Happy Things Friday: 18 October

Another week and we’re officially over halfway through October. November is the holiday shoulder season and then it’s full-on Christmas. The year is really zooming now.

In other news – and to quote my favourite saying from the Great British Baking Show – what a complete and utter faff the last day has been in my little corner of the internet. I think the issues are mostly sorted, but there are still challenges with backups. Turns out the automatic backups haven’t been working in almost a year due to a space issue. It’s not even time for Demerits and Gold Stars but I’m going ahead and awarding myself a life-size demerit sticker. Hopefully I’ll be back in a week and everything will be working smoothly and I’ll have backups safely nestled on my computer and I will be smart enough to not touch any more buttons!!!

Let’s move on to Happy Things. I have lots to mention and plenty of pictures!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

We enjoyed a streamlined – yet still delicious – Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. I’ve started to outsource my Thanksgiving meal to largely pre-fab items. We buy boxed stuffing, a rotisserie chicken, canned cranberries, corn, some sliced veggies, pickles, packaged gravy, store-bought pies, and farmer’s market cider to drink in fancy glasses. Everyone enjoys it just as much as if I cook everything from scratch, and I save hours in the kitchen. At Christmas I lean into preparing a more elaborate meal, though even there I’m trying to outsource more and more.

There were daily walks for the Cool Bloggers Walking Club, there were a few naps. There were games around the table (mostly Things and Just One which are utterly hilarious with my father-in-law playing). There was a reasonable amount of sibling angst, but that was tempered by late-evening games of Frisbee and Nerf football on the side lawn in the near-dark. Turns out catching flying objects is more enjoyable for kids if they can’t actually see what they’re trying to catch.

Belle continues to flap her baking wings and has taken exclusive control over my favourite small-batch chocolate chip cookie recipe, preparing it twice over the weekend.

Indy, John, and my father-in-law went to a local university football game. Turns out they had horrible seats right behind the bench (couldn’t see anything) and it was frigid, but Indy got selected to limbo at halftime and received a gift card for his efforts! Belle and I stayed home and cuddled under fluffy blankets on the couch and watched an old Hallmark movie.

We had church and small group and lots of lingering around the table after meals. We ate hearty fall foods. Curries and a Portuguese cod dinner and pumpkin soup and tuna + cheese melts. We ate ice cream with chocolate peanut butter sauce, and I savoured cups of coffee.

The kids had various playdates and hang-outs. We bought birthday gifts for two birthday parties happening this weekend. Belle used watercolours to paint a birthday card for her friend (who has three cats).

THRIFTING

We also got some great thrifted deals this week. We needed to replace two sconces in our basement hallway (one broke years ago when Indy and a friend were playing indoor soccer with a too-hard ball). We found a flush-mount light and when the salesman showed it to us, he mentioned it was part of a LED efficiency rebate. We ended up spending less than $5 per light!! We also sourced simple lights for both kids rooms as what they have is not nearly bright enough and are connected to old ceiling fans that we never use and collect copious amounts of dust.

Belle’s beloved book bag needed to be replaced, and we found a neutral, well-constructed, waterproof Hershel backpack on clearance!!! This is only her third book-bag in nine years of school and I’m hoping this lasts her through high school. I had a gift card to the store (Winners), so it was – in a way – free.

While Indy had his first basketball practice of the season, Belle and I went to try to find her some more sweaters at my favourite thrift store. Alas, we didn’t find any winning sweaters but she also needed jeans and found two pairs. Indy was in desperate need of athletic pants. Whatever wasn’t too short for him after this summer’s growth spurt had holes or bad stains on all the knees. I found him THREE pairs of black jogging pants.

Belle also got a dress, I got a dress, and a cute-but-can-I-pull-this-off? dressy romper.

The grand total, including taxes, was $43 for 5 pairs of pants, 2 dresses, and 1 romper.

