Photo Of The Day -- April 10 - 19, 2018

It's time for another Photo Of The Day project post.

April 10, 2018 -- I went to hear a girl I used to nanny for, who is now twenty-one (yeeks), speak with two youth she has mentored on human trafficking in our area. It shocked me, saddened me, and made me want to find out more about this difficult subject. So I read this sobering book.

April 11, 2018 -- I've been wanting a new summer wreath for a couple of years now. I'm pretty happy with this one, a Pinterest find, of course!

April 12, 2018 -- Dave and I double dated with good friends of ours. Good food, good company -- what more could you ask for?

April 13, 2018 -- It was a PD Day and the kids spent most of the day with my parents while I worked. Then we went to small group at church and then it was home to bed. And I didn't get a picture of any of it.

April 14, 2018 -- We got a late season ice storm this day. I decided to document my day on Insta-stories. Now that I've had some nice weather I don't hate those of you who have worn shorts already :)

April 15, 2018 -- After a day of ice pellets we had freezing rain which was lovely to look at but treacherous to be out in, so it was another day of being stuck at home.

April 16, 2018 -- I had to bake an Earl Grey Tea cake for a thank you gathering earlier this week so I made another one for us to have at home. Yum!!!

April 17, 2018 -- The futon in our office was fifteen years old and falling apart so we ordered a bright new couch from IKEA. We also ordered shelves for Dave to use as a place to keep all his stuff on the main floor. Our office looks pretty different now.

April 18, 2018 -- I don't like this new trend of some MLB games being aired solely on Facebook. What the what?!?!? However, not much stops us from watching our Jays.

April 19, 2018 -- I almost forgot to get a picture this day so you get this exciting one of our supper leftovers. It's a sweet potato-chickpea-peanut butter stew which is delicious!

What's Up Wednesday: April 2018

It's What's Up Wednesday time again. I haven't done one of these in awhile but it's a fun way to fill you in on some of life's recent happenings.

 

image from here

What we're eating this week... About a month ago I posted about how I've been menu planning for at least seven years and how I still do it by hand. (You can read more of that post here.) Well I've been using my new menu planning pad for two months now and I'm still not used to it. However, this week we've been good about following the plan, although last night we had grilled cheese and tomato soup instead of eggs on toast. Oh well.

And while I usually plan a month at a time, it looks like I ran out of energy halfway through. Oops.

What I'm reminiscing about... Summer. We haven't really had Spring yet and I'm already ready for afternoons of reading by the pool and wearing shorts. Also, I'm ready for a break from the school routine.

What I'm loving... I LOVED having two days of warm sunny weather earlier this week. I read a couple of books outside, the kids played, laundry hung on the line -- it was completely glorious!

Basking in the sun and reading -- perfection!

What we've been up to... Just the usual -- school, work, getting ready for Rachel's dance performance, practicing ball with Sam, laundry, cooking, dishes, reading - ha! It's really not been all that exciting around here.

You can't tell it's the usual by looking at our calendar though, which looks pretty full.

What I'm dreading... Bluey hasn't been very active lately. He's mostly been hanging out at the bottom of his bowl and I'm very worried that he's going to die. I know he's "just a fish" but I've been a little stressed about this lately. I've also been Googling "Do beta fish get depressed?" If any of you know of a fish psychologist, I might be interested...

Don't die Bluey :(

What I'm working on... I'm not working on much of anything right now. Ha! I finished our travel photo books for Kenya and our Disney Cruise. Laundry is caught up. I feel pretty on top of life right now. (And now that I've written that, everything will fall apart around here!)

What I'm excited about... Sam is signed up for Junior 3 Pitch this spring and out of thirteen kids on his team, SEVEN of them are from his school. I'm just excited to watch Sam and all his friends play ball together!

 Sam during his first season of t-ball when he knew absolutely no one on his team.

What I'm watching/reading... Thanks to our local radio station playing a lot of hockey games lately (our local team made the playoffs - yay?!), we've been watching a lot of Blue Jays baseball. I've also been watching a lot of Sam playing/practicing baseball.

