Today's haul consists of:

 

Royal City brown butter toffee and pumpkin cream cheese donuts, a cup of medium roast coffee from Heights Coffee Co., and The Bench Bakehouse cheese and onion twist.

Glenburn frequently hosts Royal City on Sunday mornings, and has now added in a new local coffee roaster from the Burnaby area to their line up. I've had Royal City donuts before, and really enjoyed them. The pumpkin cream cheese has a hint of saltiness from the cream cheese, and is delicious with the powdered sugar dusted over the donut. They've figured out a way to inject just the perfect amount of filling into their donuts, so that they don't explode and make a mess everywhere, but every bite has some filling. 

Good luck to the new coffee roaster. There's so much competition in town now, they'll really have to work hard to stand out. 

After Glenburn, we visited the Vancouver Farmer's Market, as we figured with COVID, it'll be better to shop outdoors. Very glad we did not miss out on this onion cheese bread, which we had with EVOO, truffle oil and balsamic vinegar: 

 

We also got one of their apple pie double baked croissants -  no photos as it has been devoured before I remembered my camera. Very flakey, with many crispy bits on top, as a croissant should be. 

The aftermath: 

So far, being back in Vancouver has been a mix of anxieties about the pandemic and meeting up with our loved ones. The grandparents were able to come visit and helped us babysit once or twice before gatherings with individuals outside of our household were discouraged by our lovely Dr. Bonnie Henry. 

It had been a while since the grandparents were left alone with baby S, and what an experience it was this time around. The use of white noise to help infants fall asleep is quite common nowadays, but both sets of grandparents were very confused when we instructed them to ask our Google Nest to play this loud annoying sound when putting baby S down for a nap. 

One set of grandparents asked Google to play "white music", and instead of noise, somebody (presumably a person of Caucasian decent) started singing. 

Both sets of grandparents had a tough time enticing baby S to take the bottle, now that she could recognize mom as the source of food and comfort. H and I received many calls to "come back home NOW," but every time we would tell them we're on the way, when really, we were still finishing up whatever we were doing.  

Baby S eventually calmed down with them, and by the time we arrived home, she was an angel again. 

I can't wait for our curve to start flattening again, so that our babysitters can return.

Summer has hit Lower Mainland hard with heat waves around the 30's! We've been trying to clear out the  junk from our home, and needed a break. What better way to cool off than with a treat from Glenburn  after a full day of cleaning? 

With the COVID-19 restrictions, we had to order at the door and wait outside to pick up, so we couldn't enjoy the air conditioning inside the store. The wait wasn't too long, but I would order ahead next time to further reduce contact and waiting around on the street in front of the shop.

H and I shared the Peanut Butter Dream, which was made of layers of vanilla ice cream, peanut butter sauce, Reese's pieces, and what they call their "Magic Shell" (chocolate shell), all topped with about 3 inches of whipped cream. Can never go wrong with Glenburn. Looks good, and tastes even better. 

When we returned home, I finished packing away my maternity clothes and sorting through the clothes that I wore before baby S. As expected, I no longer fit into a few pairs of pants, but it was so hard to put them into the donation pile. I've had that pair of navy blue J Crew Minnie pants for at least 10 years, since my first job after graduation. They were my first pair of office appropriate pants. I take care of them by washing as per the manufacturer's directions only, ie taking them to the dry cleaners.

My mother, who was there to take care of the baby as I cleaned, questioned why I didn't just buy a new pair of pants, rather than dry clean them. The cost of dry cleaning throughout all those years would have been equivalent to a new pair every year. For her, it made more sense to have more pairs of pants, to possess more options, rather than waste money cleaning and preserving one pair of pants.

But why do I need 10 pair of navy blue pants that don't fit me well, because they've been warped by improper cleaning?  All I need is just one pair that fits me well. Less waste created, and less clutter in my closet. 

Sadly, they don't fit anymore because my body has changed post pregnancy, but I'm still hanging onto them instead of donating them, in hopes that they'll fit again some day. Perhaps, I'm being illogical with this one pair of pants, because I'm emotionally attached after all these years and if I continue visiting Glenburn on the regular, this baby weight will never come off. I'm on the market for some mom jeans and pants.

Ice cream cravings are real. H and I went to Glenburn for dessert on what one might consider a “date night”. We had the Fall Spice, which consisted of 2 scoops of their pumpkin cheesecake ice cream, graham crackers crumbled into butterscotch, and cinnamon whipped cream. This is the perfect way to end the night. I wonder what will be on their menu for winter and Christmas.

Before that, we visited the thrift shop, where I got a $10 pair of 7 for All Mankind. Date nights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Another life update… I’ve been trying these products from Glossier:

Inspired by these ladies:

I don’t know why this brand is so fascinating to me. I could watch videos about these producs over and over… The cloud paints especially are irresistible. Pat pat pat, smudge smudge – blend that cream blush in a few seconds, and it looks perfectly natural. I’m excited to try out all the other colours, I’ve only purchased Dusk and Puff so far. Puff has more colour, Dusk blends in too much and I like it better as an eye shadow.