It's been almost two months since the last update, and my brain feels foggy from being a mom of two. The words on this post are coming out of my fingers so slowly... 

These past two months, I've felt stuck, like everything we try to do has been blocked and there has been such slow progress. Usually, I can visualise a solution to any problem that arises in our daily lives, but right now, our future still seems unclear.  The scariest part was that both the kids caught a nasty respiratory virus last month, and I probably averaged about four hours of sleep every night for that week when they were both in the thick of it.  S couldn't fall asleep or stay asleep, and one night, we took baby P to the hospital to make sure his oxygen levels were adequate because he was having a tremendously difficult time breathing. Both the kids have fully recovered now, and I'm cherishing these moments when we're all healthy. 

Now that we're all better, I can go back to ruminating about our finances. When will we catch a break from inflation and rising mortgage rates? One of the tools we use frequently to bring down our grocery bill is Too Good To Go. We recently visited Cadeaux Bakery, and picked up a bit of a sampler:

S loves pastries, so she ate two of those croissants herself. (We've also started baby P on solids! He seems very interested in eating so far, and I'm sure he'll pick it up in no time. Between him and S, I think we'll be poor from feeding them.)

I had the chocolate chip cookie, which was not the best, but still good value for the price. There was a cheese croissant, which was quite lovely. Cadeaux Bakery offers many other small pastries, cakes, and desserts, which I'll hopefully be able to splurge on once I figure out how to make more passive income.

Three more months until I am supposed to go back to work. 

A bit late with the Easter post, but we actually got these treats from Faubourg a few days after the holiday. I originally wasn't going to post about them, because it was late, but they were so good. 

This one was a coconut mousse on top, with a "pomegranate hibiscus gelée interior, on a sablé breton base", as per their website. The sakura inspired bits on top were a nibble of chocolate that enhanced the coconut flavors:

S had their bunny dessert and she wouldn't give me a bite, so I'm sure it was good, even though I can't tell you about it.

Pastries, cookies, and sugar in general have been helping with my anxiety and post partum hormones. Baby P is great to take care of, super chill, but I get so anxious when I breastfeed. It feels harder to breathe and my chest tightens a little. He's feeding well, and I have no pain, so I'm not sure why. Does anybody else have this experience? 

Other things that are causing anxiety:

• Taxes
• Clutter
• Fridge looking too packed or too empty
• Grandparents acting like children
• S refusing to nap or taking short naps

Breathe in, breathe out.

Rainy weekend, what better thing to do than hang out a coffee shop?


M and I had been talking about visiting Caffe di Beppe for about a month. The photos I had seen on the Internet showed such an aesthetically pleasing spot for coffee, complete with beautiful floor tiles, I could not resist coming to try out the cappuccino and croissant. I chose the fig jam with my croissant, which was very flakey on the outside and soft/chewy on the inside. M had the appolini, and after taking a bite to try, I immediately wished that I had ordered that pastry instead, filled with light, fluffy cream. The coffee was a good match, no regrets there.





We were there around 1030AM on Sunday, and there were plenty of seats. However, it started filling up just after we arrived, and the noise level was rising, so I think it scared a couple of guests, who actually picked up their laptops and left. They also have their main restaurant, which opens up later in the day. That would be another interesting spot to check out.

Maybe I’ll come back next weekend to plan wedding stuff. I don’t even know where to begin! What do we do first – pick a date, pick a venue, set the budget, find my dress/his suit? Does it really matter, as long as we’re happy?

Finally, we had a sunny Saturday in Vancouver, where I was free to go for a bike ride and explore coffee shops. C and I met up at The Narcissus at Powell and Commercial:



I had the cortado, and a chocolate croissant (they didn’t have the almond ones available). The pastries obviously were not baked in house, so I asked the barista where they were actually from. The Korean barista took a few seconds to undestand my question, and replied in broken English, “Cadeaux, downtown.”



The coffee shop was fairly empty at 1030AM, very quiet, with music playing unobtrusively in the background. The coffee was made from beans roasted by Agro, and it was very flavourful. The croissant was fresh, and I’ll be back to check out their sandwiches (there was a prosciutto one). They even serve beers from 33 Acres! This would be a great place to work and be inspired to work.



I really appreciated the peace and quiet today, after all hell broke loose this week in the office. It's just another rock that we'll jump over though. Will Smith said it best:

“It don’t matter whose fault it is that something is broken if it’s your responsibility to fix it.”

When there’s a problem, there’s no point in pointing fingers, laying blame, but at what point does it become a liability to keep throwing bandaids at the cut? Let’s just fix the problem. Let’s nip it in the bud, get rid of the root cause. Let’s MacGyver the shit out of this.

Which do you think would win in a physical fight?

Croissant from A Bread Affair, picked up at the Trout Lake Farmers Market on Saturday.

Coffee from my Nespresso. Black, just the way I like it. 


I stocked up on Nespresso capsules the other day. They have a new one called the Envivo Lungo that is just amazing. Level 9 intensity, and gives that extra KICK to start the day. I had one yesterday and today, before hitting up the VFM.

Back to back shifts this weekend… Add that to all the Pokemon hunting and biking, and I think I can honestly say that I deserve this buttery croissant. It goes quite well with the coffee. The almond chocolate croissants are amazing too, just the perfect balance of sweet almond and salty butter, but they ran out, so I took this guy home instead.




PS: Somebody said my Instagram feed was “aesthetic as fuck”. Have you followed me yet?