Friday Favourite Moments 2025 #3

Before I start my favourite moments of this week, I want to give a shout out to Dave! It's his birthday today! If you haven't already, you should go and read the post from Dave's 32nd birthday (found here) about how he is a walking miracle. So Happy Birthday Dave!!! We have a bunch of plans to celebrate him all weekend long!

And now on to my favourite moments from this week.

1) fun at Winter Retreat

My first moment is remembering all the fun we had at Winter Retreat. You can read about the retreat here but I especially enjoyed saunaing and snowing with Rachel :)

2) Tulips

I promise I won't write about my tulips every week (at least, I probably won't!!!), but this week's bunches were especially good so I couldn't not share. I love how the yellow ones are tall and straight and the red ones are going all over the place. Every bunch is so different!

3) Rachel got her splits

Rachel's jazz teacher has told them she will bring in treats every time a student gets their splits. Rachel got her left side splits this week so earned treats for her class next week. She was really excited about them!

4) pizza at work

I always love pizza but this week's slice was especially good. Our school has a weekly pizza lunch and the staff all get a free slice. Last year our vendor wasn't very good but this year's is amazing!!!

5) Rachel's sock buns

Have you all heard of sock curls??? Supposedly it's the next thing in "how to curl your hair." Rachel has been trying them out and I just laugh at her sock buns. But I have to admit, the curls are pretty amazing.

 

6) Suzanne's blog post on chores

I joined in with the Share Our Lives bloggers for "saving time on chores." You can read my post here. When I link up with a blog party, I try really hard to read all the posts in the party. I found Suzanne from The Glorious Mundane and I was nodding along, and reading entire paragraphs out loud, from her blog post on chores. Go here to read it, if you haven't yet. There is so much here I agree with and she expressed herself much more eloquently than I did.

7) good Wordle guess

Do you play Wordle? I started again over winter break and I was really proud of my guess the other day!

So those were some of my favourite moments from this week. Tell me something good about your week!

10 On The 10th: January 2025

My "10 on the 10th" for January is all about our church's winter retreat. For some reason I didn't feel very inspired to take pictures this time around so I had a hard time finding ten good photos. Also, these pictures were mostly taken on January 11th since on January 10th I worked, got a ride to winter retreat, and then basically went to bed -- not a very exciting day :)

Rachel on the path to the washroom on Saturday morning. Our cabin was at the furthest end of the camp so we had about a three minute walk to the washroom and another few minutes to get to the dining hall.

Rachel is standing in front of our cabin. Can you see her? The cabins are winterized so were nice and warm. We shared with our friends, their two kids, and another couple. We were here basically to sleep and get dressed!

Sadly, none of the bodies of water were completely frozen over so we couldn't go skating.

While we had plenty of indoor fires, an outdoor campfire was not happening! The outdoor campfire circle sure was pretty though.

The winter woods were gorgeous! This was on a walk to the sauna, during the day, so I knew how to find it in the dark.

In the afternoon I walked out to Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes) with a few other people. The ice balls were along the shore and were so unique. In the photo on the right, you can see the open water. We didn't want to get too close to the edge as we didn't know how thick the ice was.

Rachel and I in the sauna!

We saunaed, we snowed, we squealed! It was a lot of fun, the sauna was hot, and the snow was cold!!!

 

There are no pictures or videos of the diving into the snow because we wanted to get back into the sauna as soon as possible. I would highly recommend this if you ever get a chance to try it.

 

Sam and the youth went to the sauna later that night, chipped a hole in the ice of the pond, and polar plunged. Diving into a snowbank was enough for me though :)

I have been trying to drink less Coke but I had one with me, just in case. And, of course, on Sunday morning I woke up with a headache. While I didn't have access to a fridge, I did have access to a lot of snow, so I had a very cold Coke for the drive home.

 

Even though I don't have a lot of pictures, I am very thankful for our weekend of Winter Retreat with our church. It is always a weekend when, not only do I get to enjoy winter fun, but I always leave feeling more connected, and very grateful, for our church family.

Maybe next year I'll even be brave enough to do the full polar plunge!

Share Our Lives: Saving Time On Chores

It's the first "Share Our Lives" of the year with Sarah, Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.) I'm late on posting this partly because I found this topic hard to write about and partly because we had a very full weekend and, by the time it came to blogging last night, my brain was mush. So I stared at my computer for about an hour and then fell asleep. Hopefully, I'm feeling a little more inspired this morning :)

As I said above, I found this topic hard to write about and here are some ideas I brainstormed about how we save time on chores.

1) letting dishes air dry

We don't have a dishwasher (have never had a dishwasher the entire time we've lived together), and so our dishes have to be hand washed and hand dried. We rarely dry dishes, instead letting them air dry. It does take up extra space on the counter but it save us time. 

