Last weekend I participated in my first 2 craft fairs for the season. I had a very busy week leading up to them, getting everything wrapped and labelled and working on my display. In past years I had used a wide and tall wooden shelf along with my homemade styrofoam risers, but this year I wanted a more open display so I wouldn’t be struggling to see around it from behind the table.
This is what I came up with. It reminds me of a bakery display.

My daughter came along with me on Saturday and we took a few artsy shots of the products too

Below are the Oh Baby! Olive Oil & Goat Milk soaps. I like how they look like trays of cupcakes  here

Last year my customers really liked being able to buy bundles of small sample bars to try out several scents, so I made more. These are made from extra parts of the loaf after the bars have been cut. They nearly sold out- I’ve only got a couple left.

These cupcake bath bombs have been a big hit. The trouble is…they are a real pain to make. The bubble bath icing on the tops is really fussy and unfortunately it’s been hit or miss with getting it to work right and dry out without flopping. I had success with these but I’m not sure I will keep making them.

I made more Lumps Of Coal soaps this year and on Sunday they completely sold out! I love they way they make people laugh:-) These were made from my usual cold process soap recipe, but I might make some more using melt and pour base today for another craft fair tomorrow.

I changed up the packaging for my Six pack O’ Suds Beer Soap gift pack this year. I love the look of the cotton bags and everything fits perfectly. I had several custom rubber stamps made by Teresa at Tickled Pink Paper & Ink for my soap bags. She is wonderful to work with and I love everything she has made for me!

And here’s a look at the six different beer soaps inside. I purchased the handmade crocheted wash cloths from a seller on Etsy. (I don’t crochet) Love handmade!

Tomorrow I’ll be participating in another craft fair at a local elementary school in South Surrey. Details are here for locals who might be interested.

My poor, neglected blog! I have such good intentions for posting here, and it just hasn’t happened. Well, today I seem to have some extra time so I thought I would come back and post some photos and catch up a little.  Up above is a lovely photo that was taken of my handmade  Oh Baby Unscented Goat Milk & Olive Oil Soap . There’s a bit of a story behind the photo. It was taken by a professional photographer for a soap company that was purchasing my soap wholesale and selling it in their store and online. They have since hired a local soap maker to create a similar soap for them to sell. I was pretty disappointed at the time, because they were my first wholesale customer and I really enjoyed making the soap for them. It was their best seller They were in a big hurry for a large order and weren’t willing to wait for me to get my insurance in place. C’est la vie, I guess.

A little back story that led up to all this: A popular blogger who purchased my soap from this shop in Ontario used it to try help with treating her adult acne. She posted a really entertaining video where she talks about the products she has been using (including my soap) and claims it was helpful with clearing her skin problems. She is so cute and fun to watch. Want to see it? I thought you might! The part where she talks about the soap starts at about 3:33, but the whole video is really well done.

Isn’t she adorable? and funny? Well, that video has had over 58,000 views so far, and she listed her sources for all of the products she mentions. The soap shop was getting inundated with phone calls and emails about the soap. They sold out really fast which was why I was here frantically making soap and trying to keep up with the demand. Since that shop and I parted ways, Shannon kindly added my shop URL to her source listings under the video on You Tube, so I have gotten some online orders from it. It’s always great to hear back from the buyers telling me how much they love the soap and how it has helped them. I say it often, but isn’t the Internet cool?

I also make my Oh Baby Soap in a few different scents and styles.This one is Oh Baby! Lavender.

Here is Oh Baby! Sunshine Citrus

Here is Oh Baby! English Rose

I always start thinking about making soap in September, because I do a couple of local craft fairs before Christmas that I start to prepare for. The last couple of years I’ve only done 1 or 2 fairs so it doesn’t get too crazy for me and keeps it fun. I also have a potential new wholesale customer who wants a very large order very quickly, so I see many hours of soap making coming up.

Hey- I almost forgot to share my new logo! It was created by a very talented graphic designer, Meredith from Jack & Molly Creative . What do you think? My next steps are to redesign my packaging and business cards to incorporate it.

