The Daily Hailey

Today was a very special day 💜 Brady’s birthday fell directly on Thanksgiving! So we get to celebrate him and also be thankful on the same day!!! 😅 I’m pretty sure I’m very, very grateful most days of my life, if not all of them, but it seems like an extra good day to be thankful for Brady.

I don’t have very many pictures of him without a baby in them. Which is a bummer for the sake of the blog, but is a beautiful problem to have in every other way.

I’m thankful for a lot of things.

I am thankful for my marriage to Brady. I never anticipated what a healthy, loving marriage would feel like, and somehow I always thought it would be so much more difficult. But I am just so very happy with the husband that I chose. It is not work to love him. It is easy, and it makes me happy.

I am thankful for Bradys determination and grit. He does not back down from a challenge, even when he is less physically able than he was a few years back. He is not afraid. He is strongly protected by God.

I am thankful for Bradys amazing job, and how much he loves it.

Working at Zak’s has been a gigantic answer to prayer, and Brady continues to progress and work his way up. He has beautiful work ethic and is actually appreciated and well cared for at his job.

I’m thankful for doctors. Specialists. Surgeons. Radiologists. Oncologists. Pharmacists. Nurses. Techs. Social workers. Therapists. All the health care professionals we’ve come across in the last few years who have carried Bradys health in a way not many can.

I’m thankful for cancer research. MRIs. Technology. Radiation therapy. Chemotherapy. Mobility aids. What an amazing time to be alive, where so much help exists, making Brady’s life easier.

I’m thankful for our people. My mom. Cher. Our Dahlsjos. Our Moodys. Not to mention many teachers from the kids schools who take SUCH intentional care of our kids. Pharmacists from TWO different pharmacies who make house calls. A doctor we can text directly. And a church family who is invested because they love us, not just because they want an inside scoop. We have an AMAZING group of people in our corner, and they have remained strong in our times of further trial, such as Brady’s 36th year of life.

Above all, I am thankful for the knowledge and faith in Gods existence, and how evident it is that He holds Brady, my most precious person, in the palm of His hand. Which is the BEST place he could possibly be! None of these things I have listed above could be here, or be ours, without God.

And for that, I am SO thankful 💜

Onto the next year of life, my man. You certainly have kept them interesting, which is both thrilling and also exhausting 😅 Feel free to sign us up for a boring one for year 37! As boring as it gets, anyway, which isn’t very boring at all, lol!

However it looks, whatever we meet, I am VERY thankful for you, Brady. We’ve known each other for half of our lives, and I wouldn’t trade it at all. Not a single day 💜

Onto the next, expecting the best! 💪 Thank you Lord for Brady!

You might have noticed that our lives are fairly busy over here. Really, everyone is busy. Big families are busy. Small families are busy. Single people are busy. Establishments are busy. Heck, even the flies in the house that refuse to die are still getting busy! 😳 Clearly, no one is immune to the busyness of the season.

We went to church this morning. It is the first time in MONTHS. With Bradys brain surgery and recovery, and then a summer of camping, and then still a couple weeks of sickness, we have not been able to make it happen. The last time we did ALL make it to church was during Brady’s recovery in spring, and he found the bustling social aspect incredibly difficult :/ Which was NO ONES FAULT!!! It was just his brain, and the neuro pathways that needed rebuilding. I remember so clearly observing someone come over to him, hold out their hand, and say “It is SO good to see you, Brady.” And Brady regarded this person blankly for a confident five seconds before putting his hand out. It was HARD. But every last one of us was eager to get back there! So today was a big first. And a lovely one 💜

As often happens, we were among the last to leave. Everyone was happy, Brady included. We got home, and I instantly left to go gather up some grocery items I had forgotten. Brady made sure everyone ate at least a snack, and he got the babies down for naps. I brought him back ice cream for lunch and we sat for maybe twenty minutes before the babies started talking and I got up to get on supper.

At that point of the afternoon, Brady was absolutely WIPED. So he took off for a nap. Laela and Wavy took the Morsel downstairs to play. The Spoonful and the Lemon Drop are hanging around upstairs, crawling and shuffling around totally happily. Dekker just got back from running an errand. Rowan is playing in his room. Solly is building lego at the table. And I’m in the kitchen, surrounded by yummy smells.