2) tidying as we go

One habit we've tried to instill in the kids is "clean up as you go." If you were to drop by our house unexpectedly, our house would be fairly tidy. That isn't to say there aren't "pain points" -- there absolutely are, but we try to keep things fairly picked up around here. (For those who are curious, the "pain points" are my desk, our kitchen counters (see: no dishwasher above), and potentially, the back table.) This does save time when we want to clean something because, usually, there is very little tidying needed.

3) owning a smaller house

If you were ever come to visit us, you would see that our house is not very large. We don't have a lot of extra space so we use it all. However, a bonus side benefit is that does mean that we don't have a lot to clean! When we had our weekly housecleaning nights a few years ago, working together, we could get half the house cleaned in an hour.

4) working together to get tasks done

We often work together to get chores done. You won't often find just one of us doing a chore. Often I'll be folding laundry, one kid will be washing dishes, one kid will be cleaning a room, and Dave is doing something outside. That is definitely not always the case but it feels like it goes faster if we're all doing something.

5) getting the kids to do more

Now that the kids are older, we get them to do more. Chores go a lot faster when four people are doing things. I feel like we need to get better at assigning specific chores to the kids but the expectation is, if a parent asks you to do something (wash dishes, fold laundry, clean the dining room, start supper, etc), you do it. It definitely helps cut down on what Dave and I do when the kids take on some of the responsibility as well.

A photo from 2018 when I decided the kids needed to do more because this is a boring, pictureless, post :)

So there are my not so exciting tips for "saving time on chores." Since I've written then after some of you have published your posts, I will share that I did not let myself look at your ideas first, even though I was tempted. I'm off now to read about your time saving tips. Hopefully, I'll find something to implement in our lives because saving time on chores leaves more time for fun stuff!!!

Friday Favourite Moments 2025 #2

I saw this on Instagram last weekend and it perfectly describes why I'm trying to capture my favourite moments every week:

And with that, here are my favourite moments from this past week.

1) pflinzen with sour cherry sauce in Saskatchewan

When I was a kid, one of my favourite meals was pflinzen, a thin German pancake. My mom made a batch for brunch our last day in Saskatchewan and I ate one of mine with sour cherry sauce. It was delicious!

2) views from the plane

I love seeing views from the plane. This time we flew as the sun set so we got to see a magnificent sky.

3) first tulips!!!

 

I got my first tulips of January last weekend, thanks to a bit of persistence from Dave. I love love love my January tulips!!!

4) fresh bread and hot soup on a cold day

 

I baked bread and made soup last Sunday and fresh bread, with hot soup, is the perfect cold weather meal. It's been fairly cold this week so I've enjoyed a few meals of this soup for lunches too.

5) Lights at home!

This is a somewhat silly thing to notice, but as much as I love being on vacation, I also love coming home and enjoying things here. Extra light on these dark winter days is always a win so I was really happy to see both my solar lights in our backyard tree at night and the twinkle lights in our living room in the morning.

6) community of friends

A few things happened this week which made me extra thankful for my community of friends. This is a picture of Sam, hanging out in our friends' swing, in their newly renovated basement. We went over there because they had an extra pair of skates for Sam to borrow this winter, but we also wanted to check out the fruits of all their hard work (they renovated this mostly on their own). It was fun to celebrate with them!

So those are some of my favourite moments from this past week. Did you have your own "little moments" to notice this week?

Currently: January 2025

As the first Wednesday of 2025 was New Year's Day, the "Currently" link up was moved to this week instead. I love that these blog prompts forced me to focus on the good as I've had a rough week adjusting to being back at work, winter, and getting up early again! "Currently" is hosted by Jennifer at My Joyful Life. You can find her here.

[loving]

I am "loving" my tulips, and I'm "loving" that Dave made a couple of stops to find me a couple of bouquets. I'm hoping our grocery store will have them by this week but until then, Dave found some at Costco and another grocery store. These flowers bring me hope that spring will arrive, eventually! (Yes, I'm already counting down to spring!)

I am "loving" that my 2025 reading has started off well. I basically gave up on tracking 2024 on GoodReads, as well as writing blog posts about my reading, around April last year. I kept reading but it was basically all JD Robb. Here's hoping that the good start means my 2025 reading will be better...

Lastly, I am "loving" that Sam and his friend are on the same soccer team again this winter -- whoo hooo! I was slightly worried as Sam's friend was wait listed for soccer, but he got off the wait list. Phew! So I'm looking forward to some more nights at the soccer field. Yay!

[doing to stay warm]

This is such a great prompt as it is fairly cold this week. When we got home, I put our flannel sheets on the bed. I love crawling into my warm, cozy, bed at the end of the day.

