What's Up Wednesday: November 2019

Welcome to What's Up Wednesday for November. As I mentioned in October's WUW post (which you can read here), I had never done an October WUW. Well, this is my first November one as well. And before I get on with the post, for the last two months I have read almost every single WUW post on the link and I have enjoyed that so much. I'm looking forward to reading all of your posts again today.Or you know, over the next few days :)

image from here

What we're eating this week... I made orange cranberry muffins on Sunday and I've been having them for breakfast every day this week. You can find the recipe (which I found on Pinterest) here. Muffins are a staple in our house and, when I don't have time to bake them, we don't really know what to do.

What I'm reminiscing about... Since we are an interfaith family (I am Christian, my husband is Jewish -- our whole family is involved in both faiths), it's hard to find seasonal matching family pajamas. However, last year I found non-Christmas themed matching family pjs through a Canadian doll company, Maplelea. (You can check out their website here -- this is not sponsored, I just really like them.) I'm excited about this year's pjs (which we will give the kids on December 1) so until then, I'm remembering how fun last year was!

What I'm loving... My daughter, Rachel, who is eight and a half, is going to be worship leading at our church with an adult mentor in a few weeks. I love how deliberate and thoughtful she has been about putting together the service.

Also, we put flannel sheets on our beds a few weeks ago and I LOVE crawling into bed these days. It's so warm and cozy.

What we've been up to... Last year for Advent we did a Reverse Advent calendar (you can see the one we used here) and we liked it so much, we are doing it again this year. We gave each kids the list of foods, they got their own cart, and we hit the grocery store. Rachel has her food all arranged in order, ready to put in the box, and Sam is keeping his in the bags this year. I guess he'll be rooting around in them every morning looking for the item of the day. On December 24, we'll donate the boxes to a local food bank. I really love this way of marking Advent.

On the left, the kids with their full boxes ready to donate on Christmas Eve, 2018. On the right, carts full of food for this year's Advent.

What I'm dreading... I'm not really dreading anything right now. Life is in a pretty good place :)

What I'm working on... I've been working on getting our calendars for next year ordered, going through all the pictures from this past year and deciding what to print, and getting ready to start a new job. I've been unemployed since the beginning of September and I am excited that I have found a new position. I get training and orientation in a couple of weeks and I've been working on filling out paperwork and fulfilling some of the requirements. There's been a lot going on!

 We got our family pictures taken a few weeks ago 

so next on the list is ordering holiday cards. Yay!!!

(This is not one of the photos we're using on our cards.)

What I'm excited about... Starting next week Kim and Tanya at GirlXOXO (link here) and T of Traveling With T (link here) will be hosting #AMonthOfFaves. Last year, after an unintentional blogging break of a few months, participating in this blog party got me back into regular blogging and I'm excited to be a part of it again!

What I'm watching/reading... We haven't been watching much of anything this month. There's been too much other stuff going on. As for reading, there is a group of people who participate in #nonfictionnovember on Instagram. I haven't been officially participating but I've been enjoying reading some interesting non-fiction this past month. Below are my three favourite non-fiction picks of the month.

image from here * image from here * image from here

What I'm listening to... Not much of anything just yet. I don't start listening to Christmas music until December 1 so it's just whatever the kids have been singing, which is either Warriors by Imagine Dragons (you can listen to it here) or Bad Liar, also by Imagine Dragons. You can hear that one here. We're definitely in a new era of our kids having musical tastes that aren't completely annoying. Ha! Also, Sam is surprisingly good at parodies. One of my and Dave's favourites is when he turned Bad Liar into Bad Dryer as we were washing (and drying) dishes. It made us laugh!

What I'm wearing... I couldn't think of what I'd been wearing lately but Rachel decided she needed earmuffs recently. We found a pair at Dollarama that she could mostly pay for with her own money. She rarely takes them off :) 

What I'm doing this weekend... I have book club and Rachel has a dance performance on Sunday afternoon (with a dress rehearsal before that). It's going to be a full weekend. Yikes!

Rachel is a polar bear in the performance and was showing off some poses!

What I'm looking forward to next month... My parents are coming for Christmas which I'm really excited about. We'll also be celebrating Chanukah and getting ready to enjoy some family time. Yay!!!

What else is new... On November 27, 2006, Dave and I officially started dating. Thus, today is our 13 year date-aversary. Yay!?!

from December 2006 or January 2007