What's Up Wednesday: February 2021

Welcome to the February 2021 version of What's Up Wednesday. As always, I'm linking up with Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me To to talk about what we've been up to lately.

February 2021 is looking a little brighter for us. The kids are back in school (WHOOO HOOOO!!!), our region has opened up a little bit (this means we went into the library the other day!!!), Rachel is back to in person dance (!!!), and our case counts are down. It feels like there is a little more hope on the horizon. Also, this appears to be the "Winter" version of What's Up Wednesday -- read on to see what I mean :)

image from here

What we're eating this week... February seemed to be the month that everyone decided to bring us food! We got another amazing pie from the "pie man" at our church. Our neighbour brought us lemon cupcakes, and we did a small-ish cookie exchange with Tim and Janice and got heart shaped sugar cookies. I'm all about people bringing us sweets! Hahaha!!!

What I'm reminiscing about... Last February was the last month before Covid hit and life as we knew it changed. For our family, we were in the midst of teachers' strikes (and many days off school), a fun road trip with our small group from church, looking forward to Spring Training starting, and dance and piano lessons. Little did we know, it was all about to change...

What I'm loving... The lengthening days!!! Almost every day, I comment to Dave, "Look what time it is and it's STILL light out!!!" I thrive in sunlight and the fact that we've seen more sun this month and more daylight has made me happy!!!

I'm also loving that I've been blogging about my tulips since early January and that some of my regular blog readers have commented that they're buying tulips too! I am always happy to share the tulip love and encourage more tulip buying in these dreary winter months!!!

What we've been up to... The kids are back to school in person!!! They had five weeks of mandated online learning right after the Winter Break and finally on February 8th, they went back to school. It was so exciting!!!

 

The second "first day of school" of the 2020-2021 school year.

(Please, don't let there be a third "first day of school.")

 

We've also been going on winter forest walks every weekend...

 

...baking lots of chocolate cakes...

...doing puzzles...

...and flopping in all our snow! (It's too deep to make snow angels.)

 

What I'm dreading... Our province's March Break got pushed back a month to April. It's going to be a long haul of school for the kids and teachers and all the school workers. I really hope everyone can maintain a good attitude, and good energy, for this extended length of school.

 

What I'm working on... Reading my library books! Why do all my holds come in at once?!? And housecleaning. I've had a couple of days with no work so I've been working on cleaning rooms we haven't cleaned in... way too long.

What I'm excited about... In June, in an attempt to be more motivated to exercise, I signed up to do a virtual walk of the Camino in Spain through The Conqueror Challenge. Thanks to a few factors (daily headaches for awhile, unexpectedly working full-time, etc) it has taken me much longer to complete than I originally thought. I've also been doing it as "intentional walks/working out" as opposed to just "all the steps I get in a day." Anyways, I'm on the home stretch of almost being finished this walk and I'm excited about it. It's almost 800 kilometres (almost 500 miles) so that's a lot of walking :)

What I'm watching/reading... We've had A LOT of snow lately, and not a lot of warm weather to melt it down, so I've been watching our snowbanks get bigger. We've also been watching our icicles get longer. Is it spring yet?!? Sometimes I wonder how this will all melt...

 

As for reading, I read a lot of books during the #24in48 readathon at the beginning of the month. You can see my review of those books here. I'll be doing a review of the rest of my February books next week. However, the last book I read was A Court of Thorns and Roses. I'm re-reading this series in preparation for the fifth book being released.

What I'm listening to... The house next door to us sold last April and the new owners have finally started a major renovation -- they're doubling the size of the house. So all day long I hear banging. It's loud. It would be way more exciting if it meant our house would be much improved at the end of this but we just get all the noise without any of the excitement :(

What I'm wearing... Winter clothes. It doesn't really matter what I'm wearing because it's all hidden under winter clothes. Hahaha!!!

What I'm doing this weekend... I know it's not technically the weekend but on Friday I am getting highlights, a haircut, AND a massage!!! Whoooo hoooo!!! Also, we're meeting up with friends and hiking at a conservation area. I'm excited to see these friends as we haven't done anything with friends in months. Plus, we'll probably do some more house organizing and maybe even a puzzle.

Also, SPRING TRAINING GAMES start this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't know that we'll be able to watch any but I'm hoping to catch some on the radio!!!!!!!!

What I'm looking forward to next month... I don't know. Normally I'd be excited about March Break and Can-struction but I'm guessing Can-struction will be online again and March Break is now April Break. I'm looking forward to our St Patrick's Day celebration. I always make the Beef & Guinness Stew from the Guinness factory and it's DELICIOUS!!! (You can find the recipe here.)

I'm also hoping that I might be able to start hanging out laundry in March. We shall see...

last year on March 16, 2020 * view of our laundry line currently

What else is new... I am a substitute secretary/librarian for our school board. I was fortunate to get work in one school covering a long-term leave for the past two and a half months but, as of this week, I'm back to being on call. So I'm waiting for my phone to ring and checking out the job board, hoping to pick up some work. Monday was a "snow day" ("weather impacted distance learning" day -- meaning the kids had schoolwork but it doesn't really count) and yesterday I didn't get a call. I'm hoping to work three to four days a week but we shall see... So I'm trying to find ways to fill my time and, at the same time, hoping for jobs to be assigned to me. It's a weird limbo space to be in.

If I don't get a job today, I will enjoy reading all the posts in the What's Up Wednesday link up. If I do pick up a job for today, then I will have to read those posts later :) Happy Wednesday everyone!!!