In addition to pants, Indy seems to either wear – or grow – out of shoes at a truly alarming rate. Killing time before pickup for a kid activity one evening, I popped into to a different thrift store and found a pair of Asics in like-new condition (I haven’t washed them yet, but aside from a bit of superficial dirt, they were mint), and a pair of quasi-dressy slip-ons that he can use for his choir performances. He has zero “dressy” shoes, so this seems to straddle the line fairly well between something he won’t complain about wearing but that will look better than tattered running shoes.

I got both pairs for about $4 each.

I have been wearing some gold hoops that Belle “won” for me at school last year non-stop. So much, in fact, the faux gold coating has worn off and they now look silver. I wanted to get another set of gold earrings, so I went to my favourite local consignment store. Turns out I had a credit and managed to get two pairs of earrings ($6 and $7, respectively) for free using my store credit!

And then, on the way out the door with my free earrings, I spotted the cutest little black purse. I am decidedly NOT a purse person. I have one purse and one fanny pack and that it is. My purse gets used for church, my fanny pack for everyday use. But something about this bag called my name and I answered the siren song. Did I need the purse? No. I was hoping to cycle out (and consign!) my “church purse” which is super practical but I don’t love. Alas, because of the rounded shape, my new purse won’t hold my notebook and Bible properly. But I think I might give the fanny pack a rest for a bit and move things over to this new purse for a change. I am now a Two Purse Person!

While the kids were at a youth activity John and I went grocery shopping. I found bags of soon-to-expire Gingerbread Cashews for 50 CENTS a bag. I bought 16 bags, and put them directly into the freezer so they’ll stay fresh long past the expiration day. They are so, so delicious. And that price cannot be beat for a bag of cashews.

Lastly, I got some free water. We have a bottom-loading water cooler (which we ADORE), but filling water jugs can get pricey. Thankfully, after buying two jugs years ago, we have always filled them at a free natural spring near our home. Our tap water tastes heavily of chlorine, so drinking spring water is such a treat.

BIRTHDAY FUN

It was John’s birthday this week. I am low-key in the party department, but we had some fun gifts, a delicious warm-from-the-oven cinnamon coffee cake, and went out for supper to our favourite family restaurant (Swiss Chalet for any Canadians reading).

We also fit in a long walk together on his birthday complete with selfies, a tree showing the change from green to red, and a cool looking spider!

BONUS ROUND

• Ask me how much I’m loving the new school lunch program. I AM LOVING IT SO MUCH. IT IS AMAZING. INDY IS LOVING IT. THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH LETTERS TO CAPITALIZE TO CONVEY MY LOVE FOR THIS NEW PROGRAM.
• Ask me how proud I am of finally finishing and submitting passport applications. (Why for the love does it feel so overwhelming and tedious and horrible every time?). SO PROUD (but mostly relieved).
• Ask me how excited I am to finally – finally – be done migrating our home insurance to a new broker/insurance company. It will save us $500 a year, but good gracious everything that could go wrong did and it took so many phone calls (like over a dozen which is basically the same as walking on broken glass barefoot for me…)
• Belle joining the volleyball team and being surrounded by her core network of friends (who are sadly missing from her actual classroom).
• Reading books on my Kindle.
• Everyone’s kind and thoughtful comments on my mental health post this week.
• This dollhouse post by Michelle as part of the ongoing “Where Do You Keep That” series. Y’all. If this tour doesn’t make you want to drop everything and start researching how to shrink humans so we can all move in, I don’t know what will. Seriously. I want Honey, I Shrunk the Kids to be real.
• Not to be outdone, Kyria posted a fascinating rundown of where she keeps everything she needs while biking across the continent!

And now I’m off! See you next Friday. Happy weekending and happy walking to all my walking club friends.

Your turn. What’s a good deal you found this week? What’s your favourite soup? Best (easy) cookie recipe? If you have a kiddo that regularly attends birthday parties, do you have a go-to gift? How many purses do you own? Is my blog formatting looking okay on your end?