January – Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie

January 31st – The End!

January 31, 2022January 31, 2022 by annemariedemyen, posted in Canadian Meal Options

The end of January is finally here! January is not a kindly month in Saskatchewan, what with the short, frigid days and the arrival of Christmas bills for many. (I have always managed to avoid that but can see how it easily happens).

As much as I could do without the short frigid days, ice, snow and the like, I rather appreciate January – especially now that I am retired. The arrival of January means that we survived another December and we don’t have to deal with that for another year. 👍 January is the beginning of a NEW year – filled with fresh hopes and dreams, adventures, and resolutions. And… January is just a nice laid back month. One does what one must absolutely do and it is perfectly acceptable to do nothing more! January is the perfect month for couch potatoes. 🥔🍟

It would have been great to end this month of Canadian Meal Options with an extravagant kitchen finale. However, having had a filling brunch yesterday morning and considering we had a fridge full of leftovers to deal with last night, that did not happen.

The most ambitious thing we did for supper, was to perk up the leftover rice with the shrimp mix that was leftover from Saturday’s supper. And.. we added one fresh egg. (By we, I mean I handed Dan the egg and he added it to the rice. Just one of the things that I can never manage to make work the way it should. 🙄)

Anyway, this is the last day of January so I have big plans to make the most of it – a little meditating, a bit of putzing around, a peek out the window, maybe a nap. 🤗

That’s it for today. Take care and have a great day!💞

Keeping Busy

January 16, 2021January 16, 2021 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 🌻

Spring Has Sprung in Saskatchewan!

January 2, 2021January 2, 2021 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. 🌞