10 On The 10th: November 2024

Phew, November is flying by this year. Mix together a fairly nasty sinus infection that had me off work (and in bed) for three days, getting a new car, and my parents being our neighbours, and life has been a little nuts! For example, I got our November calendar about half done, and now it's just been sitting waiting for me to finish it. Maybe tonight that will happen?!?!?! At least, thanks to my mom visiting, our clean laundry is currently all folded. Thanks Mom :)

So November 10th was the day I was starting to get more sick, so I decided to use ten pictures from the weekend of November 10th, including November 8th which was my mom and dad's 55th anniversary!

To celebrate we all went out together with Dave's parents.

The restaurant provided a festive dessert!

My sinus infection started as a few days of really bad (migraine type) headaches so this day I didn't get out of bed until almost 3pm. Dave and Rachel ran some errands and I asked them to pick up yellow roses for my mom and dad. My mom had yellow roses in her wedding bouquet.

On Saturday night my headache was gone, so we went to a "games and ice cream" night at church. It was a lot of fun! 

On Sunday, we had brunch at my parents place and Sam watched his favourite football (soccer) team play on their big screen TV.

Rachel and I did some preparing for worship leading and Rachel showed off her violin skills. She is in orchestra at school and the violin she is playing was my grandpa's.

Because I hadn't been feeling great, when Dave and Rachel got roses for my mom, Rachel picked up a bouquet of tulips for me :)

After a small supper of a couple of pieces of pizza, I crawled into bed.

 

It was not a very exciting weekend, other than celebrating my parents' anniversary, but it was filled with flowers and good food so it wasn't the worst weekend ever!

I am headed off to work today, after a few days off, so hopefully I will continue to improve and have more exciting things to blog about later this week! Ha!

Currently: November 2024

I'm a few days late but I wanted to post "Currently" which is hosted by Jennifer at Overflowing With Thankfulness. This is the "Oma & Opa are visiting" version of Currently!

[loving]

Our neighbours are away for a few weeks and my parents are living at their house, instead of two provinces away like they usually do. I am "loving" having them so close! The kids are "loving" going to Oma & Opa's after school almost every day. Oma and Opa have better snacks than we do! Hahaha!!!

The traditional "Yay, we're all together again!" prosecco toast!

I also asked my dad and Sam to pick up a bouquet of "something nice" when they were out the other day and they came back with these Gerberas. I am "loving" how bright and cheery they are! 

[looking forward to]

Rachel is dancing with our Chamber Orchestra in a few weeks and I am "looking forward to" seeing her dance. They are doing selections from The Nutcracker and Rachel is a Polichinelle and in the Flowers dance.

Rachel as a Polichinelle in December 2021.

[smelling]

Both kids wanted to learn to bake some things so I asked my mom to teach them. Sam has learned how to bake buns and Rachel learned how to make pastry and bake a pumpkin pie. I have been "smelling" a lot of amazing baking recently!!!

[preparing for]

We've been "preparing for" buying a new car for a few months now. We knew our old car was coming to the end of its life but got some bad news about it last week. We picked up our new car a couple of days ago and the biggest change is... it's fully electric! Now we have to "prepare for" how to charge our car at home. The fun never ends around here!

[thankful]

I am super "thankful" my parents are close by for a bit. I am "thankful" my dad assisted us with the car buying process and that my mom has been baking up a storm with the kids. I am also "thankful" that this weekend should be a quieter one. I have a lot of stuff I need/want to do around the house and I should have some time to get it done.

How are you all "currently"? If your lives are anything like mine, it's been a week, and I'm hoping you're all seeing some quieter moments coming your ways.

What's Up Wednesday: October 2024

October has gone so quickly! I can't believe we're in the last few days of the month. Wasn't it just September?!?!?

I really do love answering the What's Up Wednesday questions every month. I like how they help me reflect on the past month and I love having a monthly record of what we've been up to. I go back and re-read these posts often. 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... Earlier this month we celebrated Thanksgiving with our traditional shrimp dinner and fancy potatoes. It was really good!

