This is it – the final day of 2024. For the first time in what seems forever, I am excited to bid farewell to one year and to welcome in the next!
2024 was a good year for us, not perfect (there were a few hiccups) but overall a really good year. 🌟
This has been the first full year of retirement for my husband Dan. We have settled into a pretty good daily rhythm. Dan’s been kept busy dealing with our shopping, spending time at the dogpark with Molly, and keeping up to granddaughter Maddy – who’s highschool and work schedule often clashes with her mother’s busy work schedule. I keep busy working out, cooking, baking, and generally keeping things neat and tidy.
We have also both been catching up on some home and yard maintenance projects that had been avoided during my years of 8 to 5 and Dan’s 24/7 shift work.
Our December project – painting and refurnishing our livingroom. I finally have the Steel Blue sofa that I fell in love with thirty years ago. 👏The new microwave and stand – the stand was all Dan’s project. While the end result is perfect, the execution was a bit painful.The freshly painted spare room that became Molly’s room. 😂
All was not work and no play, as daughter Jen and I took a long anticipated trip through the Dakotas to help my sister Jeanne celebrate her birthday.
Always a warm welcome and a good time at Jeanne and Don’s.
A couple of more great moments from 2024 came via granddaughter Maddy…
Celebrating Maddy’s Grade 8 graduation, addition to the principal’s honor roll, and academic award for literary excellence.Dan and I also had the honor of attending Maddy’s indoctrination visit to high school – Arch Bishop O’Neil.
To round off the year, we had an early Christmas visit from son Dan, Amanda, Gabby & Cason.
And Bacardi and Cornelius who stay with us, while Dan and family stay at a nearby hotel with a waterpark for some R & R between visits.
Christmas itself was a fairly quiet day, topped off with a traditional turkey supper with daughter Jen and family.
Overall, Christmas this year was just a nice stressless time where hiccups happened, but everything ultimately worked out well for everyone.
That is a wrap for 2024. Tomorrow, we usher in a new year with all of the hopes, wishes, and intentions to make it our best one yet.
It’s been a while, but with holidays here (or around the corner) I thought this would be as good a time as any to check back in.
I’ve had a pretty good year and I hope the same goes for everyone out here in Jet Pack land.
To catch up… I am mostly on track with my health and wellness journey. Fitness wise, I have managed to stay consistent with my workouts – aerobics six mornings a week and light weights Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Health wise, I have been pretty decent. Despite my chronic issues with asthma, COPD, and bronchiectasis, I have avoided any major flare-ups and ZERO rounds of antibiotics or oral steroids this year! I do use my three inhalers – two regularly and one as required, but they are just for maintenance and prevention purposes. Recently, I went for my COVID, extra strength flu, and pneumonia vaccines. Unless I get hit by a bus, I should be good for another year. 👍
The one area that I have struggled with has been my diet/nutrition. Last May (2023), I realized that yeast was causing my severe digestive issues that had been giving me grief for years. Avoiding yeast wasn’t too painful – except for breakfast, which APPARENTLY sets the tone for the rest of one’s day.
At first I did fairly well, eating bacon and eggs, potato cakes and the like for breakfast. That got tiresome to deal with, so I switched to fresh fruit – which was fine for a while until I realized (remembered) that I don’t much care for fresh fruit. 😧 So.. I started mixing it up with waffles (and syrup), pre-sweetened cereal, crumpets (and jam), grapefruit (with sugar) or store bought muffins (basically sugar held together with a bit of bran or a couple of blueberries).
As the weeks went by, the insidious “sugar creep” kicked in. Ultimately, I would have my sugary breakfast, followed by a sweet midmorning snack, lunch (with dessert), a sweet afternoon snack, happy hour consisting of a mixed cocktail or a can of Pepsi or root beer, supper (with desert), followed by ice cream (with butterscotch AND chocolate sauce), and finally a bedtime snack of caramel corn. It wasn’t that I would snarf down an entire cake in one sitting – I was just indulging in bits and bowls of sugar ALL DAY.
Obviously, that could and did not last. A few weeks in and feeling miserable, I reviewed my diet and realized things had to change.
I circled back to the traditional breakfast of eggs and bacon/sausages/ham and potato cakes. Pretty much salt and saturated fats!
About this time, I met with a nurse practitioner who sent me for a complete blood work up. Surprisingly, my tests came back with a few borderline issues – glucose, salt, cholesterol… My nurse practitioner set me up with a dietician. She gave me some helpful advice for getting my diet (and bloodwork) back in order.
