Friday Favourites

Happy Friday and Happy Valentine's Day!  And Happy Family Day weekend if you are in Ontario. We have a long weekend with a holiday Monday and the kids have an extra long weekend with a snow day yesterday and a PA day today. 

When I picked up Q from school on Monday he showed me some of his artwork hung up in the hallway. He did a great job!

I took him to get a haircut before soccer and we popped in for a Booster Juice.

I was only in the office one day this week, but when I was waiting for others to join me in the board room I took this wintry photo.

I had an eye appointment on Wednesday and afterwards I needed to walk up the street to get some bread and a library book.  Since my pupils were dilated from the drops, they were sensitive so the doctor gave me these awesome shades to fit behind my glasses.  Cool, eh!?! Hahah

We were expecting lots of snow starting Wednesday and overnight to Thursday morning.  We got out on Wednesday evening to do a first round of shovelling. 

Dave in the background working on the sidewalk.

The next morning we had so much snow! I think it was over a foot.  School was canceled and Dave and I worked from home. 

The first round of shovelling started at 6:00. And we were out several times so we could get it all done. 

E was shovelling out the neighbours' house, they are away. 

Some friends stopped by to help with the fort.

We are supposed to get more snow this weekend, we won't have anywhere to put it!!

I picked up a few Valentine's treats for the boys. They seem to get so many treats on a regular basis, I kept it small.  The peanut butter heart is for Dave and the marshmallow one is for me! :)

Have a lovely weekend and I'll see you back here on Tuesday.

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.

Let's Look - Marriage

 

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

The month we are looking at how we working on our marriage, I guess in honour of Valentine's Day.  

This one sort of stumped me. I couldn't think of things that we actively do to work on our marriage, which can be good or bad I suppose.  Perhaps they don't come to mind right away because we have a good marriage or maybe we should be doing more! Who knows. What I do know is that we do not get along everyday and we definitely get on each other's nerves for various things, but overall we are doing well, and I feel grateful for that.  We are in that stage of having young children where things are busy, we have different challenges everyday, and there are lots of opportunities for stress to get the better of us. 

Fortunately we balance each other out fairly well, which may not always be appreciated in the moment but in the aggregate it works out.  There are things that bother both of us, but usually only one of us is upset about it at a time, so the other one can be the voice of reason while the other one is freaking out. I guess we have a good sense of when to let some stuff go.

We know what is important to the other person in terms of getting our workouts in, tidying up the house, getting to work on time, and dealing with the kids' stuff. We try not to put any one task on the other person, and try not keep score in terms of who is doing more at any given time.  It all evens itself out in the end. 

I always say that I look after OPEX and Dave is CAPEX.  Which means Dave is in charge of Capital Expenses, such as the mortgage, home repairs, budget, investments, etc. and I am more Operating Expenses like food, kids' activities, social calendar, etc.  There is a bit of crossover, but that's the general breakdown. (I don't mean that's what we pay for, just what we manage.)

We do make a point of celebrating our wedding anniversary with a special meal and bottle of champagne.  We find time to go out for dinner, a game, or golf by ourselves, but it's not a scheduled sort of thing, it just happens organically. We have taken trips together without the kids, but at the age they are now, we really just want to travel with them instead of leaving them at home. 

We are also lucky that we have similar interests, which I suppose is partly due to the fact we have been married for more than 15 years, but we also retain our own activities and respect that.  We have the same approach to a lot of things as well, like getting up early and out the door. 

We're just grinding it out, so if you're like me and don't have an active plan for working on your marriage, know you're not alone!!

celebrate our wedding anniversary

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Weekend Recap

On Friday, this was exactly the place I wanted to be. In the warmest seat in the house with my glass of wine and working on my crossword puzzle.  

It was a beautiful morning on Saturday to be skiing.  The little kids, U8 and U10, were ready for their fun race. 

There was fresh snow the day before and everything was nicely groomed.  The lift even opened before 9:00 so we got some first tracks in. We did a few runs together and then Dave went to help set up for the race.

Q coming across the finish line. The kids were all grouped together in the results, but we think he came in 11th out of his U10 boys group.  He looked great!

Standing with his buddies at the awards.

When we got home, Dave waxed E's skis, we watched some women's downhill, and then had steak for dinner. 

And then we watched the rest of a movie we had started last week. 

We were up extra early on Sunday because there had been quite a bit of snow overnight and we knew our drive would be slower than normal, plus Dave had to shovel out the driveway.  I should have taken a picture but I think there was at least 15 cm overnight.  We were slower than normal on some snow covered roads, but we were still there in plenty of time. 

