What's Up Wednesday: January 2024

When the last Wednesday of January is on the last day of the month, it feels like January is fifty days long. It's not that anything horrible has happened in January, it's just been the longest month. Does anyone else feel this way?!?!?!

I love answering the What's Up Wednesday questions every month. I love how they help me reflect on the past month. The questions come from Shay at Mix and Match Mama and Sheaffer at Sheaffer Told Me Too.

image from here

 

What we're eating this week... We've been eating a lot of warm, comfort foods this month. Soups, sheet tray meals, casseroles baked in the oven -- it's all about filling, warm food around here. I'll write more about this below under "What I'm watching" but we've eaten a lot of soup this month and I've turned all our old, frozen hamburger and hot dog buns into garlic bread to go with various soups. The kids have gobbled them up and I'm thankful not to have old buns in our freezer anymore!

Sheet pan dinner with beets, carrots, rutabaga, and sausage

 

As I've been writing this post, however, I've been eating a bowl of raspberries and drinking a cup of decaf black tea. We've had a lot of tea this month, especially in the evenings.

 

What I'm reminiscing about... I'm reminiscing about our winter getaway last January. We walked goats, we skated in a forest, we went downhill skiing, we went in a hot tub, we kicksledded, and we laughed a lot! It was such a good weekend away and I hope we can do it again some year.

 

What I'm loving... I am loving my January tulips! Our January has been unusually grey this year and my bouquets of tulips are a bright spot of colour. As we head towards February I'll get more pink and purple ones but so far I've been loving the yellows and oranges and whites. I need all the sunny colours I can get inside since we've barely had any sun this January.

What we've been up to... January has been a weird month. As I said above, it's felt very long but we haven't done a lot. We went to our church's Winter Retreat (you can read more that about here).

We also celebrated Dave's birthday although we didn't do anything big.

Other than that, Rachel's had a lot of dance, Sam's been finishing up his first semester of high school, and Dave and I have been working. Oh, and Dave has taken the kids to a lot of orthodontist and dentist appointments!  

Rachel and I also spent some time in the ER last week. She is fine but was diagnosed with a viral bronchial infection. Basically, if she is awake, she is coughing, and this could continue for the next four to six weeks. Thankfully, she isn't contagious. This picture was taken at 1:30 in the morning and we still had three hours to wait to see a doctor. Phew. (Also, Rachel gave me permission to both post this picture and talk about her health.)

What I'm dreading... Ice. This is the time of year when walking can be treacherous because of ice. I really dread falling and getting hurt. Thankfully, it's been warm enough the past few days that the sidewalks aren't icy, but I highly doubt we're done with ice for the winter. Rachel's friend slipped on an icy sidewalk and broke her finger earlier this week so my dread feels justified.

Also, I had my first mammogram a few weeks ago, just a baseline check (nothing concerning), but I'm dreading getting the results back just in case there is something wrong.

 

What I'm working on... Planning summer. We're in the midst of winter here and I'm trying to sort out our summer. We can sign the kids up for some of their camps today and tomorrow so we've needed to figure this out already. We're trying to decide on our family vacation, maybe plan a trip for just Dave and I (maybe), and then trying to figure out how to fit in all the things the kids want to do.

What I'm excited about... I'm excited every single time the sun shines because it's so rare these days! Other than that, I'm not all that excited about anything right now. Our forecast is showing four straight days of sun, starting on Friday so I'm very hopeful that will actually happen!

 

What I'm watching/reading... The kids wanted to start watching Marvel movies so we've dived into those. I asked my coworker for recommendations (because I don't want to watch all nine million of them) and so we're following her suggestions. Thus far we've watched Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. We started calling it "Soup & SuperHeroes" and I try to make soup on nights we're watching the movies. We need something to entertain us during these long, winter nights! Hahaha!

 

As for reading, January has been the month of half-finished books. I'm currently in the middle of three books, although I want to finish all of them by the end of today. We shall see if that happens... I rarely juggle as many books as I have been these past two weeks. I am loving my current lunchtime book, The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester. It's sooooo good and I want to finish it later today. I'm really hoping that the last fifty pages are as good as the rest of the book has been.

 

I seem to have read a lot of books which were at least partially set in Paris during World War II this month -- The Paris Seamstress, Mademoiselle Chanel, and All the Ways We Said Goodbye. That was not an intentional choice on my part! 

  

What I'm listening to... Rachel's coughing has defined this month. I really hope she feels better soon. Another thing I was listening to earlier this month is that our neighbours' house which had the fire last spring finally got torn down. Now it's just a small hole on an empty lot. I'm assuming the new owners will start building sometime in the spring or summer.

What I'm wearing... I haven't been wearing anything exciting at all, although I got two pairs of work pants which I love. They're from Old Navy. I got the exact same pair -- one in brown and one in grey. Other than that, if I'm at home, I'm probably wearing pajamas!

My new pants (not me modelling them! Hahahaha!)

What I'm doing this weekend... Rachel is dancing with the Chamber Orchestra on Sunday afternoon so we're going to that performance. Also, our favourite ice cream shop is having an "ice cream for breakfast" fundraiser on Saturday so we're going to go there too!

What I'm looking forward to next month... A three day weekend with no plans (whoo hoo!!!), a special tea time with Janice, and Spring Training starts for baseball!!!!!!! By next What's Up Wednesday, I'll have hopefully listened to a few Spring Training games and I cannot wait!!!!!!

What I bought on Amazon... I don't even know who we are because we bought something on Amazon again this month. My FitBit holder was wearing out and I was worried I was going to lose my FitBit. I had to go to Amazon to find a new one.

 

So that's our not very exciting January wrapped up. Here's hoping February brings a little more excitement (of the fun kind!) and a lot more sun! I know it will definitely bring more tulips! Have you had sun or grey where you live? What brightens your days when it's a grey month? I need some tips!