What's Up Wednesday

What we're eating this week...

Sunday - Salmon, Roasted Cauliflower, Green Beans

Monday - Turkey Pot Pie

Tuesday - Tacos

Wednesday - Quiche

Thursday to Saturday - Not planned yet

What I'm reminiscing about...

It has been three years since we first went into lockdown. We wondered how our lives would change and I would say they have.  Certainly any sort of "normalcy" took forever to return.  Two things that have changed in my life - we have a hybrid work policy, I go into the office only 3 of 5 days, and I also find that people are less likely to sit next to others on the subway.  And we are still dealing with workforce shortages and greater incidence of people in crisis on our city streets (resulting in violent crime), and I think those are both linked to COVID.

What I'm loving...

The return of the birds.  I don't really notice the missing birdsong during the winter but now that it's back, I realize how quiet it has been. We wish we could put out birdfeeders for them but our squirrel friends just eat up all the food. Still, we get lots of birds in and around our yard.

What we've been up to...

We are doing a home renovation this year and our minor variance was recently approved by the City's Committee of Adjustments so it means we are ready to go ahead when the contractor can slot us in.  Dave and I are starting to put together some ideas for how we want things to look.  

What I'm dreading...

The next school shooting. With the most recent one happening in Nashville this week, we are once again met with the handwringing, thoughts and prayers, and wonderment of how this could happen.  I'm so sad and tired that this is something that is still being questioned.  Until the United States can get its head around the fact that assault rifles are the common denominator, with the glorification of these weapons by elected officials, then this will just continue, and the thoughts and prayers just aren't going to cut it. Now, I know we are not perfect in Canada, and Toronto is facing its own crisis with recent violent crimes on the transit system, but the scale at which the mass shootings continue to happen in the US prompts me to say something. 

What I'm working on...

Time to get our taxes in!  We have all of the paperwork in order, but we need to do a final review to make sure everything is done and then submit. 

What I'm excited about...

Dave and I are going to California in May, he's got a work thing and I am going to tag along.  We will spend a few days in Berkeley and a couple of days in San Francisco. 

What I'm watching/reading...

We watched the Waco and Flight MH370 documentaries on Netflix. Also watching Ted Lasso and Shrinking.

I'll do my March book review on Monday.  I'm currently reading a B.A. Paris book that I hope can make it into that review. 

What I'm listening to...

Has anyone tried out the AI DJ that Spotify has introduced? I think it does a great job of playing songs for me. 

What I'm wearing...

With the news that Nordstrom is leaving Canada (sad face) I realized how many clothes I actually have from Nordstrom - Vuori joggers, a Barefoot Dreams sweater, Zella workout clothes, Wit and Wisdom jeans, etc., but I guess I couldn't keep them afloat in Canada with these purchases! I hope to get there before they close to see if I can get some things at a discount.  Just add it to the list of places to go when I'm in the US!

What I'm doing this weekend...

With ski season over and sports yet to begin, we have a pretty "free" weekend so that means some yardwork (depending on the weather) and tidying up the house. It is Palm Sunday so we will go to church and there is also an Easter Egg painting session at church on Saturday. 

What I'm looking forward to next month...

Easter, spring weather, and the kids' sports getting underway, and work trip to Mexico. 

What else is new...

The kids have been practicing their French with Duolingo.  Their friends were using it when we were on our Quebec trip and we thought it would be helpful for both of them.

Linking up with Shay.

Weekend Recap

Just a quick weekend recap for you today.  

On Friday I wouldn't let the kids leave the car until we heard the intro to Kiss 92.5's remix on the radio where we said "It's Fridaaaaaaaaaaay!!!".

On Saturday morning we packed up for our last ski weekend of the season.

And one last chairlift selfie.

E had a race on both days for the Slalom Slam.  The weather on Saturday morning was foolish! There was snow, ice pellets, freezing rain and it was so windy!  The race was a tough one for E.  I volunteered to collect bibs at the end of the race so I didn't get a lot of actual skiing in.  Q and Dave didn't do much skiing either, it just wasn't a good day for it.

We got home mid-afternoon, in time watch a few movies and get a Peloton ride in.  The ranunculus I picked up the day before were looking pretty. 

That night we watched The Princess Bride, at my request.  Since E liked Willow (the old movie and the new series) then I thought he would like The Princess Bride too and he did! It holds up. ("anybody want a peanut?")

The next morning Dave and Q opted to stay home so it was just me and E going up for Day 2 of the race weekend. 

The weather was a lot better!

I even got a sunburn as I watched the races and did bib collecting for the second time.  E had a DNF for his first run (hit a gate and spun out) and did an okay time for his second run.  Most importantly he had fun!