For this moment, it feels really peaceful and calm. These moments come around sometimes, but not often, and I really enjoy them when they do. I have ham and pineapple on a big pan, cooking into a honey glaze. I have broccoli roasting as well, with parmesan and garlic. And baby potatoes roasting just with oil and salt, which will be dressed after the fact with bacon, peppers, and cheesy ranch. (<— Me trying to convince my kids to like potatoes) Carrots are boiling on the stove as well. And I pulled out some pint ginger ale, and 7up as well, which I’ll bloop the pineapple juice into for those that want. There’s even a little whipped cream to top off the gigantic Costco pumpkin pie I got the other day! 🥧

I think its going to be a yummy supper, and I’m feeling really happy to be able to serve my family at this time. It gets to feel like a drag sometimes, I’m sure thats not surprising. We all feel that. Not the flies, clearly 🙄 but the rest of us. I am SO grateful to have this family to feed and care for and do special things for, when I can.

We celebrate Thanksgiving today, and Brady’s birthday tomorrow! A lovely big weekend of celebrating while also being as low key as humanly possible! 🥳🥱

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone 💜 What are you thankful for?

Cher and I had the pleasure of celebrating our friendaversary today! It is rare that we get out to the city together, just recreationally, so it is a VERY real treat when it happens! 💜

We started at the food court, because food court asian is affordable and delicious! We love to share a super combo!! YUM!

Also, Lawson Mall has a Spirit Halloween to peruse, which we did. We are VERY cool 😎

Our next stop was the new Michaels! Did you know they JUST opened a Michaels in confed?? As in, JUST yesterday?! Well they DID! So we had to go check it out, and we had no regrets!

A GHOST!! 👻

My happy place, if you hadn’t heard.

I got some yarn for myself, some for a Christmas gift or two that I have on the books, and some ornaments for the kids!

We got a little Starbucks, because we like to try to get a seasonal drink when we can! Cher is rocking that caffeine free life, and because of that, she hasn’t had iced coffee in a good long while! So, today was that day. And she was STOKED, as it plainly seen in this picture 🤣

We drank our Starbucks (those of us who didn’t chug it on the spot in the van) and moseyed through Dutch Growers while we waited for our movie to start! It was VERY festive in there!

My FAVORITE display!!! They hung wooden spoons from the ceiling that looked like they had been dipped in batter and icing! Cute!!

But it was finally time for our movie to start!!

Except it wasn’t, haha! Like, it was, but we watched previews for twenty minutes after the showtime, and then it seemed like things started to take a turn towards a totally different movie! So Cher ran out and confirmed it. We scooped up our things and made it to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pretty late in the game. It was a good solid funny musical movie, but it felt SO short, which was a bit of a hard pill to swallow since we had missed such a good chunk. However, once it wrapped up, we inquired and were instantly offered free tickets and popcorn vouchers and upgrades and ALL kinds of lovely things for our next trip in. The manager actually said “Thank you for not yelling at me,” which tells you the quality of communication some people have. We thanked him profusely for caring and wanting us to be well taken care of, and we left totally happy. No bad feelings whatsoever.

We hit up Dollarama to see if they had anything fun out there on the Brighton side of the city, and then headed home.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day out with my very best friend. My sister 💜💚🧡 I’m so grateful to have a dear friend who wants to invest in our friendship and in my life and family. It is an honour to know her and love her and to be loved by her.

And a GIGANTIC shoutout goes to Brady for spending the day with all of our munchkins so we could go out and play. It was an incredible gift to us. Thank you, love.

I’m home now. Kids are in bed. Brady is about to hunker down to finally eat the burgers I brought home for him. And then, it’ll be tuck in time. I am very grateful for the day I had 💜 Thank you, Lord!

Spent a small fortune at Costco this morning…

…as I tend to do.

Here’s the thing. I think I’ve come to a conclusion about Costco. As much as I know I should go weekly, I just don’t ever get there. I go to the city regularly, but I tend to have a shortish time crunch and I’m too far from Costco to fit it in. But I NEED to, because its easily the best value for our crew. BUT but, when I do get in, one cart does not cut it. Especially if I have all the babies with me. Nope nope nope.

So my conclusion is that I’m just going to have to suck it and go when its busy, on a weekend or in an evening, with my whole crew so I have cart pushers, and just overbuy what I can. I can supplement fresh things during the week from Walmart when I’m in the city or otherwise, or Brady can hit Coop on the way home from work. But, for Costco specifically, it has to be, and it has to be with everyone.

Except I really don’t know what I was thinking today. Did you know its Thanksgiving this weekend?? 😅 I did know, but I did not plan for Costco to be positively BURSTING at the seams, and that it was. Here I was thinking I was SO smart going on a day where the kids were out of school, because everyone else would be at work or in school, and isn’t that perfect?? I’m not sure why I thought my kids would be the only ones out of school but 🙄 We’ll just blame the Lemon Drop and call it a day. Didn’t think it through, but regardless, stuff needed doing! So in we went!

