What's Up Wednesday: August 2024

For the first time in years, I didn't post a "What's Up Wednesday" in July because Dave and I were in Scotland and I just didn't have time to write one before we left. So, as summer winds down, I'm happy to be getting back into my regular routines, including writing this post! Here's what's been up with us in August.

I really do love answering the What's Up Wednesday questions every month. I like how they help me reflect on the past month and I love having a monthly record of what we've been up to. I go back and re-read these posts often. 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... August brings all the yummy food! Peaches, tomatoes, cucumbers -- oh my! I've been eating lots of all of it! And Rachel is doing a three day cooking camp this week, focusing on baking, so we've been eating that too.

 

Left: peaches with cinnamon; middle: bagel from Rachel's camp; right: tart with cream and fruit and chocolate ganache from Rachel's camp

Left: tomatoes, cucumbers, grilled tofu, and beans; Right: a tomato-cucumber-feta salad

What I'm reminiscing about... You'll see the reason for this below but I've been reminiscing about a weekend we were able to spend at Jan Lake, in northern Saskatchewan, when Sam was six months old. My mom babysat Sam and my dad took Dave and I fishing. It was so much fun!!!

Dave's first time fishing! 

 

Baby Sam, six months old (2009)

Also my blog/Instagram friend, Tamar, got married last week (Mazel Tov Tamar and Judah!!!) and she's been posting photos and videos of their wedding, including the hora. So I'm remembering the hora from my and Dave's wedding in 2008 and how much fun this was!!!

Yeah, I've been reminiscing a lot this month.

 

What I'm loving... As you may, or may not, know, every year I do "back to school muffin baking." We eat the muffins for breakfast and after school snacks and take them in lunches. Muffins are just a handy thing to grab. This year Rachel has taken over the muffin baking. She made chocolate zucchini muffins on Sunday and she made chocolate chip muffins yesterday. I'm so happy to have another baker in the family!!! 

What we've been up to... Well, Dave and I started the month in Scotland on a couple's trip!!! We hiked the West Highland Way (154km/96 miles) from just north of Glasgow up to Fort William. We had so much fun!!! And yes, I will be blogging about this trip, probably starting next week.

Our CSA farmer has been local for years but is moving a few hours away. Thankfully she will still be bringing her veggies to us but earlier this month we attended a "farm farewell" dinner. It was so much fun to eat dinner in the greenhouse and help say goodbye to land on which she has grown delicious veggies for so long.  

Rachel, Dave, and I attended the Water Lantern Festival and, while I don't think we'll go again, it was really beautiful to see all the lanterns floating on the water. 

Dave and I have been working on cleaning out random areas in our house. This past weekend we worked on our closet. Dave had a lot of clothes to go through and I had a lot of shoes to sort! 

 

Our favourite local ice cream shop opened up a new location so we had to go check it out. 

And Sam flew to Saskatchewan on his own to go see Oma & Opa. He navigated the biggest airport in Canada without a cell phone (because he lost it in Vermont on our summer trip) and arrived safely! And then, my parents took him fishing up at Jan Lake and Sam caught his first fish!

 

Left: Sam made it safely to Saskatchewan; Right: Sam and his fish at Jan Lake

The rest of us are very envious of Sam's amazing adventures and wish we could be fishing too. Instead, we're at work or baking things at camp!

What I'm dreading... The first week of school is always a bit insane, both as a parent and as a secretary, so I'm dreading that a bit. Other than that, I'm not dreading anything.

What I'm working on... We have a few more areas to organize/clean in our house and I'm also working on weeding our flowers beds. I'm about half done the daylily bed and then I need to unearth the flowers in the garage bed.

What I'm excited about... Sam is coming home soon!!! I can't wait to hug him and hear all about his adventures!!!

I'm also excited every time I walk into our closet because it's so clean and organized!!! Hahaha!!!

 

What I'm watching/reading... 2024 will not be the year of stellar reading for me. You can tell because I've stopped updating my Goodreads account and I've stopped doing book recaps on the blog.

However, the week before I went back to work, Sam and I watched all three seasons of Ted Lasso in six days. Yeah, that was a productive week! Hahaha!!! It was so good and we were absolutely hooked. Plus, it was a really fun way to spend time with Sam.

He also got his braces off that week so we ate a lot of popcorn while watching Ted.

 

What I'm listening to...  Did you know Spotify has a Ted Lasso playlist? Yep, I've been listening to that :)

What I'm wearing... Rachel and I got light up flower crowns at the Water Lantern Festival. We'll be wearing them for Lumen next month too! And if you know of anywhere else I can wear a light up flower crown, let me know and I'll be there!!!

 

 

What I'm doing this weekend... Well, I have a knack of finding random things online that seem like they might be fun family activities so we're trying a couple of those out this weekend. And then we'll be preparing for the first week of school. Since it's a long weekend, I'm also hoping to sleep in a little.

What I'm looking forward to next month... One of our favourite evenings of the year happens in September -- the Lumen Festival in our uptown. Rachel and I are already excited about it and not just because of our flower crowns! Hahahaha!!!

So that's what's been up with us in August. It's been a month of new adventures and ending summer off with a bang! Happy Wednesday everyone!