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Chow down on a big greasy breakfast

bacon and eggsThere are times when all you really need in life is a big ol’ plate of greasy food.

Last week, while waiting for my connecting flight in the Philadelphia airport, I dug into a heaping plate of eggs, bacon, home fries and rye toast. When you’re up at 4:30 in the morning, a big greasy breakfast really hits the spot.

A big breakfast is more than just a meal. It’s a cultural experience and has always been a big part of my life (I know that sounds funny so let me explain).

As a kid, I had a Sunday Sun paper route. After delivering all my papers, I’d crawl back into bed and would wake up to the smell of bacon frying through the house—a wonderful memory of my Mom. After my Mom passed away, my Dad, my brothers and I would go every Sunday to the Orchard Family Restaurant at Dundas and Highway 10 in Mississauga—still one of the best breakfasts around. In university days, Sunday greasy breakfasts became the culmination of a weekend of partying at my friends’ townhouse in Waterloo. Life is more sedate these days, and now my favourite big greasy breakfast (other than when I’m on the road) is camping trips with Dave and the girls.

This week’s #HappyAct is to chow down on a big greasy breakfast. Don’t count the calories; count the memories. What’s your favourite greasy spoon? Start a list by leaving a comment. If anyone knows of a good one in the Kingston area, let me know.

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Write an old fashioned thank you note

Donna Swinton
My thank you note to Donna Swinton

This is Thanksgiving weekend, a time when most of us will spend time with family, eat way too much turkey and give thanks.

My mother-in-law still writes old fashioned thank you notes. I wanted to send Donna a special thank you note this Thanksgiving, so I bought a pretty card and sent it to her. I thought I would share it with you too. This is what the card said:

Thank you for not making me name my daughters Gladys

Thank you for the gift of music, our beautiful old piano

Thank you for putting up with John for the last 59 years

Thank you for welcoming me into your family and always treating me like a daughter

Thank you for fixing the zipper on my favourite dress

Thank you for proving that you can have a successful career and be a good mother at the same time

Thank you for somehow being at the same time both the best and worst Cheat card player I’ve ever seen

Thank you for teaching your son how to cook

Thank you for making sandies at Christmas time

Thank you for your youthful giggle and smile that was probably one of the many reasons John fell in love with you all those years ago and still loves you so dearly today

Thank you for your unconditional love and support

Thank you for being the strength and soul of the Swinton clan

This week’s #HappyAct is to write an old fashioned thank you note. Send it to someone who holds a special place in your heart or share it at the table this weekend when you’re giving thanks. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

 

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Stand on your desk

St. George's Cathedral
St. George’s cathedral in Kingston in full autumn glory

I was watching a biography on the great Robin Williams. They showed that memorable scene from Dead Poets Society where he stands on his desk and asks his students why, and he replies, “I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.”

It’s easy to not see what is before our eyes. Case in point. I was driving home the other night and for the first time, saw a bright red roof of a barn shimmering in the late day sun. I had never seen that roof before even though I drive the same route twice a day, five days a week, fifty weeks of the year.

Sometimes we need to make a conscious effort to see things from a new perspective. The risk if we don’t stand on our desks from time to time is feeling uninspired, unfulfilled, bored and unhappy.

This week’s #HappyAct is to stand on your desk and challenge yourself to look at things with a fresh eye. If you’re not into standing on your desk, try this. Every day this week, on your daily walk or commute, pause and look at your surroundings with fresh eye. What did you discover? Leave a comment. Here’s what I found one day on a quick walk around the block from my office.

Limestone carriageway
A limestone carriageway, from the days of horse and carriages.
Doorway
One of the many beautiful doorways of Kingston
Frontenac Club Inn
The Frontenac Club Inn on King and William Streets. Note the plaque on the wall–this is the first time I’ve ever stopped to read it, even though I’ve passed it a million times. It is dedicated to the men of the Frontenac Club who fought in the second world war. I learned the Frontenac Club was made up of leading Kingstonians, garrison officers, faculty and officers of Queen’s University and Royal Military College and was closed in the 1930s when the depression hit.
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Do your own a-maze-ing race

Corn stalksDazed and crazed in a maze. That’s how I spent yesterday, deciphering the corm maze at Wynn Farms and picking apples with the girls.

There’s something about getting lost in a maze that takes you back to your childhood. I remember my parents taking me to Centre Island in Toronto. Besides the petting zoo and the ferry ride , our favourite part was the maze. I think it was my parents’ favourite too since they could sit and enjoy a moment of peace and quiet while we raced through the paths, squealing every time we came to a dead end.

Here were just a few of the a-maze-ing facts we learned about farming in yesterdays’s maze.

  • The average farm feeds 120 families
  • One acre of soybeans can make 82,368 crayons (who knew?)
  • In a typical 10,000 item grocery store, a quarter, or 2,500 products contain corn!

