The Daily Hailey

Today was the girls’ ballet recital – the official wrap-up of yet another activity for the kids. ‘Twas a mad dash after school to get the girls out the door around 4:15 with grandma, who lovingly offered to bring them in for their 5pm arrival and practice. She also held a spot in line! Thank you, mom!!

We picked Rae up about an hour later and headed in together. VERY grateful for the AC in the van because WOW is it hot out today and even WOWWER it was hot in that auditorium! Hahaha! The last recital was frigidly cold, around -40, and today was +35 ish, hahaha!

The girls danced beautifully. It was very special. Laela helped with a younger group this year, as well as dancing in her original group. During the final bows and thank yous, she was recognized along with the other assistants/helpers and was presented with a gift from her ballet teacher 💜 It was really special. Meanwhile, Wavy danced super well, missed no steps, and was in the very front of her group, making her feel like a total rockstar.

We run into so many people we love at ballet. Today we saw a dear friend of ours who we have the pleasure of being connected with through one of our foster children. It is ALWAYS a pleasure to run into those connections!! What a win! For me, and for her, and our little one who got to see her today!

Leaving these recitals is always a bit of a crapshoot. The foyer is PACKED and everyone is bumping into everyone. Its loud and sweaty and chaotic, but everyone is pretty happy and upbeat. However, it was indeed past bedtime, and not all of ours were feeling the appropriate level of happiness or upbeatery that they needed to feel in order to be in a public place 😬 Sooooo home we went!

It was a great success 💜 We sat front row. Rae brought the girls flowers. Everyone was proud of themselves, and now its done for the season and there is one less thing on our calendar.

We are tired, but we are happy.

Thats a wrap, girlies 💜 I love you all. I’m so proud of you.

It was a day of being home and kinda sorta puttering. I’m wishy washy on the wording because I definitely needed to get things done, such as organizing and packing some things for camp, tidying up the island, and making sure everything is ready for the girls ballet recital tomorrow. Nothing big or especially taxing, but just lots of back and forth, constantly moving. And WOW were the babes not impressed 😅😩 Still, I packed clothing for all three young ones, got some laundry in the washer, and packed up nonperishables. Decided what can wait for a different weekend and what needs doing now.

However, we hit a wall around 11:30, and Munchie Mix NEEDED some time with me. This particular baby is not a fan of the bottle these days, but the milk is still a necessity, obviously, and a comfort. So we took a little drink break. Munchie got a sippie of formula and I cracked a can of what resembles a carbonated lip smacker?

During naps, I worked on a crochet project with a deadline, and then got back up and at it when the kids got home. We worked for a little while, and Rowan and Solly took Spoons and LD into the backyard while I worked. Laela and Wavy packed together, and Dekker was in drivers ed, so he doesn’t count. Just me and the babiest babe finishing up the work for the afternoon.

Eggs, toast, and cantaloupe for supper. No one is very hungry on such hot days. What are your go-to suppers?

The island is a mess of things right now. Laundry. Things for camp. Stuff I just haven’t gotten around to putting away. Not half as bad as it used to get! But still messy. Anyway. I had Brady order these from Zak’s recently for transporting milk back and forth to camp, or for yummy things like cold brew or iced tea. They’re on the island, too.

Today, as the stragglers finished up breakfast, Solly walked through the kitchen and casually commented “Cute little jugs, mom!”

🤦‍♀️

I think that’ll do it for me today.

🤣😅

Have you guys heard the term “toddler shins?” It’s referencing how toddlers shins are often bruised up top to bottom when they start walking and beyond. Little ones are so clumsy and tippy and funny.

Welp. Rowan is rocking the toddler big boy shins.

He wiped out a handful of times today, spilling off his bite and taking a couple of tumbles during soccer at recess.

Not only are his legs beat up, but the palms of his hands are rough, he has some sort of rug/grass burn on his hip, and he had a nosebleed. But! He’s still smiling, because while he doesn’t love getting hurt (obviously) he gets a kick out of his battle scars.

A real sign of the season to come, I imagine 😅

I’m sitting here in my cozy chair while Brady showers off the day. I’m being all productive, and gathering up the lists we made over the weekend of things we need to bring up next weekend. I have a list and a video, but I use my list on my laptop more than my phone. As I transfer things onto my laptop, I’m doing a bit of online grocery ordering. I’m getting all good and organized. And I realized just now, I have no blogged.

So. Here I am! Blogging. In my chair. Instead of doing my jobs. They were mostly done, anyway. It was a bit of a tricky scene on the way out, but we had a lot of help, which I am IMMENSELY grateful for, and it was able to be free of fighting and big struggle. What would we do without you, Dahlsjos? 💜

The van was loaded up, and I’m impressed with how little we actually packed! Go us!!

Last weekend when we went to set up, we didn’t have water. Which was tough. So when we got to camp this weekend and set up the water system, it didn’t work. Which SUCKED. Thankfully, we were able to get that all repaired and fixed up, and water did, in fact, flow! 🥳

But naturally, since the water was fixed, we all lost power today. ALL afternoon, evening, and SaskPower will tell us they still don’t have it back on :/ Which also sucks. Neither of these things make setting up our site easier, but alas, if we have learned ONE lesson in our lives, it is that we do not have control of most things, and we just need to roll with the punches.

