THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life - May Edition

The past month was pretty quiet and fairly "groundhog day-esque" where it just feels like we're living the same days and weeks over and over again. At least the weather has gotten pretty beautiful, so at least there's that. It helps a lot not to feel trapped in a winter prison!

COVID CHAT! Welp, things in Alberta aren't great. Although, Edmonton is actually one of the least bad places in the province. It's other areas that are blowing up right now. As things currently stand, in Edmonton there is 0.4% of the population with known active cases. The active cases in Edmonton have gone up to 6,033 which is practically triple what it was this time last month. I definitely feel like I have pandemic fatigue because I'm sure that I should be more shocked/scared of these numbers and I'm just not. I really want the vaccinations to start catching up already. I anticipate being able to get vaccinated myself this month (finally!) which is very exciting. Out of you guys (the readers of this blog) there are 24 of us in total and 13 of you have now been vaccinated (that I'm aware of) with your first doses. More than half! You guys have all gotten an array of Pfizer, Moderna and Astra Zeneca. It makes me SO HAPPY and relived to know that so many of you that I care about are safer and more protected. <3 I do not particularly like the Premier of Alberta, but I will say that I do appreciate his optimism in regards to the pandemic. He recently said "The end of this is so close. If we just stick to our guns for a few more weeks we'll head into what I truly believe will be the best summer in Alberta history." Sometimes it's just nice to hear stuff like that. I, for one, function better through optimism as opposed to negativity. Thankfully, yet another month has gone by and the elementary school that Archie’s preschool is in still has not recorded any cases at all. It almost seems impossible but it's true - we're very lucky!

In other Covid news, Tim's sister Angela and her husband Greg tested positive for Covid this past month and we're assuming that both of their kids caught it as well (although they weren't tested). It's official! This is the closest that Covid has come to my family! We were initially concerned because even though Tim's parents have been recently vaccinated, they see Angela & Greg quite regularly. Thankfully after isolating for two weeks and being tested, they were negative. That was a relief. I don't think that his parents would have fared as well as Angela & Greg did against the virus, who have now already almost completely recovered. The irony is that Angela & Greg have been the most paranoid about Covid out of everyone in our family. They've kept their kids out of school/daycare since March 2020 (everyone else in the family continued to send their kids to school/daycare), and last summer they were the ones who started a lot of family drama and arguments regarding the family going to the cottage in Muskoka and how "unsafe" it would be. Yet they are the ones who caught Covid. I'm just glad that they're okay. As much as I don't want to dwell on the pandemic, I do want to have a written account of what happened. So that's why I've been devoting a portion of my blog to talking about it each month. It's history. April began with Easter, which was a lot of fun. The Easter Bunny came to our house and Archie loved hunting all over for the widespread amounts of chocolate.

We attended Melanie's virtual birthday party which was a ton of fun because the theme was "Zoom call" where you had to dress like business up top and pajamas down below. We had a great time fully embracing this theme! It honestly felt like a real party! She had a live DJ and we all had drinks... Best pandemic birthday bash yet!

We got our tax return and took out a large portion of the money in cash. (You may recall that we've been using a cash-based budgeting system for the past couple of years.) Am I teaching my child the wrong thing if I "made it rain" and threw dolla bills all over the living room? BAH HA!

Currently, restaurants are allowed to be open for outdoor patio dining. We feel comfortable taking advantage of this. It makes me feel a whole lot more normal being able to get dressed in "real" clothes, go out, and to sit at a restaurant eating good food. Thankfully the springtime weather has been accommodating. Another quote from our Premier was "There is not a risk of transmission for a family that goes and eats outdoors, distanced from other tables, in a restaurant that's carefully following all the guidelines." Again, I don't super love our Premier, but I do personally agree with this statement. (Also, yes, I wore this skirt a lot this month. It's new. Ha ha.)

