Busy Day! Mom Time, Candle Wax, Hair Colour, Acreage Visit

My working husband was up to the alarm at 5:15 and in the shower immediately on Thursday, June 28^th. I remained in bed staying out of the way, not wanting to be a distraction. That’s how he forgets things. At 6, he crept up onto the bed and gave me my kiss and hug goodbye. See you tomorrow, sweetie! I remained in bed with Clemson, who rejoined me after Bill let him out, until 6:30 when I got up. Snuggle bum stayed put for another hour.

I love these bright yellow fields
Is it mustard?

It was cloudy and a wee bit sprinkly when Bill left and there was some low-lying fog out on the country roads. I admonished that Bill drive safely as I always do. I made my tea since it wasn’t a good morning to walk so early and sat in my chair and read the West-Grey News Week. There was a nice article on the back of the Crossword puzzle page about the Community Waterfront Heritage Centre in Owen Sound and my sister , Wendy, was featured.  That is kinda cool!

Here's a better picture

When the sun popped up from the east around 8:30, I turned the inverter on and unplugged us from electric. Now, as I type there are only tell-tale signs of the clouds hugging the horizon. It is already 67F/19.5C at 10:30 which is a true indication of what we can expect today. I will pull the blinds to half mast but leave the windows open for now. I don’t care to use the a/c unless I have to. I got washed and cleaned up and had a glass of my peanut butter/banana smoothie.

As if the beautiful aroma wasn't enough.........

I’d received a gift from our friend, Pat’s, daughter, Sandra a few weeks ago. It was a Charmed Aroma candle. I placed it in our bathroom in the Suite and would burn it on occasion, when I knew we would be home and not forget about it. Now this morning, as I’m down to the last inch and a half of melted wax, I discover the ‘charmed’ part of this gift. In tightly wrapped foil is a little plastic bag with a gorgeous ring. I’m tickled that Sandra thought of me. I love it!

Stunning!

At 10:40 I took the bag of purged items from yesterday’s organizing and drove into Durham to visit Mom. I’m thinking we might be able to sit outside today if she wants. She wasn’t in her room, her door was closed so I cleaned off her white board (we all sign in with our name and date of our visit) and signed for today. I always check the halls as I walk in but hadn’t seen her so went on a ‘Mom chase’.

She's so pretty in her blues and her necklace

She thought this was funny and tried to scrunch down

I found her coming out of a sitting room near the nurse's station and her face lit up. “Good thing you found me because I was thinking I was lost!” She should write for Hallmark, she is such a card. We walked back to her room and some confusion set in but we talked past it to other things. Talking about her 'boyfriends' she asked if Daddy had passed and was that why she had so many men in her life. Interesting that she ask that now because it was 23 years ago today, exactly, that we lost him. At one point, she mentioned her address book so I opened her night table drawer in search of it.

Reliving her days in the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force)

Instead, I found her Autograph book from 1940! OMG! If I knew she had this, I’d forgotten and we started at the beginning. Here is where Mom shines. The names she was reading off the pages were bringing back instant memories of her friends from all those years ago. 

How I remember our Autograph books
Unfortunately, as a teenager, I never kept mine
I just didn't think of that!

The more she thought about them, the more the memories faded so we just continued to flip the pages. She enjoyed telling me ‘she was our Flight Attendant’ or ‘we used to call her Pug’ and even ‘oh, we had a nickname for Harold L. Bancroft too, what was it?’

All too soon, it was 10 to 12, her lunch time so we promised each other to go through them again starting at the back next time. I took her down to the Main Floor and got her seated at her table. Numerous hugs and kisses later, we waved “don’t say goodbye, say ‘see you later’s”. I stopped to say Hello and wish Aunt Mary a nice lunch before making my exit. Mom’s arm was still in the air when last I turned to check, in between the front doors.

this was one of my favourite entries
written by Mom's Mom, my Grandma

I’m sure all my sisters feel the same as I do when we leave Mom. Full, full of her outpouring of love. Lately, there have been more good days and if we don’t dwell on her spells of confusion, they seem to pass quickly. Mom is receiving a visitor this afternoon from a Legionnaire. I didn’t know they did this but Donna said it was all set up. Mom will like that. She is dressed to impress too in her ‘blues’ as she calls them. I was happy to see her in her new denim dress pants and a white blouse. She looked lovely.