We DID get the golf cart running just today, finally, which is a HUGE relief! I purchased a full three-point seat belt for it so Brady can actually feel comfortable driving it even without ab muscles. Crazy how much more he gets tossed around now. But we can adapt, and we will.

We spent some time today finally reorganizing the deck area. It felt like such a messy dumping ground last summer and while I do not hate our place being lived in, I don’t like how hard I tried to keep it nice and how it always looked a mess. So today, we moved some things, got rid of some things, and made it look so refreshed. Less stuff on the deck, and I got the whole deck and patio cleaned off a la leaf blower. What a difference.

Now we shop for a wash station option for outside. Dishes are just my nemesis at camp. No one wants to do them, and someone seems to always be napping. I want to have a big sink outside so its easier to do them and still be around and present. Then kids could do it without feeling left out, or I could do it without trapping the babies in the camper. It would just be easier. Anyway. That would be the cherry on top of our site, but we’ll see if something good comes along!

Why am I still talking? I’m so ready for bed. Goodnight all 💜

There were lots of lovely things today. While it has not been altogether smooth as a whole, we have already made memories and revisited traditions. 

Spoons slept in the bunks last night. No crib. No playpen. Just a mattress and bedding. It was reported to me that it took a while for everyone to settle, but they all slept hard all through! So we’ll take that as a win! 

We woke up and had a couple of our dear Dahlsjos already building a fire in our pit. We gorged ourselves on muffins and two bite cinnamon buns for breakfast. 

Unfortunately, just for funsies, Brady had his tougher treatment this last Friday :/ so he slept through the morning. But he surfaced for lunch and hanging out for the rest of the day. Yay!!! 

We kept a fire going all day long. It smelled great, and the brief moment in time when we were misted with rain was welcomed 💜

We ate a camp chef supper and then kids ran off with friends for literal hours. From the ark park to gaga ball to pickleball, they just ran. It was amazing. I love it here. 

I will admit, I am so tired. Settling into the new sleeping arrangements, later nights, more outside time, etc is a lot for a person, much less ten people. We’re all running on less sleep and no one wants to work. Which I do get, and we will sort it out before long at all. We are all so happy to be here 💜what a huge gift it is to be here. 

A few things felt like they were going to be too much for a minute. We were out of propane at the wrong time and had to run to town. Twice. The water was NOT working and sinks were filling. It was a whole thing. The golf cart wasn’t working. And almost everything has been resolved. I am pretty worn out but I’m glad so many things have resolved. Not the golf cert yet 😬 but it’ll come. 

Tomorrow 🙌 our first smorning!!! 🥰 I am so looking forward to that. What a precious tradition to carry on 💜 we will have so many cute punks eating treats in our site tomorrow! 😋 I’m ready. 

But not this moment. I REALLY need some sleep before then 😂

Ok, guys, one week late is better than never! We are on our way to a weekend at camp! We have been eagerly anticipating this for so long, or at least that’s how it feels! We are so entirely fortunate to have our home away from home at Kinasao 💜 

I spent the morning with Cher and the babies. I had a bath and shaved my legs. I went into Saskatoon to take a babe to a visit, and shopped the time away at value village. Got some GREAT books, a few other small items, and dresses for Laela and Wavy for an upcoming grad party. It was a great success there. 

We made it back in time for pickup, and had a really nice interaction there as well. 

Made it home to find the crew gathering up the final stuff to pack in the van! Brady had an earlier afternoon treatment today so he was home as well! What a treat to be on the road a little earlier for our first weekend! 

Have a great weekend, friends 💜 see you at the lake. And if not, you really should be camping. 

I know people participate in more things than we do. Everyones busy looks different. Today felt totally enormous to me, whew!

We started with a social worker visit at 8:30am. It was totally fine. No beef with her at all. The kids stayed home from school today because we were having a sibling visit for one of the babes at our house, and I thought it would be great for all the kids to connect. So shortly after the worker left, we got to chopping up a big watermelon and then some waiting in eager anticipation.

Oh wait! It did not start with that! It started with the AC not working! Ugh! Brady called the plumber and the day continued with the promise of a visit to check our unit. Anyway.

It was a wild morning, I won’t lie. By the end of those two hours, everyone was overstimulated, sweaty, covered in stickers and watermelon juice, or all of the above. Lots of downstairs time. Lots of backyard time. Lots of lego. Lots of eating. Lots of “Aunty aunty aunty!” It was a lot but I’m really glad we could do it 💜 This will not be our last sibling visit.

Spoons and LD came down hard when everyone left. They cried through lunch. Meanwhile, the five left for school, full from all the snacks.

Then there was a little downtime for me in the afternoon. Cher came and hung out with me, and we watched some “Worst Ex Ever.” New season. It was relaxing.

