What's Up Wednesday: April 2023

I'm currently sitting on the couch about to start watching the Blue Jays take on the Yankees. It's been a bit of a week what with my spring allergies hitting early this year, my mother-in-law unexpectedly dealing with a health concern (which means we're helping them out a bit more than we usually do), and this morning (Sunday) I threw my back out while in the shower, thus the couch sitting. Despite all this though, I'm feeling positive about life right now as you'll see below in my answer to "what I'm dreading" and, as I said, I'm watching my beloved Jays play baseball, so life is good! All that is a lot of preamble for this regular monthly blog post.

As always on the last Wednesday of the month, I'm linking up with Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too for their What's Up Wednesday post.

image from here

 

What we're eating this week... I don't remember why but a few weeks ago, Rachel wanted chocolate croissants so we picked some up at the grocery store. We were going to eat them after supper, and the kids were driving me nuts, so I suggested to Dave that we go on a "chocolate croissant date walk." Yes, it was a ridiculous, spur of the moment, suggestion. Anyways, by the time Dave and I got out for our walk, the kids were ready to go and it became less of a "date walk" and more of a "family walk." And a hilarious tradition was born. Every week in April, we've bought chocolate croissants and we go on a "chocolate croissant date walk," which is actually an entire family walk. So we've been eating a lot of chocolate croissants this month!

What I'm reminiscing about... Well, this coming Tuesday is my birthday. Last year, I turned 50 and my parents came and Dave hosted a huge 50th birthday party for me. My dad was the bartender, we had a ton of people stop by in a come-and-go format, and it was just the absolute best afternoon! My aunt from Alberta also flew out for the weekend, and we had a lot of good family time throughout too. So I'm reminiscing about how loved and celebrated I felt last year.

What I'm loving... We're heading into the season of outdoor living and I am so here for it. We had a week of gorgeous weather and we were outside every moment we could be. I especially love when we can eat outside. The weather has gotten cooler, as is to be expected this time of year, but I can't wait until we can be outside all the time again!

What we've been up to... There's been a lot going on this month. Besides celebrating Easter and Passover, here are a few things I've been excited about.

 

We finally got a load of stuff taken to the thrift store. Our closet, where we gather thrift store items, was getting really full so it felt great to get it all out of the house. 

We realized on a Thursday morning that, due to our schedule, and the Blue Jays' schedule, if we didn't get to a game the next day, we wouldn't make it to a Jays game until mid-May and that was clearly unacceptable! Hahaha! So we hit up a Friday night game. The weather was incredible so the dome was open and it was an amazing game! It was the game where the Jays broke Tampa Bay's winning streak and it was so fun!

I've planted some early outdoor planters and I folded a whole bunch of laundry outside, while listening to the Jays game one weekend. It's been a lot of outside time and a lot of baseball time!

 

Rachel's dance performance group had their Spring show so we went to that. Now we're gearing up for the whole studio's spring show in a few weeks.

And the kids made themselves completely at home at the library. When we were finally able to get them to leave, they read as we walked home, crawled into bed, and kept reading. I love my little bookworms :)

What I'm dreading... Well, my spring allergies have hit in full force so I'm no longer dreading them; I'm in the midst of getting through them. And so really, I'm not dreading much of anything right now. It's an excellent place to be :)

 

What I'm working on... We have a couple of bare spots in our backyard which I'm trying to grow grass in. My success rate is not so great right now so I might be working on this for awhile...

 

What I'm excited about... Our new ice maker! Not much says, "being a adult" like getting excited about an ice maker. I've been wanting one for a few years so we finally decided to get one and I'm soooooo excited!!!

 

 

What I'm watching/reading... Well, as I wrote this post I watched the Blue Jays beat the Yankees (whoo hoo!). It's been a lot of baseball watching, mixed with some dance performance watching.

As for what I've been reading, I'm working my way through the 1930s in the Decades Reading Challenge. I've read a whole ton of WWII novels but not that many novels in the lead up to WWII. I am really learning from the ways in which various authors have written about how the rise of Hitler and Nazism and anti-Semitism in Germany (and around the world) was treated in the 30s.

What I'm listening to... While I wrote most of this post while watching baseball, I finished it up at work on Tuesday. And there were some very enthusiastic Grade 7 students playing percussion! Since the office is right across from the music room, we get quite the soundtrack here :) Also, whenever it gets really noisy in the school, I remember how silent the schools were in spring of 2020 and 2021, and I remind myself to be grateful. A noisy school is a reminder of how we're pretty much back to normal and it's amazing!

Other than that, I haven't been listening to much this month -- maybe really noticing the birds chirping, especially in the mornings.

What I'm wearing... When we went to Universal Studios last month, my best friend bought me this apron from Honeydukes as an early birthday present. I LOVE it and have been wearing it so much! I especially love that it has pockets.

What I'm doing this weekend... After a three year delay, I'm finally going to be "in the room where it happens"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait!!!

 

What I'm looking forward to next month... Sam is starting soccer towards the end of the month and Rachel is continuing with dance although it will only be one day as week as opposed to 3-4 days per week, so I'm looking forward to our spring activities. I'm also looking forward to the weather getting even warmer and, hopefully, being able to enjoy some more time outside.

What I bought on Amazon... Who even are we? We bought something on Amazon for the third month in a row! I caved, and bought this skirt. I've worn it three times now and I really like it. I keep forgetting to take a picture of me actually wearing it so this picture from Amazon will have to do. I really like the grey.

What else is new... I think that's it for this month. It's been a month full of fun things with some of my favourite months on the horizon! Yay for spring!!!

Thanks for reading today. I'm looking forward to checking out what's up with all of you. Happy Wednesday!