cornelius
Kat and our very special Casey (who was the most caring and empathetic dog 💗).

Eight Days In!

by annemariedemyen, posted in life

Dan and I have been working out together every day – for eight days straight now!  It is still a lot of fun and somehow we are managing to get in a pretty good workout despite our limited space. My sister (Lorraine) thinks I should do a blog on how to workout in a small house without destroying the wall mount television and/or the kitchen sink. It is in the works! 😉

We are also starting to put more health conciousness into our meals.  It’s not that hard when Dan is here to peel and chop.  Our snacks still need work. 🙄

Dinner salad – Lettuce, cucumbers, peppers, radishes, green onions, broccoli, spicy air frier pork, homemade croutons and sesame seeds.. mmmm!)
Bran, molasses, coconut & walnut muffins.  The molasses, coconut, and walnuts almost mask the taste of the bran. 👍
Chilli with plenty of fresh vegetables – peppers, celery, onions, garlic, mushrooms, and canned tomatoes and kidney beans!

Between the workouts, the improved diet, the meditating, and the new mattress that we bought lately (to ensure a better night’s sleep),   it is looking like a healthier, happier life for both of us.  💪

Keep well and stay safe💞

It’s Go Time

by annemariedemyen, posted in family

The snow and ice has kept me housebound for a few months now and Dan has been laid off for a month. It is time for us to get active before we turn into Mr. & Mrs. Doughboy.

We have decided to start working out together. Having a workout partner will help to make it fun and hopefully keep us motivated. The plan is for us to take turns leading off on a few exercises for each session. This should afford us plenty of variety and split the struggle of coming up with workout routines.

The challenging part is that we are coming from two totally different places and working out for two totally different reasons. Dan has a long history of playing intense sports (hockey, baseball, racquetball) and working an extremely physical job in the steel industry. I on the other hand, have never even watched sports, much less participated! I have worked in administration and sales, most of the time being desk bound. While we both want to lose some weight, my health issues are respiratory, while Dan’s are circulatory. It is going to be fun, coming up with workout plans that work for both of us!

Day two, down and done!

Falling over tree pose – that’s a thing right?

Stay safe, keep active 🏋️

Living at the Speed of Life

by annemariedemyen, posted in life

There have been a lot of changes in my life since I retired a few months ago.  The majority of those changes have been within me – changes in attitude, changes in personality, changes in relationships.

One of the relationships that has changed most drastically is my relationship with time.   Time is still a significant, relevant part of my life.  I still have clocks in my house and, as much as my daily regular schedule has changed, it has changed to a new regular schedule.  

The thing is, before retirement time was one of my main sources of stress and frustration.   Hours in a classroom lasted longer than days during summer break.   Nine months of pregnancy lasted forever!  Years of infants, toddlers, tots,  and teens were  over way too soon.  A week at the office was interminable.  A weekend home was never long enough. The terrible years were endless and the good ones flew by.  There was no consistently to time – ever – and I never had time when I needed it most!

In retirement, time flows easily and smoothly.   I never feel suspended in time, nor do I feel pressured to do more than time allows.  Time passes –  the hours, the days, the weeks, the months – regularly and consistently and reassuringly.   Regardless of all that is or is not happening, time passes.   No longer a sources of stress or frustration, time is now a comforting measure of life.

First Days of Beauty

by annemariedemyen, posted in life

Every year, I choose one main positive value in life to focus on. This year my focus is on beauty. So far, I have not really been struggling with this effort, so much as building a base to grow it on.

I have started a major home beautifying project – cleaning our basement. I haven’t reached any Kodak moments yet, but every time I go downstairs I am excited by how much better things are looking than when I first began. 😊

My husband has been home on a work layoff – the first in many years! It is nice having him home. It is very nice having him available to do the shopping and run errands. It is especially nice when he run out to do errands and comes home with a special little gift for me. 😊

Dan came home with this beautiful glass baby elephant. He seems happy sitting beside the adorable stuffed elephant that granddaughter Genie gave me for Christmas.

I have not been spending much time outside this month. Occasionally, I do catch a beautiful moment in nature when I glance out a window.

Our backyard is a haven for squirrels and birds this winter.

