What's Up Wednesday: November 2021

I can't believe it's time for another What's Up Wednesday. How is it December next week?!?!

The biggest Covid news this month is that Canada finally approved vaccines for kids ages 5-11 so Rachel is excited to get hers soon!!! I'm so thankful for this as it means taking another giant step towards normalcy!!!

image from here

What we're eating this week... Well, I've already made a few batches of Applesauce Jumbles which is a recipe Holly introduced me to. I love these cookies. You can get the recipe here. We've also been eating a lot of cheese, so much in fact, that we ran out earlier this week which never happens. And this isn't so much what I'm eating, but we've also been drinking quite a bit of Allena's cranberry tea recipe.

I'm also very excited that I found the cheese Advent calendar again. Since we won't be home for a few days before Christmas, I've broken into it a bit early and it's just as good as I remember.

What I'm reminiscing about... In a few weekends, Rachel's dance studio will be performing The Nutcracker. I'm super excited that it will be in person, as opposed to prerecorded. I am remembering back to Rachel's first winter show two years ago. It was The Snowman & The Snowdog and Rachel was a polar bear. (This year she's a gingerbread kid, a lollipop sheep, and a purple skater.)

What I'm loving... Our family photos! We got them taken in a rush, on about an hour's notice, a few weeks ago. We caught the only non-rainy time that day. I wasn't stressed about what the kids were wearing and I'm so happy with how they turned out. We have our cards (they arrived yesterday) so Friday night is going to be "movie watching, tea drinking, cookie eating, card addressing night" and I'm so excited!!!

None of these pictures made the final cut for our card, although I was sorely tempted to put this one on! Hahahahahahaha!!!

 

What we've been up to... Last week I got to experience my first Professional Development day at work. It was actually very low key and I enjoyed having a slightly more casual work environment. Plus, a few staff members organized catering lunch and it was DELICIOUS!!!

 

I'm also excited because one of my co-workers has chickens and sells the extra eggs! She brought in a dozen for me last week and I'm thrilled to have local, farm fresh eggs again. If you've been reading around here for any length of time, you already know how excited I get about local eggs :)

Also, if you've read around here for any amount of time, you know how bad I am at make up. So I was very thankful that my mom was here to execute the highly complicated eye makeup for Rachel's dance filming this past weekend. (Rachel is in one prerecorded show with our local symphony as well as dancing live in The Nutcracker.)

So yes, besides all the regular things (work, Religious School, church events, and regular dance), we've been up to extra dance and procuring amazing food!

 

What I'm dreading... Ice. Winter is coming our way and I completely wiped out on ice heading into work on Friday. It was such a fast fall, I don't even remember falling. I'm fine but I was pretty sore on Friday night. I really hate the icy sidewalks and how treacherous walking will be from now until mid-March (if not longer).

What I'm working on... I need to keep working on sorting through our pictures and making our yearly calendars. This is always such a fun thing to have but so much work to make.

What I'm excited about... There are so many things to be excited about right now! Our church kicks off the Advent season by walking the labyrinth and it's back on in person this year!!! My parents came to visit us on very short notice so we've been enjoying spending time with them! Channukah starts this weekend!!! Rachel will be dancing in The Nutcracker in a couple of weekends!!! But mostly, I'm super excited that Canada approved Covid vaccines for ages 5 to 11 this past Friday and Rachel will finally be getting her first vaccination so soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yes, I'm excited about a lot of things right now :)

What I'm watching/reading... Well up until last week, I was watching the news very carefully to see when vaccines would be approved for Rachel's age group. Now that we're past that, I've been watching the appointment times to get the best one I possibly can. (Isn't my life so exciting?!?! Hahaha!)

Besides that, we've watched a few Hallmark holiday movies and played Hallmark Movie Bingo which is so fun!!! We used the bingo cards found here and turned Hallmark movie watching into a competitive sport!!!

As for what I've been reading, I discovered a new series through my friend Allena. It's called A League Of Extraordinary Women and I need to go pick up the second and third books in the series because I enjoyed the first one so much.

What I'm listening to... Sam has gotten into throwing a ball against the wall in the basement these past few months and that is the main thing I've been hearing this past month. Other than that, I don't have any sounds which define this month.

What I'm wearing... We broke out the matching family pajamas for 2021. Sadly, Dave decided he no longer liked the style of the pajamas so he didn't want a pair, but the kids and I decided to match without him :)

 

What I'm doing this weekend... We'll be hanging out with my parents, we'll be lighting candles for the first night of Channukah, and we'll be getting Rachel to Nutcracker practices! It will be a very exciting weekend :)

 

What I'm looking forward to next month... Well, this is pretty much a repeat but seeing Rachel dance in person again will be a HUGE highlight! Also, I'm really looking forward to a two week break from work for the Winter Break. And of course, I'm most looking forward to spending Christmas with my parents!!! There's a lot to look forward to in December, especially this year!!!

What else is new... I'm really excited to participate in #AMonthOfFaves with Tanya and Kim at GirlXOXO starting on December 6th. You can find all the details here. I have so much thankfulness for this link up because, back in 2018, it's what got me back into blogging after an almost six month break and I haven't looked back since. You should check out the introduction post and think about blogging some of the prompts.