Today is my mother's birthday.
A while back, I came scross these photos from 2010, taken on her 91st birthday.
My three kids were there - together with my daughter-in-law, Natalie.
A group of us had lunch with her at her retirement residence.
My brother and his wife had brought along, from Texas, my sister-in-law's niece and her new husband.
My brother always liked to bring friends with him. He enjoyed showing off Canada!
Fun times! Great memories!
Today is our younger son's birthday!!
Where have the years gone?!!
I look forward to celebrating with him and his family later today... We always have a fun time!
In the midst of the chaos of our summer - chaos that started with the July 1 flooding of our basement and the subsequent weeks of cleanup"...
I find solace in nature:
...the flowers I see around me...
... and especially the amazing sky!
My home may look and feel different indoors.
But outdoors, nothing has changed!
I've long been curious to try a "croque monsieur" or a "croque madam" sandwich - traditional French sandwiches made by dipping ham and cheese sandwiches in a mixture of egg and milk, then frying them, as one would fry French toast.
I was under the impression that the "croque monsieur" had ham and cheese between the slices of bread but "croque madam" only had cheese...
So I made what I thought was a "croque madam" - because I had no ham.
But I was wrong! Turns out that both croque monsieur" and "croque madam" have ham and cheese in them. But "croque madam" has a fried egg - sunny side up - on top!
I need to try that!
But I did use the leftover egg and milk mixture for a small serving of scrambled eggs - which I drizzled with homemade strawberry jam...
A delicious dessert!
Last week Ivy went to "beach" volleyball camp in the mornings...
No beach! But they played barefoot in sand!
(I remember playing volleyball in the school gym in high school. I wonder if the rules are the same...)
It was fun to watch her skills develop.
After camp, there were various options - including shopping!!)
One day I drove her to a friend's house. Another day we went to a mall.
Yet another day, we met up with her father. His car was in the garage - so we ended up going to pick up her brother at his soccer camp as well.
We all had a good time!
Fun to hang out with my granddaughter... And for me, a well-needed break from the post-flood chaos at home!
Once the wet carpeting was removed from our basement, we had to work on drying the floor and walls.
Several carpenters cut out the bottom 2 feet of all the drywall...
Before doing that, all shelving has to be pushed into the centre of the room.
Then fans and industrial-sized dehumidifiers are brought in to dry everything - floor, wooden framing under the drywall - everything!
As it dries, the wood is sprayed several times with an anti-fungal solution.
After everything is dry, the next step is to rebuild. In the meantime, boxes of books and things retrieved from the basement fill every vacant corner of the upper two floors of the house!!
The past day or two, we've had slightly smoky skies from forest fires in Quebec.
Smoky skies make the sky look pink...
The sun actually looked red - like the photo below - though in some of the photos it looks faded, almost white.
My son and I ran here and there in the yard, hoping to capture the perfect picture...
Some are lovely - but it's impossible to match the beauty of the "real deal" - the beauty of nature!!