I continue to spend time searching out and experiencing the meditations I find on You Tube – especially those related to sending healing, loving energy to others. They seem to be such a beautiful way to connect with family and loved ones – so much better than worrying and fretting about the people I care for!

Lately, I have finally realized, the rationale of sending healing, loving energy to those who would not have typically made my prayer list in the past. I am talking about people who have caused major grief to myself and my family, any people who I see as being arrogant or hateful or cruel. I know one is supposed to extend love and caring to those people – but that is seriously difficult to do – no matter how many times I read that they are the ones who need it the most.

Through meditation, I have found a way to send loving, healing energy to anyone, everyone, and especially to those who are the most difficult to. In my mind, projecting hate and anger to these people does not help them or me. However, sending them love and healing energy does make me feel much better. I can only hope that these people are touched by the love I send them. 💗

This is one of the healing meditations that I have found to be particularly moving. I hope that if you are inclined to try it, you will enjoy the experience.

Stay safe and have a beautiful day🥀

Keeping Busy

by annemariedemyen, posted in retirement

January has been a bit busy so far.   Dan has been home so we spend quite some time being together. 😊

I have started cleaning our basement.  Basement is probably an overstatement at this point, but it is coming together.  I have replaced a dozen cardboard boxes with a few Rubbermaid totes, sorted through Christmas decorations and downsized considerably, vacuumed up a year’s accumulation of dust and spider webs and found a few winter sweaters I forgot that I owned.    A few good day’s work for sure.

While going through the basement, I found boxes of old family favourite recipes – and a few that could become so,  now that I have time to cook.   I have tried a few already – peppersteak, breakfast pizza, breakfast wraps, and lemon butter tarts.

We had a brutal storm this week.  Sustained winds of 126mph 😳 and snow.  We were extremely fortunate that we had no damage to our place and that all of our family stayed safe.  Our power was off for a couple of hours and Dan had some shoveling to do the next day.   

There was a lot of property damage across the province and many travellers were stranded away from home.  Dan and Amanda spent an extra night in Edmonton after taking Cason in for a bit of day surgery.

Recovering and milking the family for a little extra TLC. 💗

I have spent time morning and evening practicing my meditation.   I have been enjoying Buddhist chants lately and continue to spend time sending healing energy to friends and family near and far.     I cannot imagine why it took me so long to appreciate meditating, but everything in its own time and this is my time to meditate. 🧘

Saskatchewan has the dubious honor of highest per capita Covid numbers since Christmas.    Dan has been doing our shopping and running our errands while I hunker down and await my turn to receive the vaccine.   In the meantime, I am happy to see those on the frontlines and our most vulnerable seniors getting the first doses that are available here.  🎉🎉🎉

Keep safe, keep busy! Only 4 more months or so until spring 🌻

Natural Beauty

by annemariedemyen, posted in nature

Even the easiest winter in Saskatchewan finds me missing the natural lush, green beauty of summer.   Regardless of how small our house may be, I will always find space for a few houseplants to see me through the season

When I moved in here with Dan, he had one plant sporting one brown leaf.  I nurses it back to health and it thrived for years before it totally failed.  When my son in law Charlie, lost his Mother, he brought me her little plant to take it’s place.  This is what was that little plant.
I go to the same nursery every year to get my bedding plants.  One year, I got this little succulent when they were clearing out their perennials.  It goes like crazy, I cut it down, and it grows like crazy once again.
My daughter bought me this little tree a couple of years ago for mother’s Day.  It was about 3″ tall.  Now it is 27″ tall. If it ever reaches it’s full height of 30 feet, we will for sure need a bigger house. (The elephant was from granddaughter Genie for Christmas)

Have a naturally beautiful day!

And So It Begins 😂

by annemariedemyen, posted in life

Every time I resolve to do anything that I feel I really need to do, the universe kicks in to say “OH NO YOU DON’T” – or maybe the universe, like an old friend of mine, just thinks I enjoy a challenge. 🙄

At the beginning of every new year, I resolve to focus on something that I feel I should prioritize in my life. One year, I chose to focus on ‘happiness‘😋. I clearly remember the universe tossing me many, many opportunities to be crushed by overwhelming sadness ☹️. Another year, I chose to focus on ‘kindness’. The universe promptly sent me every asshat on the planet. In 2020, I chose ‘peace‘ as my focus 🙄. Nuff said🤦.

