Currently: March 2025

As always on the first Wednesday of the month, I'm linking up with Jennifer at My Joyful Life for her "Currently" post. You can find Jennifer here.

 [loving]

I'm really "loving" my current tulips. We've had tulips in our house since the beginning of January and I don't know how many more bouquets I'll be buying. We're heading in to the time of year where my thoughts turn to outside flowers so I'm just soaking up these last few bunches of the season.

I'm "loving" how it is getting light earlier and staying light later in the evening. I am so excited about more light!!!

left: 6:57am; right: 6:22pm

I'm "loving" this picture my mom sent of me as a baby earlier this week. I was so cute, if I can say so myself! Hahaha!!! Also, I still have that pink blanket I'm sitting on in this photo in my closet :)

[craving]

I am "craving" sunshine and warmth. Spring is getting closer every day, but it's not quite here yet, and I am "craving" it so badly I can almost taste it.

[pinning]

I haven't been "pinning" anything recently but we've been intentionally working on cleaning our house this past week. I feel like I should have been "pinning" some cleaning schedules as our house has been a bit of a disaster these past few months and we just don't have a regular cleaning routine. Either that, or I need to be "pinning" budgeting tips so we can hire a regular house cleaner!!! It's become more and more tempting to get one as Dave and I both work full-time and the kids become more involved in other activities...

[planning]

The biggest thing we're "planning" is for Sam to drive... ACK!

I'm also "planning" on getting a lot of sleep next week during our March Break. A whole week without work -- whoo hooo!!!

[appreciating]

I wiped out really badly on glare ice while walking to work on Friday. I've been extremely sore, and I think I bruised my tailbone, or some bone back there. I spent a lot of time this past weekend sitting on the couch or lying in bed so I was "appreciating" how helpful my family was while I was not up to my usual energy. Rachel made supper on Saturday night, Dave did some extra cleaning, and Sam did some extra dishes. I will also be "appreciating" it when our snow and ice all melt and it's safe to walk again. Gah.

I'm also really "appreciating" that Dave cleaned our oven yesterday. It was so dirty and looks so much better now! Also, Dave is a perfectionist so it's good to give him jobs like the oven or the bathroom because he does an amazing job of cleaning them!!!

So that's been what's up with us "Currently." I'm really hoping by my next "currently" post we'll be enjoying spring and all the fun that brings.

The Rest Of My February Reading

I read quite the mix of books in the last half of February. I also read a little more than normal because I was sick (so had extra time to read), we had a long weekend where all we could do was stay home and shovel snow (and read!), and I read some shorter books.

I don't normally love Nora Roberts stand alone stories. I much prefer her trilogies or her In Death series. However, this is the second stand alone I've read of hers in the past couple of months and I enjoyed it. It was kind of a perfect, light thriller for our snowy long weekend.

After I read Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini I took out some of her other books. This one was very interesting as it was written from the perspective of a woman of colour who worked with Mary Todd Lincoln. I kind of want to do some research to find out if Lincoln's wife was as unlikable as she was portrayed in this book. I just didn't come away feeling very positive about her.

This was a great, slightly meatier romcom which I read in one sitting. Funny note: A few days later my principal and I were discussing books and it turned out we read this one at the same time! We both liked it and I have some of the other books in this series on hold now.

This is a graphic novel series about Nick and Charlie falling in love. It's really heartwarming but tackles some tougher issues. I now have Rachel reading it.

I hadn't read this in awhile so it was fun to pick it up and read it again. It's a novella which is placed early on in the series.

I took this book out after I read The Briar Club in January. I wanted to know more about Russian spies. While this was very interesting, and told the story of Russian spies in the 40s/50s and how the FBI worked to catch them, it was also a little dry, so I wouldn't recommend this to everyone. I really liked it though and couldn't put it down.

 

This is the latest In Death book and I don't know if it was the space I was in or what, but I didn't love it. I thought it would really appeal to me and it was just a little... blah.

This is the final book in this series and it wrapped the series up nicely. After finishing it, I put the earlier novels on hold because I want to read them again. It's a fun, light, romance series set in regency England.

Again, this is out of season (set mainly around Christmas) but I'm reading this series as it becomes available to me. I'm interested to see how the series ends but again, it's not super engaging or heavy -- just a nice, light read.

So that is what I read in the last half of February. I'm starting to request more physical books from my library which changes my reading as I find it's not as easy to read them at night. I much prefer to read books on my Kobo at night and physical books at other times. What's your preference when it comes to reading? And do you have any suggestions as to what I should pick up next?!?!?!?

