Let's Look - Making Friends

 

Linking up with Shay and Erika for Let's Look.  Today we are talking about how to make friends, or how to make couple friends, more specifically.

I feel like I need to acknowledge that people you know and talk to don’t immediately translate into “friends” in the true sense of the word, but those acquaintances can become friends as time goes on.  Therefore, the first step is meeting people, and then maintaining some sort of connection with them over time. 

For us, many of the people we are meet are because of our kids’ activities.  We have met the parents of their friends at school, skiing, and baseball. Inevitably you keep running into these same people and sometimes there is some crossover between activities, or you run into them in the neighbourhood. 

It helps if you volunteer for various things - I have done pizza day and field trips at school, we help coach and manage the baseball teams, I will do the scoring at the baseball game, we help out with ski races, and all of these things increase interactions with other parents. 

Another place to meet friends is your neighbourhood, but the key is to go outside. When we first moved here, we would be out doing yard work, playing with the kids, cleaning the cars, or just going for a walk or bike ride, and that’s how we initially met so many people. Some are in similar places in their lives like us with kids, but some have younger or older kids or no kids, or are retired, but they can all become friends. It also helps that we host our annual Christmas drop in party where we invite all of the neighbours. It’s a good way to keep in touch with people, even if it’s only once a year. 

We have also met friends at the golf club. Golf is great because you can often be golfing with people you don’t know, but you’re forced to spend 2 to 4 hours together making small talk, and you can usually figure out if you seem to have things in common (other than golf) and then if you’re at a private club, you end up seeing the same people over and over and strike up a friendship. It doesn’t need to be golf, but find a hobby, join a club or a league, and frequent the same places, and you will find friends.

I have made good friends at work, but I find that was more common when I was younger with no kids. I had three or four ladies that were my age and we all had our first kid at the same time so that was a good way to make connections and hang out outside of the office. 

And then you can also keep in touch with people from high school or university like we have and although we don’t see them all the time, they are real friends.

Weekend Recap

I started out my weekend at the Blue Jays game. The giveaway was a Trey Yesavage jersey and I wanted one but I wasn’t sure what the lines would be like. I wasn’t able to head downtown until 4:30 so I was arriving at the ballpark around 5:20. I went one of the closest gates, no line, and saw they still had jerseys so I got one! Turned out they only had five left at that entrance so I was pretty lucky. I waited for my friends and wandered around watching the warm ups.

Views of a different ball field than I had been at earlier in the week watching Q, and a slight bit warmer! No hat and mittens required here!

Eve and Cindy were in town for the weekend, glad I could meet up with them for a game.

Really no bad seats at the Skydome. 

I spent my Saturday at the golf course. It was Ladies’ Opening Day so I met some friends for lunch below our 1:00 pm shotgun start. Then we had a dinner and I stayed into the later evening at the bar. It was a fun day! My team came in second place, and I won golf shoes in the raffle!

It was slightly warmer than it had been all week, and I got to wear short sleeve for most of the day. And lucky for us the rain held off until everyone was done.

My Mother’s Day included Q’s baseball game…

And a round of golf with E.  (Q had a baseball tryout so he and Dave were there)

It was a little slow so we had time to take these photos. I was wearing my new shoes.

I had some lovely gifts waiting for me when we all got home, including a jar full of 100 things that Q loves about me. He worked hard on this little project and I appreciated it.

And we made pizzas in the pizza oven. They turned out well. 

Sharing Our Lives - Lunches on the Go

 

Linking up with the Share Our Lives crew for this month's topic - lunches on the go.  We eat a lot of meals on the go - I take a lunch to work, the kids bring lunch to school, and we have to eat quick dinners before baseball games or golf. The challenge is to make something easy but also healthy and filling. 

Quesadillas - the kids like them with refried beans and cheese so this makes them easy to make quickly. They also travel well and can be eaten cold if we need to throw them into a container and take them along with us.

Soup/Chili - We like to bring hot water in a thermos to make noodle soup on the go, or put hot chili in a thermos. 

Cheese, meat, and crackers, along with some vegetables and dips - this is perfect for a picnic at the ballpark. 

PJ&J - the old standard still works well for us, and it is one of Q’s favourites. 

Quinoa or lentil salad - I make a variety of different salads with a plant protein, vegetables, and some sort of dressing and maybe some feta cheese. This is more my go-to for a dinner on the run rather than the boys.