In other exciting and somewhat related news, Yelp Edmonton did a feature on me because I'm a Yelp Elite member. To become a member you must be selected or nominated in. Membership is also reevaluated annually. I joined Yelp last year because I felt that it was important to stay "current" with the way that people talk about food. Being involved with Yelp helps my credibility as a food blogger and brings me followers as well. It was very nice and flattering to have gotten this feature!

Also! My project of SELLING ALL OF THE BABY STUFF continues to go well! I have now made $1,100 from my sales! I only have a few more items to post for sale and then my work here will be done. I love that so much of that stuff is out of my house. My yoga studio has started offering outdoor yoga classes in the park, which has been really amazing. Outdoor fitness classes are allowed as long as the group is physically distanced with a maximum of 10 participants. It makes up for the fact that the physical studio closed down just a little bit. I haven't practiced with other humans since November (six months) so that has been nice. And more normal-feeling. I also made this the other day. It's an Erika Starter Pack:

Life with Archie: Archie is doing great. He is still loving preschool very much. His class is getting caterpillars to watch turn into butterflies and chicken eggs to watch hatch into chicks and I think that I'm more excited about these things than he is! Archie has also gotten very good at being a little helper that can follow instructions. I'm starting to see the benefits of having a little minion around who can do my bidding, ha ha! He is also WAY into riding his bike. He currently has a strider/balance bike and loves riding it in the dedicated bike lanes and at the nearby pump track. I think we're going to have to upgrade him to an actual pedal bike pretty soon because he already knows how to balance on his current bike. One new issue that has been annoying is that Archie has wet the bed a couple of times... And the worst part is that it has been my bed. As I've mentioned before, he often ends up sleeping in our bed. Except now he's had a couple of accidents and it's a problem. I don't know why this is starting to happen because he has been out of diapers for over a year and hasn't wet the bed this entire time, until now. I really hope that it's just a weird phase.

I really can't believe that it's May. This year is flying by so fast and we're still in the same annoying pandemic trap. May has always been one of my most favourite months and I hope that this is a good one. I really want this spring to be a time of renewal and rebirth. A fresh start. Mother's Day is coming up and I'm pretty excited about it! We have reservations for the Mother's Day High Tea at BREW + BLOOM, which is an extremely beautiful cafe (with an outdoor patio) that I've been dying to visit. I cannot wait. We've also ordered the Mother’s Day Brunch Biera Box from Biera for the day before Mother's Day... So as usual, we have no concept of "less is more." I'm pretty sure that I deserve to be celebrated though. :P Otherwise the month should be pretty quiet. Victoria Day long weekend used to be my favourite holiday all year and now we don't have any plans at all, ha ha. Hopefully this time next month I'll be talking about how I've gotten vaccinated and that the world around us is starting to return to normal. THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

May 14th is Heather Petrychyn’s 39th birthday!

Wishing you an extra wonderful day in which I hope you get to relax and feel special. I hope that Curtis and the boys spoil you a whole lot! I can't believe how long its been since we've seen each other and that makes me sad. One of these days I really do want to visit Manitoba and I hope that it finally gets to happen. I miss you a lot and the adventures that we have shared! Love you! <3 May 18th is Nicole Thibault’s 39th birthday!

It crushes my soul every day that I'm back in Edmonton (where I belong) and that I can't enjoy a normal friendship with you that involves weekly hangouts and love piles. I can't wait until the day comes that we can be normal! I want retroactive hugs!! I hope that your day is extra special and we will have a girls night birthday edition for you!! So pick a restaurant! I love you immensely, always. <3 May 27th is Krystie Shirlaw’s 35th birthday!

I have a feeling that this is going to be a really special year for you. You're entering the second half of your 30s with a whole new, fresh amazing phase of your life. I couldn't be more thrilled for you and have been so proud of you. I really hope that Jason totally spoils you! I absolutely can't wait to make a trip to BC once it's possible! I miss you and love you so much. <3 May 28th is Heather Petrychyn's 10th wedding anniversary!

TEN whole years already!! I hope that you and Curtis can ditch the kids and do something special! May 31st is Susan Murphy's 8th wedding anniversary!

I hope that you and Matt can ditch the kids and do something special!