Friday Favourites

 

Happy Friday of a Long Weekend! My favourite type of Friday. 

I went golfing twice this week, you'd think my name was Dave! First on Monday night for a little putting clinic and scramble with the new ladies of the club. It was a beautiful evening to be out.

And then caught this nice light on the way back to the car.

I got this belated Mother's Day gift from Q on Monday.  He had been working on it at the YMCA but ran out of time to finish it last week so it arrived on Monday instead.  It's a little dish that I will use to hold my jewelry on my dresser.

I also got out golfing on Tuesday with E.  The Juniors play on Tuesday so I thought I would go out with him so he could get his round in.

He's gotten to be a pretty good golfer!  It did start raining on the 4th hole but we soldiered on under our umbrellas.

Look at this cool kid in his new kicks! We thought he needed another pair of sneakers so he doesn't just run his other pair into the ground.

We went to the school for E's Spring Concert on Thursday evening.  Out on display were the houses the students made.  This is E's and his partner's.

He was on stage crew, then performed Beat It on electric guitar with his class, and did a West African dance, accompanied by a master drummer from Ghana (and students on drums too).

There's E at the sound board. 

These stills from my video aren't great but you get the idea.

E in the yellow shirt.

We were all really impressed with the kids, they worked hard, and the teachers did too, to get them ready. 

We are off to the Blue Jays game tonight, which may a good distraction from the Leafs game...

Have a great long weekend.

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Work Trip Habits

I don't travel that often for work but when I do I tend to adopt the same habits.  I have been to Mexico, Peru, and Miami for this job but the place I visit the most often is Timmins Ontario (as I am in the mining industry and Timmins is a big mining town).  Here are some of those work trip habits:

Eat alone at the bar. When I travel I am usually by myself for dinner and I like to sit at the bar for my meal.  I'm usually not the only lone traveler eating there, and occasionally I will strike up a conversation with someone.  

Leave TV on. When I go out for dinner I like to leave the TV on while I'm gone so I can come back to some noise in the room.  I prefer that to coming back to a quiet dark room when I am by myself. 

Get Tim Hortons for breakfast. I used to go to the hotel breakfast buffet but really all I want is a breakfast sandwich and hash brown from Tim's so I started going there now.  And it saves me time so go through the drive thru and eat it when I get to the office (although to be honest, I eat the hashbrown immediately).

Snacks for room. One of my fears is that I will get hungry and have no food, so I always get some good snacks for my room (even if I just end up taking them home).  This time I got some trail mix, Lara bars, Stacy's pita chips and hummus, and Vitamin Water. 

Bring treats to the office.  I always show up with some cookies, candy, or Timbits and deposit them in the kitchen for people to help themselves.

Use the hotel gym. I admit I did not do a workout this last time I travelled, but usually I bring my workout clothes so I can do a Peloton tread workout, and lift a few weights.  It doesn't have to be much, but it's always good to get a little movement in.

Sleep. With no one to look after the evenings I can just go right to bed when I want.  And on this last trip since I had to leave for a mine site visit at 4:30 am, an early bedtime was the right choice!

Even if Timmins is not the most glamorous of locations, it is really nice to go on a quick trip by myself, and see my co-workers and mine sites.

Let's Look - Wellness Routine

 

Linking up today with Shay and Erika for today's Let's Look. 

Today we are talking about our wellness routine. I'll start by saying that we currently live in a world where we are bombarded by wellness information and it can be completely overwhelming if you are listening to all of it, and quite frankly a lot of it is contradictory and bullshit, and just a way to sell more of something/anything.  

I believe in just doing my best, figuring out what works for me, and try enjoying all aspects of my life. 

 For now, this is what I would consider my "wellness routine": 

Exercise - We have a Peloton bike and the app with their various platforms. I do weights workouts a few times a week, cycling through areas of the body.  I try to go for a 5K run once a week, and do a Peloton bike once or twice. We downhill ski in the winter, and in summer we do a lot of biking as our way to get around.

AG1 - I drink Athletic Greens every morning and have done so for about a year and a half now.  Dave got it for me after hearing the podcast ads for years, and I really think it does give me more energy. 

Protein - I tried counting macros for a few weeks at the start of the year and I found it difficult to hit the numbers each day.  I didn't notice a huge difference, but I do believe that protein is important and my energy is better when I'm getting enough of that.  Although I'm not tracking the macros now, I do try to eat a good amount of protein throughout the day. 

Vitamins - I have Vitamin D (because those of in Canada have a hard time getting enough) and Vitamin B12 (because my doctor told me to take it) on my desk at work and I take a dose of those when I'm there.  I should get some for my desk at home...

Collagen - This is one of those things that may or may not have any effectiveness, but I do add a scoop of collagen to my coffee in the mornings. I can't say there is any change, but perhaps it is just all internal and hard to measure.

Sleep - I love sleeping and lately we have been doing good job of getting to bed at a decent hour (which means our TV viewing has suffered).  

Sunscreen - I hate applying sunscreen but I always wear it if I will be outside. 

Vaccines - We get our flu shots and Covid boosters every fall.  Have been a proponent of seasonal vaccines for years and will continue to be.  (The routine childhood vaccines are also a given in this household.)

Weekend Recap

Another busy spring weekend for us here in Toronto.  The Leafs played Game 3 on Friday evening so we decided to go out to a local pub for dinner and to watch a bit of the game.  The pub has the Golden Tee game so the boys played that.  