I often think of my blog and wish I could keep up with posting here regularly. I’m sure I could think of lots to write about, but somehow I just don’t do it! Of course, the turning of the new year makes me think of the all of the things I’d like to accomplish. As usual, my life is pretty busy with caring for my elderly mom who has alzheimers and with working full time. I miss the days when I worked part time so I could more of the things that interested me, like painting rooms or working on my soap making business.

The truth is, I’m not great at the business side of things so that’s what puts me off building up the soap business. If it were just a matter of making more soap, I’d be all over that. It’s fun, creative and relaxing for me – but doing paperwork, keeping track of expenses and inventory makes my brain go numb! I can’t stand it.

I got a new camera for Christmas, so I think I’m going to take advantage of that to post here and share my photos more often. There are blogs I read all the time that are just about everyday things, and I find them interesting. Maybe someone out there would be interested by my everyday life- can’t imagine why, but you never know, right?

This past week I’ve been making soap for my wholesale customer, Carberry Soap Company in Pickering, Ontario. I make round olive oil soaps for them in several different scents: Unscented for babies or sensitive skin, Lavender, Citrus blend, English Rose and a Patchouli soap made with a blend of veggie oils including hemp oil.

In other news, we got new blinds for the kitchen windows and it’s all looking very ‘finished’ now. There’s just one small thing to complete, which is some final painting around the small window over the sink. Somehow the small jobs just get put off, but I’ll get to it soon. We also need to touch up some of the caulking under the crown molding where it has cracked.

The spring after we moved into the house in 2005, we had the tiny bathroom downstairs completely gutted and renovated. We ended up with a beautiful, big, very WHITE shower stall. It looked lovely- for about 5 minutes. Then I started to realise that there is no good way to keep white tile grout clean long term. It just doesn’t happen. Nothing I did worked and I was sick of scrubbing and spraying with bleach solutions. After a couple of years it never looked white again, no matter what I did. Recently I was searching aimlessly online for a solution to this problem. I actually considering having the floor of the shower ripped out and replaced with a solid surface of some kind. I gave up on that idea pretty quickly when I found out what would be involved and how much it would cost. Thousands of dollars and basically an entirely new shower stall= not happening!  I tried to scrape out the grout myself using a dremel tool but I soon realised my knees weren’t going to take it, let alone my back. So- the shower sat unused for months during our kitchen renovations because we had to deal with that first. Luckily, we have 2 other showers in the house.

Eventually, I came across the website of Laurentian Tile & Grout. Looking at the before and after photos on his website, I realised I had found my answer! This miracle worker replaced all of the grout in the shower walls and floor in 2 days and it looks completely brand new again. The new grout is an epoxy that is guaranteed not to stain. Check this out.

Before: (this is clean, by the way)

After:

Yeah, I’m pretty happy with how this came out. Totally worth the cost.

I was just reading that last bit over and realised that I sound like a late-night infomercial!

“But wait, there’s more! If you act right now, we’ll rip out the grout in 2 showers in your home for the price of one!”

Last fall my biggest seller was a soap I called ‘Vancouver Rain’. The scent I used for it is called Rain Cybilla from Brambleberry.com. It’s one of my favourites. The other day I thought I would whip up a batch and do an In-the-pot swirl with white and blue soap. Before my eyes, the bright blue colour morphed to an ugly gray as I mixed. UGH!  It got worse as I poured it into the mold. At that point I just decided to pull out my trusty crock pot and cook it down. No pictures of this part– it was a pretty messy operation!

Once it was all cooked, I added my colours again till I had a pretty blue then glopped it all back into the mold. Here’s what I ended up with. Decent colour, but YAWN….kinda boring. I wanted my favourite soap to at least be interesting looking.

Time to get creative. I did a couple of embedded ball soaps before with varying degrees of success. I decided to give it another try. I cut the loaf in half and then cut half of it into long rectangles- about the size to fit horizontally into my small silicone loaf molds.

Next I trimmed the edges to get it closer to a cylinder shape, then wrapped them in parchment paper and rolled them individually against the countertop to try to get the sides rounded. It was harder than I expected it to be. This took ages! I decided to only make a few of these and do the rest into little balls I could drop into the soap. Still time consuming, but it’s not as difficult to make them nice and evenly round.

