Recap of the week

Since returning home a week ago, I have .....

Washed up 3 loads of laundry, hung it out to dry, folded and put away. I washed all the sheets, quilt and  comforter and put down a brand new mattress protector.

Cleaned my oven.

Cleaned the Master bathroom and the half bathroom downstairs.

Vacuumed both upstairs and downstairs.

Went shopping three times. Most of it was grocery items, but I also picked up some Christmas items.

Wrote inside the seven Halloween cards I made before I went away and got them into the mail. I made a card and sent a package to Germany. I made another "Congratulations on your engagement" card and mailed that out. I made 5 birthday cards to begin a gift package for a friend for Christmas.

I scrubbed my four Cricut cutting mats in preparation for a lot of paper crafting in the near future.

Watered all my indoor plants, including the ones I repotted and brought inside for the winter.

Cut the front and back lawns, hopefully for the last time this year.

Started wrapping and making a list of the Advent calendar items I have already purchased for my two grandchildren in Bradford.

Went for two blood work-ups in the Lab and I went to two  doctors' appointments, called in a prescription repeat and picked it up. FYI, my blood sugar is still going down and I have lost 20 pounds since starting my diet.

Gathered all the garbage from throughout the house, sorted the recycling, and fed the composter my kitchen scraps. I did not put the garbage out this past week because there wasn't enough to warrant paying $2.50 for the bag.

This week I have spent $350.00  Fifty dollars was towards putting gas in the van. The other $300 was for both groceries and sundries. I have not yet itemized how much of that was for food purchases. I will do that hopefully by month's end.

Part 2 of the Canadian Railway

 As soon as we left the Canadian Shield, the land became much flatter with meandering rivers, large agricultural fields of grain, flax and canola, and oil rigs.

 I can't believe I only took this one poor photo of grain elevators.

This is what greeted us as we awoke the following morning as we headed into Edmonton. Yes that is snow. This was also the day that everyone saw wildlife. Some people reported seeing moose in the morning, but I only saw deer and caribou throughout the day. I would love to have seen some moose or bears.

 I took these photos from the dining car as we entered the foothills of the Rockies around 5 PM. 

From the very beginning of the trip, we were behind schedule. We were supposed to leave Union Station at 10 PM Saturday, but we were 2 hours late getting started. We didn't leave until Sunday morning shortly after midnight. Although the engineers made up lost time during the nights, we were constantly being delayed for one reason or another. It should be expected when you are going anywhere by train; but, the biggest disappointment for me was the fact that most of the trip through the mountains took place after dark while we were sleeping. We should have arrived in Vancouver by 10 AM Wednesday morning; but in fact, we never arrived until suppertime. On this last day we were stuck here for hours overlooking  the Fraser river because of a broken train rail. A freight train was on the track at the time. They were unsure whether or not they could fix the rail under the train, or whether they had to move the freight train very slowly over the broken rail and send in a crew after to fix it. I still don't know how they handled the emergency, but I know there was a backup of trains waiting to go through, and we had to wait our turn. The staff were not prepared to feed all of us again, but the chef prepared a wonderful pasta dish  and ice-cream for dessert. He made me a big salad. The staff was incredible through all of this. Towards the end of the afternoon, they played some movies and poured some sparkling wine for anyone who wanted some. And like I mentioned before, there was always an abundance of muffins, croissants, fruit, cookies, and the like. No one ever had to go hungry.

 The Fraser River earlier in the morning.

Our vantage point of the Fraser, several hours later. No one was allowed off the train while we sat on the tracks, but we had lots to do. Finally, we were on our way into Vancouver. I loved this trip and I would take it again in a heartbeat. It is more expensive than flying, but the pace is much more relaxed. Like going on a cruise, you meet some wonderful people from all over the world. Can you imagine eating fancy meals with constantly changing panoramic views just outside your window? It doesn't get much better than that.

The Canadian Railway

I love the train..... always have.  When my husband and I lived in Thunder Bay in North Western Ontario, I would take opportunities to visit my family in Southern Ontario by boarding  the 7 PM train, travel all night in a sleeper car and arrive at Union Station in Toronto about 4 PM the following day. Traveling at night allowed me to sit in one of the dome cars and watch the Northern Lights.

This trip was no different, except that that I was traveling with my Dad and "Dee" and it took four nights. I didn't see the Northern Lights this time around but I wasn't looking either. I headed off to my berth early in the evening, read a bit, and turned in early every night. Morning always arrived early and I always slept well with the rocking motion of the train.