Kids came home from school with a vengeance. It was not a smooth stretch, unfortunately. Nonetheless, we did some packing for camp and continued on. Brady needed to work a little late today because he was feeling too far behind to be able to actually let down at the end of the day, so I took the kids to the elementary school for their family appreciation BBQ for supper. They all got fed and I didn’t have to cook. Heyooo! 🥳 I grabbed a green creamsicle on the way out like a child. They are SO yummy!

The evening did not go off without a hitch 🤣 Just laying it all out there today, it was not all smooth at all. But it did all eventually relax a little and there is peace now. Laela is off at a youth outing. Babies are all in bed, as well as a couple of other. The littler bigs 🤣 You get it. Only a couple of kids are still up, and Brady is packing his bag for camp. I have yet to pack, but I have tomorrow morning to work on the loose ends. I did the food prep I needed to do already. Not too terribly much left on my plate!

What has not been on my plate yet is supper. I need to make a little something something for Brady and I, since he was working through supper time and I was feeding three babies and therefore not eating. The ice cream treat should hold me a little longer, hahaha!

All in all, it was a gigantic day and I am BEAT. I am so anticipating eating supper in my bed and falling asleep overfed, just like Oprah always taught us not to.

Tomorrow, we are off to camp 💜 I can’t wait!

My best friend, Cher, made a Fibrary in my honour a while back 💜 Maybe you remember. It was SUCH a love gift. People have since donated beautiful things, people have received and since made beautiful things! It is SUCH a fun place to visit and pick through.

Its been a bits scant for donations as of late, but I am in fact not lacking in yarn over here 😬 So I’ve spent some time going through my supplies and getting rid of what I can. I have so much GOOD yarn that I am just not using. I have many colors that I just have one skein of, and its just sitting and sitting. Finally, its time to bid some of those adieu.

Some is balled. Some is tangled. Much is being caked.

Keep an eye out! I imagine much more will be put out in due time! Because, can confirm, donations will be rolling in soon!! 😍

We made it back, guys. And I am SO glad we didn’t bail out because it was SUCH a beautiful day! 💜 We clicked on the playlist I’ve been building specifically for these summer drives, and just soaked up the drive. Once we passed through PA, we saw Smokey for the first time this season, and he seemed grossly unconcerned, so we knew we were golden for a campfire!!

When we got into Christopher Lake, we were relieved to see their grocery store was open! So we grabbed a couple of water jugs. Our van was full enough that I snuggled mine the rest of the way. Dekker is also a dork, if that was unclear.

It wasn’t much further to camp, though 💜 What a breath of fresh air being back!!!

I’m stealing this picture from a friend who sent it to me. I didn’t take it personally. But this is about how it looked when we arrived. WAY less snow than the last picture I posted. Just that one weird ridge on the patio. This is SO much more manageable than it was on Friday. We made the right choice to wait a few days, even though our Dahlsjos weren’t up this time 💜

Basically the first order of business was a fire 🔥 After ALL the snow, this sucker lit first try, and burned beautifully.

Boy there are SO few pictures I can actually post on here. Ugh. But I’ll show you what I can.

We brought basic fixings for sandwiches for lunch. Buns, meat and cheese, mayo and mustard, the end. I forgot lettuce, haha! But no one complained. We just kept it super simple and easy. Brady and I had our first drinks by the fire.

I took a walk with Laela down to the water at one point. It was still quiet frozen over, but the sky was CLEAR, which is more than I can say about the last few summers. It was quite beautiful. We threw rocks and found out that ice is actually very slushy! Hopefully it will all be gone soon 🤞

Our hunt for fallen birchbark resulted in some beautiful rounds. The model isn’t half bad either 😍

Wavy certainly looked the part of camp worker today 🙌

Priority one was getting our lift in place, and thanks to the help of a few unexpected friends, we got it all lined up and ready to go! This lift is OURS. No rental or payment. Just, ours. Its a beater, but its also for camping, so its pretty perfect if you ask me!

Things we got done:

lift placed
hot water heater installed
golf cart batteries installed
fridge cleaned and turned on
basics unpacked
baby swing hung from the deck roof
beds made
braces taken off the deck
fresh water brought in
mouse poison vacuumed up
deck and patio swept and shovelled
kayak brought down to the water

Things we didn’t get done:

got cart running 😬
camp chef cleaned off
wood bin refilled
water lines (because water isn’t turned on yet)
propane tanks filled

Its not done. But its pretty close. Inside the camper as well, everything is in its area, but not in its spot. There is time, though. Last year, I felt like our site was just a big fat mess all season, and to a degree that is just going to be the case because there are so many of us. Its hard to make baby wagons and three high chairs on the deck look tidy. But I don’t want it to feel chaotic either. We’ll get there.

Dekker noted that Brady’s swing-back armrests look like exhaust pipes. At the end of this day, Brady was double exhausted 🤣🥱

It was honestly such a beautiful day. I’m so happy we went. And the kids really crushed it. There were so few conflicts, and morale was way up. It was such a pleasure to witness.

I am VERY excited to go back again this weekend. C’mon, Kinasao, get that water running!!