The Daily Hailey

I am so grateful for the weather this weekend. While it made morning fires a challenge to start, it definitely was a gift to me to listen to it storm outside overnight. Both nights!!! Made for some beautiful skies also, I cannot complain!

🎶 Though the sorrows may last for the night, His joy comes with the morning! 🎵

The bugs were unfriendly but the company was good, and the coffee is always delicious 💜

We soaked in the restful weekend and then loaded the van with both items and people, and then I ran to sign Laela and Rowan in for their week of camp!

Rowan and Jaxon are in the same cabin, as well as a friend of Rowan’s from here in town!

Laela and Avery also got to be in the same cabin! Heyooo!

Once everyone was appropriately tucked in, I ran back to the van and put myself into it. Last minute, I remembered to turn off our AC that was pumping in the camper (thank goodness!) and then we drove home!

This week should be lighter than last week. Should be 😬 Ready or not, we’ll be back to Kinasao for the weekend to pick up the cuties!

It was beautiful today. Restful. Sunny. Simple. We sat and breathed. I crocheted. We stoked a fire all day. Kids came and went all throughout. 

Brady napped. He drank coffee. He sat by the fire. 

We ate a yummy supper, though with smaller numbers than usual. Sadie cooked. 

Kids played man tracker. We visited and laughed at the babies. 

Finally the time came for winding down. The site for packed up for the night. Kids went to the bathroom and got tucked in. It’s time for some bedtime now, where Brady can rest his back and let down comfortably. We have a last episode of our show to watch anyway 🙂 and a snack to eat, I’m sure! 

Tomorrow, we send a couple more kids to camp for the week! And the dynamic will shift again! 

I miss you, Dekker!! 

Today we picked up the littlest bigs 💜 

Wavy came running excitedly towards me and we had a nice big hug. She had a little cry like she did last year – a let down of sorts, but reassured me that she had a really good time and was completely happy 😊 that being said, for the closing program, she opted to sit on our bench all sidled up to Laela rather than veils with the other campers at the front, showing off their songs and verses. 

On the other hand, Solly stayed up front the entire time!! He sang, did actions, recited verses, and even yelled out answers independently when the speaker asked questions. He was SO into it! That is worlds apart ahead of where he was last year or the year before. I’m so grateful his anxiety is under control! 

It’s good to be back here. It was so nice to get to go to the closing program. And now, it is so nice to sit on the deck in the pouring rain. 

I love it here. I’m so grateful for this spot our family calls home. Thank you, Lord. 

Next week is Laela’s week at camp. I will miss her for lots of reasons. But perhaps one of the reasons you don’t all know about…

If I leave my phone laying around, or lend my phone to her to make a call, take a picture, etc, I get these in my photos 🤣

Do not be concerned. She knows she’s a dork. This is to celebrate that fact 🤣

Spine staples = 34

Head staples #1 = 41

Head staples #2 = 47 🥇 We have a winner!!!

We went in to get Brady’s staples removed this morning!

Just a man and his iced capp 🤣 This man is LOVING iced capps these days! Sometimes he’ll have two in one outing hahaha!

We were going to have our family doctor remove the staples, but she got called in to deliver a couple of babies this morning, which absolutely wins over staple removal. I told her we might just do it ourselves, and she laughed. Good thing she trusts us to not be idiots, hahaha! Rather than her, we saw a first year resident who seemed initially super nervous but warmed up quickly and did a great job. I really do think it was his first time though 😅

Thankfully, it barely hurt Brady at all. He compared it to the feeling of little bits of hair being pulled, which is definitely manageable in the grand scheme of things.

It’ll be good to give this head a good scrub and buzz soon! He’s been following the rules of leaving things alone as much as possible, hence the overgrown buzz and some build up around his incision. It’ll all get cleaned up soon 💜

That was our last scheduled appointment for the week! Whew! 😅 I think I might have a bath during naps. Could use some rest and recoup!

Yesterday felt pretty calm in terms of expectations. We had one commitment. A meeting with a social worker first thing in the morning. I almost slept through it, but I made it in time and she was super gracious and just laughed it off with me, saying she understands how lake life goes. The day ended with a visit from our accessibility guy/contractor bathroom guy/really lovely friend. He came to scope a leaky situation we mentioned to him only a couple of hours before. He brought one of his kids and we had SUCH a nice visit. Goodness we have great people around every corner!!

