10 On The 10th: December 2022

I haven't been very timely with my "10 on the 10th" posts lately but I still like to share them. Here are ten pictures from December 10, 2022. I should also clarify that we knew we weren't going to be home for Christmas, and I'd watched the Hallmark movie, "Christmas With The Darlingtons" where they decorate a tree for the birds. So Rachel and I had planned to decorate a tree for the birds this day as we weren't doing a traditional Christmas tree in our house. Read on to see how that went for us!

Many days in December start with potpourri on the stove. Since December was so busy, I think I'll continue to make this into January as well. It just makes our house smell so good!

 

Weekend cups of coffee-hot chocolate, where I don't have to rush off anywhere, are the best!

I was super excited to have my cheese Advent calendar and then Sam and Dave kept wanting tastes. So Dave eventually got his own. Yes, we each need our own cheese calendar during this season!

I mixed up a batch of Applesauce Jumbles this day and my new, festive scraper, still makes me really happy!

And now on with the bird tree decorating... I got all my ideas from Pinterest. Some of them... didn't work so well, shall we say!

Rachel and I had made these bird seed ornaments, and frozen them, the weekend before, so we put string through them. Sadly, they didn't hold together very well.

 

Rachel and I baked oranges to make cranberry-orange decorations. Rachel and her friend made strings of cranberries and popcorn.

I had to place the birdseed ornaments in strategic spots on the branches since hanging them was a complete failure and they just broke apart.

Our somewhat decorated tree in the back yard.

 

The next day we woke up and the tree was bare. The squirrels had completely ransacked it in the middle of the night! I laughed so hard because it was such a complete gong show! In the movie I'd watched, the tree had looked beautiful for a few days but this was the weekend I learned, "Life is not a Hallmark movie!" I even hung a few more decorations out the next day, and then watched from the window, as the squirrels stole those within a few hours. Lesson learned :)

Thankfully, Rachel and I enjoyed the process but I don't think this is something I would do again.

And that was our December 10th. January 10th is coming up soon and it will involve fewer holiday decorating ides from Pinterest and more regular life, I hope.

Currently: September 2022

It feels like not that long that I've been linking up with Anne at in residence for her "Currently" posts. Anne has decided to retire the "Currently" series but I love the format so much that I decided to post my responses to some of her old prompts. These prompts are from her post in September 2015 which you can read here.

[reading]

Sadly, this summer did not activate my reading in the ways that I hoped. So I'm still re-reading the "In Death" series. When I'm not reading that, I'm reading a lot on mlb.com. It's almost playoff time (another month) and baseball news is consuming my life these days.

This was a fun story to read. See what I'm talking about here.

[making]

I've made a lot of muffins lately. Other than that, I haven't been making much.

[pinning]

Hmmmm... I guess I've pinned a couple of new muffin recipes. Back to school is muffin baking time around here and that's been my focus in a number of categories :) See my muffins Pinterest board here.

[anticipating]

I'm anticipating that my work life will get a lot easier as I gain more familiarity with our new student information system. Right now, I'm still doing everything for the first time and nothing is easy. But it will get better, right?!?!?

[loving]

I'm loving that both kids are happy with their classes this year. Yesterday was the first day of school and there were quite a few unknowns. But both kids have friends in their classes, like their teachers, and really, what more could I ask for?

So that's what's up with us these first days of September. I hope your month is off to a good start!

Currently: July 2022

It's my first day of summer break and I am soooooo ready for it! I get six and a half weeks off work and I have big plans for every single day! Where "big plans" equals -- hanging out with friends, reading, and getting some deep housecleaning done! Hahaha! Some of these six and a half weeks do actually have "big plans" but I'm mostly looking forward to not having to wake up with my alarm clock and leave the house at 7:30 every single weekday.

As always (except for June, because well... June), on the first Wednesday of the month, I'm linking up with Anne at in residence for "Currently."

[enjoying]

The day lilies have been spectacular this year! Day lily season always brings me great joy but this year I'm "enjoying" them more than ever. I even got to try this pin (see it here) which I pinned about five years ago. Instead of making the fancy filling though, I just used chive and shallot Boursin cheese. It was decadent, but oh, so good!

 

[having]

I'm still loving "having" my morning coffee-hot chocolate outside. On days when I don't get to sit outside, drinking my morning drink for even five minutes, I can tell I'm grumpier. Clearly I'm cruising past middle age and heading towards being a senior with my insistence on morning outside time. Hahaha!!! Yesterday, I even sat outside in the rain for a few minutes because I just wanted to be out. (To be fair, I was under a tree and it was drizzling so I didn't get too wet.)

[hoping]

I'm "hoping" the lime muffin recipe I found on Pinterest (you can see it here) tastes good. If the raw batter is any indication they will be very tangy. These muffins are currently cooling, so I'll have to weigh in on them later.

Edited to add: They are good. They have a tangy lime aftertaste which I really like.

[picking]

Inspired by my Instagram friend, Jenna, I've been "picking" flowers from our yard to make bouquets. I rarely pick the flowers in our yard and it's been fun to create with them.

[using]

We get a ton of kale in our CSA and I've made pounds of kale chips and love making a kale-chickpea soup. However, this past weekend I made a massaged kale salad and it was delicious! Rachel even liked it. So yesterday I made another one. We will be "using" our kale for this salad all summer. And bonus: the kids massage the kale so I don't even have to get my hands dirty!!!

I used this recipe for inspiration, and the dressing, but since I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand, I used grated carrots, green onions, peppers, and feta for the actual salad. It's tangy, but oh so yummy!

