To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die.
~Thomas Campbell,
“Hallowed Ground”
My darling mom passed away in the early morning hours of Tuesday from breast cancer. I was able to be with her and I am so thankful for the opportunity of this past month. I feel as if I’ve been given a miracle to have spent these days with her.
I remind each and everyone of you to take good care and to perform monthly breast exams. Your families love and need you.
A little prevention is a lot of cure.
Wow. Where does one start? I guess with what caused my lengthy absence in the first place, the renovations…which are now DONE!
Can you see me grinning? 
All our hard work paid off and the first people through made us an offer and (fingers crossed) the conditions will be removed in a few days and then we’ll be off to Yellowknife to look for our new home (more crossed fingers).
Now even though things are calm here on the house front, I’ll still be absent from the blogosphere as I’m away visiting my mom. She’s in palliative care now and so the little ladies and I are pretty much stuck to her side these days. We’re getting in lots of visiting and chatting and hugs and whatnot, so things are as well as can be expected.
In the meantime, I’ll drop in as I pop home for visits with BH (taking a page from Toni’s book in which she refers to hers as “beloved husband”) and know that I’m thinking of you all and missing you.
Mudding…
sanding…
painting…
caulking…
trimming…
doing school and ferrying kids, but it’s looking promising now — there’s light at the end of this particular rainbow!
Bear with me just a little while longer —
I’ll be back.
I promise.
Take care everyone!
I’m missing you.
Happy Mother’s Day!!
I recieved a phone call from my dear aunt yesterday and whilst chatting she commented that I sounded like I was bordering the edge of hysteria.
Suffice it to say, it was probably an accurate assessment. I’d just arrived home from spending the day at the Girl Guide camp with about 60 girls and sadly, no fairy had sprinkled my house with anti-renovation dust and turned it into the magical palace I know it could be. I guess I have to work on that by myself (insert long and suffering sigh here).
On the upside, I’ve had a few epiphanies during this renovation.
Number One. However long I think it requires to get something done, it is safe to double the time for a more accurate assessment. Estimated time of completion is now May 14. Give or take a few weeks. 
Number Two. Ice cold beer tastes divine when you are soaking in a hot tub (this I discovered last night after DH decided to ditch the house for awhile and I managed a break in his absence).
Number Three. Take-out food gets just as boring as home cooked food. And Ichiban noodles? We like to call them “yarn noodles”, but they are not a suitable meal/snack for anyone. 400 calories per package. Insane. I am banning them from my cupboards.
Number Four. Drywall dust has got to be the most impervious substance on the earth. Nasty hobbitses.
Number Five. White walls are no longer my cup of tea. Once you have color on your walls, you can never return to plain white. Our walls only have Buttermilk, French Vanilla and Embrace, but wow, what a difference the color makes to the ambience.
Number Six. Crawling over the couch in your kitchen to get to your sink makes for rather nimble acrobatics. I’m considering my life as a trapeze artist next.
Number Seven. The tax deadline waits for no one, so I’d best get at that. Revenue Canada wants my contribution (LOL – I can hear Carla laughing from down south…she’s had hers done for months!).
Sun up until sun down, paintbrush and trowel in hand, the renovation frenzy continues on in the Pater household.
Have you ever heard the ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’? That would be us. It’s looking good though. Only (excuse me while I count…1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) nine more walls to paint. And tomorrow we start putting in the new flooring. Then the trim and crown moulding goes on.
This renovation stuff has put a major crimp in my writing. I’ve been able to keep up with my Daphne reading, but that’s all. Everything else has come to a screeching halt. I miss my characters. I miss my stories.
I miss you guys, too!
Only another week of the renovation madness.
Tactile sensation has never meant so much. I have skimmed my hands over the walls in this house so often, I now know them better than my own body.
And really isn’t that appropriate? Shouldn’t you *know* the home where you house your body which in turn houses your soul?
More paint fumes?
I’m not sure. Could be.
This week FreeWill has this to say for me …I like the way this guy thinks.
You could grow moonflowers in a toxic waste dump, Libra. You could lift the spirits of a child who has been raised in grievous poverty. That’s how much regenerative power you possess right now. You might even be able to locate underground water in a desert, or resurrect a dead dream, or alleviate half of your deepest suffering. I’m not absolutely sure you could transform lead into gold, but I do know that now is one of your best chances ever to pull it off.
Normal days have gone by the wayside in our lives now. Everthing revolves around the house and we are fitting everything to its schedule. Except the CF-18s. DH can’t ignore them, so he’s still going to work.
I pulled my office apart to paint. It’s ready for its final coat (buttermilk), but funny (not funny ha ha, or funny strange, but rather funny kind of pitiful) that it took days to arrive at this point. With a layer of dark blue paint to cover, two full days of re-certification for first aid and normal life to attend to, these things take time. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.
The bedrooms are next. Then the livingroom and kitchen.
I’m missing you all. I hope to get some time to come visit around the cyberworld tomorrow. Take care.
It’s a good thing I’ve got until May to get these entries read. Wallpaper is being stubborn…have rented a steamer as suggested by Toni and Devon.
Elbows ache. Head pounds.
Life is good, but strange.
Perhaps it’s the wallpaper glue getting to me, but I’ve had many profound life epiphanies while scraping.
Tomorrow I’m mudding and I’ll be painting my office. If I weren’t concerned with resale, it’d be lime green. Since I am, it’ll be either a pale yellow or a blah beige.
Resale?
Did someone say resale?
I did.
We’re selling this house.
Soon.
Why?
DH received a posting message today and come June/July we will be HERE.
Take a minute and enjoy the picture show. It’s gorgeous.
And even better, my mom has decided to come with us. 
To all the residents of Cold Lake. I’m sorry. Yesterday I packed away our winter things and brought out the spring/summer clothes and so of course it brought snow.
Mea culpa.
Please forgive me.
On to other things, Easter was lovely at my mom’s and we had a great visit.
Things are hectic in our house right now. Lots of changes going on (mostly due to renovations)…I should think about posting some before and after pics, shouldn’t I? I’ll wait until the after to do it, though. I don’t want to depress anyone.
If my posts are sporadic, don’t worry. I’m only stripping. Wallpaper. sigh
Disclaimer: Much caffeine. Little sleep.
In the writer’s world we call it POV. Other people call it perspective. Or walking in another person’s shoes. No matter the label you pin to it, it’s important.
Cleaning the house top to bottom yesterday (O. M. G. – remind me NEVER to do that again!) I took a good look around and wondered what a first time visitor to our home might think.
Of course, my first thought was that walking in they’d see the wallpaper and decide we were demented, but then I remembered the first time I saw this house. I had focused on the people and not the surroundings. Perhaps a mistake, because we were here to buy the house.
Diversity of thoughts and perspective are wondrous things. Embrace them and learn.
And what about first impressions? How often are we fooled by them? I’m thinking quite often. We are quick to snap that first picture and hold it forever in our minds.
Perhaps that person has some crazy wallpaper going on at that particular moment, but maybe they didn’t hang it. Maybe they inherited it. Maybe it’s not who they REALLY are.
Maybe your characters are doing the same?
It’s my opinion that wallpaper should be outlawed, but if it isn’t, I can always choose not to look.
Or get to know the wall underneath a bit better.