Our setup was like so:

I pushed the first cart with the Spoonful and the Lemon Drop.

Rowan pushed the next cart that held the bulk of the groceries.

Dekker pushed the last cart with the Morsel.

Yup. We went with three today. Thats how much we needed. Some of our things were big, so it just made the most sense.

The other kids still helped. Laela held the list and kept track of where we needed to go next. Solly helped load lots of things into the carts. Wavy carried the diaper bag with our emergency “babies are crying” stuff in it, and she would help occupy the babies when their cart pusher had to duck away for a second.

Somehow – and I CANNOT tell you how – this became a well oiled machine.

With my beautiful crew in tow, we hit ALL the marks. We got batteries, scotch tape, bread, chicken breasts, sausage, salami, bacon, salad stuff, tortellini, gnocchi, paper towel, milk, butter, cheese, perogies, pizzas, broccoli, coffee, crackers, baking ingredients, oats, granola bars, raisins, Tylenol, etc etc etc.

We even got TWO pumpkin pies!! 🥧 🥧

I had been on a hunt for a box of little individual lasagnas we usually get, and I hadn’t been able to find it. The kids and I did another lap of the aisle I thought it would be in, didn’t find it, and I decided to keep moving. Probably a good 5-10 minutes later, a woman approached us and quietly handed me a box of lasagnas. I know it was small, but it was SUCH a beautiful kindness 💜 Sometimes its hard to stand out the way we do, because if anything goes south, ANYTHING, everyone sees. But sometimes, it opens up some beautiful opportunities, and people use them to show us love. I know it was just lasagna. But it was really humbling.

We managed to get into a decently short line, and had SUCH a lovely cashier help us. She recognized us from coming through previously, and she was filled with the warmest compliments and kindness. And honestly, the kids really crushed it today. They earned every nice word said in their direction!

Even once we were out at the van, Rowan helped me get everything into the van while Laela tetrissed it all into place. Dekker found a safe spot up front for the pumpkin pies, and helped lift the babies into their seats and buckle them up. The others got to their spots and waited patiently. Then, Laela and Rowan took the carts back to the return, and off we went!

We hit up a McDonalnds drive-thru for some well-deserved treats! Anyone else call ahead and order 16 apple pies? No? Just us? Cool…

Of course, upon arriving home, more work began and I only just VERY recently discovered I abandoned my now cold coffee in the pantry while putting things away 😅 Ah well. Whats mom life without cold coffee?

Ok. We shopped Costco. We unloaded, and put things away. Babies ate and had naps. I finished putting things away, and typed this very blog. I can hear babies are awake now, so onto the next!! Good thing I put my feet up while I typed!

I think supper will have to be very relaxed today 😅 Perhaps we should just all eat a pumpkin pie…

Cher and I became friends SEVEN years ago! We came together to take pictures, which was a gift to me in my grief of losing my baby boy, Jamin, at 16.5 weeks along. She was one of the earlier to know about my pregnancy with Waverly, before the news was public, because I knew she would care. Even though we weren’t close, I knew she was in my corner 💜

In my corner she has stayed 💜

She took pictures for me and of me for a long, long time before we started taking them together 😅

And then started doing ALL the things together.

We laugh at ourselves when we say we are committed to our friendship, but its just the truth. She is family. Locked in.

I am 100% invested in her and her things and her life, and she has never fled from my crazy! Even though our lives are just about as opposite as they could be, our hearts are on the same level is all of the important ways 💜

We may both be stone cold weirdos…

…but we try our hardest in ALL we do!

Bottom line – there is just SO much love here 💜

Seven years, you say? I’m pretty sure we have ALWAYS been sisters 💜 It feels like you’ve always been part of me.

I love you, sweet Cherice 💜 We did it. Seven years! Easy 😘 Sign me up for the next seventy!

The last couple of days I have taken part in Prime Days! I have also done a little bit of Temu shopping, starting back in the summer months, slowly accumulating the things I know I want to get the kids. It’s actually a little strange to look at my list and see some kids, I am almost done, and some I have barely even started jotting ideas down!

If you’ve followed long enough, you know I rock the four categories – something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. I also like to get everyone some jammies. Most of my kids sleep in their gitch, so the jammies are more so for a cozy Saturday at home or pajama day at school, lol! But they’re great over the Christmas break!

Christmas shopping is also a little extra ballsy when you have foster children, because you just never know how your family will look come Christmas time! However, I’m willing to take the risk. If any of our children leave before Christmas, I’ll just send their gifts along. There are too many good things for me to just not pick up for them!