The next step was to make a couple of batches of white soap. I used goat milk and a little TD added to get it whiter. I wanted a nice contrast with the blue. The goats milk makes the lather so creamy and smooth, and I love the creamy white colour it gives the bars too. I didn’t get any photos of making the new soap. The camera was getting kinda soapy and slippery! I left the large mold outside overnight to cool and put the smaller ones in the fridge. When I use TD I like to try to avoid gel or I end up with streaky lines in the soap that remind me of stretch marks- ew!

Here’s how they looked just before taking them out of the molds them the next day, and then the larger one unmolded.

A few cuts later and here are the finished bars. I’ll let them harden up a bit more, then smooth out some of the rough edges. I’ve still got half a loaf of the solid blue bars left, but perhaps I’ll just keep them as-is. Not everyone is an artsy soap fan. Some people just want to get clean! Imagine that— I know, I don’t get it either!

This photo was taken in my new kitchen (yeah baby!) so the lighting is a bit different there. The other photos were taken in my soap-making area in the laundry room. The soap is really a creamy white colour.

Since I am primarily a pediatric nurse, this is a problem that I have seen and dealt with repeatedly over the years in my practice.

Most constipation problems in young children are diet-related. Unfortunately, many children don’t eat a varied diet and don’t get near enough fiber in their diets. This, along with a tendency for parents to offer milk or juice as a comfort food (bottles in bed or as a soothing device) can cause nutritional deficiencies like anemia as well as constipation (not to mention serious dental problems) I once had a little patient who demonstrated this in the extreme. She was 3 years old and her entire diet consisted of whole milk and the odd bite of a pancake. Her iron deficiency was so severe that she just sat in one place all the time. She had no energy to play or even to laugh. I remember being shocked at how pale her skin was.

Many parents are surprised to find out that the recommended amount of whole milk for toddlers after they have stopped breastfeeding is 2 cups per day. That’s only 16 ounces every 24 hours. After age two, they no longer require the extra fat in whole milk and can be switched to 2% or 1% milk. Of course, if they are breastfeeding this is also a healthy choice.

Children who drink large amounts of milk tend to eat much less solid food and are less likely to try new foods. A child’s stomach is roughly about the size of their own clenched fist, so you can imagine that a bottle (or glass) of milk can fill it completely, not leaving much room for other foods.

Toddlers who take a milk bottle to bed for sleep, and/or drink a bottle upon waking in the morning are less hungry for breakfast and are less likely to eat a healthy meal to start their day (they are already full!) Unfortunately, milk is not the “perfect food”. Milk is low in iron, so kids who drink too much often become iron deficient which can cause problems with their growth and development.

Toddlers will generally only eat the amount calories their bodies need, so if they drink too much milk, they won’t have room for the healthy food they need to meet their nutritional needs. Water is the preferred drink for between meals and with snacks. Offering small amounts of milk with meals only and in a cup rather than a bottle is a good way to set limits on milk consumption for toddlers. Juice is not necessary for a healthy diet and is high in sugar (natural sugar is still sugar as far as the body is concerned) It is far better to offer the actual fruits as a snack rather than juice.

Feeding toddlers can be a tricky business! If you’re looking for some more tips and guidance, check out ‘Toddler’s First Steps’ which is a resource provided by the Province of BC in print form or online. You can click HERE to see the PDF version. This publication is for parents of babies and toddlers aged 6-36 months. It has current and medically approved information about all aspects of parenting toddlers.

If your young baby under the age of 6 months is having constipation problems, it is best to consult with your family doctor for advice. Exclusively breastfed babies will not become constipated, but the introduction of solid foods or the switch to formula or whole milk can cause temporary problems for some babies. Start solids slowly and in very small amounts, gradually increasing the amount over weeks. Offer only one new food every 4-5 days so you can watch for any problems. It can take some time for the baby’s digestive system to adjust to the new foods.

