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

Welp, I guess that was the summer! While it feels like it flew by, it also feels like we got up to a whole lot. It was a good summer! It felt like we really took advantage of the fun activities around us and it was nice to explore as much as possible in our new city.

At the beginning of August my parents were still in Toronto visiting. We got up to TONS of activities and outings with them! (Went to a taping of Cityline, The Toronto Zoo, saw the musical Come From Away, Centreville Amusement Park, Etobicoke Farmers’ Market, plus ate in tons of restaurants.) It was great to spend quality time with my parents and Archie loves his Grandma and Grandpa.

The Toronto Zoo.

I was very excited to go see the musical Come From Away. I loved it!!

Centreville Amusement Park was a great day! It’s a small amusement park on Centre Island (you have to take a ferry there) and the rides are geared to small kids, for the most part. My parents and Tim and I all went on the rides though and had a great time! Archie did 10 different rides in total! It was a great warm-up to get him used to the idea of going on rides and he loved it.

Very excited to go on the little roller coaster.

On the Scrambler with my Mom!!

Archie's favourite ride at Centreville.

I like this photo because I like our fashion.

Then Crystal was in town from Oxbow! She was actually in Cambridge, which is about an hour from where I live. I was happy to drive to Cambridge to see her and have dinner together! ♥

Melanie had a co-ed Pool Party Baby Shower at her place and we were very happy to attend! Baby is going to be here so soon!

I got up to more of my usual woo-woo under the full moon...

There were lots of hangs with my lady crew...

We took Archie to Day Out with Thomas, an event where he got to see a life-sized Thomas the Tank Engine and go for a train ride with him. Seeing such a big Thomas totally blew his mind!

We also attended the Kraemer Family Reunion, which is Tim’s mom’s side of the family. There were lots of people there that I’d never met before. Archie loved running around with his cousins, as usual.

Then Tim had an entire week off of work (which worked out to nine days off). And we had a really amazing summer staycation.

One of the main things that we did was take Archie to Canada’s Wonderland! We had such a fun and wonderful day there! Archie went on 21 different rides and we loved seeing how much he enjoyed it all! It was certainly a different experience spending the whole day in the kids area, as opposed to riding all of the big roller coasters. But it was great in a new way.

This was his favourite ride by far!

Next we made a small two-night trip up to Tobermory (a 3.5 hour drive away), a harbour village on the Bruce Peninsula. I’d been looking forward to this a lot. On the drive there we stopped in the town of Chesley, which is where Tim’s dad grew up. We visited Tim’s grandparents, who I never got to meet, unfortunately. They’re Archie’s great grandparents!

Tobermory was a very cool place and we all enjoyed our time there. Our waterfront motel was very cute. It wasn’t quite like Tofino, but it was really nice in its own way. We did two good hikes while we were there, and of course the pièce de résistance at Tobermory is the grotto.

The grotto is very beautiful and impressive! Tim has been telling me about it ever since we first met! I loved the ultra blue water and loved nature adventuring with my family!

Breakfast at our house!

There might have been a giant slice of pizza...

And there might have been goats...

I love the fun that we get up to with our kids. <3

And that was August in a nutshell! There was a lot of fun had, that’s for sure.

Now to break things down for some realtalk.

I got some annoying news from my doctor that my cholesterol has gotten too high again (my “bad” cholesterol (LDL) is at 3.76 and should be 3 or less) and also that my kidney function could be better. I KNOW that I don't drink enough water so I’m not entirely surprised. Plus I had that kidney stone last year. So I definitely have some big water-consumption goals and better habits to get into. It's the cholesterol that I'm the most annoyed about because I had this same issue back in Edmonton over a decade ago. And I fixed it! It's frustrating that the problem has returned. However, if I'm being honest, I have felt the signs in my body lately indicating that the issue has returned. It mostly feels like a heaviness in my chest. I'm going to do my best to improve my eating habits but I don't feel that I eat "unhealthily." My diet is extremely varied and I don't eat too much or too little of anything. I work out four times a week, but I'll be the first to admit that my yoga consumption has gone down a bit since moving to Toronto. I was able to practice more in Montreal and Vancouver because the classes were longer and more frequently available, giving me more options. It was nice that my studio in those cities was a walkable distance away. This has been one of my biggest frustrations about living here. I also used to walk around all the time in my previous cities and now I drive everywhere. Why is this? I think that I just told myself that “there’s no where to walk to” in our area (not really true) and once I had that excuse in my mind it was easy to allow myself to become lazy. I'm going to work on this entire issue and get myself back into a healthier place.

My doctor referred me to a Dietitian, which I found a bit unnecessary. But whatever, I'll take the resource. I saw the Dietitian and the appointment was more beneficial than I expected. We went over my typical diet and she didn’t notice anything to be particularly wrong with it and she was happy with my activity level. She confirmed that my cholesterol issue is very likely genetic (which is what my doctor told me as well). She also said that it’s not THAT high, just a little bit too high. She gave me some helpful advice of foods to eat more of which should help to lower my levels (whole grains, fibre!, oatmeal, plant proteins, flaxseed, use less butter in cooking) and also said that drinking more water will help the issue as well.

