10 On The 10th: March 2026

March 10 ended up being a glorious spring day and I was so happy all day!

Making coffee-hot chocolate with our new induction stove. Sam thinks our stove is a little “intense and scary” and he’s not wrong!

I was excited to see some green shoots poking up in our yard!

A gorgeous walk to work always makes me happy.

My coworker bought me a coffee-hot chocolate. I’m so thankful for my co-workers.

It was so nice at lunch I ate outside.

Our electric car charger was installed this day. Dave is really excited about this; I am less so!

I love that Rachel still gets excited about being a “bag monster” (as we call it!) and opening the yard waste bags!

Our nicely cleaned up front bed. The reno has made a mess of our yard and we’ll have some clean up to do.

The new microwave (complete with a fan and overhead light) is ready to go!!!

I finished the day reading the rest of my book club book

in bed.

It was a very good, springy, March 10!

Friday Favourite Moments #10 2026 (On A Monday)

It’s another Friday Favourite Moments post on a Monday. I’m trying something new and blogging on my phone at our gate at the airport. If all goes according to plan, I’m waking up this morning in the Dominican Republic!!! I’m ready for a few days of sun, warmth, relaxation, water, and most importantly, no dust!!! Hahaha!!!

Here are my favourite moments from this past week.

1) Beautiful day for yard work!

This past Tuesday was the warmest day we’ve had since November and I was here for it. I was super excited to clean up our yard and Rachel was excited to help me.

2) Microwave installation 

Our microwave was installed this past week. We had fun FaceTiming my parents as we used it for the first time. We now have a vent fan in our kitchen (for the first time ever!) and Sam made popcorn for the inaugural use!

3) Virtual tours of our reno 

I gave a few tours of our reno virtually this week. I showed my parents everything new which was exciting. Then my book club, which has met virtually for over five years now, indulged me and let me give them a tour! It’s been really fun to share our reno with friends! Then I used our new living room for the first time and had book club there.

It looks all cozy if you ignore the construction materials in the background!

4) Starbucks at work

We’ve been making it through in the office these past few weeks by getting a weekly Starbucks order! These have definitely been a highlight of my work week.

 5) Sam driving 

Sam wants to get his license so, now that our gross winter is pretty much over, we’re making him practice a lot. Here he is driving us around last week.

So those were some of my favourite moments from last week. I won’t be doing a post this Friday but I think my favourite moments from this next week will be hard to pick!

Share Our Lives: Frequent Grocery Store Buys

I really wanted to write this post and link up with the Share Our Lives bloggers. So you're getting a blog post on a Sunday morning, which I rarely do. As always, when I'm late to a link up, I haven't looked at the other links in this party yet. The Share Our Lives bloggers are Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.) And this week they were talking about Frequent Grocery Store Buys.

This is the view of our new fridge, all full of food. We haven't organized it yet but that will happen.

 

In no particular order, here are things we frequently buy at the grocery store (and I thought it would be fun to put who we buy it for in parentheses so you can see who eats what!)

 

Apples (Rachel)

Grapes (me & Sam)

Blueberries (Dave)

Strawberries (Rachel, me, & Sam)

Cucumbers (me, Rachel, & Sam)

Bagged Caesar salad (Rachel) 

 

Bread (mostly Dave)

Orange Cranberry Morning Rounds (me)

Buns (Sam & me)

Plain bagels (Rachel & me)

Tortillas (all of us) 

Lunch meat -- salami, usually (Dave & Sam) 

 

Milk (all of us)

Cheese  - cheddar (all of us), marble (mostly Rachel), smoked Gouda (me & Sam) 

Yogurt - lemon or blueberry (Dave), - vanilla (Rachel) - cherry (me & Sam)

 Eggs (Sam & Dave)

Tofu (all of us)

Cream cheese - plain (Rachel), herb & garlic (me) 

 

Frozen pizzas (all of us)

 

Crispix or Shredded Wheat cereal (Dave)

Multi-grain Cheerios (Rachel)

Hot chocolate (me & sometimes the kids) 

Nacho chips (Dave) 

 

Tomato & mushroom soup (all of us)

Pasta -- mostly penne or cavatappi (all of us)

Mayonnaise (me & Rachel)

Tuna (me & Sam)

Pickles (Sam & me) 

 

Coke (me & Dave)

Ginger Ale (Sam, Rachel, & me)

Lemonade (me & Rachel)

Grapefruit juice (Rachel & Dave)

 

Salsa (Dave & Sam) 

 

Granola bars & Goldfish (Rachel)  

Here is the shelf which has been our "pantry" during the renovation. I can't wait to move all this food back into cupboards!

 

So those are the regular items on our grocery list. It's a good thing I have this all typed out as Dave and I will just refer to this for grocery shopping from now on!!!

 

What's something which is regularly on your grocery list? Is there anything I'm missing that you're surprised by? 