* As always, the information I share here is general, current and comes from reliable sources, as well as my own pediatric nursing experience. It doesn’t replace a doctor’s advice and is not meant to diagnose. If you are concerned about your child’s symptoms, you should always contact your doctor for specific advice- or you could start by calling 811 from within BC or the Yukon to speak to a nurse at Healthlink BC *

…just lost the blogging bug for a while. All summer we’ve been buried in a mess around here due to our kitchen renovation. I try not to complain because I’ve been waiting for this new kitchen ever since we bought the house in January 2005. The kitchen was the least-desirable part of the house, but everything else ticked the boxes on our list so we decided to buy with the intention of imminent kitchen demolition. Well, one thing turned into another and we did lots of other renos first: we had the downstairs bathroom gutted and rebuilt almost right away, then we replaced all the windows and doors in the house and replaced the furnace and installed bathroom extraction fans upstairs. We upgraded he attic insulation, changed out most of the interior doors…well the list goes on and on.
So, this summer we got the chance to start the kitchen. I’ve been planning and plotting my new kitchen for YEARS, so it was really exciting to see it come to life. Here are a couple of photos I took back in 2005 when we had just moved in. You can still see boxes lying around from the move, but it shows the ridiculous layout of the room.

Just to the right in this photo is the rest of a very large (23′ x 17′) room, so the kitchen itself is closed into this very small corner by the wall and the peninsula. It is a crazy design, but I guess kitchens were built only as work areas back in 1980. Too bad only one person can work in there at one time. It was a constant frustration for us. You want to see me going insane? Making Christmas Dinner in here! Ugh!!

In the next photo you can see the peninsula with the bulkhead or…what is this called?…soffit? above it. I think there were originally cabinets attached there. Wow, can’t imagine how closed-in the kitchen must have felt when they were still there! Don’t you love the old-newspaper-looking wallpaper? (because oh yes, we want to draw attention to these useless empty soffits along the ceiling- pfft!)

So, I spent years planning and designing what I dreamed of having in this room. Ikea has an online planner that lets you lay out cabinets and appliances to get a feel for how things would fit and how it would look. I tried a few different combinations, but I knew I wanted an open kitchen with a huge island. This is the basic idea I had:

It’s hard to see in the ‘before’ photos, but the original kitchen had a pocket door opening on the wall where the stove is in this plan (into the dining room), and another one where the wide doorway is shown here farther along that wall (leading into the hallway). We decided to take out both pocket doors (they no longer functioned anyway) and make one wider opening instead.

Over the years, we made a few changes to try to make it a bit more comfortable. We changed the light fixtures, painted over the wallpaper and the walls, and changed out the ugly old light switches and plugs. We replaced the old stove and fridge at different times when they died on us. This is how the room looked the night before ‘demo day’. Of course, it’s empty because we had packed everything away already.

In this next photo, you can see that our contractor had already taken out the small pocket door and widened the opening. This was to make it easier to unload the furniture before demo.

On the wall to the right in this next photo, you can see one of the three windows along this wall. It’s a very bright room with lots of natural light. (and little Molly who always seems to get into the photos) but this was in the evening with not much light for photos.

Finally- DEMO DAY! Here’s me taking a few (pathetic) swings at the hated bulkhead/soffit box-thingy over the peninsula. It was nice to get the chance to wreck that thing finally:-)

Here’s how the room looked after the first day of hammering, ripping and sawing. The huge hole in the wall is where the other pocket door was removed. This has become a solid wall, as later photos will show. The dining room became our makeshift kitchen area, but at this point it was a disaster area too.

Next came the electrical work, so lots of drywall was torn out, and the new section of wall was framed in. You can see where the ceiling is being cut up to put in the new pot lights.

By Day 4, all of the flooring had been torn up. We were conflicted about taking out all of the hardwood floor, but we couldn’t come up with a good way of saving it without having an odd transition into the kitchen area and we didn’t want to try to match the wood since it has yellowed quite a bit from light exposure, and there were areas where the finish had worn off (under my office chair from the casters- guilty!) We decided to go with cork for the whole room, which of course added more $$ to the job…like everything does!