The Amazon man came today with little magnadoodles for the big babies, and Temu shouldn’t be far behind with some bath toys, and a couple of house things.

Even doing a modest Christmas of four gifts per kid, with eight kids, thats a LOT of gifts! Plus, we have school teachers, skill teachers, club teachers, our doctor, our social workers (do we get them gifts?) and birth families (do we get them gifts??) to buy for. Our kids are picking names this year. Everyone in our extended family picked names as well. We have our friends and loved ones and close people as well. Good thing I LOVE finding gifts for our people or it would be terribly overwhelming 😅 but THIS is why we get a jump on it!!

*adds a couple of names to the Christmas card list*

Today was going to be a very low key day with an evening outing. But, as tends to happen, the day filled and I was out more than expected! But it was actually super helpful.

You may have picked up on it, but we’ve had some sickness floating around for a good long while now. Back to school has really kicked our butts, to say the least. And while we should be LONG on our way to healing, we are not. In fact, some continue to get worse. So I called my doctors office first thing this morning and got a same-day appointment with one of her residents for the baby that needed the most help. That Lemon Drop, though.

After the appointment was booked, my doctor actually texted me personally to tip me off that there were a couple of spots available before she saw I had already filled one. I commented that I wished I could bring the entire gang, but that the one baby needs it the most. She asked me who else really needed to be seen, and I replied that both Brady and also the Morsel would really benefit from some backup. Brady starts another round of chemo tonight, and he had this cold already during his previous round! Its time for a reprieve!! And the Morsel has a pretty crappy respiratory history, and being sick this long makes me worry about lungs. So my doctor put everyones name down and I let Brady know he had an appointment in an hour 😅

I abandoned Cher at my house (thank you for cleaning for us today 💜) and ran the babies into the city where we met Brady in the parking lot. We got into a room quite a bit later than scheduled, but its SO fine with us because I know Dr. Guselle absolutely never ever rushes us.

The appointment was long and loud, with three cranky babies on hand. We saw a resident first, who checked everything really thoroughly, and said the dreaded words “Its a virus” which always means we just have to ride things out. However, when she went to consult with Dr. Guselle, they both came back and seemed a bit more eager to actually help us get through this VERY long running sickness.

All three of those seen came out with some backup. Nasal spray. A puffer. Some antibiotics on file in case things don’t clear up or start to worsen, and some additional help with reflux that has been GROSSLY exacerbated by all the coughing.

I came home to a much cleaner house than the one I left, and Cher encouraged me to sit and rest a little while she got the babies some lunch 💜 Then, we put the big ones down for naps, and the Lemon Drop hung around with us.

It wasn’t long before kids came home, the piano was opened up, the homework came out, and things got busy for a good hour. And then we went back into the city! Whew!

A baby got a visit. Kids ate supper out. I shopped at Value Village and got Dekker winter boots. It was a great success 🙂

I am VERY grateful for my life. The days are very full, but full doesn’t mean bad. Not at all. MUCH good happened today. It is not lost on me how fortunate my family is and how many blessings are poured out on us 💜

Tomorrow was also meant to be quite quiet, but as tends to happen, I now have many things on my list 😂 Another big day ahead!! At least I’ve never ever bored!

G’night, all!

Did I even tell you guys that I petitioned the ministry for a beast stroller? I don’t remember if I did, but I can confirm that I did, in fact, request a stroller system that fits more than two children in it, and they showed UP!!

Now, there are options, but they are VERY expensive. One option was around $500 – by FAR the cheapest – but it didn’t have great reviews. The next one I could find was (ready?) a thousand dollars. It looked like it would definitely do the job, but I felt super guilty asking for such a thing. However, there was an option still more expensive, making the one that cost a thousand seem more appropriate. So I sent all three options to ALL four of the social workers I deal with regularly, and told them my concerns, the pros and cons, and the why. And I was pleasantly surprised at the total lack of pushback! They completely understood my position, where I couldn’t do anything with three babies on my own outside of my house. So the three social workers that oversee my three babies applied to their supervisors for a third of the cost of the midrange system. And it was approved!!!

Now, don’t come for me. But the one hangup of that thousand dollar stroller was that it came equipped with basic stroller wheels. So, the ministry paid for the vast majority of the stroller, while Brady and I foot the rest of the bill to upgrade to the behemoth stroller with the super tires.

The sucker came in two boxes a couple of weeks ago, and I finally built it today!!!

I made this mess of boxes and packages and pieces…

into THIS!!

