One Day In Glasgow

This past summer Dave and I got to travel together, just the two of us, for the first time since July 2018. We were sooooo excited to have almost two weeks together. So here's a recap of the first days of our trip.

We dropped the kids off at the bus which would take them to camp and a few hours later, we headed to the airport. We received an unwelcome surprise when we discovered the night before that we couldn't check any luggage and had to pack carry-on only. It was a stressful hour as we rearranged everything, but eventually we met the challenge -- an almost two week trip in carry on!

First glimpse of Scotland from the plane. We visited Edinburgh for a few days on our honeymoon but this was the first we had spent any length of time there.

We arrived in Glasgow before 7am on Monday morning and the goal was simply "stay awake." We easily found our hotel and headed out to explore Glasgow. First up: a cafe mocha and breakfast for Dave.

Fuelled by caffeine, we headed off to the University of Glasgow. We had to walk through this beautiful park to get there and then we explored the university grounds and buildings.

 

It seriously looked like Hogwarts!!!

 

Next we headed off to The Hidden Lane. Supposedly on the weekends, this a bustling square of activity and shopping at small stores but very little was open on a Monday morning. It was still really fun to see though.

Dave and I enjoyed a "wee tea" at a tea shop which was open in the lane. Dave was so tired, he fell asleep sitting up at lunch! Hahaha!

There was a record store which was open and we had a long conversation with the owner and his wife who had spent time in Canada. On their recommendation, we walked back to central Glasgow to visit The Tenement House. From their website, found here: 

Miss Agnes Toward, a shorthand typist, made this house her home from 1911 until 1965. Upon first glance, the Tenement House may seem like an ordinary middle-class tenement from the late 19th century. However, as soon as you step inside, you are transported to a different era. The four rooms, meticulously restored, appear as if frozen in time, offering a unique window into life in early 20th-century Glasgow.

It was soooo interesting to see all the things which had been preserved, and to see how small apartments would have been for large families.

Can you imagine washing dishes in that sink?!?!

We walked back to our hotel as we were able to check in around 2:30. We had a brief nap and then went down to enjoy dinner and free drink!

Cheers to being on vacation and a delicious fish and chips meal!!!

And it was cheapest to book a room with two single beds. We figured we'd want a good night's sleep but it was a funny way to start off our couples trip!!! We needed a good sleep though because the next day was the start of our big adventure!!!

10 On The 10th: August 2024

Even though it's September 10th today, I still haven't posted my photos for August 10th. So today, while I'm documenting my day in 10 photos, you get to read about August. We had just gotten home from Scotland two days before (and my posts about that trip are coming next -- I promise!), and so this day included a lot of yard work.

Any day that starts with laundry on the line and drinking coffee-hot chocolate outside with Dave is a good one! Yes, I'm obsessed with hanging out my laundry :)

Our house is covered in ivy and I was feeling claustrophobic with not being able to see out our bedroom window. So Dave held the ladder while I cut the vines off. Rachel took the photos :)

I did some weeding in the front and trimmed the edges of the beds.

One of my summer projects was clearing things out of our freezers. I made very random fruit milkshakes for lunch this day to get rid of some of the very old frozen fruit we had. They were actually really good!

Rachel bought a new art project to work on -- it's like diamond painting but you stick very small beads in a pattern. She worked on this llama for about two weeks.

We discovered that there was a huge vine growing in about six backyards in our area. So we spent a few hours trying to clear some of it out from our back yard. Sam and Rachel were working together to get it out of our hedge.

We enjoyed a BBQ for supper. All the veggies came from our CSA. These are my favourite kinds of summer meals.

And thanks to a long day of yard work, and still catching up from jet lag, I was in bed by 7pm. Phew.

 

August 10 was a favourite day for me. I love spending time with my family, working in our yard. Today is going to hold a lot of work and errands so it will not be a favourite day! Hahahaha!!!

Share Our Lives: Finding Peace In My Day

As it's already the second Monday in September (HOW? HOW! HOW!?!?!), it's time for Share Our Lives with Sarah, Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.) This month's prompt is "how we find peace in our day."

I was very stumped on this and then Dave asked, "What about walking?" And I realized that my walk to work is how I find peace in my day. When I had to drive to work every day, even though it was only about 15 minutes, I was so grumpy when I arrived at work. I really don't like driving and I found it was a stressful way to start my morning.

Being able to hop on my favourite trail, in winter or spring, and just walk is so peaceful to me. I don't listen to music or podcasts -- it's just me and my thoughts.

I transition from "home mode" to "work mode" and I just have time to think. It helps that my walk is only about 15-20 minutes so it's not too long.

And at certain times of the year, I see the most gorgeous sunrises too.

So that is the main way I find peace in my day. It's a consistent time in almost every day where I have quiet and no one asking anything of me.

I also enjoy my afternoon Coke (usually when I get home from work) but I'm often multi-tasking while I drink it -- talking to Dave, managing the kids' needs, making dinner, reading blogs, etc.

