Happy Family Day!

Celebrating all of those real family moments this Family Day!  If you have a holiday today, hope you're having fun doing something!

(outtakes from our Christmas card)

Friday Favourites

 Love was shared yesterday of Valentine's Day.  I got a couple of small things for my boys.  We had french toast with heart sprinkles for breakfast (along with a cookie for Q, E took his cookie in his lunch).  We ordered Chinese food for supper and opened a bottle of red wine.

No picture with Dave yesterday but here is one from last weekend!

Because it is report card week, the school laid out everything in the lost and found in the hallway so parents could take a look through when they came in for parent-teacher interviews.  Some dear soul hung up all of the mittens, and one was ours!

The kids of the Toronto District School Board finally had a Snow Day this week.  The TDSB rarely cancels school, although sometimes they cancel busses, but the storm this week was too much so they ended up cancelling.  I worked for most of the day but Dave was at home with them and kept them entertained.  We did some shovelling when I got home and even made a snowman. 

I love making this turmeric shake for my breakfast (I use 1.5 cups of cashew or almond/coconut milk and add some water to thin it out, so I usually have enough for two mornings).  This week Q asked for some, he usually doesn't want the shakes I make and prefers the ones Dave makes with bananas, yoghurt, and frozen berries.  I gave him just a little thinking he wouldn't want to drink it, but he loved it and asked for more!

Dave went to the Raptors game on Wednesday night so we ordered some Jamaican food from Annie's on Jane.  I got the jerk chicken and the boys shared fried chicken.  Q ate up the rice and chicken asked for more.  We were disappointed the patties were sold out but we tried the roti for something different and we loved it.  I didn't exactly know what the roti was but it is chicken and potato curry wrapped in a flatbread.   This place looks unassuming but it is truly delicious and we order from here every few months.

Yesterday I shared some big news - today is my last day of work.  I'm moving to a new job after 10 years at the same place.  Excited for new challenges ahead!  I got this card yesterday and we had some yummy cake as my send off. 

Linking up with Andrea, Erika, and Narci for Friday Favourites

and The Blended Blog for Friday Loves.

Exciting News!!

Did you fall for this click bait?  I hope so!  I have a big announcement to share with you guys...

My big announcement today is that... tomorrow is my last day of work at my office.  I have decided to leave my job after being there for over ten years.  Now, instead of being a lawyer in a law firm,  I will be working for one company as their in house lawyer.  I will be looking after their contracts and other corporate/commercial work (like I do now for my clients), but I will also need to learn a bit about employment, construction law, and other things so I can properly instruct outside counsel when required.

Instead of driving to my office like I have been doing, I will be taking the subway everyday and working right downtown.  I am really excited for this change.  It is always a little scary to make a decision to do something different, and of course I will be sad to leave my co-workers, friends, and clients, but it is the right thing for me.  There will be more opportunities for growth in this new job and I am up for a challenge.

I'll let you know how it's going in a few weeks after I've gotten settled.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day!!  Hope your day is filled with lots of love.

Let's Look Wednesday

This month's version of Let's Look At is about our Favourite Reads.  I have shared about my favourite books of all time here.  So for this post I decided to write about my recent favourite books, ones I often recommend to others (links are to my previous reviews of these books):

All My Puny Sorrows - A Canadian novel about depression, suicide, and siblings.  It is heartbreaking but very well written and a good read. 

A Man Called Ove - Also about suicide, incidentally.  This one is set in Sweden and is the story of a now old man, but tells the story of his whole life. 

Scarborough - A Toronto book about poverty, families, and trying to get by in this city.  As I said in my review, it may be set in Toronto, but the characters in this novel also live where you live. 

When Breath Becomes Air - A non-fiction novel about a young doctor who is diagnosed with cancer.  

All the Light we Cannot See - A novel set in World War II of people trying to survive. 

Requiem - This is also a Canadian novel about the Japanese internment during World War II.  So well written and also an important history lesson. 

Looking at these books I realize that my favourite reads usually have two of the three qualities - Canadian, war, and sad. 

You can see last month's entry about the coziest spot in my house here.

Linking up with Shay and Erika

Weekend Recap

On Friday we picked up the kids from school and then went to our favourite pizza spot, Queen Margherita Pizza on Jane.  This was Q when we were waiting for Dave to get E from school.  Pumped for the weekend!

Waiting for our pizza.

When we got home, the boys played with this little construction toy that E won as a raffle prize from bingo.  He had put his raffle ticket in for this prize so he could win it for Q, wasn't that nice of him?

E and Dave had a great day skiing on Saturday.  

I took Q to swimming although he didn't really want to do anything in the pool, but he wasn't really crying, just kept saying "no, no, no".  After that we went to No Frills and picked up a library book.  We visited with some friends for lunch and then Q crashed when we got home.  We went to Costco in the late afternoon before Dave and E got home.  

On Sunday morning we watched Sing before church. 

And had pancakes.

Big smile from my choir singer.

There was a Valentine's bake sale so we picked up some cupcakes and enjoyed some after lunch. 

In the afternoon Dave took E to get a haircut and came home with this faux hawk!

We took a spin down to the Humber River to see the ice jam.  It is crazy how much ice has built up.

This is the parking lot

Taken from the bridge

Dave and E went down the stairs but didn't stay down there for too long, it was pretty tricky to walk around.

But on the tennis court side, it was safer and we could play there for a bit.

Dave made an ice inukshuk. 

 Lovely winter weekend.