Other than that, I'm about to turn 53 so there is not a lot else I am "doing to stay warm" these days -- hahahaha! IYKYK :)

[resolving]

After reading Jennifer's Hodgepodge post from January 1 (find it here), I am resolving to embrace my inner Finnish person and enjoy some sauna/rolling in the snow time this coming weekend at our church's retreat. When I mentioned this resolution to Rachel, she remarked, "That was THE BEST last year!" So I guess I'll be packing my swimsuit for Winter Retreat -- which feels very odd. Snow pants - check, warm sweaters - check, swimsuit - check! Check back later next week to see how my resolve for this holds up!!!

I am also "resolving" to have better dental habits. I read The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi over the holidays and I'm using her priciple of "start small." Well, I've been starting very small in this regard and so far, so good!

[organizing]

I am "organizing" our family for our church's Winter Retreat this weekend. I've also been "organizing" our flu & Covid shots (happening later today), our skates (only Sam needs new ones - yay!), and really, that's about it. I'm just trying to get a handle on all the winter things around here.

[wearing]

I've been "wearing" the new sweater my Mom & Dad gave me for Christmas. I don't have a picture of me in it but it's this Teddy Half-Zip Fleece from Mountain Warehouse. The colour is officially called "khaki" but it's more of a deep forest green. I really love it and it's nice enough to wear to work. It's also very warm. (I guess this could have also gone in the "doing to stay warm" category.)

image from here

I bought myself two new pairs of jeans on Monday, and once I've washed them, I know I will be "wearing" them a lot too. I was getting frustrated with one of my pairs of jeans (they kept falling down) and I was down to one pair, which just wasn't enough. I wasn't going to buy two pairs but the store I went had a "buy 1, get 1 free" promotion and who am I to turn down free jeans?!

So that's what's up with us "currently" -- winter, flannel sheets, warm sweaters, saunas and snow (I hope), skates, and more. How's your January going thus far?

Friday Favourite Moments 2025 #1

At the beginning of last year, I started something I called "Friday Favourite Moments." I wanted to capture the small things in my week which brought me joy. I only posted these semi-regularly until May but I wanted to bring it back this year. I really do want to remember the small things which bring lots of happiness to my life.

1) Hallmark Romance

For those of you who don't follow me (or haven't seen this) on Instagram, I jokingly asked my dad to invent a drink for me as a Christmas present. He went to work and came up with the "Hallmark Romance." I posted this explanation on Instagram: It's a vodka based drink made with cherries from the Romance series of cherries. Cherry bushes my grandpa saved from destruction years ago were used as breeding stock for the Romance cherries in Saskatchewan.

Anyways, I've probably had about five of these drinks over the past week and a bit and they are sooooo good!!! I already told my dad he has a hard act to follow for next year!

 

2) Post-holiday flowers

 

Rachel, my dad, and I did some errands the other day and we picked up these flowers for my mom. Now that winter has hit, tropical flowers like these are what is needed to get us through the cold. (There weren't any tulips available or I may have pushed hard for those!) 

 

3) Channukah

 

We lit the candles every night of Channukah, except one, this year. It was a different kind of Channukah as we were in Saskatchewan for all of it, but it was still a very special time.

 

4) New Year's celebration

 

Due to some circumstances, we didn't have our traditional New Year's mimosas until January 2nd but we followed it up with a full English/Scottish/Irish inspired breakfast. And new this holiday, my mom found a mango-prosecco mix which was delicious!

5) Bird watching

We have been getting a kick out of watching the ruffed grouse in my parents' yard. They are the funniest looking birds and we've spent time watching them every day.

 

6) Puzzle

 

My cousins gave us a puzzle for Christmas, which was quite difficult, but yesterday we got it done! I put in about 15 pieces of this 1,000 piece puzzle but every one felt extremely satisfying. Sam, my mom, and Rachel did the bulk of the work on this one.

 

So those have been some of my favourite moments from this week. How has your week been? Hopefully, I'll see you here again next week for another edition of my Friday Favourite Moments.

Memories, Dreams, And Reflections 2024

It's the last day of 2024 and I am recapping our year. I found this way of reflecting through Lysha last year and I really loved it. Lysha blogs at A Camera & A Cookbook and you can find her here.

 

1. Me!

This is me, in my favourite outfit from this summer -- a striped navy t-shirt I bought at Target, a pair of denim shorts, and my old red Toms. My principal worked really hard to encourage me to front tuck this past year so I'm laughing that I've done so in this photo. She would be so proud of me!

2. I Love You

Of course this has to be a picture of me and Dave! I love that we're both wearing our Blue Jays Spring Training shirts here! This is on one of our trips and I love exploring new places with Dave too!

