Something about October signals “end-of-year” vibes for me me. Let the countdown begin; 2025 is around the corner.
October is a happy month. Thanksgiving (Canadian style), various family birthdays, nice weather, all the pumpkins.
This was a very happy week. I had been dreading it because I was in back-to-back stints of solo parenting which I never relish and there were a lot of extracurricular logistics to manage. Overall, I would classify our kids as “under-scheduled” in relation to their peers but even their few commitments require schedule Tetris, especially when there is only one driver in the house.
But everything went smoothly. I think some of this has to do with the fact the kids are getting older. We can be more relaxed about eating on the go, they can do more things independently (like fill their own water bottles, pack their own snacks – and live with the natural consequences of forgetting either of those items).
It was a long weekend in Canada (Monday was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – honouring victims and survivors of residential school programs) and I had originally planned to visit my parents in New Brunswick. A long weekend home alone with the kiddos? No thanks. But then one after another, things kept cropping up. A birthday party for one of Indy’s close friends. Basketball tryouts. Choir camp. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth the effort – and it is quite a bit of effort – to go away for the weekend and I’m so glad I didn’t because it was a great one.
Let’s dive in to Happy Things. Warning this is a giant edition; if you’re short on time, you might want to stick to just looking at the pictures!
CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES (THE HARD WAY)
While Indy was at his friend’s birthday party, Belle hosted two of her closest friends from church for a hangout. They asked if they could bake and I said that was fine. But they didn’t just bake, they played a game of Deaf, Blind, Mute. Each person randomly draws a role, and they have to work together to cook while either being: unable to hear (noise cancelling headphones), blind (a full blackout eye mask), or mute (can’t talk). They had so much fun. It took them almost two hours to finish a batch of cupcakes and I worked on a project in the office the whole time while embracing the fact I have entered a stage of parenthood where I can leave kids to bake independently.
A bonus. These cupcakes were delicious with perhaps the best buttercream I’ve ever had in my life! And look at how artfully they displayed them!!
And I did nothing – not even dishes. (Okay, I may have rewashed some of the dishes because I’m not entirely convinced they remembered to use soap…there was a thin sugary film on some of the bowls that was a bit worrisome.)
The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent playing games. When their mom arrived the kids begged for more time, so they went outside and played Camouflage for an hour and came in with cold ears, pink cheeks, and dirty knees.
A NEAR-PERFECT SUNDAY
I was really dreading Sunday (and Sunday morning is usually my favourite morning of the week). We had church. We had basketball tryouts. We had choir camp. And all were literally bang, bang, bang.
And it went off without a hitch! The kids had a great day, and it ended with various friends popping by to play outside in the dark.
DEEP CLEANING
While I’ve admitted to not being overly clean, enough was enough with one of our toilets. It’s only a few years old but because of the sediment in our water (a frustrating side-effect of living in an older home), regardless of how thoroughly I clean it, it always looks dirty. Joy inspired me by mentioning her use of CLR to deep clean a toilet. I will spare you a photo of the inside of my toilet (you’re welcome), but imagine a toilet that looked…not great…that now looks new. I got the water level super low in the toilet by pouring hot water into the bowl (so it didn’t trigger a tank empty/fill) and then added CLR and let it sit for a while and used an old non-scratch scrubber (which then went into the garbage). This was disproportionately satisfying. Maybe I’d feel the same way if I finally cleaned an oven for the first time in my life? But for now I’m content to leave that question unanswered.
Our bathroom fan is broken (in fact we have a whole bunch of electrical odds and ends we need to get done; it’s on the list for this fall) and so our light fixtures get rust spots. I had picked up some Bar Keepers Friend on a whim at the DollarStore of all places. It’s not perfect – and I did rub a bit too vigorously in some places so stripped a bit of the finish off – but it’s much better!
PEN PALS
Belle has become good friends with two girls who live handy to my parents’ house in New Brunswick. They only see each other once or twice a year, but they exchange letters regularly. Last week, Belle received a card with a pair of new earrings inside and a note that her friend had a matching pair. Too cute!
When I texted her pen-pal’s mom to thank her and send her a picture of Belle wearing the earrings, she texted back her daughter was wearing the same earrings that day!
