What's Up Wednesday: August 2022

It's the last What's Up Wednesday post of our summer. While I've been back at work for a week and a half, the kids are enjoying their last few days of summer around here. Thank goodness for Dave's parents who have been providing the kids with some fun while Dave and I work.

As always with this post, I'm linking up with Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me To.

image from here

What we're eating this week... We're eating all the end of summer produce from our CSA and from the produce stand at the pool. Almost every meal I've made lately uses some sort of fresh veggies or fruit. Unless, it uses something out of our freezer because I'm trying to use up things in there too. Last night we had the super fun theme of "everything is old and freezer burnt and needs to be eaten" which we all loved. Hahaha!!!

 

In terms of fresh produce, we've had zucchini pizza (I was going to make regular pizza but the kids wanted this instead!), chickpea kale soup, peach muffins, and lots of fresh sliced cucumber. Also we've been eating a lot of quick and easy meals because work has been insane.

zucchini pizza and chickpea kale soup

 

peach muffins and tomato/cucumber/avocado/feta salad 

What I'm reminiscing about... Rachel starts Grade 6 on Tuesday (which is the last year before middle school for us) and Sam starts Grade 8 (which is the last year before high school) so I'm thinking about those kids I sent off to Junior Kindergarten and wondering what happened to them. How have the years gone so fast?!?!? Dave and I are especially sad about this being the last year at our amazing elementary school. We have had kids there for ten years. That's a long time.

Sam, September 2013 * Rachel, September 2015

What I'm loving... I'm so boring but I'm still loving my morning coffee outside with Dave. On the rare days it doesn't happen, I feel grumpy.

Morning coffee-hot chocolate outside, laundry hanging on the line, and Dave -- these are a few of my favourite things :) 

What we've been up to... The kids had two weeks of swimming and tennis and now they have a quieter week before school starts. They've had some appointments, today they're having a beach day, and tomorrow they're going to a movie. Dave and I have been working, running errands, organizing spaces in our house, and working on getting Rachel ready for dance. Fall activities and the Jewish High Holidays are about to hit big time over here and we're trying to be as prepared as possible.

 

What I'm dreading... Next week. I'm a school secretary and our board rolled out a new student information system last week. So I've been trying to do all the things that need to happen at the beginning of a new school year (registering students, putting them in classes, printing out class lists) and I'm struggling with all of it because of this new system. So next week when the students are actually back in classes (and my school's big construction project isn't yet completed) will be... interesting... to say the least.

 

What I'm working on... I'm trying to finish up the last three posts for our summer vacation. I was hoping to have them done yesterday, and when that didn't happen, by the end of this week, and I just haven't gotten them written. However, they are coming soon. (I hope!) You can read the first post here if you're interested in catching up on our three week trip to Europe, which included an 11 day cruise. It was an amazing trip!!!

In Paris at The Eiffel Tower * In Dover, England

Getting ready to board the Disney Magic

At the Baltic Sea in Germany and at the North Sea in Denmark

On Lysefjord in Norway

 

What I'm excited about... This is so boring but we've been working on some organization projects at home and I'm so excited that a couple of big ones are done!!! We cleaned out our garage this past Saturday and got rid of a lot of stuff. And then I went through all the boxes of hand-me-down clothes in the basement and organized them. After years of having boxes of hand-me-downs, we are now down to five boxes. I'm so thankful that friends have given us so many of their kids clothes but it's a huge task to keep it all organized.

 

What I'm watching/reading... I've been watching training videos on the new student system and reading all the emails coming out about the start of the school year. It's boring, but it's the truth :)

We watched pieces of a few Blue Jays' games this past weekend but they weren't very fun as the Jays were on a losing streak. Blah. I've also watched way too many America's Got Talent videos on YouTube this past week, and because of that, we attempted to watch The Greatest Showman over the weekend but we all lost interest about halfway through.

I'm sad that this summer never kicked my reading back into high gear. But I'm so thankful for my Blog Friends' Book Club which keeps me reading at least one interesting book a month. This past month we read The Body by Bill Bryson and it was fascinating. I highly recommend it if you're into trivia and super interesting information about our bodies.

What I'm listening to... All the construction noises at work. However, in between bouts of construction noise I'm appreciating the quiet because next week, when the students are back, will be anything but quiet! Hahaha!!!

 

What I'm wearing... Nothing exciting. It's the end of summer, it's still hot, and I'm wearing work clothes and shorts and t-shirts. While I'm not ready for summer to end, I am looking forward to pulling out jeans and sweaters, but that likely won't happen for another month or so.

What I'm doing this weekend... Getting the kids ready to go back to school. And probably baking muffins. And I'm fully embracing September by buying mums for our outdoor spaces! I've been holding off on that these past few weeks but now it's time :)

What I'm looking forward to next month... Cooler weather. The LUMEN festival -- a festival of technology and light in our uptown. Being back into a more regular routine.

Favourite Amazon product of the month... Well, as you know we rarely buy things on Amazon. Honestly, I'll only be able to answer this question about every three or four months! However, I caved and ordered this sweater. I got it in the "olive" colour and it's so cozy. I am really looking forward to wearing it at work on those cold winter days because it's so soft. Rachel even wants me to order one for her!

Please excuse this bad picture of me or, alternatively, really enjoy my "I'm exhausted and work is beyond stressful plus I'm wearing a warm sweater and it's super hot out" look. There's a lot going on in this one picture :)

I apologize that this isn't a very exciting post and is filled with lots of work stress. However, that is what this past week and a half has been about for me. The last weeks of summer are always hard and even Sam commented last night that he isn't liking this week because there's not a lot going on and it's just about waiting for school to start. Thankfully we have lots of great summer memories to look back on and we have a lot to look forward to this fall as well.