Meanwhile Dave and Q were doing a bunch of things at home - cleaning, run/bike, and some crafts.

This is an ice cream truck inspired by Gabby's Dollhouse.

We had a nice dinner complete with cherry pie for dessert that Dave and E had picked up earlier.

That's it for skiing for us until next year.  Check out the recap I did of E's race season here.

Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! The week after March Break is always a bit of a mess as you're trying to catch up on the work missed during holiday, and trying to get back into a healthy routine.  Needless to say I'm glad it's Friday!

We celebrated Dave's Birthday with a nice meal of short ribs, some gifts, and an ice cream cake.

I made a hearty meal on Thursday - beef stew.  This is my mom's recipe, it's very simple and it smelled so good while it was bubbling away.

For the longest time we have had too many mugs for our cupboard meaning we need to stack two on top of each other.  Finally Dave added another shelf and it's been great! I like that I'm not constantly afraid the stacks will topple over.  (The top shelf is Christmas mugs and they are stacked for now, but they are safe there until we need them next November).

The kids had the dentist and I said I would buy them a treat if they didn't have any cavities (I realize that doesn't really make sense).  Q picked out these micro Mini Eggs.  I love Mini Eggs and this size of them just make it all the more easy to gobble them down, you've been warned!

My midday snack at work this week.  I don't always usually buy water (tap water for the win!) but I do like the occasional flavoured water treat.

Earlier this week I posted about our trip to Quebec, you can read them here Part 1 and Part 2

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Quebec Trip Recap - Part 2

Onto the second half of our ski trip to Quebec last week for March Break.

We were up early on Tuesday to drive to Vermont. Jay Peak is right across the border and only an hour from where we were staying and after hearing so much about it, we thought we would check it out.  Unfortunately the friends we were travelling with forgot their passports so they checked out Owl's Head instead.  We did see our other friends at Jay but didn't get a chance to do any runs with them.

The snow was coming down as we got ready to go, but the roads were clear.

It was so snowy at Jay Peak!

We took the tram up to the top and got someone to take our photo.  Some guys saw Q with his Pikachu and then saw him take off down the hill, they said "that kid is such a vibe", high praise from the "young people". 

There was so much snow, it was so different for us Southern Ontario skiers, and we were all challenged by the conditions.  Plus we were skiing in a blizzard so we were colder than we had been the previous days.  Q was not pleased that he kept falling and his hands were cold.  We only made it two (long) runs before we called it for lunch.

Q was much happier when we got inside and he got a hot chocolate.

After lunch we bundled ourselves up a bit better, got out our hand warmers, and got back out there.  Ultimately it was a pretty amazing day going through the big drifts of snow. 

E went off the side of the trail and ended up like this!

This was the clearest we saw of the peak all day.

Stopped back into the bar to thaw ourselves out before heading home.

Hot tub time when we got back.

Our next day we took it easy in the morning.  A later wake up time, no need to rush out of the house, with plans for night skiing instead.  

I made pancakes while the kids had some iPad time.

It was still snowing and the power went out for a bit. We kicked the kids out of the house to play.

And although our legs were still hurting from the day before, we kept our plans to do night skiing at Bromont.  My legs loosened up as we went, and it was a pretty great night.

We started skiing at 3:00 and took a break around 5:30.

And look who we saw!  These are stills from the Go Pro.

We skied until 8:00 or so and then ordered some pizza for pick up.

Our last day for skiing on Thursday.  We decided to head back to Bromont.  What we like about it, besides the fact that it is 10 minutes from our chalet, was that the kids have a lot of fun choosing the little side trails for added obstacles and jumps, while the rest of us can stick with reliably green or blue runs. 

We started out with a bright blue day with fresh snow from the day before and perfect conditions.  Then after lunch the snow started and it was quite blizzardy.  We still skied for most of the day until 4:00 but we weren't keen to stay much longer.

Heading into the glades again.

We were just a little late to do the Grizzly trail again before they closed that lift for the night.

Then some hot tub time before our dinner reservation.

Played some crib.

Cheers to a successful week!

On Friday morning we packed up and hit the road.  It was nice to get home on Friday afternoon and still have two days before having to go back to work and school.  It was our first Saturday and Sunday in months that we didn't have to go anywhere.

After two years of skiing in the Eastern Townships, I think we are ready to move on to something different.  Dave has visions of heading out west next year, so we'll see.  I find by the time March Break rolls around I'm a little skiing fatigued after being at the hill every weekend for at least 8 weeks previously.  I'd like to do a warmer vacation for March Break and hit up a ski hill earlier in the season.  Ultimately this was a very successful trip and it was great to spend so much time with the kids and our friends.  (and by spending time with the kids, I mean yelling at them to wait for meeeeeee!!! They are too fast! Haha)