Friday Favourites

Happy Friday!

Yesterday was Election Day in Ontario for our provincial government.  I voted, as I always do, but I really wasn't invested in the various campaigns. Meanwhile Trump continues with his tariff talk and 51st state rhetoric.  In case you missed it, check out the impassioned speech by the head coach of Canada's National Soccer Team (who happens to be American) - linked here . It was nice to hear it. 

Speaking of Doug Ford.  Last weekend I took some time to message a few of my friends to check in and see who would be available for lunch in the coming weeks.  Then I saw a notification come in and I thought "oh, who hasn't gotten back to me so quickly?" and it was this robo-text from Dougie.  *eyeroll*

I took Q to soccer on Monday night. He had some time in nets.

Roll of the Rim, on the cup, is back at Tim Hortons.  For you non-Canadians, let me explain.  Each year our popular coffee chain, Tim Hortons, has prizes for free coffee and doughnuts, and bigger gifts, including a car, usually.  You would "roll up the rim" to see if you won. Then a couple of years ago they switched it to their app using a code.  Not a popular decision, but this year they brought back the actual roll.  I'll definitely be more incentivized to buy a coffee from Tims during this time, so it's working on me. 

If I haven't already recommended these, I'll do it again now.  These are the frozen croissants from Costco.  They bake up so well and make your house smell like a patisserie.   We usually just get them for Christmastime, but these last 8 were still in the freezer so we made them last week.

It was Pink Shirt day at school on Wednesday and Q went for the whole outfit.  I said he could wear shorts if he wore his long underwear underneath and it worked out well.

E had a high school orientation this week.  It was a good night out to learn more about the school.

We are off to the last weekend of ski race training, with the club championships and banquet.  But rest assured, we still have a few more weekends of skiing left!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

 

Monthly Musings

 

Linking up with Holly and Patty for Monthly Musings.

1. What is your love language?

I have never done the test but I believe it is acts of service.

2. Favourite love songs?

Perfect - Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli

Beautiful Crazy - Luke Combs

November Rain - Guns N Roses

Always - Bon Jovi

3. Flowers, chocolates, or something else?

If I had to choose something special, it would be a fun cookie or cupcake.

4. Favourite romantic/romcom movie?

About Time, The Princess Bride, Notting Hill, You've Got Mail

5. Favourite childhood Valentine's memory?

I loved decorating our brown paper bags to collect our valentines at school.  We would use doilies and construction paper and then hang them at the front of the room or from our desks. 

6. How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?

We were out of town for a ski race so we all went out to eat at a nice pizza place.

7. Any love or romance traditions?

Not really.

8. When do you feel most loved?

When someone brings me a coffee (see acts of service in #1)

9. Big night out or chill at home?

I do like to go out for dinner anytime, but it doesn't need to be on Valentine's Day proper.  We are more likely to do a nice dinner out for our anniversary. 

10. Do you wear red/pink on Valentine's Day?

Yes! I have this fun xoxo shirt that I wore.

What's Up Wednesday

 

What we're eating this week...

Sunday - Matty Matheson's Tomato Soup 

Monday - leftover burgers and sausages, sweet potato fries, coleslaw

Tuesday - Matty Matheson's Tortellini Sausage Rapini Soup

Wednesday - Jerk Chicken, Jamaica Patties

Thursday - McDonalds for the boys, I'll find something!

Friday - Steak

Saturday - Out

What I'm reminiscing about...

In lieu of a trip to warmer climes, we are going skiing again for March Break, but I am still reminiscing about going to Jamaica when Q was just a baby, and really E was just a little guy then too!

What I'm loving...

Dave is now going into the office downtown and there are many days when we get to ride the subway together.  Now, I am still reading my book and he's listening to his podcast, but we're still together!

(Subway to Leafs game in December, not work!)

What I'm dreading...

It always seems that it's time to negotiate a contract at work when I'm planning to take a few days off, so I'm hoping that I can get most of the work done on it before March Break so to limit the time I may need to work on my holiday.  As mentioned above, a ski holiday isn't as conducive to working, like a beach/pool vacay is! (not that I want to do that either!)

What we've been up to...

Watching the snow melt this week.  Dave cleared out the ice from the downspouts and then Q and I put it in the snowbank as "art". 

What I'm working on...

Now that our flights are booked for our Paris trip, we need to find accommodations. We are looking at an apartment rental rather than hotel room, but I really need to turn my attention to it and get it booked soon.

What I'm excited about...

E got into the high school he wanted, which is great news, and he found out there are a few of his good friends going as well.  Yes, you read that right, high school, because here in Toronto the school board makes it way more complicated than it needs to be and there are applications, lotteries, etc. for getting into different high schools.  His core group of friends will be split up next year, which is something I am not excited about.

What I'm watching/reading...

Dave and I are watching Paradise. We also finished up the Gabby Petito doc on Netflix. 

I'm reading a good old Emily Giffen book, The Summer Pact.  I love her books!

What I'm listening to...

We like to blare some music as we drive into the ski parking lot on the weekend mornings.  I know the guys directing traffic in the parking lot appreciate it - our recent picks are Thunderstruck by AC/DC, Enter Sandman by Metallica, and Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi and Steve Aoki.  I joked that after that hockey game last week we should just queue up O Canada!

What I'm wearing...

This is the time of year when the streets of Toronto are wet and slushy, and you need a good pair of waterproof boots.  I dug out my short Sorel rainboots over the weekend.  Those and my Hunter boots should do the trick.

What I'm doing this weekend...

It is Ski Club Championship weekend.  Everyone will race on Saturday and then we have our banquet, and then one more day of training on Sunday.  We have a night booked at a hotel for Saturday night.