 We spent most of our waking time on three of the cars. There was this entertainment car where you could sit and play games or do puzzles, or read with a cup of tea or coffee or a drink from the bar. If you were hungry, you could help yourself to a piece of fruit or pastry which was always abundant. We spent a lot of time here playing cards and admiring the landscape. In the evenings, they showed movies here. There was an assortment of games, books and magazines to choose from.

There were also the dome cars or panoramic cars. There were 3 of them on this train. On the lower level of the car was another seating area that housed the bar. The third area we spent a lot of time was one of two dining cars. There were four options on the menu (one of them being vegetarian) and the chef was always accommodating. The meals were scrumptious and I did not have any problems sticking to my doctor's diet.

 All of my travel photos were taken from a moving train, and a lot of them unfortunately did not turn out. Of course they will be good enough for my scrapbook, but I chose just a few of them for this blog post. Everyone says that Ontario is just rocks, trees and lakes anyway. And here is the proof. But I love that kind of thing. We would watch through these windows for hours and hoped we would see some wildlife.

Here is an example of a burned out forest. The charred remains of the old forest still stand, with the new growth coming up to replace it.

We boarded the train in Toronto at midnight Sunday morning, traveled through  a lot of Ontario during the night and when we awoke, we were in Capreol just outside of Sudbury. It would take all of Sunday and then all through the night to get through the province. Tomorrow, we will leave the rocky Canadian Shield behind and enter the prairie provinces.

Tuesday at Home

I made a To-Do List yesterday and it took me two days to get everything accomplished from that list. So I guess I have discovered the secret. Write everything down that you hope to accomplish in the day, and then divide it by two. That way you will  feel pretty good about yourself when you get (half) the items accomplished.

I told you I had to butcher the meat I bought yesterday morning and repackage it for the freezer. Also, I had to prepare the cabbage, 2 heads of cauliflower and make dog treats. The meat was done yesterday, and I spent most of today in the kitchen cooking. I grated one of the cauliflowers to make cauliflower fried rice for tonight's dinner to go with the leftover chicken and veggies I made last night.

I also finished up writing sentiments and signed my name to the Halloween cards before taking them to the post office this afternoon. I made another card package up for my Grand daughter in Germany, but it will not be mailed until tomorrow. The lovely weather held off for another day so I cut the front lawn only moments ago.

When I first arrived back in town I made a short trip to Giant Tiger in Napanee to pick up just a few specials. The main reason I went was to pick up my Halloween candy which was the best price I could find this season. I didn't want to miss the deal before the sale was over.

The boxes of candy were only $8.97 each and the ghost necklace that I will wear with my costume on Halloween night was only $2. I also picked up a new fitted mattress cover for $10 and 6 pairs of black socks for $5.97

While there, I took advantage of some grocery specials. All of this, plus the mattress cover, socks and Halloween candy cost me $95.93  But it wasn't a final grocery shop. So I went back out yesterday morning to the Bulk Barn and Freshco.

I bought ground black pepper, cornmeal, oatmeal, quick oats, brown sugar and hickory smoked almonds for a total of $24.26  The oatmeal and cornmeal are to bake doggie treats. The brown sugar is for baking Christmas treats. I forgot to take my $3 off $10 coupon with me. Drat!

At Freshco, produce cost me $13.63 Four avocados are missing from this photo.

Meat cost $43.53 The Italian sausage and the chicken thighs were on sale for $1.75 a lb. I saved $55.76 off the costs of both the pork loin and the eye of round beef roasts. They were unadvertised sales.

Dairy cost me $8.16  I didn't need to buy more milk because I had placed all the milk from the fridge into the freezer before I left on my trip.

Tea and Stevia cost $9.48 I paid $5.99 for a bag of Splenda brown sugar which is not shown.

My total bill from Freshco came to $82.10 with a whopping $79.71 in savings. I also picked up a couple of items to use for stocking stuffers.

Daybook: Monday, October 23/17

Outside my window.....it is another nice day, mostly sunny with increasing cloud and wind gusts. Rain is coming into our area, but perhaps not until tomorrow. The front lawn needs cutting again, but I finished off all the back yard yesterday.

I am thinking.....about another trip I need to make this week. Within the last hour I learned that my step father has passed. I will be going to his funeral when I hear about the final arrangements. I am also thinking of all the catching up that needs to get done now that I am back. When I arrived back to the house on Friday afternoon, my feet hit the ground running and I have been going ever since.

