Summer: Part One

My summer, this year, is divided into three distinct parts. We are solidly in the middle part, our vacation to Saskatchewan, but I wanted to write about the first part of the summer, and what it looked like. This is a bit like a "life lately" post, except this all happened the first few weeks of July, so it's not all that "lately."

We hosted four of Rachel's friends for a belated birthday sleepover, followed by a pancake brunch. 

 

Sam and Rachel headed off to a youth sleepover. Poor (or "lucky"?) Rachel had two sleepovers in a row. Phew.

I made strawberry freezer jam with Janice and Rachel and I helped our pastor get ready for Vacation Bible School (VBS).

We headed off to a Blue Jays' game with the kids to (sort of) celebrate our anniversary. So romantic!

We had our summer kickoff "strawberries and ice cream for breakfast" and watched the Blue Jays dominate on Canada Day!

 

We cheered Canada on in World Cup soccer and were so excited about how well they did. 

We checked out a Buttertart Festival with Tim and Janice. 

We sent Sam off to camp for two weeks. 

Rachel volunteered at VBS and started summer school (online) and I walked her back and forth almost every day. I visited with a few friends, and I spent a lot of time reading on the deck.

I also took care of my daylilies (a daily task when they're in bloom) and worked on growing grass (a lot of watering!). 

 

I unpacked more boxes and set up our games shelf. And encouraged Sam to unpack all his Lego cars before he left for camp.

Rachel and I made an Earl Grey Tea Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese icing for a "cake break" at a cafe in our downtown which was super fun!

 

I got into a new podcast, Acquired, and Dave, Rachel, and I had to make a stop at Starbucks while listening to the episode about Starbucks.

We had lunch on the beach and enjoyed a beach day on Lake Erie.

Dave worked at his company's local office for two weeks while I unpacked boxes in his home office. I made a lot of progress which was so exciting!!!

Lucky Rachel got to start her Saskatchewan vacation a few days before the rest of us! She flew on her own for the first time and did an excellent job!!! And then sent many texts of all the fun she was having there without us :)

Dave and I listened to the Acquired podcast on IKEA as we drove to IKEA to buy some more shelves, and a few other things, for our new spaces. Then we went out for supper and saw the musical "&Juliet" as a more romantic anniversary celebration. I've been singing late 90s/early 2000s music ever since!

We picked up Sam, with a new haircut (!!!), from camp, and got ready for Part Two of our summer: Saskatchewan vacation!!!

 

The first part of our summer was filled with fun, relaxing on the deck, getting things done, catching up with friends, reading some books, and it was just what I needed after finishing a very busy school year.

Share Our Lives: Favourite Room In Our House

It's been awhile since I've linked up with the Share Our Lives bloggers. However, this month's topic is "favourite room in our house" and I thought I would use this as an opportunity to share some post-renovation pictures. The Share Our Lives bloggers are Dara, Joanne, Adrienne, and Jen. (Click on each name to go their blogs.)

I'm cheating a bit here because honestly, right now, my "favourite room" is our deck! Can a "deck" be a "room"?!?!? It's where I spend the bulk of my time when I'm at home these days, moving my chairs around to stay in the shade. In fact, I'm writing this post on the deck, after we ate supper on the deck!

 

  

Just a few photos of "deck life." 

My second favourite room, and it's an actual room this time, is our kitchen. I fell in love with the variety of tile in Portugal when we visited there last summer, and it inspired this room for sure!

The window in the middle of this picture is where the stove used to sit. I love having it fully uncovered!

We went with two different coloured cabinets, which I love, and then our back splash is a little wild, just like the tiles in Portugal. The countertops are white with some light flecks in them.

This is my favourite corner in our kitchen with my mug cupboard, the glass doors so you can see my Fiestaware, and our new coffeemaker.

A closer up view of our glass cupboards and the back splash.

A closeup view of the two windows. My dad made all the stained glass and I love it.

 

I also wanted to give a shout out to our powder room. It is a little narrow space, but I absolutely love it.

My mom and dad put the cabinet together when they were here in June and hung the artwork above the toilet. The mirror is one we bought for Rachel at Target and she didn't want it in her new room. I thought it added a touch of whimsy to this bathroom.

Again, the flooring was inspired by the tiles in Portugal and the bathroom colour was picked to match the blue in the tiles. This room is a little wild but I really love it! 

So those are some of my favourite spaces in our house, thus far. I haven't figured out my favourite winter space yet, but I'm sure I'll discover that in the coming months! I'm guessing it won't be the deck! Hahaha!What's your favourite room in your house?

Hello Monday! 10 On The 10th: July 2026

Since Friday was July 10th, I tried to take 10 pictures but it was a very boring day. Instead I am sharing ten pictures from our weekend and linking up with Holly and Sarah for Hello Monday! Holly blogs at Pink Lady and you can find her here, and Sarah blogs at Sunshine And Books, and you can find her here.

Rachel was volunteering at VBS last week and the church it was held at was about a half hour walk from our house. So almost every day I walked her there and back and came home in between. I got a lot of walking in last week and spent a lot of time on my favourite path!

I've spent so much time on the deck this summer. I love it when the laundry is hung and I can relax with a cup of coffee-hot chocolate and some water and just enjoy! The main reason I stopped taking pictures on Friday is that I sat out all Friday afternoon and read an entire book. And then Rachel and I watched Legally Blonde (which I'd never seen) and Legally Blonde Part 2.

I needed a plan to tackle the last of the boxes from the renovation so Dave worked at the office this past week and I took over his home office and unpacked (and sorted) boxes. On Friday, I unpacked the boxes with our games. I've made good progress on the boxes but there is still more to do. I will be so glad when this part of the renovation is over!!!

On Saturday, I ran some errands with Rachel and baked an Earl Grey Tea Cake with Blueberry Cream Cheese frosting for an event. Rachel and I went to a "cake picnic" at one of the cafes in our downtown. There were about twenty different kinds of cakes and it was so much fun!!! Rachel and I definitely got our fair share of cake! And while we didn't win anything, we did receive a few votes for "most creative flavour" and "best overall cake" so I was pretty happy.

Yesterday we drove to a beach not too far from us on Lake Erie. Recently, I've started listening to a few episodes of the Acquired podcast. I started with the Coke one last week and it got me through a lot of laundry folding and box unpacking. So I suggested we start listening to the Starbucks episode. When we saw a sign for Starbucks, we had to stop! Rachel is holding a bag of their coffee because, did you know that for the first 10 or so years, Starbucks didn't actually sell brewed coffee. They just sold small packages of beans. We're not done the episode yet but it's given all of us so much to talk about. It's seriously fascinating!!!

We went to a beach which imports palm trees from Florida each year! It's kind of their thing and something this beach is famous for!

We had lunch on the patio and enjoyed the view before plunking ourselves down on the beach, and in the water, for a few hours. 

I'm finishing the weekend off with eating a piece of leftover cake and blogging under the solar lights on the deck. I just love summer weekends! I hope you all had good weekends too.