Carlton the Bear came too

I got up early on Saturday morning to go for a run, while Dave got up to golf.  It was a bit of a chilly morning but sunny.  Q and I biked to the ball field by the river for his rep team tryout/practice.   There was a good group of kids there and I got to chat with some of the parents.

As soon as that was over we biked home, did a quick uniform change and biked to High Park for Qs ball hockey game.  It was photo day afterwards.

And Q got a freezie.

We did some relaxing when we got home (Dave had met us at the park).  I dug out my summer clothes and then culled some of the older things that were worn or did not fit. It's hard to get rid of clothes sometimes but I did a good job.

Meanwhile E was golfing with his friends I picked him up when they were done. 

Mother's Day was the next day.  I took the boys to church and Dave had an early tee time, then Q had a t-ball game at 1:00, so it was late afternoon when we finally got around to celebrating Mother's Day.  But they did a good job and got me some nice things. 

We walked to Queen Margherita Pizza for dinner (and to watch another Leafs hockey game)

Checking out the bunny on the walk home.

The Leafs lost both their games this weekend so that was disappointing, Wednesday's game 5 will be a must win. 

Even though we are busy, it really is a great time of year!

Sharing our Lives - How we celebrate our birthday

Happy Monday! Thank you for joining us today where we Share our Lives with you.  My co-hosts are: Adrienne, Dara, Jen, and Joanne.  We are here on the second Monday of each month.  If you have a blog and posted on this topic, please link up with us below.

For May we are talking about how we spend our birthday, which is convenient because my birthday is next month.

I've always thought June is the best time for a birthday since it is nicely spaced out from Christmas, the weather is getting nicer so people usually want to go out, and summer holidays hadn't started yet so when I was little it meant my friends were still available for a party. 

I've had a few birthdays that stick out in my mind:

13th - I invited a couple of friends and we went to Pizza Delight in Barrington (about a 30 minute drive away) and got a frisbee with the meal.

21st - a bunch of us went out to the bar, and finished up our night at a 24 hour restaurant, we started singing "Sweet Caroline" and got the whole restaurant to join in.

30th - We hosted a house party and I was pregnant with E.  

40th - It was COVID but my dear friend Megan came over to my house early that morning and put up some balloons and banner outside to surprise me. And gave me a bottle of Veuve Cliquot. 

Now they go more like this:

Cake - I like a white cake with white icing, usually from Bake Sale.

Gifts - Some combination of wine, clothes (yes, Dave is good at buying me things), book, gift cards, and things from Sephora.

Special Food - Smoked Salmon with bagels for breakfast, out to a nice restaurant for dinner, and I always get my free birthday drink from Starbucks.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Weekend Recap

We had a weekend of Opening Days, and lots of fun was had, despite the weather never really warming up.

I had to run around a bit on Friday afternoon to send a FedEx package for work and the return some shoes.  On my way home, I stopped at Freebird Market. When we were at friends' house a couple of weeks ago, they had this Green Goddess dip and I could not get enough, and I knew I needed to get it for myself when I had the chance.  This store is the cutest and has so many nice things, not least of which is the dip.

Dave and E had a golf lesson that evening so it was just me and Q for some sausages for dinner.  

On Saturday morning we loaded up for High Park. It was the opening day for baseball/t-ball.  It was raining slightly as we got set up but then the rain held off for the rest of the day.

Here come the Yankees!

Q was asked to recite the Players Pledge with a few other kids.

He did a great job!

Then they had a BBQ - fancy fixings with donations from Cheese Boutique and Cobs Bread.

And some popcorn and cotton candy.

Team photos for everyone.

Because it was cloudy and chilly, instead of sticking around to watch the ball games, we went home, dropping Dave off at Men's Opening Golf Day.  Then Q and I took the subway back to High Park for his 2:00 ball hockey game.

His friend was minding the nets for the opponents. Post-game chat.

And if that wasn't enough for the day, we got home, changed our clothes and walked up to the local social club we just joined for their Opening Day wine and cheese.  There were so many people that we knew and it was a wonderful event.  Q ran around with the other kids and I enjoyed the wine :)  Meanwhile E went to a friend's house for some Virtual Realty games and pizza.

Q had his first t-ball game on Sunday morning at 9:00 (so I skipped church).  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom so I could not resist a few photos as we walked into the park.

Q is warming up.

I was on score keeping duty.

The team won by 1 run, so it was very exciting and Q even got a Grand Slam!  We stuck around for a little bit to watch another game and I walked down to see the rest of the cherry blossoms.  As beautiful as they are, I am also intrigued watching all of the people.

We headed home after that.  Dave and Q went outside to help the neighbour take down the fence (the posts were rotting and need to be replaced).  I went to the grocery store and did some tidying and packing for my work trip. 

Then I took E to the golf club for Juniors Opening Day.  Because I am a "Learn to Golf" member now, I took the opportunity to putt around with him and then hit few balls at the range after he teed off.

We watched the F1 race when I got home and enjoyed some hamburgers on the BBQ.  We watched about half of Amazing Race when E got home, but then we saw the score of the Winnipeg Jets game and changed over to that.  Crazy win!

Q was doing some dancing/posing when I came downstairs so I snapped his photo.

Phew, we really packed it in! But these are the days, my friends.