SO! My main goals include drinking 8 glasses of water a day (SO HARD!) and to eat less deep fried and processed foods. Less meaningless snacking. And no more fast food crap during the week for lunch with Archie. I'm not putting any restrictions on what I order when we eat out in restaurants 1-3 times a week or when we’re on vacation - because that is what brings me joy and life happiness.

They’re going to test me again in four months to check on my progress.

On the topic of living in a walkable neighbourhood, I thought that it would be interesting to do a comparison on Walk Score. Here’s how my last few neighbourhoods stack up:

Old Strathcona in Edmonton ~ Walk Score: 90, Walker’s Paradise

Mile End in Montreal ~ Walk Score: 95, Walker’s Paradise

Kitsilano in Vancouver ~ Walk Score: 94, Walker’s Paradise

Etobicoke in Toronto ~ Walk Score: 48, Car-Dependent

Obviously we chose to live where we do. We knew that it would come with its compromises. We absolutely love our house and our land, which is something that we would not be able to afford in a more central, walkable neighbourhood. Not in this city, anyway. And I do miss living in a busy, exciting, hip downtown-adjacent area. I really, really love (and prefer!) that type of living. But unfortunately it couldn’t be both.

That being said, nothing is stopping me from going on epic neighbourhood walks but myself. There are places to walk to, and also, why do I need a destination? I’m excited that I’ve finally gotten myself out of this negative mind-loop.

(PS - Just to torture myself, I looked up the rent on similarly sized rentals to what we currently have (3 bedrooms) in my ideal Toronto neighbourhood; Trinity Bellwoods. The Walk Score is 97 but the rent is $3,800 per month on average. And that isn’t even for an entire house all to ourselves, that’s with another tenant in the basement. So yeah. It’s depressing.)

There are a lot of nice things about living in Toronto, but this whole situation certainly isn’t one of them.

Life with Archie:

While Archie is obviously not in school, it still feels a bit like “back to school” time. Lots of the weekly programs that we attend were off for the summer, so it’ll be nice to get back into our usual routine. I’m looking forward to Archie getting back to his swimming lessons, for example.

Archie has gotten much better at being more focused. He's improved a lot at sitting down and paying attention to one thing, instead of being a constant tornado, moving from one thing to the next. I love seeing his interest and attention span becoming more mature.

He can now sing the entire alphabet song all by himself and can count to 20. He has now gotten his 19th tooth and only has one left to go!

I got some exciting news that Archie has gotten into the Parent Relief Program at the George Hull Centre that I take him to for drop-in playgroups every week! I put him on the list for this program a long time ago. Starting in September, I'll be able to bring Archie to this special program on Fridays and leave him there from 9am-1pm. They’ll even feed him lunch. And it's completely free! It lasts for nine weeks (it's obviously not forever) but it's basically like free half-day daycare! I'm so excited!!! Having a break during the day on a weekday while Tim is at work is SO foreign to me! I don't even know what I'll do with myself! Take a yoga class, most likely. Or go shopping in peace! Or sit in a nice cafe! This is going to make such a big difference in my life and weekly routine. Our area in Toronto certainly does have amazing parent resources which makes my life a lot easier.

Archie got to meet Crystal for the first time! Now he has met 21/22 of you, so there’s only one of you left! And it’s Candice!! We really need to get together with the kids this Christmas.

Archie has been doing plenty of nature detective work this summer and plenty of animal loving. I love how curious he is about the world around him!

Archie got to meet his namesake when we were in Chesley - he shares his name with Archibald Donovan, his great great grandfather!

Archie also had a dentist appointment and his teeth are looking great and he has no cavities. All of that brushing is working!

Archie has loved the summer so much! I’m sad for him to have to wear shoes (and clothes!) again. But he’s already talking about Halloween so I’m really looking forward to that.

It is definitely starting to feel a bit cooler out but I find that September is usually a really great month to squeeze just a little bit more out of summer.

This week we’re going camping! (Real camping, in a tent.) We’re going to a place called Sandbanks which I’ve heard so much about and have always wanted to visit. It about a two hour drive away and our campsite is right on the beach. The beach is supposed to be gorgeous. We’re camping for two nights and I’m looking forward to cooking over the campfire and to all three of us cuddling in the sleeping bag all night.

We were supposed to have another family cottage weekend in Muskoka later this month, but it’s looking like we won’t be able to go. Tim has a busy few weeks at work coming up because he’s going to be shooting a bunch of motion capture. Tim also has to make a business trip to Montreal and we’re talking about Archie and I joining him there. So we’ll see how all of these things pan out.

It’s actually a fairly quiet month!

THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

September 6th is Zena Domanski’s 44th wedding anniversary!

My parents have been crushing it at marriage for a long time. ♥

September 10th is Sarah Tasker’s 8th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you guys a romantic day to celebrate, which I know that you will!

September 17th is Sarah Tasker’s 37th birthday!

I am so excited that I’m here and that I can celebrate with you this year!! (Let’s make some plans!) I also hope that Darren and the kids spoil you a lot as well. It has been so nice to be back into each others regular lives. I often stop and remind myself that you’re the OG - we’ve been friends since we were five years old - and now we get to see each other all the time again. It’s pretty incredible and I don’t take our long friendship for granted. I love you so much! ♥