What's Up Wednesday : February 2019

It's time for February's What's Up Wednesday.

image from here

What we're eating this week... Well this is a bit of a spoiler alert for my February goals post on Friday, but we've been eating homemade challah this month and loving it! We've also been loving the challah French toast we make with the second loaf on Saturdays. Yum!

Challah French toast - yum!

What I'm reminiscing about... Since March Break starts in a week and a half, I'm reminiscing about the one time we actually traveled over March Break. We did a Southern Road Trip to Virginia, spent a week in Hilton Head, SC, and then stopped in Georgia, South Carolina (again), and North Carolina to meet some blog friends. We had an amazing time and I wish we were headed somewhere warm this break. You can read all about this trip here.

What I'm loving... As I mentioned in my post yesterday, Sam has been heating up our magic/comfort/heat bags every night. I love that he has claimed this task as his own and I love falling asleep* with my feet wrapped in warmth every night. *assuming I don't read so late that the bag has lost all its warmth by the time I fall asleep. Ha!

 

What we've been up to... Even though we got back from Victoria last Wednesday, I still feel like I'm getting caught up. So we've been up to grocery shopping, laundry, house cleaning, school, work -- you know, the usual.

What I'm dreading... Well, since we took a trip earlier this month to visit my mom and dad in Victoria, BC, we aren't going anywhere for March Break. So I'm dreading having the kids off school for a week with not a lot going on. I hope I'll be able to figure out lots of play dates for the kids so that they have a fun week at least. I'll be trying to get work done around the kids being (mostly) at home.

There are benefits to being a part-time work-from-home parent but school breaks are hard since weekly camps aren't worth it.

What I'm working on... I know I need to work on my March Break attitude. March Break can be really mixed weather around here, and if it's cold and wintry, and we're just at home, I know I will be grumpy. I hope I can find some fun things to do (see above) and keep a positive attitude. Wish me luck and pray for me :)

random cute pictures from March Break 2014 
because this post is getting boring (and whiny -- sorry)

What I'm excited about... I'm joining a neighbourhood book club. I have been part of my current book club for a very long time (like maybe fifteen years), but I'm looking forward to getting to know some people in our neighbourhood better. And being exposed to different books. I'm going to my first meeting next week so we'll see how it goes...

What I'm watching/reading...

Grey's Anatomy -- Dave and I are almost done Season 1

The books in front are the next five books on my TBR -- a couple of book club books and some which need to get back to the library soon. The books stacked behind the front ones are other library books which I will read eventually!

What I'm listening to... Blue Jays Spring Training baseball!!!!! And I couldn't be happier!!!

What I'm wearing... I found out last week that the store where I buy the majority of my shoes is closing at the end of March. Boo. So on Monday night I went and bought two pairs of my favourite spring/fall shoes to keep me going for awhile. I'm hoping to find a couple of pairs of my favourite summer shoes at another store this weekend and then I'll be set for a couple of years. That should give me time to find a new shoe store.

If these shoes look slightly different it's because they are.
 The blue one is a women's size 7 and the grey one is a men's size 7. 
But they fit about the same. Weird.

What I'm doing this weekend... Relaxing! We've had a busy couple of weeks and I'm looking forward to a slow weekend with "few" plans. Where "few" is defined as Dave and I going to a play on Friday night, synagogue on Saturday morning, haircuts on Saturday afternoon, and church on Sunday morning. You know "few" plans. Ha!

What I'm looking forward to next month... Sam's birthday is at the end of the month and we have two really exciting things going on. We are going to our annual Blue Jays game with Tim and Janice and family on Sam's actual birthday! And we're taking Sam and a friend to see the musical "The Lightning Thief" in Toronto as his birthday present. It's based on the book by Rick Riordan and I think it's going to be AWESOME!!! Sam LOVES Rick Riordan books so I hope he will love the musical.

Our annual Blue Jays game with Tim, Janice, Tessa, and Willem

in September 2018.

What else is new... I think I've covered it all...

Bonus question: What is your favourite board game to play with your kids?

We mostly love card games as a family -- Skip-Bo, Bohnanza, Phase 10 -- but I would say our favourite board game (which we haven't played in awhile) is Quicksand. Dave is willing to play Monopoly with Sam and Rachel but I don't have the patience for it :) A few weeks ago, friends of ours introduced us to Labyrinth and Rachel and I really enjoyed that one. I do like that we've hit the phase of life where family games are not only a possibility but also fun!

our games shelf -- we have lots of options!

Daily Photo: February 19 - 25, 2019

February 19, 2019 -- We were really excited (Rachel especially) to get to fly on the WestJet Frozen themed plane on one of the legs of our journey. My parents flew on this plane in October, coming to visit us. You can read more about this fun plane here.

February 20, 2019 -- It was lovely to be home again and enjoy a mid-afternoon cup of tea and finish off a book. Aaahhh!

February 21, 2019 -- Every night Sam, Rachel, and I fall asleep with magic/heat/comfort bags. (I don't know what to call them.) I love that Sam has taken on the nightly job of heating them up in the microwave for us.