February 2025: 16

2025 total: 31

Friday Favourite Moments 2025 #9

It's already the tenth Friday of 2025. In some ways 2025 has felt like the longest year already and, in other ways I'm wondering how we're already on Friday #10 of the year?!?! Time is weird. Here are my favourite moments from this past week.

1) Most of last weekend

From the first Blue Jays' spring training game of the year to watching Rachel at dance to my friend's party, most of last weekend was actually pretty great! I blogged about it here because I wanted to celebrate the joy!

2) Retrieving Sam's housekeys

I wrote about this in my Wednesday post but, when we went to Saskatchewan over Winter Break, our housesitter accidentally dropped our keys between our house and our back step. We don't blame them at all as we have dropped other things down there. Earlier this week the snow had melted enough that I was able to fish the keys out!!! Definitely a favourite moment!!!

 

3) Sam's excitement about learning to drive

At the end of March, Sam turns 16 (!!!). In preparation for that, I bought him the guidebook to driving in Ontario. He can write the test and get his learner's once he turns 16 so he has to start studying. Yikes!

4) Evening at home

For some reason, I have had a lot of evening commitments this past week and they're continuing through this weekend. Thus, I was very excited to have an evening at home on Wednesday. I cleaned off my desk and made some progress in the basement. I'm telling you -- it was exciting!!!

So those were my favourite moments from this past week. I'm happy as it's been a better week overall so maybe some of the February darkness is starting to life, figuratively as well as literally :)

Monthly Musings: How We Show Love

It's finally the last Thursday in February which means it's time for Monthly Musings with Holly who blogs at Pink Lady and Patty who blogs at Good, Better, Best. I really love the Monthly Musings link up. This month we are talking about how we show love. Also, I didn't have great pictures for this post so I picked some of my February tulips through the years to feature :)

1) What is your love language?

I think my love language is "acts of service" or "quality time." I definitely show love through "acts of service." Dave's love language is "physical touch" but that's definitely not mine!

2) Favourite love song?

Anything from the 80s! Hahaha! Dave and I had "When you say nothing at all" by Ronan Keating, from the movie Notting Hill, as the first dance at our wedding. It just became our song through our time of dating but it was more "it chose us" rather than "we chose it."

3) Flowers, chocolate, or something else?

I don't really love chocolate so I guess flowers. But really, I like buying my own. I do feel really special when someone sends me flowers though!

 

4) Favourite romantic/rom com movie?

We don't watch that many movies anymore but I really do love most of Hugh Grant's and Meg Ryan's movies -- Notting Hill, Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral, When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail...

5) Favourite childhood Valentine's memory?

I really didn't love Valentine's Day as a kid. I rarely got cards so it just felt like a very lonely day. I don't really remember when that changed but I do love that when my kids were younger, the idea behind Valentine's Day was that every kid got a card.

I know I've shared this before but one year when I was in university, I commented how much Valentine's Day sucked as a single person. My friends went out of their way to make that day special for me. They gave me chocolates, made lovely cards, and I just remember feeling so loved. They honestly hosted the original Galentine's Day way back in 1993 just for me and I loved them for it. That's still my absolute favourite Valentine's Day memory ever.

6) How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

It was a "blah" day. Sam stayed home from school and soccer because he was sick. It was the Friday of a long weekend and we'd just had a snow day and another snow storm was coming. We were cancelling plans to see friends and it just wasn't a great day. I honestly don't remember what we ate for supper (maybe McDonald's? Maybe grilled cheese?) and I crawled into bed early. Valentine's was not great this year :(

Our Valentine's this year was lame, kind of like these tulips! Hahaha!!! 

7) Any love or romance traditions?

We used to do McDonald's on Valentine's Day as a kind of anti-Valentine's thing -- the least romantic thing we could think of. Honestly, Dave and I show love to each other all year round and it's really not about the grand romantic gestures for us but more the small, every day things.

8) When do you feel most loved?

When I invite my community to celebrate with me and they show up! The last time I remember feeling this way was for my 50th birthday party. In the every day, it's when my family does small things for me because they know it will make me happy -- Sam clearing snow without being asked, Rachel baking my favourite cookies, or Dave driving out of his way to find tulips because he knows how much they mean to me.

9) Big night out or chill at home?

I used to think "big night out" but really, I'm more of a "chill at home" person. Big nights out are fun once in awhile but really, let me enjoy being at home in my pjs!

10) Do you wear red/pink on Valentine's Day?