This year, for the entirety of 2021, I decided to focus on ‘beauty‘. What could go wrong? I climbed into bed last night, mellowed out with a couple of beautiful, relaxing, guided meditations, and gently drifted off to sleep. The universe blasted into my sleeping conciousness and brought me a solid seven hours of the ugliest nightmares that I have experienced in decades. WTF???

I crawled out of bed this morning, feeling beaten and bedraggled. I dragged myself to the kitchen to let Kat outside to 💩 on the sidewalk at the foot of the back steps. Meanwhile, I got her breakfast ready and poured Dan and I each a cup of lukewarm coffee. (Yes we need a new coffee pot – tomorrow’s mission).

The rest of the morning passed well enough – I got dressed and pulled myself together, straightened up our room, made a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs. Finally, I straightened up the kitchen and started to wash the dishes. And – there it was!

A tiny sparkle of beauty to warm my heart and cheer my day.

I do not typically buy myself jewellery – if I was to buy jewellery, I probably would not buy it on sale – at Walmart. But I loved this little ring and I always love seeing it sit on my kitchen windowsill, just sparkling and shining and making my day a little more beautiful.

Universe 0 – me 1.

Have a beautiful day🌻

Spring Has Sprung in Saskatchewan!

by annemariedemyen, posted in nature, Uncategorized

I did not have far to go to enjoy some beautiful spring weather today. We are experiencing a very unseasonable warm spell. Yay!!!

It is +3 celcius today, a high of +5 expected tomorrow,  with minus single digits forecast for the next two weeks.

Kat and I went out for a while to enjoy the day. I worked at clearing our sidewalks and Kat’s patio path. It got so warm, I had to take off my winter coat to cool down. 🌞

Kat hanging out, enjoying the sun.
Kat’s path – the snow is about 5 feet deep in the back yard and on the garden so she didn’t have much room to wander and do her business. 💩
There was sun to be seen – just kind of hiding behind the tree and some passing cloud cover.

If the beautiful weather was not enough to make my day, I came in to find that Dan had finished the laundry I had started, before heading outdoors. 😊

Keep safe and have a beautiful day🌻

Happy New Year 2021!

by annemariedemyen, posted in family

It is finally here!! – a brand new year with bright new hopes and dreams. 🥂🎉

Back in the day, I would be spending this day making my list of New Year’s resolutions. Most of them would be long forgotten by mid-March. A few years ago, I changed gears and chose a new ‘focus’ for each new year. Last year my focus was on peace and I have to admit that will be a hard one to beat. Going forward, I will definitely keep ‘peace’ a priority but for this year of 2021, I have decided to make ‘BEAUTY’ my focus.

During the summer of 2020, I spent a LOT of time outside – enjoying nature as I hadn’t for decades. On the days when the sun was shining, the grass was green, the flowers were blooming, the sky was blue and the birds were singing, the beauty of our world was easy to immerse oneself in. What really surprised me was that, on the gloomy and dreary days, it was even more heartlifting to find a tiny beautiful treasure to appreciate – be it a wildflower, a leaf, a perfect raindrop, or a baby’s smile. That is what convinced me that a year focussed on beauty, would make for a memorable year.

Today, I am fortunate to be able to share a family moment to kick off my year of beauty – and beautiful it was.

Yesterday afternoon, son Dan married Amanda, the love of his life – the woman of his dreams. More than a basic joining two hearts, it was the official joining of two families – a yours, mine, and ours celebration💞 Even in the midst of a pandemic, with a very limited ‘live’ attendance this group made it an amazing event, while family and friends joined them via technology.

Live from the basement of the happy bride and groom. Gabby with Cason, Cori-Lynn (friend), Amanda, officiate, Dan, Lucas and Gregg (friend). Dan made the floral arch, while Amanda had a big hand in the rest of the decor.
The wedding cake – Dan made his amazing sour cream German chocolate cake (2 sections – 4 layers each) and mounted it on the wood base. Amanda decorated it with her typical talent and understated, humerous, flair!

This group does nothing half-way. They feed off of each other’s abundant, positive energy to make everyday a celebration. I was concerned about how well they would make out in a slowed down pandemic year like 2020, but they made the most of it – as always!

To the happy couple, the beautiful family and to all – Happy New Year!