This week’s #HappyAct is to do your own a-maze-ing race in a corn maze. Gaze at the fields ablaze with reds and golds and corn silk shining against the bright blue sky. Don’t get fazed. It’s the newest craze. Special note for those of you who love to Gaze at the Stars. This Thursday, October 2nd, Terence Dickinson the reknowned astronomer is putting on a free presentation open to the community at Prince Charles Public School in Verona from 7-9 p.m. Hope you can make it!

girls at a corn maze

Girl in a corn maze

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Roamin’ in the gloamin

Sun shimmering through trees
The gorgeous light of the gloamin

It’s fall, my favourite season. For me, the first days of fall are as bitter sweet as the orange-berried vine that grows in our fields this time of year. I am reluctant to bid summer adieu, but embrace the crisp days and cool nights and sweet smells of fresh apples and wood smoke in the air.

This is when I start counting down the days and hours before daylight savings time. I get home quite late, so I often only have an hour at home after work before it gets dark. This is my time to go roamin’ in the gloamin.

There is something very special about the light at this time of year in the evening–the way it shimmers and casts a soft glow over the landscape. It’s magical.

This week’s #Happy Act is to go roamin’ in the gloamin’. Having a lad or lassie by your side is optional (I usually just have my two big dopey dogs by my side).

About the song

I always thought Roamin’ in the Gloamin was an old Scottish folk song, but it was actually written in 1911 by Sir Harry Lauder. The song tells of a man and his sweetheart courting in the evening. Here are the words of the chorus:

“Roamin’ in the gloamin’ on the bonnie banks o’ Clyde.
Roamin’ in the gloamin’ wae my lassie by my side.
When the sun has gone to rest,
That’s the time we love the best.
O, it’s lovely roamin’ in the gloamin”

Dog in wooded path
Roamin’ in the gloamin with Murphy by my side

 

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Step right up and make a change

United Way volunteers
Co-workers Elaine Peterson, Jordan Grundy and Jessica Schonewille at the United Way breakfast

This week I attended the kick-off breakfast for the 2014 Kingston, Lennox, Frontenac and Addington United Way Campaign. The room was packed with more than 500 community leaders and volunteers who run campaigns in their workplace. This year, the goal for our region is $3,481,000.

Our company, Empire Life is a huge supporter of United Way and always runs a fantastic campaign. This year our theme is “Step right up and make a change”, and we’ll be planning lots of fun events based on a carnival theme to raise almost $300,000. That’s a lot of change.

Over the years, United Way has become a charity of choice for me. I’m personally invested for two main reasons. One, it is the one charity where my money goes directly back into my own community and is distributed across many agencies and areas of need to help my neighbours, my colleagues, my friends.

The other reason is I’ve seen first-hand the incredible work United Way agencies do. I’ve been on the Board of Kingston Literacy and Skills, volunteered with CNIB, have worked for the day at places like Kingston Interval House and Kingston Youth Shelter as part of the Day of Caring, and visited other agencies through the United Way Seeing is Believing tour.

There is a third reason, knowing some day that could be me. We are all one pink slip, one medical crisis away from our lives changing inexorably. Life is fragile. In a flash, everything you hold dear can change, as we heard firsthand at the breakfast when 15-year old Oscar Evans described how his life changed after a chemical accident at the age of 13 when he became blind. We may all need help some day. I, for one, am grateful the United Way is there when that day comes.

This week’s #HappyAct is to step up and make a change by giving to United Way. If you live in a community where you aren’t as aware of the incredible work United Way does, make it a point of finding out. Volunteer for an agency or ask about a Seeing is Believing tour in your community (there is one in Kingston on September 23, find more details here.) Special thanks to the Empire Life team who braved the miserable rain yesterday at our 6th annual Community Garage Sale for United Way. You guys are amazing!

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Cheer from the stands

roller derbyThere are times when standing on the sidelines is just as much fun as playing the game. Last night for Clare’s birthday, we took her and four of her friends to the Kingston Derby Girls end of season match. I’ve never been to the roller derby before. It was a riot.

They billed it as The Best. The Most. The GREATEST night of roller derby in Kingston–the fifth anniversary of Back to Cruel, when it all began.

It took us a bit to pick up the game and figure out the Jammers were the girls with the stars on their helmet and they got a point every time they passed members of the other team. It was a double header, the Kingston Disloyalists versus the London Timber Rollers followed by a hometown match of the Rogue Warriors versus The Skateful Dead. Our favourite skaters were Manic Breeze, Sewciopath and Banger Management.

I don’t know what was more fun, watching the crowd (which by the way included everyone from two-year olds with their parents, to a bunch of Queen’s students making beer statues on the sidelines to people in their sixties and seventies), or following the action on the rink, but it was rockin’.