Today has felt fuller. I didn’t sleep well, so getting up was extra hard, but of course I still did it, lol! As you do. We had arranged for someone to come do Brady’s toenails this morning, and we were SO relieved that she was able to come early! We’ve encountered this particular person a handful of times and we really get along well 🙂 So she hung out with us while the kids finished up their breakfast, and got Brady’s feet all fixed up! Very quickly after she finished up and left, we loaded into the van and headed in to Brady’s next appointments. We waited for a while at City Hospital before being called back for his scope. Brady had a cystoscopy (think catheter scope) and got some botox in his bladder. This should help his overactive bladder calm its tits a little bit and hopefully improve the quality of his life. The whole thing took a little while longer than normal because he was feeling very weak today and had to be transferred with the help of lifts and extra hands. But WOW were the nurses all SO nice! Everyone was so warm and kind, as well as goofy at the right times while maintain incredible professionalism. Just, wow. SUCH great staff in that department.

Tomorrow there is only one appointment but its first thing. Brady is getting the staples taken out!! We were able to get in with our family doctor and a resident she is working with. I am so grateful for our doctor, and the privilege it is to not have to go to a walk-in for everything. We are SO well cared for.

I believe Thursday will be more restful, but we will use that day for packing and prepping for camp! And Friday, we’ll be on the go back to the lake! Gotta pick up the camp kids and deliver a couple more for the next week!

I wish I could show you the pictures for todays story but bear with me. You’ll have to take my word for it that it was really, really funny.

Taking turns is hard, right? Especially as a toddler. So, Spoons is 3, and really doesn’t care for the concept. Much more excited about the whole “mine” thing. Not abnormal. And not enjoyable to be around.

At one point today, Rowan brought his beanbag chair out to the living room, as well as a super cozy fuzzy pillow he loves, and left it there for the babes to enjoy. After a while he returned, and no one was sitting in/on his cozy setup, so he tucked in.

And Spoons lost it, tucked in on the couch, and wailed mournfully over and over “TURN BEEEEEAN!!!!”

To be clear, Spoons had many turn beans 😂 but it seemed unbearable to watch Rowan enjoy his own turn on his own bean.

We giggled, because Spoons was completely fine, and learning is hard sometimes and thats ok. After a while, they opted to share a turn bean and all was right with the world again.

But goodness 🤣 TURN BEEEEEAN!!!

Today we made our first camp drop offs!! Wavy and Solly will spend this week at camp, and they were excited!!!

I dropped Wavy off first. She picked a top bunk. She didn’t go with anyone this summer, as in she didn’t have a specific cabin mate chosen, but she landed in a cabin with a friend from the camp that she knew before, as a well as a local friend from school and ballet! Win!

I went to tuck Solly in next. He had chosen the bunk above the counsellor, and his first order of business was finding some masking tape and labelling it as his 🤣 True Solly styles. He also didn’t have a specific cabin mate to request this year since Rowan and Jaxon are going with an older age group this summer, but we did meet up with one of Brady’s friends who was tucking his kid into the same cabin! Hopefully a friendship in the making there!

Another highlight for me today was an unexpected quiet time. For a brief moment in time, I had no one at my campsite. Now I LOVE having a crew of happy kids in my campsite, do NOT get me wrong!!! NO backsies there! I LOVE our group!!! 💜 But there was a half hour or so where I had dropped off Wavy and Solly, and Laela was out on a walk with Avery. Babies were napping, as was Brady. It was just me. I crocheted and just breathed. The fire fizzled out, and I didn’t beef it back up because I knew we were leaving soon. It was a brief time of low pressure, and I liked it.

Getting home was a bit of a task today. I wish it had been smoother than it was, but alas, it was not, and we still made it. It was hard, but not too hard. So we will absolutely do it again!

We got home, unpacked, diapered, tucked, set up, and tucked some more. And then there was a very short lived but aggressive storm. It got Hailey out there and everything!

But actually, there was hail.

Now that the work is all done, including the blog, I’m ready for supper. Brady, too. I am anticipating my own bed tonight 🙂 With fewer children in my bedroom and less sand in my bed.

Always grateful, though. Never not. Praise the Lord!

If we could have more storms like last nights, that would work for me!! Not a tornado per se, but some good dark clouds and some rolling thunder wouldn’t hurt!! 

😍🌪️🌩️

We made it to camp. Yes, even the one of us who had brain surgery ten days ago. The most handsome man 🙌 

We had such a beautifully warm welcome from our Dahlsjos, as well as another family or two who were so thrilled to see Brady 💜 It just feels like home here. 

As the storm works to move in back at our actual home, we spent our day here in the overcast weather, around the fire, just being restful. I had a PRECIOUS snuggle turned nap with our dearest Lemon Drop. You can’t know how much that meant to me. LD hasn’t slept on me in a long time, and it was great for the heart. 💜 

Off to bed now. Brady napped all evening so now he has to hang out with me 🤣