What's Up Wednesday: January 2025

*I had this post written by the end of Sunday night. Then on Monday afternoon we got awful news about a family in our church. You can read that here. I decided to let this post stand as written but please know that this post is not an accurate reflection of our life right now. It was an accurate reflection as of Sunday night.

I've always heard that after the holidays, January is a bit of a letdown. Do you all know what I'm talking about? For us, in the past few years, we've gotten home from our time in Saskatchewan, we head off to our church's winter retreat, then it's into celebrating Dave's birthday, and before we know it, January is practically over and we haven't had time for the letdown. However, in the past week, I've been cold, down, and feeling the winter darkness -- even though technically the days are getting longer. I'm more than ready for spring and it's going to be awhile before we get some of that. Are any of you feeling the same way??? With all that said, here is how our January has gone.

Answering these questions monhtly helps me reflect on the past month and I really appreciate having a record of what we've been up to. 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 participated in an ice cream workshop a couple of weeks ago and ended up with sixteen pints of ice cream. So we've been eating a ton of ice cream. And we still have more to go!

This is just half of what we made!

 

Our friend Karen drove us up to Winter Retreat and she brought along these Cheez-It Crunch Sharp White Cheddar crackers. They are soooo good!!! We're buying three boxes a week and recommending them to everyone we know. I'm actually snacking on a bowl while I wait for supper to cook and am writing this post. Just make sure you buy more than one box!

Also, I've been really into citrus fruit this month so I've gone through a lot of oranges and grapefruits. I must really need some Vitamin C!

 

What I'm reminiscing about... Speaking of Vitamin Sea (hahaha!), I've been reminiscing about our first Disney cruise. Our first cruise was in January 2018 and it was just a short four night cruise to see if we liked it.

It turns out we loved it and in January 2020, we went on a cruise with my parents. So I've been reminiscing about that one too! It was our last travel before the world shut down and I'm so thankful that we were able to have that trip.

One thing that strikes me about these pictures is how little Sam and Rachel were. Oh my goodness!

What I'm loving... I've been really loving warm blankets, cozy sweaters, and my tulips. Also, January has been full so I'm loving every moment I get at home.

What we've been up to... We hit the January ground running. We got home from celebrating the holidays in Saskatchewan, went back to work and school and then headed off to our church's winter retreat. We played in the snow, hung out with our friends, and saunaed and snowed to our heart's content.

 

 

Then we were back home and celebrated Dave's birthday with a few events including participating in an ice cream workshop.

Rachel and I squeezed in some time to go see Wicked (complete with comfy recliners!).

 

This past weekend we went uptown to experience our city's winter festival. We saw ice carvers and ate maple candy made with snow.

And January in our area has felt like living in a snow globe. Every time I look out the window, it's snowing. This isn't the greatest picture but maybe you can see the snowflakes against the brick. We haven't received a ton of snow at one go but it's just continuously snowing.

And of course Sam and Rachel are busy with soccer and dance (which means we're busy getting them to soccer and dance)!

What I'm dreading... As I do every single winter, I'm dreading icy sidewalks. When I walk forty minutes a day to get to work and back, that's a lot of opportunities to slip and fall and injure myself. (Just one of many, many, many reasons I'm already counting down to spring).

What I'm working on... I've actually been working on showering at night. I used to (as in like, three weeks ago!) shower in the morning before work. But I don't own a really great hair dryer, and hate drying my hair as well, so I've been trying to shower at night so my hair can dry before I have to be out in the cold. This also gives me extra time in the mornings which I appreciate. I've also been working on applying extra lotion consistently, as per this meme :)

What I'm excited about... Last week I finished my latest Conqueror challenge. I walked in Wales (virtually). Now I'm walking through the Norwegian Fjords. I love marking my walks on a virtual challenge. This is the sixth one I've finished since I started walking them in May 2020.

 

What I'm watching/reading... As I mentioned above, I've been watching the snow fall. Other than that it's a dead time of year for me, watching wise. I don't do the winter Hallmark movies, baseball hasn't started yet, and there's just nothing I'm excited about watching.

In terms of reading, I really thought Onyx Storm by Rebecca Yarros was the last book so last week I re-read Fourth Wing and Iron Flame to get ready. Then I found out this past weekend there's another two books to come... Ugh.

What I'm listening to... I've actually been listening to Mix and Match Mama's Spring Break playlist on Spotify. It's a good mix of "we're enjoying the beach on vacation" vibes and that's pretty much what I need right now. And hey, if I could go on a beach vacation right now, that'd would be great! Hahaha!!!

What I'm wearing... First of all, I'm posting this picture of Rachel and her bestie from this past weekend. Clearly grade 8 girls are wearing black boots, grey sweats, black puffer jackets, and touques with pompoms! Hahaha!!! They didn't even try to twin.

