Photodumping

Daily Music Photodumping

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Happy 2025! If you’re reading this, I hope you had a wonderful time ringing in the new year. 🙂

My holiday season was nice and quiet. I didn’t get to take much time off from work, but thankfully things at the office were quiet as well. Here are a few shots from Christmas morning:

I made an excellent dinner, which was a big hit with everyone. Charlie helped me out a lot with the cooking this year, and I have to say we make a pretty good team in the kitchen. I’m getting to the point now where I’m getting pretty good at just making the stuffing and whatnot just by memory. I didn’t have to keep digging the recipe cards out of Mom’s big recipe box, which is always a bonus.

I’m excited for next Christmas because I will have hopefully gone through all of the decorations Mom had in storage and I can decorate more this year.

Things have been pretty busy around here. Work has been chaotic, with my boss being primarily in the ER now and also now doing the hospitalist sets. Thankfully I’ve always got work to do, though. February is going to be a big month of catch-up for me, cleaning up files and whatnot, and I’m looking forward to it. Have to make that bank. 🙂

This weekend, I am going to start going through my mom’s books. It’s been almost 3 years now, and it’s been long enough. I’ve decided that I’m going to start in the hallway, and clear out what’s in the hallway first, and then move on to the living room. These two areas shouldn’t take too long and will be a good starting point. My sister has said that she’ll come to help, so fingers crossed for that. I’ll take all the help I can get because my mother’s book collection is extensive and it’s taking up room that we could otherwise utilize. I hate to say that because I love books and am a book lover, but one thing that I have come to realize over the last few years, especially since Mom passed, is that it’s just too much. There is a line, and Mom crossed that line several times and it’s just too much. I’m at the point where I look at even my collection of books and I think that I’ve crossed the line a bit.

2025 is going to be spent getting the house in order. That was my goal the last 2 years in a row, but now that things are more settled and I’ve got a mobile toddler instead of a baby on my hip, things will be easier to get done. Honestly, I’m looking forward to it.

Another goal I have for this year is to continue with my bariatric journey. I only have one more thing to complete for my program referral, which is my CPAP titration, which I am currently in the middle of. I’m going to work on meal planning/prepping and continuing with my nutrition studies. Once the diet is figured out, I can focus on the fitness aspect. I upgraded my Body Groove membership to Lifetime, and there is a lot of different programs on there to work through. Once I get my stamina up, I can think about entering a gym atmosphere. Charlie has said that he’ll help me, and we’ll do it together. I’m forever grateful for his support.

Here is the first of my musical discoveries this year, Kælan Mikla. I am only still on X because of the Gothic Music Videos account, which helps me discover absolute gems. This is my favourite of the songs I’ve listened to so far:

Haunting and lovely, right? Icelandic is such a beautiful language. It makes me miss when Phil and I used to listen to Sigur Rós all the time in high school (and I still do on occasion – Ágætis byrjun is still one of my favourite albums of all time).

Daily Music Photodumping

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Update to my previous post: I responded to Harriet. In hindsight, I should have just ignored it, but I think if I’d done that, she would have found another way to reach out. I simply told her what Emilie’s feelings on the matter were. I thought I was pretty polite considering, and I know it wouldn’t have gone well if I’d said what I really wanted to, so I did make an real effort to be polite. She responded immediately by trying to gaslight me, and she went on about how she’s trying to “be an adult” and they’ll “respect Emilie’s wishes” and blah blah blah word vomit bullshit. Because she immediately tried to gaslight and be patronizing, I’ve made the decision to just leave it alone. I said what I said, I meant what I said, and I have nothing more to say on the matter. It wouldn’t surprise me, really, if she reports back to Emilie’s birth father or if he put her up to this to begin with. I archived the conversation and I’m not giving her anymore of my emotional labour.

Things have been a bit up and down lately. Norovirus is currently tearing its way through my house, and thankfully I am now mostly over it. I don’t know where I picked it up from, because I’ve been by myself at work and haven’t really gone anywhere else, but I came into contact with it somewhere and it got me. It got me really, really good, starting last Friday morning. It came on so suddenly that I was confused as to why “that” was happening.