In the past four days I've read three very different books featuring death -- They Both Die At the End, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, and Columbine. They are all very good books but I've been thinking a lot about death in different forms lately.

images from here, here, and here

What I'm listening to... As I'm writing this I'm listening to the Blue Jays beating Boston on the radio. It's the top of the sixth and the Jays are winning 3-0. I hope they can hold on! The Jays have been playing so well this season; it's been so exciting!

What I'm wearing... NOT MY WINTER JACKET!!! Whoooo hoooo!!! I'm trying to figure out if it's too early to wash all the winter gear and put the snow boots away...

What I'm doing this weekend... Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon! Whooo hoooo!!! I participated in my first ever Readathon in April 2015 and now I have found two which each happen twice a year so now I participate in a readathon every three months which is the best!!! (For me, that is, Dave might not agree! Ha!)

Me reading during my first ever Dewey's.

What I'm looking forward to next month... My birthday is happening! We're going to a Jays game to celebrate Mother's Day! And our friends are having a fun dinner to celebrate ten years of marriage so the kids are staying with Dave's parents overnight and Dave and I are having a night out. Yay!

What else is new... Rachel is starting soccer at the school through our neighbourhood association in May and Dave is coaching Sam's Junior 3-pitch team so we're going to be a family divided by sports over the next few months. It should be interesting...

#tbt: Jays Home Game In Detroit

So way back in July, we road tripped with some friends to a Jays game in Detroit. We left on Saturday morning and got home late Sunday night. We had no idea what we were going to do in Detroit, but after we got to our hotel, we realized we were a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Detroit river front. And that there was an amazing riverfront walk.

If we had known the river walk had built in fountains, we would have brought bathing suits. However it was hot enough that we dried off fairly quickly and the cold water felt soooo good!

It was fun to do this trip with Jen and Will. Two other friends joined us but they were shopping while the rest of us explored the riverfront.

I love posing with all of us on oversized chairs! Although I really need to learn how to sit on these things in a skirt :)

Sam, Will, and Rachel on the big chair.

It was so fun to look across the Detroit River and see Canada, Windsor, specifically. Can you tell Rachel was hot?!

I wish we had had more time to explore Detroit. They have a cool transit system called The People Mover which ran a circuit of Downtown Detroit. We rode it once for fun as there was a stop near our hotel.

The next morning we had breakfast at a local Starbucks and then meandered slowly over to the stadium. We found some neat places to get pictures.

The QLine is another of Detroit's transit systems.

We entered the stadium quite early and Rachel and I rushed to the field to get autographs. Rachel was right in front and Danny Barnes patiently signed all the things our group handed over -- three hats, my autograph book, and a baseball card.

We enjoyed riding the Tiger Carousel.

And Sam showed off his pitching skills.

We got a family picture with this tiger.

The game was good but it went into extra innings which sadly, the Jays lost in the 11th. Sigh. However we had a really good time and would love to head to Detroit again. With all the Jays fans coming across the border, it was hard to tell if we were playing at the Skydome or in Detroit -- the cheering was just as loud for both teams!

Maybe Writing About It Will Make It Happen

I don't know about you, but where I live, it feels like spring might not ever appear. I'm so ready to ditch the winter jackets, the ice scrapers, and the snow shovels. Bring on the shoes without socks, long evenings outside, and the trampoline. Although I can't write about actual spring activities because those haven't happened yet, Bekah posted a quiz about spring so I can at least tell you about my favourite parts of this illusive season.

And let me tell you, after our ice storm this past weekend, and three whole days of all of us being stuck in the house, I am more than ready for actual spring weather.

1. What three colors remind you most of spring? Spring colours to me are the light green of the grass as it first starts to grow, yellow for daffodils, and light blue for the shoes I wear without socks.

2. What is the first thing you add to your wardrobe in spring? Shoes I can wear without socks. I don't need to buy any for this spring but I am excited to wear them.

3. What is the first wardrobe item you ditch in spring?
Besides all my winter outerwear, it's socks. Are you sensing a theme here?!?!

4. Who mows the grass where you live?
Normally it's mostly Dave but last summer, we actually paid someone to do it. With Dave's sciatica, I just couldn't handle one more thing. However, I don't mind mowing the lawn so I do it sometimes.