I dropped E and Dave off at The Heights for E's ski race.  This is the U14 team.

E and his buddy.

They had a combination GS and ski-cross (or terrain) style race.  It looked like lots of fun.  E looked great.  One of the parents got these phots of all our kids.

Meanwhile Q and I were at our normal hill for Q's training.  The fresh snow made for a great day. I got lots of runs in and didn't want to stop, but eventually had to get packed up. 

We celebrated Super Bowl when we got home with our own nachoes and wings.

We were happy that Philidelphia won but was surprised it was such a blow out.  I did not care for the halftime show, as I said when I blogged about the Grammys I'm not a Kendrick Lamar fan so it didn't hit for me.  

Sharing our Lives - Tips for Falling Asleep

 

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.

Everyone has different preferences for their sleep environment, so what works for me may not work for you.  I really don't struggle to fall asleep, but there are times when I wake up in the middle of the night and can't fall back to sleep right away.  My kids are older now but I remember those nights of having someone crying from the other room, needing me to sleep with them in their bed, or coming to sleep in our bed. Those days do stop eventually! 

Here is what works for me to get a good night's sleep:

Weighted blanket - All of us have a Hush blanket on our beds. I love that feeling of being extra cozy.

White noise - I use Spotify to play rain noise while we fall asleep. I can set the timer so it turns off and doesn't run all night. 

Dark room - We make sure our doors and blinds are closed, and there are no electronic lights around. 

Warmth (in winter) and Cool (in summer) - I like to be warm when I get into bed, and I will often wear a sweater or wrap myself in a blanket. The room is warm when we go to bed, but the heat turns off in the night so it does get cooler.  In the summer we make sure the air conditioning is on so we aren't sweating.

Exercising. Getting a workout in during the day is a sure-fire way to be tired for bed.  If my body is feeling especially sore I will take an Advil before bed so my body can relax and I'll get a better sleep.

No coffee after 3:00 pm. This is non-negotiable. 

Mindfulness while falling asleep. I try to say a prayer of thanks and then a prayer for other people that need it, and then if I'm still awake I think about how I will start my day in the morning.

Staying "sleepy" if I need to get up to use the washroom. I try to keep my eyes closed, I don't check the time, and try not to transfer to an awake state if I can avoid it. 

Not worrying about it. If I ever do have problems sleeping, I try not to get worked up about the fact that I am awake when I should be sleeping!  Instead I remind myself that my body is resting and I will get to sleep eventually. 

Things that people say you should do but I haven't tried:

Avoid eating several hours before bed.  Although most days I don't snack after dinner, I will have some chips and a drink before dinner, and I don't find it affects my ability to sleep. 

Take magnesium. If I struggled with sleep I could try it, but I haven't felt I needed it so far.

Don't look at your phone or other screens before bed. We are that couple that looks at their respective phones right up to the time the light turns off, sorry not sorry. 

Cooling sheets. See above, I like to be warm and cozy.

Limit naps. If I have a short nap in the day, like less than 30 minutes, that doesn't affect my ability to fall asleep at night. 

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Friday Favourites

Happy Friday! We had a wintry sort of week, still have the cold temperatures, although no Polar Vortex, some snow, and lots of ice still on our driveway so everyone needs to be careful.

On Tuesday we went to see the Dog Man Movie with one of Q's friends.  And we had to make a stop at McDonalds for supper first. 

It was wine exchange time for me! No California reds for us this time.  The Sauvignon Blanc is a class choice, and the other was a deliberately chosen Canadian wine.

I put up a few decorations for Valentine's Day.  After our Christmas decorations go away our house is always a little bare, including the mantle.  We probably need more than the little papier mâché snake that Q made for Lunar New Year.

Q requested a game after dinner on Wednesday and my stipulation was something that didn't require a lot of set up, so we played Uzzle.  Usually I am good at this game, but E was the champion this time.

Meanwhile Dave was in Vegas for a work trip. 

While Dave was away I got our electric blanket out and used it to preheat my bed, and then I would watch Netflix (the OJ Simpson series to be precise) under the warm blanket (before unplugging it to go to sleep). What a game changer! What habits do you have when your spouse is out of town?

I went out for Happy Hour with my colleagues last night at Blue Bovine. It was nice to get together to talk about non-work things and enjoy some yummy food and drinks. 

Have a great weekend!

Linking up with Andrea and Erika.