The Weekender

I’m so bummed it’s Monday – I had one of those weekends that you never want to end.

Friday was another half day at work so I went to the park with my sister and nephew. We busted out a big picnic blanket, grabbed some iced lattes and spent about three hours just lazing in the sun and chatting. Perfect afternoon!

I swear this little guy gets cuter every time I see him!

In the evening, Josh and I went to a street festival downtown Oakville. For dinner, we ate at The WORKS Burger, which has a menu full of amazing topping combinations. I decided to test out my theory that peanut butter would taste good on anything by ordering the SK8R BOY, a beast of a burger topped with cheese, bacon and peanut butter.

I really liked it although, given my peanut butter obsession, this was not exactly surprising.

On Saturday, I went to BodyPump followed by a Hatha Yoga class at The Clarity Centre. I’ve been neglecting yoga lately, I think because I prefer heated classes but I don’t really want to do them when it’s so hot outside. I’d like to get back into though because I just feel better emotionally and physically when I fit a yoga class into my weekly routine.

Saturday afternoon was dedicated to re-decorating. Our current strategy is to tackle one or two areas of the house every weekend, which allows us to be productive but still go out and do non-house related stuff on the weekends. Last weekend, we worked on the basement and the garage. This weekend it was the study and the backyard.

In the afternoon, we did an IKEA run to buy a few accents for our study. This was the end result:

En route to IKEA, we spotted a teak patio set that our neighbours were selling for $25. Sold!

Obviously we had to have a barbecue. My grandpa had brought us a zillion zucchini from his garden the other week so we grilled those up with some burgers, sweet potato and corn.

After dinner, we went for a walk and explored some of the trails in our neighbourhood. Being in the forest reminded me of how much I love trail runs so I decided to go for a run on Sunday morning. It’s so much nicer running on a shaded path than a sweltering sidewalk with the sun beating down on you, plus I had fun exploring new paths. I think our new neighbourhood just might re-ignite my love of running.

While I was able to navigate the forest just fine, on my way home I ended up getting lost in a nearby neighbourhood that is essentially one big labrynth of McMansions. I swear, every street ended in a roundabout and since every freakin’ house looks exactly the same, it took me forever to get back to the main road. I suppose it’s better than taking a wrong turn and ending up in a sketchy neighbourhood?

Back at home (I did eventually find my way out of there), I cooked up an enormous batch of jambalaya from the Canadian Living One Dish Edition cookbook.

Good thing it turned out really well because we’ll be eating this for the rest of the week (I already had some for lunch and dinner today).

In the afternoon, we went to a barbecue for Josh’s cousin’s birthday. We got to take home a ton of yummy Filipino food (chicken adobo and pancit), so between that and the jambalya, it looks like I won’t have to cook again until next week. Win!

Work today really dragged. Oh well – only 4 3.5 more days to go before the weekend! I already have some plans lined up with a group of girlfriends (when I have a really bad case of the Mondays, I like to start planning for the weekend immediately) so I have lots to look forward to.

What’s your favourite way to get outdoors in the summer?