I'm not a Grade 8 girl so I'm either wearing work clothes (with the warmest sweaters I can find) or my flannel pj pants and the green fuzzy pullover my parents gave me for Christmas. And slippers. At this time of year, I'm always wearing slippers.

What I'm doing this weekend... Ice cream for breakfast day at our favourite ice cream shop, attending a church meeting about parenting youth, going to church (and possibly synagogue), and maybe finally getting out with the kids to buy their very belated Channukah/Christmas presents. It's going to be a full weekend.

What I'm looking forward to next month... As I've been thinking about this prompt, I realize that there's not a lot I love about February. I guess I'm looking forward to a three day weekend, a long overdue visit with a friend, and seeing Rachel dance with a local children's choir. And maybe a fun garden visit. Maybe... Other than that I'll try to take notice of the longer days (whoooo hooo), and spend some time under blankets with a good book, waiting for it to warm up outside.

So there's my January "What's Up Wednesday." As you can probably tell, I'm kind of over winter already and thankfully we're one month closer to warmer weather. Yay!!! How's your January been?

Deep Grief (Again)

I can't believe I'm writing this but yesterday morning a woman and her teen daughter from our church were killed in a car accident. The girl was the same age as Sam and the mom and I had a good conversation as we walked to Lake Huron together at our Winter Retreat just two short weeks ago.

As you may recall, we are still grieving the death of our beloved pastor this past July so our family (and our congregation) are in disbelief and shock. I keep saying, "This can't be real. How is this real?"

But it is all too real.

Please pray for the family of the people killed. Please pray for our Ministry Team as they lead our congregation through another time of grieving. Please pray for our youth who are mourning a friend.

I just can't believe this is happening again.

25 Questions (16-20)

It's another edition of 25 questions. I first found this series through Sarah at Toronto SAM. You can read her answers to these questions here.

16. What is your favourite book/movie/song?

I can never choose a favourite book. I read almost 200 books a year which means I've read a lot of books. It's hard to pick a favourite. I particularly love historical fiction (especially the 1900s-1950s), books which make me think and want to know more, and a good romcom. The books I've read the most in recent years are JD Robb's "In Death" series but I don't think they're my favourite books!

Again with movies -- I don't really have a favourite. I'm not the biggest movie person. I love a good Star Wars movie (except for 1,2, and 3 (which were really the 4th, 5th, and 6th ones released in the series)) but I also love a Hallmark movie so take that for what it's worth. There are no movies I love to watch over and over again.

Favourite song -- again, I don't really have one. I love anything 80s but I also love anything with a good beat. There are many songs I sing along to or which move me and make me cry.

I think the main gist of my answers is "I'm just not that into pop culture." Sorry :)

17. If you could make one change in the world, what would it be?

At first I had written "end wars" but as I was thinking about this post over the past week, I realized that my answer would be "to have less divisiveness." I think if we could agree on more, then things like ending war, addressing climate change and its negative effects, redistributing food so that everyone had enough to eat, etc, would follow. If we could only learn to work with, and respect, people who disagree with us...

18. What do you love to do for or give to others?

Okay, so I had written down short points to these answers and my note for this one was "flowers and baking." I am writing this post as I kill some time on Saturday evening before I go to my friend's housewarming party. What am I bringing for her? A loaf of homemade bread and a bouquet of tulips! Hahaha!!! Clearly, I know myself pretty well!

19. What excites you?

What excites me is things which bring people together -- festivals in our town, fun events, baseball games. I am always on the lookout for fun things to do with my family, or with Dave, and I just get really giddy about going to them.

This past Saturday I saw that there was a winter festival (Winterloo) in our uptown so I dragged Dave, Rachel, and Rachel's friend to go check it out. It was a little underwhelming -- we probably would have enjoyed it more if we'd had younger kids -- but we got to watch some ice carving, eat some maple candy, and enjoy being outside, so it was still fun.

I didn't realize you carved ice with a chain saw!

Making maple candy in snow.

Enjoying my maple candy (which was very sticky) and Dave sitting on an ice throne!

20. What do you wish you did more of?

I wish we got together with other people more. Between work and Rachel's dance schedule, I feel like we don't invite people over enough and that makes me sad. I LOVE connecting with other people. There's not much more I enjoy than a good party or a quiet evening hanging out with friends and having interesting conversations.

So there are my answers to these questions. You can go here to read questions 1-5, here to read questions 6-10, and here to read 11-15.

Friday Favourite Moments 2025 #4

It has been a cold, cold, cold week here. At one point it was -32C (with wind chill) which translates to -26F. I'm kind of over it, to be honest :) Anyways, here are the memorable moments from this week of cold.