This week’s Happy Act is to cheer from the stands. Get lost in the game, cheer loudly for your favourite team and have fun. Here are some more pictures of last night’s action. Become a fan—like the Kingston Derby Girls on Facebook.

roller derby

 

Kids watching roller derby
The little kids and one big kid taking in the action
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Let it go

You must have been living on an iceberg this past year if you don’t know the song Let it Go from the movie Frozen. I was paddling on the lake the other day and heard a chorus of young voices singing it at the top of their lungs. My kids sing it so often, I know most of the words even though I haven’t seen the movie.

It’s a catchy song, but also a philosophy I’ve learned to adopt to be happy in life. It’s easy to let things get to you. It’s incredibly hard to let them go.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to someone on the phone. The conversation took a turn into a contentious area and I realized I was starting to get upset and quickly steered the conversation to another topic. But as soon as I got off the phone, I knew the person had “gotten to me” and I started stewing over what they said.

As I walked out the door to head to the lake for a paddle with the girls, I knew I had to “let it go”. Easier said than done. My usual strategies are to take deep breaths, a brisk walk, or focus on something positive. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself, is it really worth getting all worked up over this. And the answer is usually no, just let it go.

This week’s #HappyAct is to let it go. Maybe it’s something at work or home bothering you, or something someone said. Just remember. “One thought crystallizes like an icy blast, I’m never going back; the past is in the past…I’ll rise like the break of dawn. Let it go.”

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Spend time with someone older and wiser

Our family and Audrey
Celebrating with Audrey

Yesterday we celebrated the 85th birthday of someone who holds a special place in many hearts, Audrey Tarasick.

I first met Audrey in 1979 when her daughter Leslie and I became inseparable as teenagers. Audrey lived on a farm north of Kingston where she had moved on her own to set up an alternative school. Fiercely independent, with a zest for adventure and life, yet soft-spoken, patient and loving, Audrey quickly became a unique role model in my life.

She was one of the only women I knew who was an expert woodworker and who converted the entire front section of her house into a workshop to make dollhouses. She was the first to say, “go for it” on hot summer days when she would take us to Eagle Lake for a swim even though we didn’t have our bathing suits.

She has taught us the precise time to sugar off, when the syrup drips deliciously from the ladle to form a silver dollar at maple syrup time. She has steadfastly refused over the years to “babysit” her grandchildren, opting to spend time with them instead, and as a result has close relationships with the 15 grandchildren who love her dearly today. She has taught me about parenting, and has been there for Dave and me during some of the most difficult times in our life.

I have learned so much from this incredible woman. But the thing I appreciate most about Audrey is her different viewpoint on life. Whether it’s global warming, parenting, politics or rural living, Audrey always has a unique and insightful perspective. There’s been many a time in the family kitchen during a heated discussion, I find myself wondering, “I wonder what Audrey is going to say.”

This week’s #HappyAct is to spend time with someone older and wiser than you. Listen to what pearls of wisdom they may share. Here was my favourite from yesterday. Audrey was shooting hoops in the basketball competition, and I teased her that she was grunting like the tennis pros. She said to me, “As you get older, everything is easier if you grunt”. Happy birthday, Audrey. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend and role model.

Audrey shooting a bow and arrow
Audrey trying her hand in the archery competition

 

Women having tea in a team room
Special girls outing to Spindletree gardens earlier this summer, three generations of two families celebrating together
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Ride a rollercoaster

Father and daughter riding rollercoaster
Dave and Clare riding the Wildcat at Hershey Park. We got sucked into buying the picture because we loved the expression on their faces

There’s only two weeks left of this infernal imposter summer. Make the most of it by doing something that gets your adrenaline pumping. Ride a rollercoaster.

I had forgotten what a rush it is to hurl down a clickety clack track at 50 mph but the fear and exhilaration came racing back to me recently when we attacked the 12 rollercoasters at Hershey Park, Pennsylvania. I only rode about four of them before my stomach gave out, but thrillseekers Dave and Clare squeezed in as many as possible before the park closed.

Boredom and routine can cast a shadow over the joys of everyday life. It’s a rare day when we do something so exhilarating it gets our adrenaline pumping and we lose all inhibition. That’s what’s so great about rollercoasters. You don’t worry about what your hair looks like, or about that deadline at work. All you can think about is what’s around the next bend. I don’t think at all. I literally scream the entire way around the track at the top of my lungs. I can’t think of a greater stress buster in the world.

This week’s #HappyAct is to ride a rollercoaster. Let every inhibition hurl out of you and feel the thrill of the rush. The Canadian National Exhibition is on in Toronto. Relive your youth, spend the day at the Ex, and scream til your lungs hurt. Leave a comment—what’s your favourite rollercoaster?