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

The last weekend of ski race training, PDAC (Toronto's mining conference), Mont Tremblant and Huntsville for March Break skiing, Dave's Birthday, and the first day of Spring.

What else is new...

I heard and saw a cardinal on my way to work on Tuesday - spring is around the corner!

Linking up with Shay.

Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! We had a short week, but Friday is still as welcome sight. We have been recovering from a cold so we took the week to sleep in instead of getting up early to work out.  I never regret working out, but it was nice to wake up later. 

The kids made their snow forts on Sunday night and did a little bit more work on them this week.  Even though it is still cold, it's interesting to see how they shrink each day.

Dave and I met for lunch on Tuesday downtown, nothing fancy, just a shawarma, but we walked over to the Fairmont to sit in the lobby for a few minutes and they still had their Valentine's decorations up.  So pretty!

If you are a fan of Indian food, which we are, and they offer spicy pickle on the menu, order it.  It's so flavourful and yes, spicy, but adds another layer to the food.  I like to eat the leftover spicy pickle with eggs.

Q made this artwork at school so I grabbed a photo when I picked him up.  It is based on Mary Blair's, a Disney artist who helped create the It's a Small World ride.  We have her book, Pocket Full of Colors, so we have known about her for awhile, and when Q said he was learning about her, he took the book to show his teacher.

I made shepherd's pie for dinner this week, using this recipe as a starting point. It was a good hearty meal and the kids ate it right up.

We watched the SNL 50th Anniversary special from last weekend. I thought they did a great job of including so many fan favourites in the skits. I'm always a fan of Black Jeopardy, and of course Domingo!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika

 

Protein

Protein, the magic word on the internet nowadays. How much do you need? Are you getting enough?!  Last month I set out to track what I was eating, by macros, which is another buzz word. The recommendations I found said your day should consist of 40% carbohydrates, 40% protein, and 20% fat and extrapolate it out for the number of calories that are required for you personally.  I was never able to follow it exactly, but I learned a lot by paying attention to the food I am eating. I am not going to keep doing this all the time since it can turn into something a bit obsessive, but it was definitely a worthwhile exercise. 

Something that I did find is that if I'm reaching for a snack, it should be protein forward, since that is what I always seemed to fall behind on. Here are some of the higher protein snacks/lunches that I made and will continue to make:

23g of protein

Mix together: 3/4 cup plain Greek yoghurt, 1 tbsp all natural peanut butter, 1 tsp honey, 1/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, and cinnamon, to taste

24g of protein

Spread 2 tbsp cream cheese on 2 Ryvita crackers, top with 4 oz of smoked salmon, and squeeze of lemon.

23g of protein

Spread 2 tbsp cream cheese on 2 Ryvita crackers, top each with 1.5 slices of turkey meat, eat with 2 boiled eggs, salt and pepper to taste.

Weekend Recap

We enjoyed a long weekend in Ontario this week, celebrating Family Day yesterday.  It was a snowy one! We kicked off the long weekend by leaving the house first thing on Friday morning to drive to Mansfield, a ski club north of the city, for Q's race.  The kids and Dave had the day off, but I still had to take some phone calls and do a bit of work from the lodge.  I therefore decided not to ski, but the boys did, and enjoyed some fresh snow.

Team Glacier getting ready for the day.

This trail, the "Ferris Wheel" is in memory of my mom's cousin Bruce who used to work and ski at Mansfield. The boys found it.

Inside staying warm until it was time to go out and watch the race.

Mansfield has a t-bar, which Q found tricky at first, but then got the hang of it.  Dave got this nice photo of E and Q on the t-bar.

Waiting at the bottom of the race course.

It was a long day with over 200 racers, and two different courses.

And look who I saw there, my cousin Carly! They live about 15 minutes away and we were happy we could meet up.

After the race and a few extra runs for the boys, we drove up to Midland to check into our hotel for the weekend. We had dinner reservations at Dillons Wood Fired Pizza.  

So much snow in downtown Midland.

We drove over to our ski hill on Saturday morning.  Again, we could not get over the snow. It's really hard to take a good photo to get the perspective of the depth of snow, but you can see it's up to the top of the road signs.

We got to ride up with Q.

We had a great day of skiing, with snow most of the day.  Then a bunch of people from the ski club met up at Quayle's Brewery for aprés ski.

We didn't stay too long at the brewery and went back to our hotel.  After some time at the pool, we walked across the street to Kelseys and watched the first period of the Canada v. USA hockey game. Check out the snowbanks in the parking lot!

It snowed all night to our drive to the ski hill was on snow covered roads, but it wasn't too bad.

We enjoyed the fresh powder day!

When we finished up skiing for the day it was time to drive home, again on snow covered roads, and slow but not too bad.  We had over a foot of snow to shovel out before we could park the car and go inside (as every good Canadian knows, you don't drive over the snow!)

We worked hard and had some neighbours come and help us.

This is our backyard.

Then we got settled in, warmed up, ordered food, ate our storm chips, and watched the NBA All Star games.

We all got to sleep in on Monday for the holiday. That's the thing about skiing on the weekends, we don't get any days to sleep in and take it easy, it was nice to indulge on this day.

We did get back out to keep cleaning up the snow.

We have run out of places to put the snow.

Friends came over to start work on the snow forts.

We have three different piles in which to build a fort.

I did some shovelling and then walked up to buy some produce.  Then I came in and didn't do much else for the rest of the day - read, watched TV, and napped, it was great! The boys played outside and a friend of theirs came over for a bit, after being outside they played some video games.

Before dinner they went outside again to do some more work on the fort.

And then we heard about the plane crash at the Toronto airport, which was crazy! And so fortunate that no one was killed (at this time, I know some people have critical injuries). We made some wings for dinner and then got ready for the week.