Last night, we celebrated my grant-aunt Huguette’s 90th birthday.  It was a surprise (she being a Valentine’s Day baby) and she was very much so.  She kept saying:  “All these people are here for me?”  Of course!  It was organised by her youngest son Francis and his wife Sonia.  As we went around kiss-kissing each other’s cheeks, most of us were saying how nice it is to gather for other than a funeral.  Honestly, it feels that is how it is now.  As the older generation is dying off, there are less and less people inclined to get these gatherings happening.  Huguette is one of the last three left in a family of fifteen kids.  Her older sister Beatrice is 98 and the baby of the family, Maurice is 86.  A few of us cousins said we would organise something.  Remains to be seen…

The following pictures are horrid as the lighting in this place was awful but hey…  It’s so funny that the cousins mentioned below are my mother’s cousins – but closer to MY age – and Suzie is my mother’s cousin, Darquise’s daughter… what does that make her to me? Second cousin once removed?  Whatever!

Surprise!

My aunt Nicole, cousin Alyson & Mom

Rare to get all 5 siblings together! Léo, Johanne, Tina, Michelle, Yves

Birthday girl, Huguette

Cousin Suzie & Me

Sonia, Darquise (who Mick called Dolly) & me

The restaurant was an hour away, so by the time I drove my mother home and walked through my door it was already 11:30pm.  By midnight or so, I was done.

Quite the intro to my Sunday Kind of (Self)Love, eh?  Been a while since I got so wordy, so hunker down 😉 (no obligations, of course!)

I got up (out of bed) at 9:00 this morning.  I immediately put on my workout clothes not even sure if I was going to do anything – but isn’t that half the battle?  Last night’s oversized Greek meal came back to my memory and I turned on my app to start my exercise…

Did my Tai Chi Walking and whatnot, exchanged texts with my two besties, finally made myself a coffee at, what? 10:30am?  Sat down and responded to comments on the blog, read a few and by 11:15 or so, first coffee done, I was getting hungry!

So, I set to work chopping half a red onion, and threw that into a frying pan with some olive oil, pancetta and added 3 of the leftover Greek potatoes.  Took out a slice of my sourdough, popped it into the toaster and then fried up two eggs.  Oh my goodness.  I sat down at the table and was present in the moment.

But I then realised it was too quiet in the house.  Most days, I spend the whole day in a quiet house, no music, no TV and all is well but today, I decided to add some music.  Turned on Spotify, Chose “Easy Like Sunday Morning”, a list by Nicola Cronin, and the first song was Sunday Kind of Love.

And so this post was born.

I unofficially or subconsciously decided to have an intentional day.  From sitting down at the table – for both my meals (instead of in front of the TV), washing my dishes right after my meal, doing my laundry (wash, dry, fold, put away), writing this post, that has, quite frankly, taken me all day; doing all of it, mindfully.  I went from one to another, with a little break here by watching a show, a break there by watching a movie; and by the end of the day, realised I had accomplished way more than I thought I would.  And feeling so damn good the whole day.

For supper, I knew I wanted to use one of the cans of dry-like-sawdust tuna (at the price they cost, the last three cans will find their way into some sort of recipe and not simply chucked) and some canned beans (I had white kidney beans).  I knew there would need to be some some extra oomph added in and, well, let us just say, I managed it!

Sheesh.  I look at the three meals I have shared here… pretty much all in the same colour scheme and monotone, eh?  No matter, each one was tasty!

When I have a day like today, where there is no stress, no rush, no having to be anywhere at any time, the choice to go out or not (despite the break in the rains, I somehow did not manage to go out for a walk and guess what?  That’s okay!), doing some things that need to be done, skipping others for another day, I realise that damn, I need more days like this… And how nice would it be to have them on a Tuesday or a Thursday and not be obliged to make them happen on a Sunday?

I think retirement is starting to call louder.

Oh look at that!  My rhododendron is finally blooming!

I think I’ve held you up long enough and this Cinderella has to hit because, while she would really REALLY like to be already retired, she is not yet!