What's Up Wednesday: October 2022

Once again, I had an unintentional blogging break but I'm back. And what better way to come back than with a "What's Up Wednesday" post. You will see in this post why I didn't have time to blog in October as today is a "Sam Had His Bar Mitzvah on Saturday" focused What's Up Wednesday.

As always with What's Up Wednesday, 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... My parents drove from Saskatchewan (a four day drive) to attend Sam's Bar Mitzvah and they brought us some special treats including carrot pickles (!!!) and homemade salsa! So we've been eating a lot of that. Mom also made oatmeal from scratch almost every morning and we gobbled it up. And we had pizza night twice while they were here so that was delicious too!

Dave's aunt and uncle brought delicious rugelach (filled dough with chocolate) from New York for us and so we've been eating those too. YUM!!!

What I'm reminiscing about... I'm reminiscing about what an amazing day this past Saturday was. It was the day of Sam's Bar Mitzvah and we felt so surrounded and loved by our families and community -- both the synagogue community and our church community! Sam lead almost all of the prayers, chanted from the Torah, chanted the Haftorah, and gave the D'Var Torah (a mini sermon), and he did such an incredible job!

This is a screenshot from Zoom so it's a little blurry but you get the picture. 

What I'm loving... All the time I'll have now that Bar Mitzvah planning is over! HAHAHA!!! I'm also loving the fall colours we've experienced this year. They seem to be more brilliant than ever and I cannot get enough of them. 

What we've been up to... Besides Bar Mitzvah planning and hosting, there have been a few other things going on. We went to the Blue Jays last playoff game (which was amazing for about six innings and then completely fell apart in the last three innings)...

This is us before things fell apart. 

... we enjoyed Empty Bowls For Haiti with Tim and Janice and family...

... Rachel worship lead a service at church with two of her friends and one of our pastors. She gave a short reflection for the sermon, as well...

... and we went for a Fall walk on Thanksgiving Day.

 

 

And we celebrated my mom and dad's safe arrival after their very long days of driving!

    

What I'm dreading... Normally, I would answer that I'm dreading November, probably my least favourite month ever, but after the insanity that was October and all the Bar Mitzvah planning, I'm actually looking forward to a lot of down time, watching a lot of Hallmark Christmas movies, and a lot of doing "not a whole heck of a lot" (did I say that twice?!?!?!).

 

What I'm working on... Getting our life back in order post-Bar Mitzvah. A lot of things didn't get done in October because Bar Mitzvah planning took priority and now it's time to catch up.

 

And this picture shows that I also need to get started on the fall yard work -- cleaning up the flower beds, raking leaves, and emptying the planters and putting them away for the year.

What I'm excited about... I was hanging laundry one day and the bench I always put my laundry basket on was falling apart. I called my dad and joked, "I need you to build me a laundry basket bench." Well, they pulled up and my dad pulled this out of the trunk. I was so excited I couldn't even get a whole sentence out! The best part is, he made it out of my grandma's old quilting frames. So, as in the picture on the right, you can see the marks from where she would clamp the quilt to the frames. I LOVE IT!!!

  

 

The laundry basket bench in use as I hung laundry yesterday morning as the sun rose. Fall laundry hanging at its best!

 

If you don't know what a quilting frame is, here is a picture of when Dave and I stopped to visit my grandma as we moved out to Alberta in 2007. We are sitting at a quilting frame with her, although not the one my dad made my laundry bench out of. Also, as a side note, she was 100 years old in this photo and lived for another four years!

 

What I'm watching/reading... Well, we're going to be cheering the Phillies on against the Astros in the World Series and after that I'll be watching Hallmark Christmas movies.

 

All I've been reading lately is all the emails with Bar Mitzvah details so I'm going to try and read some of your blogs, now that I have a little more time.

 

What I'm listening to... I'm no longer listening to Sam practising chanting his Torah portion or singing the prayers. He put a lot of work into practising and it definitely paid off. Sadly, I'm also no longer listening to Blue Jays baseball as their season is over. I guess I'm listening to the rustle of the leaves as I walk through them.

What I'm wearing... I bought a new dress for Sam's Bar Mitzvah thanks to help from my mom and some of my blog friends! I texted them pictures of options and they made helpful comments! I love my dress and am looking forward to having another occasion to wear it again.

 

 

What I'm doing this weekend... Baking cookies with Rachel, going for a walk in the forest with Dave while the kids are at Jr Youth, and enjoying an "enchanted evening forest walk" with the whole family. And hopefully I'll also be getting a lot of sleep! I'm tired.

What I'm looking forward to next month... Relaxing at home, being cozy under a blanket, and generally enjoying some down time before the insanity that is December hits! I'm also really looking forward to walking the labyrinth at church towards the end of the month. This always kicks off the Advent/Christmas season for me and I absolutely love it.

What else is new... I think that's everything!

I hope you've had a good October and I'm looking forward to hearing what's up with all of you!