No. One of these years I will buy the heart sweater shown below because I always love it when I see it on other people's blogs but I haven't done that yet!

So those are some of our traditions around love/Valentine's Day. One of these years I want to do the daily "hearts on the door" for our kids but this year just wasn't that year. I'm off to read some of the other posts in the blog link up to see what your traditions around love/Valentine's Day are.

What's Up Wednesday: February 2025

February has been a tough month for me but I'm writing this post while watching my beloved Blue Jays play baseball (Hello Spring Training!!!), and the sun is shining, so I'm hopeful that things might just be looking up.

Answering these questions monthly helps me reflect on the past month and I really appreciate having a record of what we've been up to. The questions come from Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too.

image from here

 

What we're eating this week... February has been all about comfort food. It's been a cold, snowy month so all the warm, hearty food has been on the menu.

We've eaten warm soup and fresh bread, as well as sloppy joes.

Beef & Guinness Stew with mashed potatoes and homemade Hamburger helper have also made appearances.

 

I realize none of this food looks all that appealing in pictures but trust me, it has been warm and yummy!!!

 

What I'm reminiscing about... Now that baseball is back (whooo hoooo!!!), I'm reminiscing about that time we got to watch our beloved Blue Jays play a spring training game in Dunedin, Florida in March 2023. I wish we were going to spring training this year.

 

 

What I'm loving... I was sick last week so I've been loving my homemade Medicine Ball Tea. I make it with a citrus herbal tea, some honey, and some lemonade. I've drank pots of it for the past week and a half or so. And I was especially grateful the day my co-worker bought me a real one from Starbucks :)

What we've been up to... February 2025 will forever be defined in my head as "The Month With All The Snow."

Rachel and I shovelling after the first snow storm of February.

Before the second storm we shovelled the snow from the edge of the yard towards the middle so we had somewhere to put the new snow. The picture on the right is after shovelling after the second snow storm we had.

 

In between shovelling, I've been reading and working on our bird puzzle.

Sam and Rachel have been playing soccer and dancing. Dave and I have been watching them play soccer and dance!

And just when we thought we might be done shovelling for this month, we realized we needed to shovel off our playroom roof. Gah... Did I mention I'm done with shovelling?!?!?!?

 

What I'm dreading... I'm dreading if we're going to get any more snow. I'm more than ready for spring now please!

 

Also, I'm dreading this next stage of parenting... :)

'Nuff said!

What I'm working on... We thought February would be a good time to tackle the back corner of our basement. So Dave emptied everything from there into our main room so we could sort through it and figure out better ways to store things. I will be happy when this project is done but we're not quite there yet...

What I'm excited about... As I mentioned on the blog last week, after a number of months we finally all got some soap again! The past few months have been super busy and trying to get all four of us to Bath & Body Works for more soap has not happened. However, last week we were able to get to the mall with all four of us. So now we're back to four soap options in our bathroom and I'm very excited about it!

Also, when we went to Saskatchewan over Winter Break, our housesitter accidentally dropped our keys between our house and our back step. We don't blame them at all as we have dropped other things down there. However, yesterday, the snow had melted enough that I was able to fish the keys out!!! Whoooo hoooo!!!

What I'm watching/reading... I'm watching baseball again!!! Whoooo hooooo!!! I can't wait until I can watch it live!!!

I'm reading such a random assortment of things right now. I've got a regency romance on the go as well as the latest In Death book, I'm still working on Onyx Storm,  and I have a couple of heavy novels to round things out!

What I'm listening to... At work, earlier this month, the Grade 8s and the Grade 7s switched for the semester and now the Grade 7s are learning to play instruments. They just started on them last week so I'm hearing a lot of beginning clarinet and trumpet! Hahahaha!!!

What I'm wearing... I'm not wearing anything exciting. Right this moment I'm wearing jeans and my green fleecy sweater, socks, and slippers. I can't wait to ditch my socks for the season but it'll probably be another month or two yet...

What I'm doing this weekend... I don't even know what I'm doing this weekend. The only things planned are a soccer game for Sam and dinner out for Dave's mom's birthday. I'll probably spend some more time cleaning in the basement! So exciting...!

What I'm looking forward to next month... I've got a couple of fun flower experiences coming up in March so I'm pretty excited about those! Also, Sam will turn 16 (!!!) at the end of the month so that will be fun :)
 

I feel like we're so close to one of my favourite times of the year -- there's more light, more warmth, and more hope as we head into spring, and I really need all of those, especially this year. February has been a tough month and I'm so glad it's almost over.