(Not Quite) Friday Favourite Moments #10 2026

So much has happened since I last blogged, I didn't quite know how to write an "I'm back" post. So I decided to do a "Favourite Moments" post (sort of) and pick one favourite moment from each day of our March Break. It's kind of a "favourite moments" and kind of a "photo a day" post :)

I will be writing a renovation report for tomorrow (I hope) but enough parts of the reno are done that we could start working on some of the rooms which weren't renovated. On Saturday (March 14), I patched some holes in my new office (Rachel's old room) in preparation for painting it.

Last Sunday we flew to the Dominican Republic to an all inclusive for a few days. Our resort was not the highest end resort, but it did share a "Caribbean Street" with a neighbouring all inclusive, which we had access to. The "street" was so dreamy at night with the lights strung across the buildings. And there was an "all included" gelato shop that we visited twice a day during our stay. I don't know if the gelato, or being able to wear shorts, was my favourite moment from this day!

On Monday, Dave and I decided to go for a walk down the beach. I saw other people with drinks so grabbed myself a mojito for our stroll. Monday morning mojitos are definitely a favourite!

 

On Tuesday, we changed rooms because our original room was beside the late night evening entertainment from the neighbouring resort. While we waited for our new room to be ready, we hung out on beach chairs and read. This was one of my favourite things to do on our vacation.

 Sam actually wanted to do an excursion so we chose to take a tour of Puerto Plata one day. This was absolutely worth it and probably our favourite day of the vacation. Rachel wanted to try drinking from a coconut and we found one when we had some free time to visit Umbrella Street.

One of our favourite things to do was watch the cruise ships sail out of port from the beach at our resort. They also provided a great backdrop for pictures! This was watching the second cruise ship leave on Thursday.

When we walked past the neighbouring resort, there was a little path to an overlook. After we had checked out on Friday morning, but before our airport shuttle came, Dave, Rachel, and I walked to the overlook. I was copying a pose from the advertisement for the resort photographer!

This past Saturday, we painted my new office! It has no window so I wanted a bright, sunny, yellow. Dave, Rachel, and I got it done in one day and I love it!!! I can't wait to move some things into it, although setting up that space is not a priority yet. However, painting it was as it's open to my and Dave's new bedroom, so we wanted to paint it before we had to sleep there.

As soon as Dave and I could move into our new bedroom, Rachel came along with us. Our old bedroom is becoming her new bedroom and she wants a new colour. So yesterday, Rachel's bestie came over and they taped and primed her room. Rachel's bestie enjoyed priming so much, she's coming back today to help Rachel paint the first coat of colour. I'm all for it as it's less work for me!!!

So that's some of what I was up to in my week away -- a relaxing vacation and a lot of home improvement work.

10 On The 10th: March 2026

March 10 ended up being a glorious spring day and I was so happy all day!

Making coffee-hot chocolate with our new induction stove. Sam thinks our stove is a little “intense and scary” and he’s not wrong!

I was excited to see some green shoots poking up in our yard!

A gorgeous walk to work always makes me happy.

My coworker bought me a coffee-hot chocolate. I’m so thankful for my co-workers.

It was so nice at lunch I ate outside.

Our electric car charger was installed this day. Dave is really excited about this; I am less so!

I love that Rachel still gets excited about being a “bag monster” (as we call it!) and opening the yard waste bags!

Our nicely cleaned up front bed. The reno has made a mess of our yard and we’ll have some clean up to do.

The new microwave (complete with a fan and overhead light) is ready to go!!!

I finished the day reading the rest of my book club book

in bed.

It was a very good, springy, March 10!

Friday Favourite Moments #10 2026 (On A Monday)

It’s another Friday Favourite Moments post on a Monday. I’m trying something new and blogging on my phone at our gate at the airport. If all goes according to plan, I’m waking up this morning in the Dominican Republic!!! I’m ready for a few days of sun, warmth, relaxation, water, and most importantly, no dust!!! Hahaha!!!

Here are my favourite moments from this past week.

1) Beautiful day for yard work!

This past Tuesday was the warmest day we’ve had since November and I was here for it. I was super excited to clean up our yard and Rachel was excited to help me.

2) Microwave installation 

Our microwave was installed this past week. We had fun FaceTiming my parents as we used it for the first time. We now have a vent fan in our kitchen (for the first time ever!) and Sam made popcorn for the inaugural use!

3) Virtual tours of our reno 

I gave a few tours of our reno virtually this week. I showed my parents everything new which was exciting. Then my book club, which has met virtually for over five years now, indulged me and let me give them a tour! It’s been really fun to share our reno with friends! Then I used our new living room for the first time and had book club there.

It looks all cozy if you ignore the construction materials in the background!

4) Starbucks at work

We’ve been making it through in the office these past few weeks by getting a weekly Starbucks order! These have definitely been a highlight of my work week.

 5) Sam driving 

Sam wants to get his license so, now that our gross winter is pretty much over, we’re making him practice a lot. Here he is driving us around last week.