By Day 11, we had new drywall all over the place and things were looking much cleaner.

Day 16 and we have a new sub floor and the footings for the base cabinets are being installed.

Base cabinets and the island!

Day 28 was pretty exciting- granite countertops! Oh my gosh the island looks MASSIVE!

Then we had a visit from the plumber and we’re back to having running water. We had a filtered water tap and a soap dispenser added too. We love our new pull out sprayer faucet and the new sinks!

Subway tile backsplash with glass tile accent strip. I agonized over the grout colour and finally decided on Delorean Gray. It turned out exactly like I wanted:-) Just enough colour to show the pattern but not too graphic.

The new cork floors! I love the pattern- it’s impossible to see crumbs:-) We decided to go ahead and replace our foyer flooring at the same time. Renovations are like a virus, once you get started they keep spreading!

Foyer Before: Ugly, damaged parquet floor:

Foyer after: Lovely cork, yeay! It feels so good on the feet too.

Here’s where we are today (Day- oh sheesh, let me count- yep, it’s Day 58!) We have some of the cabinet doors and our garbage and recycling pull-outs are installed. The crown moldings are up (but not yet painted) and we are still waiting for the island cabinet doors, the cabinet and drawer handles, the glass fronted cabinet doors and glass shelving, the baseboards and a fresh coat of paint on the walls,  the painter to finish the ceiling, the electrician to install the ceiling lights…then I get to decide about window coverings.

Along this set of base cabinets there are two which we decided to change to drawers. Base cabinets drive me crazy- I can never find anything wayyy in the back of them. The drawers are built but not yet switched out.

The upper cabinets on either side of the sink will have glass fronted doors, glass shelves and interior lighting. We decided on a cross-hatch patterned glass to disguise the cabinet contents a bit.

The hood fan still has the protective paper on it and it still needs the cover for the chimney pipe. Stuff is all over the counters because we aren’t using the cabinets yet. Hate the mess but we are LOVING the kitchen already!

Later today I think we are getting the cherry doors installed on the island and all of the cabinet handles put on. At that point I think I will feel safe enough to start bringing everything back in and organizing the cabinets. We’re on the home stretch- more photos to come soon!

If you’re like me and you want to see all the nitty-gritty details and lots more photos, I’ve been photo blogging the whole renovation since we started in a set on Flickr. You can check it out by clicking HERE There’s an option there to watch them as a slideshow but then you don’t get to see my rivetingly interesting written commentary

Comments welcome!

I decided to make a batch of Heart Shaped Salt Bars tonight. I made them last year for Valentines Day and they were a big hit. I tweaked my method and recipe to try to improve upon last year’s batch. I started out by melting some white melt & pour glycerin soap base and mixing in some raspberry pop mica for a pretty pink colour. Last year I made the heart embeds out of cold process soap, which meant I had to wait about 2 days between the batches to finish these. I also had some trouble last year getting consistent colour in the little hearts- some of them went ashy and in some the colour disappeared or was mottled so I couldn’t use them. I figured that using melt & pour soap for these might be more reliable and easier.

I thought I’d add a bit of bling to this batch, so I used a paint brush to coat the heart shaped ice cube tray molds with a bit of cosmetic glitter before pouring in the soap.

Next, I poured the soap and set it aside to harden. See me pouring with my left hand while I took the photo with my right?  NOT easy- aren’t you impressed? (I guess that would be why this photo is so blurry- ha!)

When the tiny soaps were cooled, they easily popped out of their molds and I set them aside for later. Don’t they look like candy in this photo?

Next I weighed out the oils to make the main part of the soap which is done by cold process. Here is the coconut oil being weighed out. Then, I melted it and added sweet almond  and castor oils. Salt bars need a high percentage of coconut oil so they will lather well.

I added the lye water and the essential oils at this point. I used a blend of Lavender, Eucalyptus and Rosemary. I call it my ‘spa blend’. Notice my gloves? Lye burns are no fun!

Here, I have split the batch into 2 bowls so I can make layers of different colours. I added titanium dioxide mixed with a bit of water to one half to get bright white, and raspberry pop mica mixed with a bit of glycerin to the other half to get pink.