PHOTOBOOK
I will have a post of Demerits and Gold Stars next week but I already know the biggest gold star. I have completed January – September for our annual photobook!!!!!!! I usually start this process in January but I was overwhelmed by how many travel pictures we had and I have also decided to forgo taking family pictures this fall (Joy usually does it, though last year we did it ourselves at a lighthouse) and just “recycle” pictures we’ve taken adventuring this year. I also do photo calendars for Belle and my parents/in-laws which require me to go through our pictures and pick out the best ones. I figured I could kill (there must be a less violent saying?) several birds with one stone by prepping the photobook. While I was going through all our pictures for the photobook, I set the best ones aside to make my life a lot easier later this fall when I pull together the photo items for Christmas.
It’s a labour of love, but we sure love the results!
THE FRUGAL GIRL
A huge thanks to Kristen for hosting me as her Meet A Reader guest this week. It was a lot of fun to answer her questions about all things frugal, and a huge thanks to all of you who show up regularly in this space who chimed in via the comment section on that guest post. This blogging community is a Very Happy Thing.
FRUGAL WINS
I haven’t been posting as much about frugal finds lately, but it felt fitting to make note of some cost-savings from this week.
- We had company for supper last evening and I bought everything but the coleslaw on sale. Potatoes ($3.99 for 10lbs), pork tenderloin ($3.99/lb), Silk creamer ($4.99), butter ($4.99), corn ($0.99), cauliflower ($2.99), buns ($3.50), BBQ sauce ($0.99). We had pulled pork sandwiches with roasted cauliflower, corn, coleslaw, and whipped potatoes.
- Indy has zero dress shirts. He’s outgrown everything from last year, didn’t have any relevant hand-me-downs and he rarely wears anything other than athletic gear. But with Christmas concerts on the way, I grabbed a few things at a thrift store this week. A Gap Kids button-up shirt ($2), an Old Navy sweater ($2), and a like-new UnderArmour hat ($5; he’ll get this for either his birthday or Christmas – yes I give a lot of second-hand gifts to family).
- We don’t eat out very often but had two crazy days where it was next to impossible to be home over a meal time + I didn’t want to pack lunches. So we went to Subway twice in one week. Both times I used coupons and got great deals. As fast-food goes, I think it’s the best bang for buck. We load up on so many veggies! Yesterday I fed 4 people (Belle had a friend with her) for under $20 including a tip and taxes.
- For the first time in my life I got a Pumpkin Spice Latte. I had a gift card to my favourite coffee shop from last Christmas that I still hadn’t used up so it was free!
While I was at said cafe, I overhead the following conversation:
Barista: I love your sweater!
Random woman: Thanks! I got it in the dollar bin years ago at Frenchy’s [a very popular local thrift-store chain].
Barista: That’s incredible.
Random woman: It’s an authentic Irish Aran Sweater!
Random woman then proceeds to talk to several people about her $1 sweater. I almost summoned the courage to ask her if I could take a picture but chickened out.
Random person (who didn’t know random woman, I don’t think): It’s amazing what you can find at thrift stores.
Random woman: It sure is. When I go to Frenchy’s I’m never looking for normal things – I’m hoping for a treasure. And sometimes you find some really great things. [Amen!]
FRIEND TIME
Indy got to run in another cross-country race. One of his good friends got 1st, another friend got 2nd, he got 3rd, and his bestie got 4th.
After a successful race, what better way to celebrate than with ice cream? Belle had a friend along and so did Indy and we went to a local farm market. I got mint chip and it was so good. Look at those goats!!!
On the Monday holiday, Indy spent the afternoon at a friend’s house and Belle and I met up with the same friends that came over on Saturday and baked cupcakes. We did a local woods trail. It was beautiful. (But, alas, since it was 30 September, it didn’t count as one of my CBWC walks…)
One night Indy had a last-minute invite to a friend’s house for supper, so Belle and I watched an episode of Bake Squad while we ate supper alone (banana on PB toast – très fancy). It was fun!
BONUS ROUND
- Green tea.
- Hot showers. I was feeling tired and sluggish one morning and finally convinced myself to be a grown up and take a shower and do my hair. I immediately felt so much better!
- Sunshine.
- Lamp lights at night.
- A good memoir: What Remains by Carole Radziwill. Bonus points for finishing this book while eating a bowl of vanilla ice cream drowned in homemade chocolate peanut butter sauce.
- Getting into bed at the end of the day.
- A sushi date night with John last Friday.