February 22, 2019 --I took this picture at 7:00pm, right before I cleared the folded laundry off the bed (back into the laundry basket), and went to bed. I was tired.

February 23, 2019 -- Two signs of Spring on a sunny Saturday -- tulips and the first Blue Jays baseball game of the year on the radio! Yyyyyaaaayyyy!!!

February 24, 2019 -- Dave and Rachel took over cooking supper this day. It was so nice to have a break!

February 25, 2019 -- We had crazy strong winds and blowing snow. It made for some really big drifts of snow. And I thought the snow was pretty where it had stuck to our ivy. I am definitely ready for spring though... Anytime now...

Nature Is Calling

This has nothing to do with anything but I'm so happy because as I'm writing this, I'm listening to the second Blue Jays game of the Spring Training season. Baseball is back and I can't stop smiling! YYYAAAAYYYY!!!

Last week, at this time, we were still in Victoria. Our last couple of days in BC were spent out in nature. And I have to say, around Victoria there is some incredible nature. On Sunday we tried to visit Avatar Grove which is an old growth forest about two hours north of Victoria. Unfortunately, the last few kilometres to the Grove were snowed in so we couldn't actually get there. However, we had some incredible ocean views on our drive.

Sam is pointing across the Strait of Juan de Fuca to Washington state.

We stopped at River Jordan which is a popular spot for winter surfing. We enjoyed watching a few surfers catch some waves.

As we were leaving, this crow landed on the hood of our vehicle. He hung out for about a minute or two while my dad tried to get him to leave. Dad even tried moving the wipers but this guy was stubborn. Ha!

On Monday, we discovered there was an old growth forest nearer to us in Victoria. Unfortunately, Sam had the stomach flu, so Mom stayed home with him while Dad, Dave, Rachel, and I went to check it out. Some of the trees we saw were over 500 years old.

The forest smelled so good and I wish we could have stayed longer. Unfortunately, we were a little cold, and it was hard to walk because of the snow, so we only hiked for about an hour. However, I hope we get to spend more time here next time we visit Victoria, because it was amazing.

 

You can see a few more pictures from this trip here.

In Which Rachel And I Are Both Looking For Houses

We went to Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island for a few days to visit my parents who are currently vacationing there. Mom and Dad invited us to join them for a bit and we took them up on their invitation. As can happen with flying, our flight there was delayed so by the time we arrived at Mom and Dad's we'd been up for almost twenty-four hours. The kids slept on the plane for three hours and then slept for another four or five once we got to Mom and Dad's and that was our "night."

Needless to say, we did not do much the first day. We played some games, ate some food, and tried to walk to the ocean near Mom and Dad's. However, Victoria had gotten a ton of snow (a rare occurrence in that part of the world), and so the path to the ocean was closed off. Boo. We went to bed quite early and woke up raring to go early the next morning.

I took a few pictures of Sam and Rachel sitting together on the couch because they just don't know how to give each other space. Ha!

Dad drove us into downtown Victoria and we explored for a few hours. Our first stop was Starbucks to get some fuel as it was just above freezing. Rachel loved this statue of an orca we found along the harbour.

We weren't quite sure what we wanted to see but we stopped in at a tourist information centre and found out about Fisherman's Wharf and Victoria's floating houses. These are houses which are built on floats on the water. There are just over thirty of them. After spending some time in this unique neighbourhood, I now want to live here! If you want to know more about them, you can check them out here.

Supposedly in summer, it is crazy busy with tourists but we pretty much had the place to ourselves. Well, just us and a harbor seal, that is!

We ate the most delicious fish (tacos, chowder, fried) at one of the two restaurants open on the wharf. The restaurant was floating, and the dock we ordered from was stable, so I got dizzy just trying to read the menu which kept moving back and forth!

Thankfully the outdoor patio where we ate was also stabilized. Phew. And the food was AMAZING!

After lunch we walked along an oceanfront park.

 

The views were incredible.

Then we found a walkway which allowed us to get down on the beach. Sam and Rachel immediately started to try skipping stones.

They also played in the waves and got surprised by the tide and ended up with wet feet. They thought they were in shallow water when a big wave came up and went in their boots! Oops.

We found Mile Zero of the Trans-Canada Highway. Yay!!! This is where the 8,000km of highway which crosses Canada officially starts.

We also found the statue of Terry Fox. I wrote more about Terry Fox in this post here, and we also saw the statue commemorating where his journey ended here.

In the evening, we visited some friends from Edmonton. We met these friends in our prenatal class with Sam. Sam and Stella (on the left above and below) are just a week apart and both turning TEN this year.

We hadn't seen these friends since we left Edmonton almost seven years ago. And we picked up like we had just visited them last week. I really hope another seven years doesn't pass before we see them again.

Rachel and Mia (who are about five months apart) got along really well and Rachel now wants to buy a house right next door to them so we can visit with them every day. Since I'm interested in a floating house, you may find both Rachel and I scouring the real estate ads in this part of the world for the next while!

You can read about the rest of this trip here.