The best advice I got for tracking cholesterol intake was to check nutritional value labels on food and choose food products with less than 15% DV saturated fat per serving. ONE sausage patty contains 26% and I occasionally (frequently) indulge in two at one sitting. 🙄
If I haven’t lost you yet, this has led me to make a commitment to getting a better handle on my diet. I decided the best way for me to do that, is to keep a food diary for the next year. AND to keep me accountable, I have decided to share said diary with anyone out there who chooses to (or inadvertently) reads my blog in 2025.
Bottom line, you should be seeing more of me in the upcoming months.
In the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR! All the best to you and yours this holiday season and throughout 2025!
Yesterday was one of those days that just does not recover around food. Dan brought me a Robins raisin bran muffins for breakfast. A huge muffin! It kept me going until supper. For supper, Dan and I both had leftovers. He had the leftover seasoned ground beef from nacho night, mixed into a dish of Spanish rice. It looked and smelled amazing. I had the leftover roast pork, warmed in a pan with butter, sliced onions, and fresh mushrooms, with a generous side of buttered brussel sprouts. It was delicious but not as photogenic as it sounds
Our less than heroic kitchen efforts yesterday, left me lacking anything for my January Canadian food blog, so I did what I had to do to stay on point. I assembled some historic photos for today’s cheat day.
Welcome to great cakes through the years!
Celebrating my 4th birthday with sisters Denise and Elaine and brother Pete. My mother made delicious birthday – often angel food made from scratch – and a lot of eggs!Cake and strawberries. 😉Salted caramel cake from the Co-op bakery. OMG! Our wedding cake💞A Valentine Birthday cake for JenAnother July birthday cake for me.Happy Birthday to CanadaThose were cakes that Jen made for Maddy & Prim💞The German Chocolate cake that Dan made for his and Amanda’s wedding. Best chocolate cake EVER!Turtle Cheesecake 🐢
That is it for today – I could fill a month of posts with cakes that we have enjoyed over the years. Lots of birthday cakes, wedding cakes, Christmas cakes, chocolate cakes, white cakes – you name it, we take it! It isn’t a celebration until the cake comes out. 🎉
That is it for today. Take care and have a great day! (And if you get the opportunity – have cake!)
Easter has always been my favourite holiday. I grew up in the Catholic faith and I loved the Easter services filled with joyful, spiritual music in a church decorated with beautiful spring flowers. Outside of Easter Mass, the holiday marked the arrival of spring – warm sunny days, pretty summer dresses (with hats and purses and shoes to match), gathering for a feast of ham and turkey with all of the trimmings, brightly painted eggs decorating a basket of chocolate eggs and bunnies. Easter was always a happy family holiday – far from the stress and commercialization of any other holiday.
This year, Dan and I are alone for Easter. Churches of every denomination are closed here due to the pandemic. Likewise, family gatherings are prohibited. Easter dinner is an ongoing affair that started with baked ham on Friday, appetizers and turtle cheesecake last night and turkey supper tonight. (Our house smells so good!)
My pan was a bit big for the recipe but it tastes like chocolate turtles and cheesecake.
It is a little windy and cool today but when the sun comes out it is nice enough. I put my little plants out for some fresh air – in baskets that would protect them from the worst of the wind.
Other than that, we have been having a quiet day. We enjoyed seeing pictures and videos of Dan and Amanda’s boys gathering Easter eggs. Son Mark sent a pic of Dom dressed as the Easter dinosaur. 😂 I guess as long as he was an egg laying dinosaur. 🤔. Genie sent a photo of herself and her siblings. They are all growing up so fast!
Happy Easter and all the best to you and yours on this beautiful spring Sunday. 💐
People are going to have to get creative when it comes to celebrating holidays this year. My effort for St. Patrick’s Day so far has been to send some stickers and temporary tattoos over to four year old grandson, Dominic. Apparently, they now have shiny green and gold stickers everywhere and the cats are hiding from the little tattoo artist.
On a side note, Happy Birthday Dad! You would be a young 111 years old today. As pure French as you were, you always made the leprechauns proud!
Finished my Christmas jigsaw puzzle. Actually I got a box of eight smaller puzzles this year but with Danny and family coming tomorrow I may not get them all done before January 2nd.
Growing up, we were not wealthy by any means but all the stops came out at Christmas. There were chocolates and candy, nuts and oranges. There were endless buns and pies, cookies and squares. There was turkey and ham, cabbage rolls and tourtiere, salads and a dozen side dishes. My mother was a phenomenal and prolific cook and baker! There were stockings filled with small treats and toys, always including a new coloring book and crayons. There were dolls, and teddy bears and trucks under the tree. Last but not least, there was always a new jigsaw puzzle. After Christmas dinner, the card table was set up, the puzzle came out, and we all took turns visiting around the puzzle, doing a bit here and a bit there, until the family puzzle was complete. It is a tradition I am sure we all maintained with our children and they carry it on today. 🎄
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 