5. What's spring like where you live?
Right now -- cold, icy, snowy, grey. Ha! Normally, it's lovely. We get about three months of beautiful weather, with some rain, but it doesn't get too hot. The daffodils and tulips (which I fear may all have been killed off this past weekend with our ice) bloom for ages and it's just lovely.

6. What's your favorite thing about spring? 
The fact that my birthday is in spring. And that baseball starts again -- both professional ball and Sam's local league (which is about the exact opposite of professional - ha!). I also like that everyone starts walking more and we run into all kinds of people on our local paths as we head out on errands or to go to Starbucks.

7. Are you a spring cleaner?
In my mind -- yes! In reality -- sort of! You would think that three days of being inside this past weekend would have gotten me into a spring cleaning frenzy but you would be wrong.

8. Are you a baseball fan?
Yes! Yes! And, just in case you missed it, YES!!! We love baseball around here. In fact, I decided to create a blog label for it (All About That Base(Ball) -- click here to see all the posts), and it appears I have written about 46 posts which mention baseball in one form or another.

9. Tulips or daffodils?
Do I have to choose? I love them all. In winter, I mostly buy tulips though. Daffodils are carried in stores for a much shorter time and don't last as long.

10. Favorite outdoor spring activity?
Cheering Sam on in baseball, or cheering on the Jays, and just sitting outside and reading in the sun while the kids play. Oh, and hanging laundry outside again!

11. Flowers in the ground or pots?
Both! Last year I didn't actually plant any flowers in pots because we were gone a lot but this year I will be feeling all the pot love again.

12. Favorite bird?
Blue Jays, of course! :) Honestly, though, I don't have a favourite bird, but I do like seeing all the ducklings which appear in our city in the spring.

13. Car wash or wash vehicles at home?
Bekah's response to this was: "Well, Jesus washes my car with the rain, and that's not one of the choices, is it? LOL!" which is pretty much my answer too! Our car gets cleaned whenever it rains. Otherwise, we sometimes (once in a looong while) drive it through the car wash.

14. When do you pull out your sandals?
Ever since I discovered shoes without socks, I rarely wear sandals. However, I do switch from my slippers to indoor flipflops as soon as it gets too hot in my slippers so let's say, once it hits 20C (68F) outside, or somewhere around then. Let's just say that since it's currently lows of -1 to -4C (25-30F) overnight, my flipflops won't be making an appearance any time soon.

Photo Of The Day -- April 1 - 9, 2018

April 1, 2018 -- Our Easter wasn't particularly warm and Sam was excited to wear his new Blue Jays jersey, so the kids were dressed a little unconventionally this year. Plus this was after they had gotten lots of chocolate Easter eggs, but before we'd had lunch, so they were feeling silly.

April 2, 2018 -- Easter Monday was a school holiday. My parents took the kids for the day but before the kids left, they were enjoying playing games together.

April 3, 2018 -- I loved the bright colours of these tulips. I should really get a tripod for pictures I take on "manual mode" though. :)

April 4, 2018 -- Yeah, about that tripod... This picture looked clearer on the very small camera screen. Anyways, a little reading before bed.

April 5, 2018 -- Rachel had some questions about the Easter story. She and I were talking about it and she was referring to things she had read (on her own) in her story bible to back up her questions. It was a very amazing parenting moment. (And I asked her to pose for this picture after our conversation was over so I could capture the memory.)

April 6, 2018 -- This was probably a memorable snow at the time but, after this past weekend's ice storm, it honestly doesn't seem like a big deal and I can't actually remember why I wanted this picture to capture this day.

April 7, 2018 -- I woke up this day to the news that a junior hockey team from Saskatchewan (my home province) had been in a bad accident. And then I found out that not only did one of my cousins and her family live in the small town affected, but that they were billeting one of the players. I was too distracted by the news, and the other happenings of the day, to take a picture.

April 8, 2018 -- Dave and I did our taxes this day, Rachel dropped a watermelon on the floor at the grocery store, we watched a Blue Jays game, and I was still thinking about the Humboldt Broncos accident. Therefore, I have no pictures from this day either.

April 9, 2018 -- To show support for Humboldt, people across Canada, and around the world, put their #sticksoutforhumboldt. A kind neighbour loaned us a few of his old ones so that we could participate.