Renovation Report Week 18

Our renovation is progressing well (we think!) and this week saw some colourful changes -- finally!

 

On Monday the doors were all taken off and a lot of taping happened in preparation for painting the trim.

 

On Tuesday, a lot of the trim was painted...

... and they started cutting in in the powder room. (And I started freaking out about the paint colour!!!)

They also did some patching in the old office.

On Wednesday they painted all the trim again, and started adding colour to the walls. I think they outlined all the electrical switches.

They also hung the mirrors in the powder room and bathroom and the lights in the upstairs bathroom. On Tuesday, we had a conversation about what was happening with the basement railing and realized no plans had been made for that. So they quickly bought a new one to install. Just when you think you've covered all the details, a surprise pops up.

Thursday was also the day the powder room was painted (with some more patching done, I guess) and the dishwasher electrical was installed. They also installed the plug for the fridge so it was no longer plugged in with an extension cord across our kitchen!!!

Thursday was also the day we came home and discovered all our kitchen lights work!!! 

And the upstairs bathroom lights work, as does the fan!!! 

 

On Friday they did the first coat of paint in our bedroom...

 

... and the powder room inside and outside wall. Now that there's more colour on the wall, I love it as much as I originally thought I would! Also all the lights in these rooms work now.

 

They also primed the rest of the office... 

 

...and got a coat done in the living room and the "hallway" between the living room/kitchen/basement.

 

They painted the windowsill behind the tap, where they had to cut some off to get the tap to fit.

The new handrail got painted and trim was completed in the basement.

More completed trim in Sam's room and the basement bathroom had the light installed, but it doesn't work yet.

So it was an exciting week of painting and finishing up some small details which needed to be completed.

 

Learnings from the week:

 

Preparing to paint (especially the trim) takes a REALLY LONG TIME. Every day we came home wondering, "Did they get to the colour yet?" and the answer was almost always, "No."

The paint smells a bit like bananas.

There are still pieces of the renovation we're not all clear on -- see, for example, the basement railing. There are so many moving pieces that this isn't surprising to us.

Some of the rooms, which are mostly completed, don't feel like they belong to our house anymore! For instance, the upstairs bathroom and kitchen feel really classy!

 

In some rooms we're getting down to final touches, and in other rooms, there's still a bit to do. However, we really do think this renovation will be done sooner rather than later, which is really exciting!!!

Friday Favourite Moments #9 2026 (On A Monday)

On Thursday, I experienced one of the more stressful days at work that I've had in a long time. In a SnapChat group on Wednesday night, two students (not from our school) issued a significant threat against our school, complete with pictures. Thankfully, it was reported to the police, and the two students were arrested by Thursday morning. However, all day Thursday we were fielding calls from families, wondering if it was safe for their student to be at school, as well as dealing with the reactions of the students who had come to school. It was a very weird day.

In Canada, we don't often experience the fear around school violence that I sense there is in the US. However, after the school shooting in British Columbia last month, we're all a little more aware that we're not immune to this sort of violence.

Thursday night I spent dealing with the aftereffects of my day on Thursday and wasn't in the space to write about my favourite moments from the week. However, I do still want to share them so you get this post today.

1) Rachel cooks supper

Last Friday night, we were trying to figure out what to eat, and Rachel announced, "Let me cook something." So she found a recipe online, she and Dave went to pick up a few items, and she threw together this pasta/spinach/meatball dish. And with that, Rachel became the first person to officially cook a meal in our new kitchen!

 

2) Church and a potluck

Between Rachel's dance and our health, we haven't been to church much lately. However, we were able to attend last Sunday and it was so good. There was an excellent sermon, preached by our friend and his son, and then there was a church potluck. It was so good to be with our church family again.

 3) Coffee at work

The Traumatic Events Administrator for our board came to meet with my principal on Thursday morning. She brought coffee for both of us as an appreciation for dealing with the situation. I didn't feel like I did much, other than fielding calls from families, but I was really touched that she thought to include me.

4) The nice weather

We had some gorgeous weather this past week and I appreciated every minute of the sun shining, the snow melting, and the fact that I could ditch my winter jacket a few days! Yay Spring!!!

 

5) Thursday night errands

 

Dave and I dropped the kids off at their evening activities and then did some "the reno might be done soon" errands. We looked at some furniture, some closet organizers, and more paint samples. As I've mentioned before, I want to paint Rachel's current room which will be my new office, so I want to be prepared to move on that once the reno is finished. Then we picked Rachel up from dance early and had supper out. Rachel and I shared poutine which was a warm treat on a rainy evening.

6) Lights in the kitchen!

 

I will share a thorough renovation update tomorrow but we came home on Thursday night to installed, working, pot lights in our kitchen!!! This was especially exciting for Dave as the day before they had removed the only working light in the kitchen so he was rushing to do dishes before dark!

So those were my favourite moments from this past week. As always, this week held some stress but it helps to remember there were good moments too.