I drove uptown and easily found a parking spot for Black Beauty even though it was just past noon hour. I walked to Rethreads and dropped the donation bag off to the ladies. Then it was home for me. I could feel the heat closing in and had a couple of things to take care of at home. After greeting Mr. Sleepyhead and thanking him for a job well done, I swept the floors while drinking another glass of my smoothie. They are quite filling and tasty too.

Got the gloves on and Daddy's old plaid shirt

In the bathroom I prepared for the first chore. My hair roots are looking pretty silvery so I wanted to get that taken care of. Bill isn’t keen on helping me with this process so I’ve gotten pretty good at doing it myself. Setting my mind to it is the hardest part of it all. With my hair in a plastic hair net for 25 minutes, I noticed that I still had some recipes sitting on the island, yet to make.

all ready to start

The top one was for the Easiest Coconut Oil Fudge you’ll ever make. Quite the name, huh? I’ve made it before and it is easy and it is good. The best part is that it contains 3 ingredients, 4 if you count the vanilla, and natural ingredients. So, I made it up in 10 minutes and put it in the fridge to harden.

hardening in the fridge
I actually added a few walnuts that the recipe didn't call for

At 2, my time was up so back up to the bathroom I went and rinsed. Now that my hair just needs to dry, I moved on to project #3. I lit the Weber Q and set up to begin a new challenge. I have all these free candles from the garage sale I went to a while back and the wind is down today, so a good day to melt wax outside. 

a box of old candles

Melting on the Weber

Sawdust shavings in the egg cups

My home made pouring apparatus

almost ready to pour

Interesting how this looks like a cherry dessert

First, I need everything together: wax paper, egg cartons, sawdust shavings, candles, broiler pan, stir stick. I wasn't able to finish them, needing to let the wax harden around the shavings before I wrap them in the paper. 

That was a messy job, but also an easy thing to clean up off an old table. The dilemma of how I get the hot wax from the broiler pan onto my sawdust shavings was answered easily thanks to Bill. He had cut the top off of a jug in the recycle bin for something. So, with an empty Kraft peanut butter jar, it worked like a charm. I did two batches and still have enough candles left for two more. There will be plenty of fire starters when I finish the meltdown. Yay!

I have two trays that need to be cut and wrapped and 36 egg cup starters to wrap

I do believe I accomplished everything on my list today and that feels great. I even managed to finish The Escape before 5. What a great book! Clemson and I walked down the lane but there was no mail today. Donna and Gerry arrived at the Acreage after lunch and were busy cutting grass and trimming. Wow, that is a hot job today! They only have weekends to do this stuff so at least they got some of it out of the way today before it gets hotter. Maybe in the early morning I’ll dig my mower out of the shed and cut my part of the lawn.

simple but delish

After feeding Clemson, I made plans to drive over to the Acreage for a short visit tonight. They had an early supper so after I fried up some bacon and potatoes and did the dishes, Clem and I headed down the road. 

thank you Mom for letting me sit with you

Hard to know, when it is 80F now, what to wear over there. It will likely drop off quickly so needed to either change into warmer clothes or at least take something to slip on overtop. I’ll be driving tonight so won’t be taking anything potent like my beer margaritas! I'll stick to water. 

Their beautiful pond and reflections

Clemson felt quite honoured to be riding in the driver's seat with me on the way over. First time he seemed to enjoy the wind in his face.

The outside is quaint

Donna showing me changes to the Hilton cabin

I was killing myself laughing over the antics of these two
pumping up the boat
I think the conversation should have been X-rated!

On the way home, the sunset is in our rearview mirrors

This has been a fantastic day and I’ve chatted with my sweetie, long distance, a few times. His day was a good one as well and ended shortly after 5 pm. I hope you can say the same for your day as we all approach this Canada Day long weekend.

Good night all!

Thank you for taking the time to stop in. Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.