I am thankful for.....my family. My son and his fiancee looked after picking up my mail and delivered packages. They watered my plants and cut the grass (otherwise, it would have been much, much worse than it was) My daughter looked after my dog for the whole three weeks so I could make this trip. My eldest son and his wife put up with me for two weeks and showed  me a wonderful time by taking me to a NHL hockey game,  the Vancouver Symphony, and sight-seeing tours including one from a boat around Burrard Inlet. I got to spend lots of time with my oldest grand daughter who graduated while I was out there, and my youngest grand daughter who had to stay home from school with the flu for a whole week. I read 3 books while I was there, which is more than I would read in 3 years. I am jazzed about that.

From the kitchen...... lots of chores await my attention. Saturday night and Sunday morning I cleaned my oven in anticipation of all the Christmas baking I will be preparing for soon. After doing a major grocery shop this morning after going for my Lab work, I have cabbage and cauliflower to prepare. I found a huge eye of round roast and a pork loin on sale that needs some butchering. I have packs of chicken thighs and Italian sausages that need to be frozen into smaller packages. I also need to bake the dog more doggie biscuits because the store-bought ones my daughter supplied, are running low.

I am wearing.....denim jeans, a black button down shirt with 3/4 sleeves, and new black socks I had to buy because I have worn holes in most of my other ones.

I am creating.....nothing yet. I need to write a message and sign the Halloween cards I made (fortunately) before I left. They need to get into the mail ASAP. Only then can I get busy on some craft projects.

I am going......to the post office later. I have already done all my running around this morning.

I am hoping.....my mother can get through these next few days. She will be lost without her partner. My sister and her husband had already moved up to Elliot Lake while I was away. They aren't even unpacked yet, but they drove down yesterday to be with my mom when our step-dad went into the hospital. They were preparing to move both of them up north to stay with them in a granny suite. That was to happen  a few months from now.  However, they may be wanting to take my mom  back  with them, even though they have not prepared a space for her yet.

I am hearing.....more sirens and blasting. I had really hoped that the blasting would be over with by the time I returned.

Around the house.....I want to do more vacuuming and dusting. I did all the vacuuming before I left, but with this being an older house and the blasting going on 3 or 4 times a day, the dust is incredible. I NEED to get some crafting done....cards and homemade gifts.

A few plans for the rest of the week....include two doctors' appointments, which I may have to reschedule again depending on the trip I need to make. I was also scheduled to serve the homeless this Sunday, but now that is up in the air.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

Just a teaser for what's to come.....taken from one of three dome cars on this train trip across Canada. This was a very long passenger train pulled by three engines. I was lucky enough to see lots of deer and caribou.

Daybook Monday Sept. 25/17

Outside my window.....it is yet another hot sunny summer's day, except that it is the first week of Autumn. My front lawn needs cutting again. I have had to cut it every week all summer long.

I am thinking.....of all the things I need to accomplish this week before I leave on the train for the West Coast. I have been making a list and trying to stick to it in an effort to keep me focused on the important things. I have not been blogging in an effort to stay on task.

I am thankful for.....the AC unit that I have not yet taken out of my bedroom window yet, as I have been running it at night in order to sleep. I have not been feeling my best lately and I think it is the heat and humidity. I have been taking Tylenol for the headaches.

From the kitchen.....I am using up things from my fridge to make my meals. I have most of a bag of spinach, some zucchini, lots of peppers, cabbage, celery that needs to be eaten or prepared for the freezer so as not to waste anything.

I am wearing.....the same thing I wore yesterday. I have on denim capris and a burgundy printed T-shirt. I have not had my shower yet this morning. (No, I didn't sleep in these clothes)

I am creating.....a little bit of everything. I've finished making 14 Thanksgiving cards, 7 Halloween cards, some Christmas cards with treat boxes, and Christmas packaging for some of the gift  wrappings. There is a kind of disconnect between what I am doing in the Craft Room and the record breaking temperatures we have been experiencing.

I am going.....to the post office later today to pick up some expected deliveries, but I can't think of anywhere else I need to go.

I am hoping.....the nearby blasting will be done before I get back from out West. The first week I got through well enough;  but since then, the 3 or 4 blasts a day makes me jump out of my skin. It isn't the noise. It is the low rumbling that you feel under you.

I am hearing.....the window fan running beside me. The dog is lapping up more water from his dish.

Around the house.....my work is cut out for me as I have prepared a list of things that need doing in the next four days. Today I will concentrate on wrapping Christmas stocking stuffers to take with me.