I'm looking forward to reading your posts because honestly, I think I need more ways to find peace in my days.

Currently: September 2024

I'm a day late linking up with Jennifer at Overflowing With Thankfulness for her "Currently" post because yesterday was the first day of school in our area. I worked nine hours on Tuesday and 45 minutes longer than I should have yesterday. It's been a crazy week and I can't wait until it's over! I will be spending this weekend sleeping and catching up on all the house/family things I haven't done this week. Until then, read on for my responses to the "currently" prompts.

[loving]

I am "loving" how happy Sam and Rachel were to start school yesterday. I love that we have no major transitions this year, and I love that the kids are older and way more responsible for themselves. We don't have to make their lunches, walk them to school -- just all the things are so much easier!

I am also "loving" all the family fun we had last weekend. We did a Taylor Swift themed escape room and it was so much fun! Then we did a bubble experience which was pretty fun. I was "loving" how the kids were playing with the various bubble experiences. As teenagers, they don't do a lot of play anymore so I loved seeing them embrace that for a bit.

[looking forward to]

Due to some unusual circumstances we ended up with a ton of berries this week so I've been "looking forward to" eating them in my lunch every day. We don't usually have so many berries on hand!

 

Also, given how exhausting this first week of school has been, I'm really "looking forward to" this weekend. Hahaha!!!

[smelling]

You can tell it's back to school season because Sam is making egg salad for his lunches again. Boiled eggs is all I was "smelling" when I got home from work a few days ago. Other than that, I'm not smelling anything exciting :)

 

[watching]

I am struggling with this prompt. I don't know what I'm "watching." I guess I'm "watching" my email for all that "back to school" information -- sports tryouts, meet the teacher nights, dance rehearsals, etc --there's a lot of information coming in my email right now.

I'm hoping that this weekend I will be "watching" a fall Hallmark movie, or two, but it really depends on what else is happening -- church, dance rehearsals, youth events, etc. I just want a cozy evening at home :)

[admiring]

I am "admiring" Rachel's resilience. She found out most of her friends are in a different class than her, and rather than complaining about it, or stressing too much, she said, "I'm disappointed but as long as I have one friend, I'll be okay." I was really impressed with her resilience, and honestly, I think I was getting more anxious about it than she was. She did end up with a couple of friends in her class so it's all good but it was a stressful few hours until we found some friends.

(For class assignments, each kid finds out their class and then it's a big waiting game of texting and emailing each other to find out which class each kid got. There is no such thing as "class lists posted for everyone to see" anymore.)

In less weighty things, I am also "admiring" our play room. We went through the whole thing on Monday, got rid of a ton of stuff, and just generally cleaned it up and organized it, for this new teenage stage of life. Sam cleaned off his desk and it's just so much more usable now. And yes, we still call it "the play room" even though no one really plays there anymore. The name has stuck!

So that's what's up with us "Currently." We're big into "back to school" season around here and just getting through the first week of fall routines. By October's "currently" we'll be much more settled, but for now, we're off for our second day.

Mountains, Ice Cream, And Racing -- Oh My!

I'm finally writing about the last of our summer road trip. We finished it up with a couple of fun days!

We drove from Maine through New Hampshire to Vermont. To break up the drive, we stopped in the White Mountains in New Hampshire. This was just a short walk off the road and it was the most beautiful spot.

This was the view from a scenic overlook. It was just gorgeous.

We stopped at a resort and took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain.

More great views!

The reason we stopped at this resort was so we could play a round of disc golf. Rachel was pretty stressed about playing disc golf "down a mountain" but we found a few videos to show her that we wouldn't be hanging off cliffs while we played!

We had a lot of fun even though some of the holes were pretty steep!

Did I mention the gorgeous scenery?!?!

We played about halfway down the mountain and then took a chairlift to the bottom. Rachel caught this picture of a deer and her baby which we saw from the chairlift. It was so cool!

Our main reason for going to Vermont was to tour the Ben & Jerry's factory. It was interesting but I wouldn't recommend going to Vermont just for the factory tour! My favourite part was actually the ice cream graveyard where they've "buried" their retired flavours.

The next morning we got up and attempted to play another round of disc golf at a new course before hitting the road. Sadly, Sam dropped his phone somewhere between hole 2 and hole 4 and we ended up looking for it for an hour before leaving it behind. (It was a black phone in a black case on silent so it was very hard to see and we couldn't phone it.) Sam just got a new phone this past weekend so it was a bit of an interesting summer for him with no phone for six weeks.

We stopped at nature preserve to walk around and break up the driving. The kids were super annoying at this stop and I'm not sure it was worth it. #reallife

We spent an evening with my cousins, and their dog, in Ottawa. It was so great to visit with them.

And for one last road trip adventure, Dave and I got to be passengers in Rob's race car! It was slalom racing through a course in a parking lot and it was super fun!!!

So that was our family's summer road trip. We had lots of adventures, lots of fun, a few tough moments, and made many memories!