What's Up Wednesday: September 2023

Is it just me or did September fly by? Just to warn you, this is a *very* baseball (Blue Jays!) focused post! I love baseball all year round, but never more than in April and in September!

As always on the last Wednesday of the month, I'm linking up with Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too for their What's Up Wednesday post.

image from here

 

What we're eating this week... We've been eating a lot of muffins this month. I make a batch of muffin on the weekend and they're gone in a few days. It's Tuesday night as I'm writing this and the muffins I made on Sunday are already gone. I may have to bake another batch tonight to get us through to the weekend. I eat them for breakfasts and the kids take them for lunches or eat them as after school snacks.

What I'm reminiscing about... Well, with all the baseball going on, I'm reminiscing about other years of September baseball.

This is from September 2016, the first year our family was really into baseball, and when the Jays had just clinched first in the AL East.

 

This is from September 2021, our first in person baseball game post-Covid. We were so excited to see baseball live again.

Okay, this isn't September, but this is from the playoff game we went to last year in October, before the Jays lost the game in a spectacular fashion.

 

I just love September baseball!!!

What I'm loving... I am loving both our weather (not too hot, not too cool) and the fact that my work has been fairly calm this month. Last September was one of the most stressful working months of my entire life and I'm so glad this September has been so much smoother. I am also loving that our second secretary got a few more hours this school year and so has been covering my lunch breaks, which means I get to leave the office. Having a half hour break improves my mood so much!

What we've been up to... September was NUTS, in a good way. Our rabbi is leaving the synagogue and our lead pastor is leaving our church so that's added some extra events to our lives. Additionally, the kids seem to actually have homework this year so they've been doing that.

 

I got to garden at work, which made my week!!!

This past weekend was LUMEN, one of our favourite nights of the year in our uptown. Friday night there were a few pre-LUMEN events like a drone show, so we checked out that out, as well as some interesting lights at the park. 

The next night we checked out the official LUMEN festival, which was one of the best ones ever.

 

What I'm dreading... I'm not dreading much but one evening in the next few weeks, Rachel has to take public transit on her own to dance and I'm nervous about it. We practiced her route this past weekend and I'm sure she's going to do great but it's still nerve wracking for me.

 

What I'm working on... Thanks to summer, and especially our bout of Covid, I got very behind on my current virtual walk. At the beginning of September I was over 70 kilometres behind. I'm happy that, although I haven't caught up, I've definitely made up a bunch of kilometres. I'm always so much happier when I walk a lot and September has been a good month for that!

And laundry. I'm always working on laundry, and it feels like even more so this month. This was four loads of laundry needing to be folded, on our bed on Sunday afternoon, and another two loads were drying on the line. Why does my family go through so much clothing in a week?!?!?!?

 

What I'm excited about... Remember back in July when I wrote that I was excited about getting lilies from my parents? (You can read this post here if you want to refresh your memory.) Well, my parents shipped me the bulbs this past week and I'm super excited to plant them, and even more so, to see them bloom next summer.

 

What I'm watching/reading... Well, as to what I'm watching, it's all about baseball around here. Since the Jays are fighting for a playoff spot, when the Jays aren't playing, I'm watching baseball commentary or games which are relevant to the Jays' playoff hopes.

As for what I'm reading, well, at work on my lunch breaks I'm reading Saga Boy, at dance while waiting for Rachel I'm reading Scarborough (a gift from Sarah who blogs at Toronto SAM -- find her here), and the rest of the time, I've been reading medical non-fiction on my Kobo.

 

 

What I'm listening to... A lot of construction. sigh. You may recall that our neighbours' house had a major fire in early June. The property was sold and the people who bought it have been working on clearing away the garbage. I feel like I'm just surrounded by construction noise all the time. I miss our silent street.

 

What I'm wearing... Well, this is not a lovely picture of my toes but I'm wearing what I call my "Blue Jays Pedicure." I painted my toenails red and then added a blue/silver/gold sparkle. I'm hoping this pedicure will bring the Jays luck this week and help them make the playoffs! Hahaha!

 

What I'm doing this weekend... The annual art walk in our neighbourhood is happening this weekend and I'm hoping we can visit a few of the artists. We love getting some holiday shopping done during this walk. We have a farewell for our pastor on Saturday night and, as almost every weekend does lately, there will be some baseball! And some laundry.

 

What I'm looking forward to next month... October is going to be so fun! We're having some special visitors coming mid-month, we have a fun dance weekend at the end of the month, and it's Thanksgiving weekend in a few weeks. I'm pretty excited about October!!!

What I bought on Amazon... Nothing. I wanted some seasonal fall spatulas but, not only have both my local stores failed me, but Amazon did too. So I didn't buy anything on Amazon this month.

So that's a taste of my baseball focused September. If you're not as excited about baseball as I am, come back in October because I will be shocked (but extremely joyful!) if the Jays make it to the World Series so it should be much less baseball focused :)