One of my favourite things.....this past week has been a new-to-me  Cricut cartridge called "Mini Monsters" from which I made all of the kids Halloween cards this year.

A few plans for the rest of the week.....are written up into a list here.

Here's the picture I am sharing.....

 I forgot, as usual, to take pictures of the Thanksgiving Day cards, so you won't even get to see them after Thanksgiving is over. But I have decided to show you the Halloween cards because the kids don't read my blog.

 All these die cuts were made from the Cricut cartridge "Mini Monsters". It is an old one but I had only just ordered it from the Cricut site this summer because it was a good price and I have always wanted it.

The gifts for the Advent calendar are all bought and wrapped. Some of them are a little bigger than I would normally get because I didn't have the luxury of time to look for smaller items. If I thought she would like it, I just bought it.  She doesn't have a "calendar" anyways, as she just gets to pick one present a day through the month of December.

Some of the packaging I made from Christmas card stock bought last year on a sale. All these templates are free printables from the internet. They are great for holding odd shaped items that are difficult to wrap.

I'm Still Here

Some of you may be thinking that I have left already for the West Coast because you have heard nary a word from me; but that is not the case. I'm still here. I am getting ready to leave. I am making a list as I think of things that will need to be done before I leave for three weeks.

To-Do List:

Pick up Avon order.  Done

Pick up packages from post office. 

Pick up Prescription refills.

Vacuum through the whole house. I have vacuumed the downstairs, but not the second story. 

Clean the bathrooms.

Clean the kitchen.

Shred and fry large head of cabbage. I filled two Dutch ovens with all the shredded cabbage and promptly burned the first one to a crisp. (I forgot to turn down the heat when I went outside to hang clothes and then took a phone call). The second pot survived.

Seed and julienne slice 5 1/2 peppers in the fridge for the freezer.

Freeze any leftovers (milk, cheese, veggies) from the fridge before I leave.

Print out Halloween verses for the insides of the kids' Halloween cards. I printed them out and attached to the insides of the cards. 

Write a brief message in each card and sign my name. Address and stamp envelopes. I have addressed and stamped all the envelopes, but I will write messages after I get back and before I send them out.

Attach sentiment to inside of Thanksgiving Day cards, sign and address/stamp envelopes. Finished 14 cards

Make a graduation card for my oldest grand daughter, a birthday card for my daughter,  and make another "Thinking of You" card for family friend with cancer. Send a card to my grand daughter in Germany. 

Mail out cards. I will mail out Friday before I leave town.

Clean stamps and return to drawers. Put away Autumn and Halloween themed papers. I have washed and put away my stamps and gathered up the papers.

 Buy and wrap Advent calendar gifts for my youngest grand daughter. All finished. 

Buy and wrap stocking stuffers for my son and daughter in law. In process

Buy and wrap stocking stuffers for my son's first wife  (the mother of my two older grand daughters). In process

Put away the Christmas papers, wrappings, ribbons, etc. until I get back.

Change out bedding and do up the laundry. Bed is changed. The clean laundry still needs to be folded and put away. At that point I can begin to pack my carry-on.

Pack suitcase and carry-on bag. Not started

Gather up Satchel's belongings (kibble, blanket, leash, collar, treats) in the car.

Cut the lawns again. This will be one of the last things to do. If it doesn't get done? too bad, so sad.

Repot the geraniums, snake plants, and red shamrocks before bringing them inside for the winter.

Print out boarding passes for the train and the plane trip back. Pack my boarding passes and passport in my purse.  Done.

Clean out my purse.

Pack Blackberry, phone and charger in my purse.

Get all the recycling out of the house and  bundle up all the corrugated cardboard.

Gather up all the waste baskets for garbage collection on Thursday morning

Put all garbage and kitchen compost out Friday before I leave.

Close and lock all the windows in the house. Turn off fans and power bars. 

Leave  a  "Please Do" list  for my son while he is checking on the house. Pick up mail, water my indoor plants, check phone messages on my land-line phone, cut the grass?, etc.


I am sure my list will grow as the week progresses, but I have also done a lot to check things off. I will not be finishing up the flower beds before I leave, but I have given it a good start. It has been actually too hot to work outside the last week. This past weekend was the hottest of the summer (we actually broke temperature records), but it was actually the first weekend of Autumn. After all the rain we got over this past summer, we are actually experiencing drought right now. Crazy weather!  So if I am lucky, there may still be some warmish days after mid October that I can spend some time outdoors. But if not, I will be busy getting stuff ready for Halloween, then Christmas. I hope to write again before the end of the week.