I used a stick blender to make sure the colour was mixed well into the pink portion, then added the sea salt.

Here I go with my left-handed tricks, pouring while taking photos. This is just for the photo- I had to pour all the rest of them right-handed:-) I poured the pink soap into the molds to about half full. These silicone heart muffin tin molds were a great bargain. I picked them up at Target one day on the ‘dollar shelf’– $2.50 each!

Back to the white portion of the soap, I added the salt and gave it a few blasts with the stick blender to thicken it up a bit.

Then I gently spooned the white soap on top of the pink layer. I remembered not to fill them too full this time so I would have some space for adding the tiny hearts afterwards.The first time I made these they kind of overflowed and I had to do ‘plastic surgery’ on the edges to tidy them up.

After a few minutes, the soap started to set and I pressed a tiny heart soap into the centre of each bar. I like the way the white soap puffs up around it a bit when it’s pressed down.

Now, they will set for a couple of days before I un-mold them. Salt bars can get kind of crumbly if you try to remove them from individual molds too soon, so I’ll have to try to be patient. I’ll update here with un-molded photos when they are ready.

Thanks for reading!

Update Thursday Dec 30th:
So much for waiting a couple of days- I have no patience at all when it comes to soap! I un-molded one bar today (after about 17 hours) and it popped out perfectly, so of course I had to take them all out and do photos. I was surprised that the layers look so equal. I thought I had poured too much for the pink layer. I ended up with one and a 1/2 solid white bars that didn’t have embedded hearts. I took notes so that next time I will know how much M&P I need to make enough hearts for the whole batch.
These will get incredibly hard as they cure. Salt bars don’t feel gritty at all- they shine up like a polished stone with use and last for ages.

I participated in a handmade soap swap that Anne-Marie hosted on her blog recently. So much fun! I sent in a 12-bar batch of my hot process soaps scented with Brambleberry’s Salty Mariner fragrance, and in return I received this fantastic pot-pourri of gorgeous handmade soaps in lots of great fragrances. I feel like Christmas came early for me today! 10 out of the 12 fragrances were new to me, so I’m looking forward to test driving them before I use them for my own soap.

My favourites in terms of fragrances are Sandalwood Vanilla, Spiced Mahogany and Clove Mint. I have to mention Summer Melon Spritzer too because I’m taking that one directly to my shower. It reminds me of summer time and I am really sick of fall right now!

My pick for best design has to go to Anne-Marie for her incredibly complex embedded and layered bar scented with Cranberry Fig. It’s just gorgeous!  There’s a How-To posting on her blog about it here.

Here’s a breakdown of the soapy bounty I received today, with links as I was able to find from the packaging.

Sandalwood Vanilla from Owl Tree Soaps

Marrakesh Goat Milk Soap from a soapmaker in Grant, Michigan

Cedar Saffron from Foster Creek Soap & Botanicals

Summer Melon Spritzer from Tub Time Treasures

Clove Mint from Freshwater Handmade Soap

Mango Sangria from Sweet Peas Soap

Cranberry Fig from Anne-Marie at Brambleberry

Spiced Mahogany from Dreaming Tree Soapworks

Karma Essential Oil Blend from Carmel Soaps

Lychee Red Tea from Barclay’s Soap Box

Cranberry from Bungalow Soap Co.

Rosehip Jasmine from Ali Mendelson

Looking forward to the next swap- this was so much fun!

I keep thinking about blogging and haven’t done it! (obviously!) so here I am. It’s not like I don’t have time, maybe just not much to say…? I’ve been doing a bit of soaping in recent weeks, gearing up for the upcoming craft fair events. I thought I’d post a few photos here and share some of my new goodies. First are a few Christmas themed soaps. I’m calling this first one Candy Cane. It’s peppermint scented with a dusting of glitter for bling. Here it is in the mold, and then the cut bars.