Other than that, we've been eating a lot of orange soups! The carrot dill soup on the left looks a little grey because I also used purple carrots in it. And we've had the curried butternut squash soup twice. It's so good!!!

What I'm reminiscing about... Remember two and a half years ago when my parents were our neighbours? Well, I've been reminiscing about that lately :) That was so fun, as normally they live three provinces away from us.

What I'm loving... I am loving Sam and his friends. I love that Sam can independently bike with his friends all over the city and that they still hang out on their elementary school playground, even though they're in Grade 10. When we experienced the Northern Lights a couple of weeks ago, one of Sam's friends' mom took the picture of them in the pyramid on the school playground and shared it with me. Sam is at the top and I just love this photo.

What we've been up to... There was a lot going on in October. Besides the regular dance, school, work, church routine, we also...

...enjoyed the Northern Lights...

 

...had a quick weekend away to the States to watch Willem play in a disc golf tournament...

...watched Rachel for a week during parent viewing at dance...

...went to one of Rachel's three dance performances happening this fall...

 

...and Rachel and her bestie went on a dance weekend away with her bestie's mom. Dave, Sam, and I stayed home and participated in a readathon instead!

What I'm dreading... The "check engine" light went on in our car last night and Dave is calling our mechanic today. I'm dreading what they're going to tell us...

What I'm working on... I'm working on maintaining my sanity while raising teenagers. If you've raised (or are currently raising) teenagers, you may know what I'm talking about :) I'm also working on yard work. It's time to get the yard in shape for winter.

What I'm excited about... As you may have guessed from "what I'm reminiscing about" above, my parents are our neighbours again for the next little while!!! I'm sooooo excited about it!!! It's such a treat to have them living just a few doors down from us!!!

 

What I'm watching/reading... I've been watching our glorious fall colours! They're pretty incredible this year.

 

I've also been watching Sam at soccer and Rachel at dance. I do love watching my kids do their thing.

 

As for reading, I read The Emotional Lives of Teenagers and really enjoyed it. I am currently reading Demon Copperhead. 

What I'm listening to... I'm listening to the leaves rustle as I walk through them to get to work.

What I'm wearing... When we were in the US, we went to Target and I bought the slippers pictured below. I really wish I had bought a couple more pairs because I LOVE them!

What I'm doing this weekend... I think we're hosting my and Dave's parents for a pizza night and other that that, I don't know. Oh, we'll probably be doing a lot of raking as the city is picking up our leaves sometime next week...

What I'm looking forward to next month... I'm looking forward to lots of quality visiting time with my parents! I'm sooooo excited to have them much closer to us. I'm also looking forward to Rachel's next dance performance, and hopefully enjoying some cozy, quieter moments before the insanity that is December hits.

I thought this year with having teenagers, Halloween would be less of a big deal but instead it feels like they're wanting to do all the traditional Halloween things, possibly for the last time. So tonight we're finishing off Rachel's costume and carving pumpkins. Tomorrow night, we're handing out candy while the kids are off trick-or-treating with their friends. I'm going to savour every moment of it because, as I said above, it feels like possibly the last year we'll be doing all this. So I'm off to enjoy.

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Falling For Fall

For a few weeks there I was wondering if we were going to get an actual Fall this year. Our weather was unusually warm and the leaves were stubbornly green. However, like a bolt from the blue, all of a sudden last week, our leaves changed and everywhere I looked, fall splendour was on display. So, what follows is a (mostly) wordless post of our incredible fall colours. PS. These pictures were all taken around our yard, or within a twenty minute walk of our house. I didn't even have to look that hard for fall.

Our backyard maple before all the leaves fell off. We spent a lot of time this past weekend raking.

Fall on our street.

My walk to work.

Brilliant colours on the way home from work.

 

How has your fall been?