- John gets home today!!!! After a very quick turnaround on trips, he’s home for several weeks and that is a Happy Thing. Bonus: he got to cross yet another country off his travelled-to list. He’s now been to Estonia! (And last weekend he got to finally explore London – he flies through all the time but usually stays overnight at an airport hotel.) I no longer struggle when he gets to visit new places. I know he wishes we were with him (a lot of the fun of travel comes from having shared memories!) and he treats it like a free reconnaissance mission. When the kids were little and I was home wiping butts and noses and cleaning toddler food messes off the floor it was…really tough. He has always been wonderful about not glamorizing his international travel for work because it is hard and exhausting, but he also regularly downplays the perks of these experiences for my benefit. To no longer feel even a smidge of jealousy is a Happy Thing.
- The Cool Bloggers Walking Club. I was going to include it in this Happy Things Friday post, but since this is already ridiculously long I’m going to do a double post Friday and give the CBWC the spotlight it deserves!!
Happy Weekending.
Your turn. Any Happy Things to mention today? Have you ever had a Pumpkin Spice Latte? Any frugal wins this week? What’s a better idiom for “two birds, one stone”?
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Cattis
I’ve never tried anything pumkin spice flavoured, I think? It’s not a thing in Sweden… Our ”two birds one stone” is to get two flies in one slap but when I type that into Google translate it translates to two birds one stone. Google translate leaves much to be desired if you ask me, it’s ”nice” of them to change it to the appropriate idiom. If that’s the right word? Can’t remember the swedish one, and once again I have no use of google translate 😆
For happy friday: thankful for my mother in law who knits anything we want for us, I’ve used two different sweaters she made for me just this week since the lovely fall weather finally arrived. I’m thankful for a walk in the forrest and that the warm september made almost all my tomatoes ripen, I have over 25 liters to take care of 😅
Elisabeth
I think it’s much less of a “thing” in Canada, but we’ve slowly adopted the American habits/love of all things pumpkin spice.
Two flies in one slap – ha. That’s the first time I’ve heard that saying, but it is definitely similar to the birds/stone but a little less violent?
How wonderful to have someone who can make custom-knit things. And I’m sure it makes HER heart happy to see you wearing the results of her labours of love. I would gladly take some of those tomatoes off your hands…
Michelle G.
You said you had your first pumpkin spice latte, but I didn’t see you mention whether you enjoyed it or not. I’m not a big fan. I love pumpkin spice in baked goods, but it just doesn’t go with coffee for me. I’m glad you had many happy things this week! The photo of the cupcakes could be in a magazine!!
Elisabeth
It was fine. I didn’t love it (I tend to prefer my home-brewed coffee the best; less coffee/not as strong, but also less sugar). I’m picky. BUT, I did enjoy it and I’m glad I got to try one.
I thought it was so smart of them to use that cake stand for displaying the cupcakes. Belle got it for me for Christmas (our school has a bazaar where kids can “shop” donations for free to give to family members and that’s what she picked for me.) I would never use a cake stand, but ended up keeping fruit on it in our kitchen which has been perfect. So this is actually the first time cake – in one form at least – has been on this stand. I walked up the stairs and that’s what I found which exceeded my expectations for sure.
Sarah
In 2017, we took the kids to Washington DC for spring break and ate at subway nearly every day— it was on the walk back to our hotel and one place where everyone would like the food. Ben and the boys all had that same ON pullover for family pics— love it. Poor Coop has been wearing it for nearly a decade since he had one AND had the older boys’ versions.
Elisabeth
I love how much autonomy you have over creating your own sandwich. Another great point for Subway. Not many fast-food spots where you can pick literally everything you choose to eat.
That’s so fun that you’ve had and used that pullover. It’s neutral and dressy but not too dressy he can’t wear it for lots of different events. Or so I hope. He hates to wear anything that even has a whiff of “dressy” to it. Which is fine because I don’t care about preppy clothes but, also, it is nice to have a few pictures that don’t feature mis-matched athletic gear at some point in the year.
Ana
Cola and alu foil might work for cleaning your lights.
I read it somewhere and it works!
Elisabeth
I’ll have to try it! I don’t have cola in the house very often, but I think I can buy single cans at the DollarStore. I wonder what the mechanism is for that working. It’s sounds like a very useful trick to have up my sleeve – thanks for sharing!