3. Still Laughing...

This was from the rainiest day of our walk in Scotland this past summer. It rained for five and a half hours straight and we were so wet! Then we had to walk through this stream/runoff and there was absolutely no way our feet were staying dry. The situation was so ridiculous that I asked Dave to take a picture. I'm still laughing at how wet we got this day! Plus, I thought it was super fun to just jump right into this stream to get across!

4. Winter Wonderland

After a few years of missing it, we went to our church's winter retreat on one of the snowiest weekends of the year. Dave and I went for a walk on Saturday morning in the forest and it was a beautiful winter wonderland.

5. Birthday

My birthday this year was a bit disappointing as I'd been pretty sick right before it. So we moved my birthday celebration to a few days later and I enjoyed a good family evening. However, I didn't really get a birthday experience this year so we'll have to remedy that for 2025!

6. Friends

We had so much fun with friends this year, including an evening at a Phillies game with Emily, Adam, and their boys. We had talked about doing this for so long so it was fun to make it actually happen!

7. I Was Inspired…

When we went to Virginia for Easter, Willem taught us to play disc golf. We were inspired to buy discs on Amazon, play a few times on our summer vacation, and even went on a road trip to New York to watch Willem play in a college tournament.

8. Spring Fever.

As much as I love tulips, I've never actually picked them before. So for Mother's Day, we went to a tulip farm and we got to pick a bouquet of ten tulips each.

9. Travel or Vacation

We got to take a few trips this year but this picture of all of us on our lobster cruise in Maine sticks out as one of my favourite travel memories with all four of us. This was such a fun tour and we loved getting to participate in lobster fishing!

10. Summer Days

I spent many, many, many summer days documenting the growth and blooming of my lily bed. I was so happy every time a lily bloomed and sent many excited texts to my parents as they blossomed.

11. A Day In My Life

There were a lot of days when I was walking up and down my favourite path -- mostly to get to work, but sometimes to get to the library or to get ice cream. Walking on this path is a pretty regular occurrence on every day in my life that we spend at home.

12. All Smiles

We were all smiles with the amazing display of Northern Lights we experienced in October. It stands out as one of the three best displays I've seen in my lifetime. I was thrilled that Dave and Rachel got to experience it with me. Sam experienced it with his friends and even called us to let us know it was happening.

13. Autumn/Fall

We weren't sure we were going to get a great display of fall colours this year but they came through around mid-October. I spent a few weeks crunching through leaves on my walks to work.

14. Family or Home

Drinking coffee outside with Dave while laundry hangs on the line is one of my favourite ways to start a morning at home. There are never enough mornings like these for me!

15. Celebrate!

I don't remember why our favourite ice cream shop was doing a fundraiser but I remember we celebrated the fact that the sun was shining. Our January was so grey and just a glimpse of the sun was so encouraging.

16. Let’s Do It Again…

Dave and I got to travel just the two of us for the first time in six years. We walked 154 km/96 miles on the West Highland Way in Scotland. This is a picture of us at the official end and while we were happy to be done, I would have gladly done it all again. It was such an incredible experience.

17. I Miss You

While we were on our summer road trip, we got the news that one of our pastors had unexpectedly died. In December, Rachel was drinking hot chocolate and realized that she had received this mug from that pastor. This is definitely the person we miss the most this year.

18. Beautiful

I had a flower share again this summer, and while this isn't the best picture, the bouquets were beautiful. I loved them all!

19. Dress Up

We are not a dressy family, but we loved dressing up for our Marvel Day At Sea cruise in March!

20. Macro

I always love a hot dog at a baseball game. And I think I take a yearly picture of a hot dog with the Skydome in the background! Hahahahaha!!!

21. Holidays

We love spending Christmas in Saskatchewan! And I love getting a Christmas morning picture of us in our matching family pajamas.

22. My Favourite

Janice and I had a fancy tea in February and doing a favourite thing with a favourite friend absolutely defines this prompt.

23. Don’t Ever Change

While going to Bubble Planet probably wasn't worth it for our family (it was aimed at a slightly younger crowd), I loved that Sam and Rachel still enjoyed playing with the bubbles. I hope they don't ever lose their sense of play.

24. Just Because…

I didn't get a lot else done the week Sam got his braces off as we ate a lot of popcorn and binge watched Ted Lasso but I loved getting to spend so much time with Sam.

25. Hopes and Dreams

Sometimes I find random things to do with my family and they are absolutely amazing. Sometimes, the events don't live up to all our hopes and dreams. While the Water Lantern Festival definitely fell on the "not quite worth it" end of the spectrum, there were still some magical moments.

So that was some of 2024. There was a lot of good this past year, but there was also some loss and some hard mixed in with it. What memories of 2024 are you taking with you?