Next I tried out an idea I saw on the Soap Queen’s blog for Hot Cocoa With Marshmallows. This one was really fun to make and even though my marshmallows collapsed on this first batch (I shouldn’t have insulated the mold) I was pretty happy with the result. This fragrance is mouthwatering too! My son Devon already grabbed an off-cut from this batch for his bathroom.

These little guys are my first successful Melt & Pour soap projects. Working with M&P takes a steady hand and there is definitely a learning curve to figuring out the proper temps for pouring and levels of fragrance and colours. I’m really happy with how these came out. I’m making more this week!

Oh, I almost forgot my Pumpkin Pie Soap! This was made in 2 layers. The bottom layer has real pureed pumpkin in it for the great orange colour, and the fluffy white topping is made from a separate batch of whipped soap and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spices for the final touch. Who doesn’t love the scent of a pumpkin pie baking? This fragrance is fantastic!

My history with making bath bombs can be summed up in one word: FRUSTRATION.

a) I can’t get the 2 halves of the round bombs to stick together consistently

b) My round bombs usually get big cavernous cracks around them when they dry

SO– this is my solution: Bath bombs made with soap molds! I love how these came out. The details are so pretty. These are scented with Fresh Rain fragrance which I also used to make my Vancouver Rain soap.

Yesterday was our 5 year wedding anniversary. It made me think back to our wedding day- still ranks as one of the best days of my life. I look at the wedding pictures now and it makes me a little sad as I miss certain things from back then. I am disappointed that I have gained 20 pounds since then and of course I’m looking older now. At least I can do something about the weight if not the aging! I just wish I could get motivated to get back on track with working out. I used to make it a priority in my life and now it just seems to easy to avoid.  We eat healthy meals, but portion control is hard for me. I know if I don’t want to continue to pack on the pounds I definitely need to get moving and control my eating.

Why does it have to be so HARD?

The weather cooperated yesterday afternoon, so we packed up a picnic,  loaded our bikes onto the back of the car, and went bike riding on Westham Island. Lots of farms-  not terribly interesting though,  so we packed up again and headed over to the dyke in Richmond and rode along there for a while. There are picnic tables dotted along the dyke so we stopped at one for our picnic before heading back. It was really nice to get out and do something active and fun together. It doesn’t happen often enough. Daily life gets in the way and it’s so easy to just fall into the routine. Days like yesterday remind me that life is short and we should seize the day with the ones we love. I know it sounds cliche…

Which brings me to my Mom. She’s got some kind of dementia, probably Alzheimers disease. About 18 months ago she saw a specialist who thought she probably had early Alzheimers, but we took her to another specialist for a second opinion and he disagreed. Either way, there was really nothing to do at that point other than keeping her on the medication (which may or may not help in the early stages) and try to support her as much as possible. Since then her memory has gotten quite a bit worse. She calls me regularly with questions and gets confused about paperwork and things that come in the mail. I’ve taken over her medical insurance claims because she was getting them mixed up. Luckily, all of her other bills are paid via pre-authorized payment. The one thing she is still doing is paying her Visa bill each month. All her life she has saved all her receipts- writing the date at the top and then checking them against her statement each month. Lately she’s been having more difficulty with it. She frequently calls Visa to send her copies of certain bills she can’t find, but for the most part she’s managing that pretty well.

My big concern about her is that she is still driving. Last year after she had 2 accidents close together and her car was wrecked,  then had eye surgery and couldn’t drive for at least 6 weeks we thought we could convince her to give up driving but it didn’t work. After her eye healed, she convinced my brothers to take her car shopping (in hindsight they should have refused) and she bought a new car. She can no longer drive anywhere she hasn’t been many times, and even needs written directions to get to my house reliably. Recently she was supposed to follow me in her car to go to a specialist appointment, but as soon as I got into my car she didn’t know where I was. She had no idea what my car looked like, so she just went home and then was upset with me because she said I didn’t tell her to follow me (of course I did). So- she still drives to her credit union and to stores she knows and to my house. She says she doesn’t drive very often, but I wish she would make the decision to stop herself. I think this is going to be a big problem because she doesn’t see the danger. Maybe it’s going to take her getting lost before she realizes she has to stop. I just hope it’s not an accident that decides for her.