Jenny
I have a vegan cookbook that suggests alternatives to these violent sayings, and their suggestion is “slice two carrots with one knife.” Ha, I’m not sure that will catch on. I agree, I don’t like the bird one!
I’m glad you had such a nice week! The girls did a great job with those cupcakes, and their game Deaf, Blind, Mute sounds fun. Did they make that up?
Congrats to Indy on his race, glad John gets home today, AND… I’m also wondering how you liked the PSL? People seem to love them or hate them.
Elisabeth
Slice two carrots with one knife. THAT IS TOO GOOD, JENNY. Though, I also don’t think it will catch on.
I don’t actually know if they made the game up. A few weeks earlier they did the same thing, except Belle was visiting their house. So I had heard of the game once before, but only in the context of these two friends. I’ll have to ask her.
The PSL was…fine. I didn’t love it, didn’t hate it. I don’t think I’ll order another one this season as I like my own coffee the best BUT I’m glad I can now say I’ve tried one.
Daria
Happy Things this week could be… A day off for Rosha’shana (sp?) yesterday. Sitting outside with a book and a cup of tea, and a blanket because in NJ it’s already fall, full steam ahead. Flu shots (omg R cried so much) but the staff at the clinic was very kind and helpful, thanks modern medicine. Green tea at work. Yoga three times! My accu-pressure mat. Students! Tony is NOT traveling this week! Mom-friends.
Elisabeth
The book/tea/blanket vignette sounds lovely. You have had so many competing pressures this school year so far and I’m so glad you got a little reprieve to catch your breath and relax a bit.
Having a spouse home dramatically changes how the week flows, so I’m so glad T is around for the coming week!!!
San
I am so thrilled to hear you had a great week, especially because you were solo-parenting! Isn’t it interesting how sometimes, when you don’t expect it, a week can turn out to be just wonderful 🙂 You got so much done!! I love how you tackled all the things and felt such a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes it’s all about getting started…
I loved to hear about Indy’s cross-country race – congrats on making third place!!
I cannot wait to go thrifting again (but I keep telling myself to wait until after our move because I don’t want to bring in anything new at this point!). That Aran sweater is a real treasure indeed!
How was the PSL?
P.S. In German, we say “seven flies with one stroke” LOL
Elisabeth
The PSL was…fine. I prefer my own coffee from home, but I’m glad I tried it. It’s a cultural touchpoint, for sure.
Seven flies with one stroke. Wow – Germans are much more efficient than North Americans. We only get two birds and you’re over there getting seven flies!
Maria
Those cupcakes look glorious! So glad you had a fantastic long weekend! Solo parenting is hard and somehow the weekends feel hardest, in my experience.
As someone who loves snail mail and pen pals, it made me smile so much to see your happy thing about Belle’s pen pal. It’s awesome to see the next generation starting to do something I love.
Elisabeth
Weekends are definitely the hardest for me. So much time to fill and the expectation that things should be more “fun.” But we survived and then some. It was a really great few days. I’ll admit I was a bit surprised how smoothly things went. It isn’t always quite so positive…!
I love exchanging hand-written notes so it makes my heart so happy that Belle does this. Years ago she received a letter writing kit for her birthday and it launched a real love for writing letters (the kit came with cards and stamps and envelopes and an address book, etc). I think she mostly likes receiving letters back (who doesn’t), but she sends out several dozen a year which is very fun!
Lisa’s Yarns
I had a PSL last month and even with fewer pumps of the syrup I was kind of meh about it! Maybe I was having an off day as it’s usually a treat I enjoy!
Blind/dead/mute is such a clever game! Kind of reminds me of some of the challenges they have had on the show top chef. The cupcakes look amazing, too!
This week was pretty good overall aside from the bullying situation with Paul which seems to be an isolated situation (hope that remains the case). The weather finally cooled off which I am loving. It’s been so hot lately and I am over the 80 degree temps!!
Elisabeth
Yeah. I’d call my reaction Meh as well. It was fine, but nothing mind-blowing.
Ohhh. Maybe that’s where the kids got the idea from? A baking show?
My heart breaks for Paul. School is such a hard environment and other kids can be so mean. I hope he’s doing okay and that there aren’t any more incidents.
K
I found my favorite quinoa flakes on a 50% off sale at Azure Standard https://www.azurestandard.com/?a_aid=jWb0sVFU6M
I bought 3 packages since they freeze well.
