It's Tuesday

Do it yourself Tuesday. This is what I have done 

Changed a fan and blower on my electric fireplace.

Changed the element in my stove. Not because I wanted to get home to cook dinner as the buddy in Home Depot suggested:p

Fixed the ceiling vent and repaired the duct work

Caulked 

Wallpapered

I use to wait to have someone else do these jobs. I don't like waiting or asking someone to do it. I post these cuz anyone can do them. I love that my kids see me do them on my own, at times easily and other times frustrated or requiring several attempts but at least I try.

P-O-W-E-R-F-U-L

Today Daphne and I did a women's self defence course at Stronger You. It was free.

It was awesome! First we stuck red and yellow stickers on each other. She had the yellow, which indicated all the body parts we could use to defend ourselves. Daphne stuck red stickers on me showing where a person could be struck, having an impact on the offender.

We were then separated.  My portion of the course covered so much more than I thought. I walked into the four hour course thinking, four hours is long, how much are we going to be beating on some guy dressed up in protective gear?  Well the four hours flew by with only a five minute break in the middle! We did practice self defence moves from striking to how to escape when someone has you pinned down by sitting on you,  but in addition, we talked about a woman's role in society, the law concerning consent, types of violence, a variety of situations, intuition, awareness, our voice and so much more.  Ironically this all related to my Victimology certificate program I am currently enrolled in at Algonquin, in particular my Women and Violence course.

Their message and the information, was conveyed by stories, asking us questions that made you think and group/partner activities.  I also enjoyed practicing the self defence moves on the pads held by the instructors.  Learned I am pretty powerful if made mad or threatened.

I left the course feeling more confident and assured that I could defend myself.

Oh and the red dots that Daph stuck on me, most ended up on my name tag except for the one on my forehead! Spent the whole class with it there! 

Hahaha!

Terms heard that you will have to take the course to understand:

It's on like Donkey Kong

Pull the lawn mower

Act like the cat in a bag

NO is a sentence

Assertiveness is learned

Be twitchy 

I fight like a girl!

Thank you Janet, Denise, Geoff, Bill and the other instructors!

Amazing

My precious blue eggs

Please hold on working on some posts. 

Remembering to take time to say Thank you

I am thankful for:

A great ? Rd trip with my sisters and our kids

To see Dad healthy again

The introduction of the people I love 

The warm weather 

My job

My new courses

Not knowing what the future holds

Future travel

Lavender

Weed poppers

I am better because of you

Dear Mrs Smith

I am writing you to thank you for making me a better teacher...I think?  You were my grade six teacher at Georges Vanier.  I was an awkward 11/12 year old girl who was the definition of introvert.  I had a close group of friends and a did pretty good academically.  You might want to take credit for the academics but your methods weren't what I needed.  You'd pick me out to answer questions when my hand wasn't raised. To some this probably wouldn't really phase them

but to me it made me anxious and stressed. You yelled a lot and used intimidation to keep control of the class. No you didn't yell necessarily at me.  And the desk that you threw wasn't at me but I am sure Kevin hasn't forgotten it.  

I shared the same name as your son. You'd think that would give us a unique bond...? But I guess me being one of the none Catholics in the class didn't help my case. Still not an excuse to ignore me when I saw you by the canal and I waved a huge HELLO. Come on we both there to see the Pope float by in his bullet proof boat. Your behaviour not so Catholic like:(. Or even better is when my friend, on my behalf, asked what would happen if one was not baptized? "You won't go to Heaven." So as a grade six student you left me to believe I was going to Hell.  That's fine now, I have you to thank for completely turning me off religion.

I believe I missed more days at school that year than I had ever and I spent many mornings begging not to go to school, oh and headaches to boot.

Your techniques of us beating a pillow with a bat and yelling out what made us angry...were interesting?! By the way I made all mine up and would have never yelled that it was you, the only black cloud in my life at that time.

Again I thank you for making me a better teacher.  Yes I admit I can be a firm teacher and I do not "connect" with all of my students.  the ones that I don't immediately, I make a conscious effort to take time and speak one on one and find a special connection.  I do this because I don't want to be the teacher the student remembers as a "mean" "angry" teacher that everyone feared getting.

As an adult I saw you at Farm Boy.  I did not say hi. I didn't say anything.  I became that scared pre teen fighting an anxiety attack.

In the end I did learn a lot from you.  

Karma

Sincerely 

Ms Smith

They don't even smell!

I LOVE THESE SOCKS!!!

My kids got me a pair for Christmas and since then I have bought 3 other pairs!  They are Under Armour and I get them at Play It Again Sports.

They have cushioning on the bottom and they come up to my knees.  I don't even wear them for sports. They have kept me warm all winter long!

Update:

So last week I ran and completed this:

I also did some serious hill running on the treadmill:) and I row row rowed my boat!  Since Monday I haven't trained because I am fighting something and I was wiped out Monday (needed an after work nap:( but I am planning to do my 20k run this Sunday, weather permitting:p not feeling it quite so much these days (the training) but that's how I roll. I know I will "feel" it again and get back into it. Gonna break out the bikes this weekend too. So that will be some fun training!

Now I am gonna go find some old sports equipment to trade in so I can get another pair of socks!!!! There are just so many colours!!!

Thirtiftiness

So I was chatting with a fellow single parent and here are a few thrifty ideas that we do:

-I use the dishwasher/washing machine/dryer either after 9:00pm or on weekends

-all loads of laundry are done in cold water

-keep the heat down. I keep mine at 19C during the day on weekends, during the week it is at 16C.  At times I find the cat sitting on a heat vent hahaha! But I just layer up:)

-shopping for food when you are single half the time can be tricky.  I have gone to freezing a lot such as leftover fresh berries I know won't get eaten in time, I throw them in the freezer for smoothies later.  Other things I freeze are leftovers...for a meal when we are altogether again (the kids and I), spinach, bananas for muffins, sometimes I will cook a lot of pasta and freeze it, then when the time comes that I need it, I just boil the H2o and throw it in, it shaves a few minutes off from cooking it from dried.

-cancel cable-- this seems to be very common for people wHen they first get divorced.  Then they go to Netflix

-People invite you over for dinner more often when they know you are alone...

-my gym membership isn't getting wasted! Now with more free time to myself I go to the gym way more often. 

-again with more time on my hands I make a lot from scratch, such as baked goods for school snacks.  When I first got separated I would go on these baking binges and everyone benefited because I didn't have enough room to freeze all that I had baked.

-I coupon and price match sometimes too

-I take advantage of PC Points, Shoppers Optimum Points and Air Miles

Just a few things that all put together help.

:)