THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life ~ February Edition

The year is off to a great start! I forgot to mention last month that my word of the year for 2026 is euphoria. My desire for this year is to feel sacred and beautiful moments that are filled with elation and euphoria. These instances always remind me that I am exactly where I'm meant to be and they often happen when I'm doing nothing special at all. Just living life and being struck by how grateful I am for everything. I want more of that type of presence this year! When January started we were still in Jasper, waking up in the mountains. My favourite way to start a fresh new year, that's for sure!

We also checked out the very cool Ice Castles that we have in downtown Edmonton.

I started my Broadway Jazz dance class! To say that this has been a humbling experience is an understatement! I have practically no dance background and so choreography and steps don't come naturally to me. The class has been a great challenge and an amazing cardio workout!! I'm just doing my best with it and trying to enjoy being a beginner at something. On the other hand, this experience has given me a renewed sense of appreciation for my yoga practice - something that I am very familiar with and advanced in. I am currently working out for a total of 375 minutes per week and I've got a great combination of yoga, strength training, and cardio happening right now. I'm not sure that I could be doing much more to act proactively and to take my menopause body seriously!

Just when we think the holidays are over, we head into January birthday extravaganza time!! First was my birthday and I turned 44 years old! I'm proud of my age and I don't have any negative feelings about it at all... But also... Where did the last 20 years go?! Remember how women used to be all secretive about their ages?? That type of attitude seems really strange to me. Why should I feel ashamed for living 44 awesome years of life?

My birthday celebration this year involved getting a hotel room at the JW Marriott downtown, our favourite hotel in Edmonton. Then Tim and I got dressed up and had dinner at Bar Trove (the restaurant that Connor McDavid's wife Lauren opened). The whole concept was meant to highlight luxury and we took full advantage, eating tons of caviar, oysters, and lobster! The next day I got to visit the Spa by JW for a very fancy Doctor Babor Wellness Facial which was amazing. It was a weekend of everything that I love!

Then a few nights later was my Birthday Girls Night and this year I chose Partake for some delicious French eats!

I also got to have a lovely hang with Susan as well!

Next up was Archie's birthday and he turned 9! We told him that he could have a "YES day" for his birthday and he came up with a whole list of things that he wanted to do. His main desires included; having dinner at Le Petit Chef, an immersive animated dining experience which was really fun! Getting whatever he wanted at Bulk Barn, picking up dirty sodas at Crumbl, paying a visit to Claw Park, also having dinner at Bao Bao (to get xiao long bao - his favourite food), and for Tim to make him the classic homemade Golem chocolate birthday cake. We did all of the things!! (The one thing that we couldn't do was go to the roof of the Stantec Tower, the tallest building in Western Canada. There's no way to go up there!)

Archie did a headstand with me in this photo for the first time ever!! We got there!!!

We held Archie's birthday party on the weekend and it was at the Alberta Aviation Museum! 16 of his friends attended the party and they all seemed to have a great time.

We asked Archie if he has any ideas for what he would like to do next year for his big 10th birthday and he said that he wants to take a snowboarding trip to Zurich and Saas-Fee in Switzerland, ha ha ha! So we'll see if we're actually able to pull that one off... Once all of the birthday celebrating was out of the way the rest of the month was pretty chill and I finally felt like I could relax. We were sure to visit the Canoë Volant festival (a French Canadian forest party that we really enjoyed last year). And we had a Girls Night Sleepover at Rachelle's house in Red Deer which was a ton of fun! Rachelle even made us eggs benedict for breakfast!

January is like an extended holiday season for us with all of the birthdays and it's all very fun! But I'm also looking forward to moving past this entire part of the year and to not have to think about all of it anymore! I can't complain about how the year has begun. Life with Archie: Archie's programs have started up for the winter! This time he's doing: Swim for Life Swimmer 3 ~ He didn't pass this last time so he's doing it again. But he's actually quite a good swimmer now!

Junior Snowboard at Snow Valley ~ Archie is very decent at snowboarding! He can turn onto both edges of his board and is fine-tuning his skills!

Archie built a Tow Truck at the latest Kids Workshop at Home Depot.

Archie also got a new cookbook for his birthday so he is going to start making the family dinner on a weekly basis! (With help.) His first dish was Broccoli Meatballs in a Basic Tomato Sauce and it was delicious!

Here are some additional highlights from Archie's birthday including presents, Le Petit Chef, and some of the other fun stuff that we did!

And here is more of the Alberta Aviation Museum birthday party fun! There were PLANES!!

Highlights from the rest of the month included attending his friend Silas' birthday party, a sleepover at the Reynolds Museum (a transportation museum) with Cubs, PD Day breakfast, and Canoë Volant.

February is coming in hot and it should be one of the most exciting months of our year! Mostly because... We leave for Jamaica tomorrow! We booked this trip two years ago and it's exciting that it's finally here! We are going to Negril and staying at Beaches Negril for a week! We are long-time visitors of the Sandals/Beaches resorts and I'm really looking forward to all of the familiar things that I love about them. But I'm also excited to go to a place that I've never been before! (I've already been to Jamaica but we went to Ocho Rios last time.) The beach time and jerk chicken can't come soon enough! There's also Valentine's Day but we don't currently have anything planned for it since we return home from our vacation the day before. No major plans for the Family Day long weekend either. Should be a lot of vacation fun followed by a pretty quiet remainder of the month! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!: February 9th is Laura Mitschke’s 40th birthday!

It's your big 40th birthday!!! Welcome!! I hope that you get to do something extra special to celebrate this whole new decade and I know that you will do it in style. I miss the days when we were wild in our 20s and getting ourselves into literally the most crazy shit. There was never a dull moment!! But this part of life is pretty amazing too and I'm so glad that I still get to share it with you. Love you always! <3 February 18th is Candice Weingartner's 14th wedding anniversary!

Wishing you a romantic day to celebrate the two of you! <3