So those were some of my favourite moments from last week. I won’t be doing a post this Friday but I think my favourite moments from this next week will be hard to pick!

Share Our Lives: Frequent Grocery Store Buys

I really wanted to write this post and link up with the Share Our Lives bloggers. So you're getting a blog post on a Sunday morning, which I rarely do. As always, when I'm late to a link up, I haven't looked at the other links in this party yet. The Share Our Lives bloggers are Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.) And this week they were talking about Frequent Grocery Store Buys.

This is the view of our new fridge, all full of food. We haven't organized it yet but that will happen.

 

In no particular order, here are things we frequently buy at the grocery store (and I thought it would be fun to put who we buy it for in parentheses so you can see who eats what!)

 

Apples (Rachel)

Grapes (me & Sam)

Blueberries (Dave)

Strawberries (Rachel, me, & Sam)

Cucumbers (me, Rachel, & Sam)

Bagged Caesar salad (Rachel) 

 

Bread (mostly Dave)

Orange Cranberry Morning Rounds (me)

Buns (Sam & me)

Plain bagels (Rachel & me)

Tortillas (all of us) 

Lunch meat -- salami, usually (Dave & Sam) 

 

Milk (all of us)

Cheese  - cheddar (all of us), marble (mostly Rachel), smoked Gouda (me & Sam) 

Yogurt - lemon or blueberry (Dave), - vanilla (Rachel) - cherry (me & Sam)

 Eggs (Sam & Dave)

Tofu (all of us)

Cream cheese - plain (Rachel), herb & garlic (me) 

 

Frozen pizzas (all of us)

 

Crispix or Shredded Wheat cereal (Dave)

Multi-grain Cheerios (Rachel)

Hot chocolate (me & sometimes the kids) 

Nacho chips (Dave) 

 

Tomato & mushroom soup (all of us)

Pasta -- mostly penne or cavatappi (all of us)

Mayonnaise (me & Rachel)

Tuna (me & Sam)

Pickles (Sam & me) 

 

Coke (me & Dave)

Ginger Ale (Sam, Rachel, & me)

Lemonade (me & Rachel)

Grapefruit juice (Rachel & Dave)

 

Salsa (Dave & Sam) 

 

Granola bars & Goldfish (Rachel)  

Here is the shelf which has been our "pantry" during the renovation. I can't wait to move all this food back into cupboards!

 

So those are the regular items on our grocery list. It's a good thing I have this all typed out as Dave and I will just refer to this for grocery shopping from now on!!!

 

What's something which is regularly on your grocery list? Is there anything I'm missing that you're surprised by? 

Renovation Report Week 18

Our renovation is progressing well (we think!) and this week saw some colourful changes -- finally!

 

On Monday the doors were all taken off and a lot of taping happened in preparation for painting the trim.

 

On Tuesday, a lot of the trim was painted...

... and they started cutting in in the powder room. (And I started freaking out about the paint colour!!!)

They also did some patching in the old office.

On Wednesday they painted all the trim again, and started adding colour to the walls. I think they outlined all the electrical switches.

They also hung the mirrors in the powder room and bathroom and the lights in the upstairs bathroom. On Tuesday, we had a conversation about what was happening with the basement railing and realized no plans had been made for that. So they quickly bought a new one to install. Just when you think you've covered all the details, a surprise pops up.

Thursday was also the day the powder room was painted (with some more patching done, I guess) and the dishwasher electrical was installed. They also installed the plug for the fridge so it was no longer plugged in with an extension cord across our kitchen!!!

Thursday was also the day we came home and discovered all our kitchen lights work!!! 

And the upstairs bathroom lights work, as does the fan!!! 

 

On Friday they did the first coat of paint in our bedroom...

 

... and the powder room inside and outside wall. Now that there's more colour on the wall, I love it as much as I originally thought I would! Also all the lights in these rooms work now.

 

They also primed the rest of the office... 

 

...and got a coat done in the living room and the "hallway" between the living room/kitchen/basement.

 

They painted the windowsill behind the tap, where they had to cut some off to get the tap to fit.

The new handrail got painted and trim was completed in the basement.

More completed trim in Sam's room and the basement bathroom had the light installed, but it doesn't work yet.

So it was an exciting week of painting and finishing up some small details which needed to be completed.

 

Learnings from the week:

 

Preparing to paint (especially the trim) takes a REALLY LONG TIME. Every day we came home wondering, "Did they get to the colour yet?" and the answer was almost always, "No."

The paint smells a bit like bananas.

There are still pieces of the renovation we're not all clear on -- see, for example, the basement railing. There are so many moving pieces that this isn't surprising to us.

Some of the rooms, which are mostly completed, don't feel like they belong to our house anymore! For instance, the upstairs bathroom and kitchen feel really classy!

 

In some rooms we're getting down to final touches, and in other rooms, there's still a bit to do. However, we really do think this renovation will be done sooner rather than later, which is really exciting!!!