It doesn’t look like much, perhaps, but it is incredible! There is also a canopy, but I didn’t put it on today. I will likely show off more of its details shortly, but not today. Today, I did enough, and I think every single person in town waved at me as I walked it down to the post office. I only had 2/3 babies for the walk, so I could have just taken the double. However, I needed to pick up three parcels, as well as four jugs of milk. So I brought this monstrosity, and was able to load the whole thing down with all of our things without breaking a sweat.

I am SO grateful 💜 Not only am I relieved that the ministry was willing to help me pay for such a beautiful piece of equipment, but it is also reassuring to me that they clearly have some faith in our abilities to care for children. I don’t think they would invest as much money if they were unsure of us. So that feels good.

I’d show you pictures from the walk, but as you know, I’m not allowed. However, we are not hard to spot 🤣 So perhaps we’ll see you around.

We miss church over here. Truly, we do. There have been stages where going to church feels like a chore. I won’t lie, and you shouldn’t either, because we all know that sometimes things like that just don’t feel like priorities. However, our family has really enjoyed church when we’ve been able to go, which has been very little this year, thanks to aaaaall the brain stuff in the beginning of the year and then the summer of camping. So this weekend was the one. We were going to go. Finally.

Of course, the sickness that has grabbed onto us as school begun continues to hold on tightly, and the babies seem to be a bit worse for wear :/ A second round, perhaps. We’ve had some fevers. Some snot faucets. One impressive viral rash. Lots of crying, and lots of sleeping.

Implied sleeping, anyway. Necessary sleeping.

Brady and I had resigned to the reality that likely one of us would have to miss church to hang back with the babies.

Last night was a fun challenge. Our Lemon Drop never sleeps, as you know. Brady and I and LD were up in the middle of the night, and the power went out. It was around 2:30am. Our old house used to beep when the power went on and off. This house doesn’t beep. It more so hums. But in our room, when the power goes out, the fan turns off, as does the noise machine.

That was the kicker.

No. More. Noise.

LD was not impressed. By default, neither were we. The crying would not stop. No milk was drank. No soothers were taken. No burps erupted. Just only crying. Because tired, and because quiet. We FINALLY found some reprieve in a rattle as distraction, but it was short lived. No sleep was in sight, so we decided to put a show on the laptop to let our bodies and brains rest a little at least, whilst distracting the baby. We were willing to hotspot for the data on our phones.

But the laptop was dead.

Brady worked to get the iPad up and running and when he pulled it from his lake bag (ya, those aren’t unpacked yet) we remembered we had an older phone and a bluetooth speaker than we use for noise in the camper. We pulled it out and I brought it over to the toddlers room. They, too, sleep with noise, and they were already making noise and moving around. I snuck the speaker in their door, and within a few minutes, it also died! ACK!

The big babies were out of luck. We finally got the Lemon Drop down to rest, and we shut everything else off and tried to get some sleep. Our call to SaskPower had been fruitless, as we were apparently the only call that had come in, so they blamed our breakers. Which sucked.

When we stumbled out of bed after a very broken, short night, it had been six hours, and we still had no power.

There were not enough hours of sleep to be had to be functioning human beings, so church was off the table.

We will try again next week. Hopefully less people are sick by then, anyway.

I spent the morning trying to get more things put away. It wasn’t especially successful, hahaha! The babies alternated naps pretty badly, lol, so I mostly just carried little things from here to there and made some storage plans. Everything goes a little slower with someone on your hip, but I truly wouldn’t trade it.

I had one pumpkin on my counter that I was suspicious was maybe going bad, so I decided to cut it up and check. All was well on the inside, but then it was open! Hahaha! So I got it into the oven to make some more puree. Its out of the oven and sitting in a sieve in the sink, getting ready to get blended up.

Besides that, I actually made some progress on some Christmas stuff! After yesterday’s large shopping trip, I flattened a bunch of smaller boxes, and this morning I realized I could use them for gifts. So I pulled out some of the gifts I’ve purchased already, and I boxed them up, labelled them on painters tape who they were for, and put them high up in my closet. Boom! I felt SO productive!!

I did a little bit of sitting and crocheting this afternoon, and then I had some visitors come by, which brought so much brightness to my day!! 💜 We miss you, Rae and Tom!! Ack!! One of these weekends we’ll all be in town, but until then, this visit was really, really nice.

The kids came home from school on time. Piano practice began. I started supper. Wavy helped me peel carrots. Kids put some laundry away, and I have a bit more in the dryer that I HAVE to remember to hide before any of the kids see it because, again, Christmas 😬 Don’t let me forget, guys.

Ok. Bradys on his way home. Supper is all rolling on the stove. I just have to clear the hampers off the table (lol) and we should be good to go!!

Happy Friday, all 💜