So that's what's up with us "Currently" -- lots of yummy food, apparently! Next month, I won't participate in "Currently" because we'll be on vacation (!!!) so I'll see you all again in September. By then, I'll be back at work (boo) and gearing up for a new school year, but until then, I'm going to enjoy my first day of summer break!

#AMonthofFaves: These Are A Few Of Our Favourite Things

Today's theme for #AMonthofFaves is our "favourite things" from 2021. The suggestions were "to wear, smell, see, do, enjoy, best purchases, most used gift received, most used purchases, something crafty you made." I'm linking up with Kim and Tanya at Girl XOXO again. So settle back as I recap some of our favourites from this past year.

Let's start with things we wore.

Sadly, it appears that masks are here to stay for awhile so, while masks themselves aren't a favourite, the ones we get sure are! I bought a bunch of new ones for the new school year and my friend, Melinda, makes all our masks and they are so great! She has the best patterns!!!

 

I bought two items of clothing off Amazon this year -- and I almost never buy anything off Amazon!

I love my striped sweater and I loved my pineapple shirt this summer. And those denim shorts I'm wearing were another favourite purchase. However, they came from Old Navy. I was inspired to wear denim shorts by my daughter, Rachel, who basically lives in them in the summer and I wore mine so often, I think I'll invest in another pair for next summer.

 

 

And I don't know if this counts as "wearing" but the kids spent months snuggled up in these blankets! We gave Sam the fuzzy tortilla blanket for his birthday and they got the two fuzzy ones in February.

Another favourite thing was the man in our church who brought us pies all year. He started gifting them to families during online learning and I think we've gotten almost a pie a month from him since then.

Best of all, when Rachel learned to bake a chocolate cake by herself, this man and his pies inspired her to give away chocolate cakes to people. I think she's made, and given away, about twenty of them already.

 

Speaking of food, I was thrilled to get local eggs almost all year. And just when all our previous egg providers stopped selling them (for various reasons), I found out that a new coworker sells eggs so we'll have them all winter too!

Speaking of favourite things to eat, we started buying the slightly more expensive cheese at Costco this past summer, and now I don't think we'll ever go back. I LOVE the 2 Year Balderson Cheddar and Sam and I both loved the Double Smoked Balderson. Yum!!!

Our family also got into flavoured fizzy waters this summer. In fact, we drank so much of them, the kids encouraged us to invest in a Soda Stream. That was a favourite purchase for sure!

 

Other favourite purchases we made this past year include our super awesome beach towels (from Costco) and my lunch bag. This lunch bag replaced the 12 year old Kindermusik cooler bag I used for lunches all last year!

And for those of you who were reading the blog last January through March, you will not be at all surprised to hear that my favourite things to buy in those months were TULIPS!!! In just three and a half short weeks, tulips will be back in stores! Whooooo hooooo!!!

 

The puzzle love, all of which we acquired from the same local shop, continued. And we got some good ones this year!

The last category is crafty things you made/things to do. I discovered The Conqueror Virtual Missions last year but finished two of them this year. I finished my first one (Camino de Santiago (772 km (480 miles))) in March and then a second one (Kruger Game Park (412 km (256 miles))) in July. Now I'm working on the North Coast of Scotland (806 km (500 miles)). I'm kind of addicted to these things :)

Another favourite (and this one proves I'm a boring adult), is our weekly housecleaning night. When I got permanent hours at work, I told Dave I wanted to hire a house cleaner. Then we ran into friends who commented that having a house cleaner wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Thus, we decided to spend money on easy suppers and implement a "house cleaning night."

So every Wednesday, we have an easy supper (store bought lasagna we throw in the oven, grocery store sushi, fast food take out, etc) and we all clean our house for a few hours. I'm so excited that our house is cleaner, we're all pitching in, and we're not spending as much as we would on having a regular cleaner.

In May I discovered the world of focaccia art. If you search on Pinterest you will see a ton of beautiful bread art. Both of mine were inspired by other people. I really need to make more of this because it was so fun to create and delicious to eat.

And this last thing was inspired by a commercial we saw last year while watching Hallmark movies. Dave, Rachel, and I spent an entire afternoon making a village of snow people. I LOVED how long they lasted (about six weeks before I finally threw them out) and how much fun they were. I think I'll bring them back this January because they were definitely a favourite :)

So there you have it -- a random, eclectic mix of favourites -- some things to buy, some things to eat, some things to make, and all of them things to enjoy!

I Spy: Week 32

It's Week 32 of I Spy with Lysha at A Camera and A Cookbook. We came home from our vacation visiting my parents in Saskatchewan mid-week so some of these pictures are from Saskatchewan and some of them are from home. Also, I'm really late with my post from last week so my goal is to have this week's post up on time (Saturday) instead of midway through next week. We'll see how that goes...!

{watch}

I always love to "watch" the hummingbirds at my parents' house. I took this picture on my iPhone, through a window, so it isn't very clear, but I was able to get really close to the hummingbird.

{selfie (summer) – quarterly pic}

This is my "summer selfie." We had just gotten home from swimming and had eaten supper outside. I love when our Rose Of Sharon blooms so I decided to take my selfie in front of it. 

{intersection}

I had a different idea for "intersection" but Dave pointed out the cool intersecting circles on Sam's pool towel and then I couldn't unsee that for this prompt!

{hidden}

Can you see Sam's bedroom window "hidden" behind our ivy?!?! We really need to get up there and trim it :)

{your choice}

I saw this pin and have been wanting to try it all summer. This was my and Rachel's attempt at Watermelon Rice Krispies. Yum!