1) Wicked with Rachel

Rachel and I were going to see Wicked in late November and then she got sick. And then there was dance. And then I got sick. And then there was Winter Break. Anyways, I decided we had to go see it before it left theatres. So last weekend, we finally got to the theatre. Ummm, you can tell I haven't been to a movie in a loooong time because it was my first time seeing a movie in a recliner. Rachel and I loved the movie, but honestly, we loved our comfy chairs even more!

2) Ice cream workshop

As I wrote about on Wednesday, we went to an ice cream workshop on Saturday night. It was sooooo fun! Go here to read my post about it, if you missed it. And seriously, even though Rachel ate a ton of ice cream this week after she got her braces tightened, our freezers are still full of the stuff!!!

3) Coffee

I love that Dave pre-makes coffee every morning and all I have to do at 5:30am is turn on the coffeemaker. However, on Sunday night at 8:30 he realized we had no more coffee in the house. Ugh. Thankfully, my principal has a Nespresso in her office and has offered me coffee before. I humbly took my coffee mug and asked if I could get some on Monday morning. I was very grateful for coffee.

4) evening with Tim and Janice

On Monday, Dave joined in on my evening with Tim and Janice and we ate soup, bread, and ice cream and celebrated his birthday. Even though I have no pictures, I was very thankful for a fun evening with friends.

5) coffee (again!)

After running out of coffee, I was super thankful for my coffee-hot chocolate at home on Tuesday morning. It's the small things which are actually big things :)

6) rereading a favourite book

On Tuesday night, I declared myself, "DONE!", crawled into bed with a favourite book, and read the night away. It was exactly what I needed.

7) Finishing virtual walk

I finished my fifth virtual walk this week. And then the next day I started right in on the next one.

So those were my favourite moments from this week. What got you through the week?

Chemisty + Math + Spreadsheets = A Lot Of Fun!

I often find fun things to do through people I follow on Instagram. Sometimes, the things I find to do are "not so fun" and sometimes they're way more fun than any of us expected. This past Saturday fell into the later category. Our favourite ice cream shop (which I've written about a time or two (or twelve!)) advertised that they were offering a "Behind The Scoop" ice cream workshop. I thought it would be a fun date night for Dave and I around his birthday but the kids wanted to join in so we made it a family event.

Since the only way to sell ice cream to other vendors in Canada (and not just have an independent ice cream shop) is to become a dairy, there were certain protocols we had to follow like wearing hairnets and white aprons. Our shoes also had to have covers on them.

 

The evening started with ice cream tasting which was such a treat! I had about five different flavours including Blueberry French Toast, Cran-Strawberry Smoothie Bowl, Gluhwein (which I thought tasted like my mom's peppernuts), and a few others I can't remember.

 

Then we got a tour of the ice cream making equipment, the kitchen, and a history of how the owner got into making ice cream. Her end goal is to make ice cream which isn't filled with chemicals and which everyone can enjoy. So she makes some vegan ice cream, a lot of gluten-free ice cream, and uses different ingredients to try and cut as many chemicals as possible out of the process.

 

She has a background in chemical engineering so it was interesting to hear her talk about how chemistry, percentages, and a big spreadsheet are all involved in coming up with different kinds of ice cream. I thought it was very interesting that fruit ice cream is the hardest to make because fruit has a lot of water and sugar which throws off the "ice cream equation."

After the tour, and the lesson, it was time to make our own ice cream. Rachel and I got to pour the mixture into the ice cream making machine. Another interesting fact is that the owner will hire kids as young as 14 to work for her so now Rachel has a new dream job! Notice how Rachel didn't spill any of the mixture as she poured but I made a bit of a mess :)

We made a vanilla base and then could add in toppings and sauces as we chose. We each got to make four pints of ice cream. We had fun naming our ice creams too! I made one that has sprinkles and M&Ms and I called it "Rainbow Explosion." Dave made one with salted caramel sauce and waffle cone pieces and called it "Waffle Wonderland." Sam made one with sprinkles, and one each of an M&M, a cookie dough chunk, and a sponge toffee piece, and called it "Scavenger Hunt." As you can tell, we had a lot of fun coming up with different combinations and names.

All of the ice cream is mixed by hand at this shop so we mixed our small batches by hand as well. Here is my "Rainbow Explosion" in the bowl.

Ice cream makers hard at work!

So much fun!!!

This is just half of what we came home with. (We learned that when ice cream is freezing for the first time, you should store it upside down for some reason having to do with air and sealing it.) We shared some with Dave's family, have enjoyed some with Tim & Janice, and still have lots left to eat. If you want some ice cream, come on over!

We had a really fun evening, learned some interesting ice cream facts (way more chemistry and math than I ever would have guessed!), and enjoyed making our own creations. Look for Scavenger Hunt and Waffle Wonderland coming soon to a store near you! Hahaha!!!