Elisabeth
That’s a great frugal find!
Sara
I loved this whole post so much!
What do you use to organize or store your photos? I need a better strategy? 🤔
Elisabeth
I need to do a whole post about this! I had one on my old blog, so should dig up how I explained it there. Basically…OneDrive and LOTS of folders. But I’ll plan to do a deep dive into this sometime soon.
Ronni
I had a boss who would sometimes say “Feed two birds with one scone” with a wink!
Elisabeth
Feed two birds with one scone – I love it!!!!
Grateful Kae
I just love how your kids have such wonderful, deep, flourishing friendships! I feel like I had that experience at their ages- I had a group of really close friends and we did fun things constantly, similar to Belle and her friends. I feel like my boys, especially E, don’t really have that same level of engagement with their friends. E’s couple closest friends are both kind of quiet/ introverted type kids who don’t seem to have a ton of interest in actually getting together a lot. They do a LOT of online video game playing together (with headsets on, talking/laughing/interacting), but that does not feel like the same?! E is also not one to really “lead the charge” exactly, either, which makes it hard. Ivan and I were just talking about that last night- like if the other kids were more outgoing and “planned stuff”, I am certain E would be happy to participate. But he isn’t going to be the one to suggest, hey, why don’t we all do XYZ? Or, anyone want to get together this weekend and have a bonfire? Etc.
A is a little more involved with friends (he’s out fishing right now with a buddy), but it still feels really different from when I was his age. Like he’ll get together with a friend for a certain purpose (say, to go fishing on a Saturday afternoon), and when they’re done, they each just go home. When I was that age, my friend and I would have gone fishing, then cooked up plans to go to one of our house’s afterwards, and then begged if we could have a sleepover! lol.
Elisabeth
I think it’s harder to be spontaneous with friends now because parents are busier, kids are busier, and everyone lives distinct lives from those around them? I do think living in a smallish community really helps foster friendships since they see their friends at school, at the grocery store, and almost everyone is within a 5-minute drive of our place.
But yes, I am so, so thankful for their good friendships. It takes a lot of work, I will admit, but especially this year I feel like I need to do it for Belle’s sake given the crummy school situation. And I also think that all the investment of getting kids together with friends when they were younger – and I had to be much more hands-on – has paid off now that they’re older. They have a lot of great friends AND now they can basically do their own thing…leaving me free to do my own thing 😉 There might be an ulterior motive for me sometimes!
NGS
I need to have a teen friend who makes cupcakes for me! Especially if they’re delicious!
Happy things: I was at a fundraising event last week and there was a (older than me) woman sitting alone by herself in the quietest room. I sat down next to her and she started interrogating me about my views about the thing we were fundraising for (it was political). I laughed at her and said, “hey, you don’t even know my name yet” and in the next fifteen minutes we laughed a lot together. It was lovely.
Elisabeth
I know, right! It was the best to eat a delicious baked good and have played no role in it. (Well, technically, I bought the ingredients, drove to get her friends, and coordinated the hang-out…)
Those spontaneous meetings with people where something clicks are magic!
Kyria @ Travel Spot
So many happy things! I was going to ask if you like the PSL but I see someone else already did and you were meh. I am also not really a fan. I think it is not necessarily something that Americans love (I may be wrong) but something that Starbucks has used as a marketing scheme and it took off in other venues, although I suppose if it took off, there must be some reason. However, the only person I know who really loves them is Lisa. Most of my other cohort prefers pretty plain or black coffees. I actually saw PSL at Timmy’s about a month (?) ago and I was a bit shocked, but they also have some sort of Nutella latte (yuck!?) so I guess they are trying them all out to see what sticks. Give me pumpkin pie, bread, curry or anything with real pumpkin, but count me out for the fake flavored items, especially when they are overly sweet.
Elisabeth
I can almost guarantee I will have pumpkin bread when you’re here! The kids are loving it and shhhh…don’t tell them I halved the sugar, okay! It’s so tasty and moist. And pumpkin puree is on great sales right now because it’s exactly one week to Canadian Thanksgiving!
Demerits and Gold Stars: July - September - The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist
[…] Deep cleaning. Our bathroom ceiling needed to be mopped. I put it off for months and kept eyeing the water spots. It took about 2 minutes to get the job done and weeks later I still feel very self-satisfied! Ditto with the toilet makeover and rusted light fixtures. […]