Thankfully I’m now mostly over it. I just feel terrible because both Emilie and Charlie have it now. Emilie vomited in the truck on the way home yesterday, so we had to pull into a gas station so I could clean her up. Poor little dear was so grey, she looked like a lump of clay. Wasn’t too hard to get her to stay home and rest, but I’m going to try and get some Pedialyte into her later on. That might be a bit of a fight.

Autumn has transitioned from sleeping in mine and Charlie’s room to sleeping in her crib in her own room. It’s been an adjustment for me, because I’m so used to her being within an arm’s reach at all times, and I’m right there when she needs anything. Charlie invested in a pretty sophisticated baby monitoring system to ease my mind, and it’s been quite fun to peak in on Autumn and talk to her through the camera. I will never get enough of this:

Sleepy one-eyed pirate.

This weekend, I need to put her curtains up and do some more decorating in her room, but the transition has gone really well so far. The bassinet that she was sleeping in was a pretty snug space, so I thought that not having that snug feeling would make it hard for her to sleep, but it doesn’t seem to phase her at all. I went in to check on her early this morning, and she was completely sideways with her limbs thrown every which way. Takes after Charlie in that way, I guess, LOL.

Going to be working more on the yard this weekend, as well. I might take some pictures of my progress if things go well. I have to get the lawn mower out of the garage and get it functional for a quick mow, too. As long as the deer cooperate and let me work, I should get a lot done this weekend. My next big project is to get my hands on a small chainsaw, so I can get the fallen trees cut up into more manageable pieces and get them all picked up. With fire season already here (thanks global warming), the faster it gets done, the better. And then once the fallen trees are done, I can start taking measurements and planning for the new fence and (maybe – possibly) my chicken coop.

Here is my latest earworm to share:

Daily Music Photodumping

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Happy 2024!

If you’re reading this, I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

Mine turned out to be nice and quiet. On Christmas Eve, Charlie, the girls and myself went visiting with family and dropping off gifts. Poor Autumn was so tuckered out by the end of it, but we had a good time and it was nice to see everyone. It feels weird to me still to have other family in town outside my immediate family, but Charlie’s relatives have been very welcoming to me.

On Christmas day, with Charlie’s help, we made the big turkey dinner. The turkey turned out really well, so it was a pat on the back to myself, because cooking meat is really not my specialty and I had to wing it without a meat thermometer. Charlie’s mom, my sister and my brother-in-law came over, and it felt like a real “family dinner.” I’ve missed the feeling. It’s been so difficult since my mom passed away… things always feel off, and this was the first time since her passing that it didn’t.

For some reason or another, my brother decided not to come, which made me both sad and a little angry. We had a big talk when my mom passed that we would try our best to keep the family traditions going, and he was in agreement with that. I still haven’t sussed out what his reasoning is for bailing, but I’m leaving it alone for right now. I’m hoping he’ll tell me when he’s ready whatever it is going on with him.

I had the week between Christmas and New Years off, so I got to spend that time with Charlie and the girls, doing a bunch of nothing. I had planned to do a bunch of work around the house, but I rarely ever get downtime with my little family, so I decided to say “fuck it” and I put it off instead. Laundry will be there later, you know? New Years Eve was spent doing a bunch of nothing, and New Years day, I made a big chuck roast and we celebrated. (The leftovers made excellent beef dips, too.) Here’s a little photo dump:

Things have been going well for me. Despite the sleep deprivation, I’m in a good headspace. I’m taking advantage of the residual energy from the Capricorn New Moon and now the Leo Full Moon, and setting some health goals. I finally got clearance from my obesity doctor to start on a diet plan called Optifast, now I’m just waiting for my product to arrive from back east. Going to start the year off with a bang, and see if I can’t make a decent dent into my journey to 175 lbs this year. I’ve already lost my baby weight, so it’s just the rest I need to work on. I renewed my membership to Body Groove (if you’re interested in the program – use my link for 10% off your first payment), so I’m going to utilize that. Charlie wants us to get a pass to the rec centre, so that’s another thing we’re going to do. I’m excited to go swimming again. I haven’t been since early in my pregnancy, and Autumn is going to love it.

Here is my latest earworm to share:

Have a wonderful day. 🙂