Protein bars - this is sort of cheating since there is no prep required, but it’s something to tide us over while we run to the golf course or ball field.

Boiled eggs, spinach and tomatoes - I like this one for work because I have access to a microwave so I can warm up the spinach and tomatoes and the chop my eggs in. 

Tortellini - I like to buy the big packets of these at Costco so I can freeze them and cook up portions of them when we need a quick meal before a game. Q is happy with just grated cheese on them so I don’t need to make a sauce and that’s also easier and cleaner to eat quickly.

These are the days of a quick meal!

Linking up with  Adrienne, Dara, Jen, and Joanne.  

Friday Favourites

 

Happy Friday!

You're getting some delayed Friday Favourites because I wasn't able to get my post up last Friday.  I was between work computers and I've been having issues uploading photos to my blog on Apple devices. 

This was the very start of the cherry blossoms at High Park last Tuesday (the 28th), with peak bloom happening on May 1. I went for a quick bike ride after dinner on this day to return a library book and thought I'd swing through the park to see the trees. There were a few less people there, which was nice.

Q had his first regular season game last Thursday and was all ready to go when I got home. 

The fans.

Catching, with his friend V up to bat.

And he got to pitch.

Last week was also my last day of work - my co-workers got me some bottles of Negroni, oranges, and a big ice cube tray. I poured a drink after I got home last Thursday.

They also took our 9 life saving rules and adapted them for the 9 steps for a good Negroni, very clever and thoughtful.

A welcome sight - both E and Q came home with friend after school this week on their bikes. E and his friends had a game of Axis and Allies going in the basement, and Q and his friends played with the whiffle balls at the park.

I started my new job on Monday and it has been a great week of learning. As much as I learned in my 7 years working for a mining contractor, there is a lot more to learn now that I work for the gold company itself. I will be working from home most of the time but will meet a few people in person next week. 

The rest of my free time was spent freezing at ball parks. It has been so chilly this week that I had my winter mittens and long underwear out from winter storage. 

E and Q have been watching Star Wars in honour of May the 4th and is playing some Star Wars video game that usually gets popular around this time of year.

A fun weekend ahead - Blue Jays game tonight, Ladies' Opening Day at the golf course on Saturday, and baseball and more golf on Mother's Day (and hopefully meals I don't have to make :))

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Gratitude Journal Prompts

 13. What does gratitude mean to you?

Being appreciative for those individual moments throughout the day. Maybe it's at the time when you can pause and feel the goodness of the moment, or maybe it's at the end of the day when you think about all of the things and people that you are thankful for. Without gratitude you end up missing out on a lot and it's important to reflect on what has brought joy to your life throughout the day. Obviously there are better days than others but even on those bad days there are still things to be grateful for. 

14. Write one good thing that happened today in the world for which you are grateful.

(Writing this on Tuesday so "today" was really yesterday.) Two things - the appointment of Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour as our next Governor General and the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the NHL draft lottery. There aren't a lot of good news stories around lately but these ones both represent hope for the future. Mary Simon, our current GG, has been very good, but to be followed by another strong woman is even better! And for us long suffering Leafs fans, we will take any opportunity we can get!

15. Write about one person in your workplace you are grateful for.

I just switched jobs and although I am slowly getting to know my new co-workers, I haven't developed any serious feelings of gratitude for any one person yet, so I must look back to my old job. I was very grateful for my "work sibling". We have a lot in common and worked well together. 

Weekend Recap

Phew, we had a chilly weekend and we were outside for a lot of it!

I didn't have to work on Friday so I went to Costco and then got my haircut. Dave got out for his first golf round of the year.  E and I went to hit balls at the range for a little bit, and we ordered pizza for dinner and I tried to watch all of the sports - Blue Jays, Canadiens, Sabres, and Raptors. 

On Saturday morning we were headed out early to High Park for Little League Opening Day. It was cold and a few flurries even fell while everything was getting set up.

The Knights ready for the parade.

We biked home and warmed up but then went back for Q's game at 3:00. Since we were early for warm up, I walked over to the cherry blossoms which were at peak bloom. I took a few photos but mostly was fascinated with the people out and about. 

On Sunday Dave golfed, I went to church, Q had a baseball tryout, and E golfed in Junior Opening Day. 

Settling in to watch the F1 Race when everyone got home.

And we made our inaugural pizza in the new pizza oven.

Looks good!

Some learning still to do with the pizza oven, but they all turned out pretty well.