Last night, Solomon slept SO WELL! He went down shortly before 8:00pm, and when he often wakes up around midnight, it was 2:30 before he made a peep! He drank a nice big bottle and didn’t wake again until 8:00am. It was pretty awesome; I am truly thrilled with how well he slept. However, with him sleeping with so few wakeful times, I slept through a lot of medication :/ As soon as I woke up, I took my “superdose,” while Solly was still fussing in his bed. I knew I had to get on it fast. Not that I should have had to get on it super fast, as I took medicine at 2:30, but such is life. So I took my medicine, and fed Solly his breakfast. Then, we got the rest of the crew up and began the day.

If you’re around here, you’ll know that its been very grey and and windy and rainy today. Those days are always very quiet around here. Quiet in a good way, though. Currently, the two littler boys are napping, Dekker is building links, and Laela is playing with cars on the table beside me. While I diligently took my next dose of medication at noon, it was within an hour that my pain began. We’re two hours post-meds right now and its definitely not letting up. I’ve heard that the best thing I can do for it is to lie flat on my back, but that is not an option right now. So rather, I’m choosing to sit at the table with VERY good posture, and spend some time like that. Until Ro and Solly wake up, anyway.

While I sit here, I’m keeping busy with some online shopping, daydreaming about Ikea, and everything we’ll be able to snag when we finally get there 🙂 I’m also researching what we should buy with all of or credit card points. And what we need to organize all of the drawers in our house.

Lots of planning and organizing in my head, while my chest just aches and I get dizzier. Normally, on days like this, Brady comes home and lifts a lot of the pressure off by sending me off to lay in bed. But I’m just hearing now that he took a good fall at work today and will be coming home early, all achy himself. So it should be an interesting evening!!

Wish us luck!

I love a good storm. Right as we were leaving my parents this evening, it started to come down HARD! It momentarily petered out just in time to get the kids out to the van, so we ran them out and drove home. Once we were parked in the garage, there was another good downpour. We got everyone in and to bed, and I headed to our room to crank all of the windows open. I love listening to the sound of rain. Now not that I can’t know what the future holds, but it is definitely not raining anymore, and I don’t know if it will :/ Not tonight anyway. I know we’re forecasted for a ton of rain in the next few days! Like flooding levels of rain. But yikes, how I LOVE falling asleep to the sound of rain! Bah!

Today wasn’t particularly eventful. We had a really early start with Solly, and he was pretty unsettled for most of the day. Through the morning, we did dishes, a load of laundry, dishes, etc. I went upstairs after a while to continue the forever humungous project of sorting through products and trying to make our en suite vanity/makeup desk area what I want it to be. It didn’t take long before the whole family joined me in our en suite. Good thing its such a good size! I sorted and planned and didn’t really accomplish much beyond noting a few things I need to buy from Dollarama to make it a tad more functional. Who gets anything done in a small room filled with children? Eventually, Brady hauled them all down and bathed them. I brushed their hair and got them dressed.

We spent the afternoon and early evening with my parents. It was a pretty quiet day, which was nice. Lots of visiting while the kids played, lots of yummy food, nice stretches of naps, etc. The kids didn’t ask for tv once, which was a first! They love the routine involving a bit of tv after lunch, so they were obviously enjoying being at grandma and grandpas house.

Now, everyone is home and asleep. The bath is run, and I’m thinking its time for a snack. Perhaps nachos. Its always a good day for nachos.

One of the big opinions about large families is that they count on their older kids to raise their younger kids. It may be so in some cases, and I certainly don’t want to open up a forum for conflict. I know there are  a lot of opinions out there. I have opinions too. But its my blog 😉 So I can share all of the opinions I want!

In my opinion, we are not one of these families.

I don’t think any family would willingly say that they counted on their older kids to raise their younger ones. So maybe you can just take my word for it. We’re not that family. I will admit that our kids do things to help around here, and some of that involves getting diapers, throwing them away, retrieving blankets, soothers, burp pads, etc. In that way, the older ones help with the younger ones. In my opinion, that is part of sharing a house with someone. You help each other out. I was the youngest in my family, and I had plenty to do that involved helping my siblings out. We are simply teaching our kids not to be selfish, and to think of others.

During breakfast this morning, the kids were eating and Brady and I were doing dishes and getting the house tidied up a little bit. After a while, I heard Solly start to fuss in his bouncy chair beside the table. He wasn’t crying or too terribly upset, so I didn’t head over right away. He often gets over that kind of thing really quickly, and he did this time as well, within a minute or two. When I finally did look up from the dishes, I saw that Dekker had pulled Sollys bouncy chair right up to his dining chair, and he was ever so gently bouncing it with his foot. While he ate breakfast, he had consoled Solomon, all on his own.

Now, some may say this is our big kids having to care for our little kids, and how unfair is that? That a four year old would have that responsibility, to console the crying baby. But he didn’t! It was natural for him! He saw a need, and he met it in an act of love. He was not forced, bribed, or even asked.

How crazy to think that sometimes people do nice things for others because *gasp* they want to!!

I am so very proud of my kids, and the love they have, and show, for one another!

I wouldn’t dream of rushing them to grow up.

Oh, darlings, don’t you ever grow up, just stay this little…

I chose to celebrate my lack of ultrasound results with a change in my medication schedule. Its not as dumb of an idea as it sounds. I think its very important that I try, once in a while, to ween off, or change up, and see if my pain is still as bad as it was. When a doctor/nurse/tech asks me a question, I should know the answer, where I’ve been giving a lot of “I don’t know, I’m on medication” answers. Do you have reflux with the pain? Does it come and go? What makes it better or worse? I don’t know, I’m on medication.

I tried a couple of weeks ago to simply ween off of three pills. Just three. And it was a fail. Today, I technically took less pills, but the main goal was to space my doses out a little bit further and see how my body handled it. Rather than taking pills every four hours, I did it every six. I combined things differently (all TOTALLY SAFE combinations, like I’ve said, nothing is too strong) so my dose was slightly larger than before, but I was waiting longer between doses. Meds at midnight, 6:00am, and noon today. At 3:30, I started to feel that pressure in my abdomen which is my sign that I’m behind. It wasn’t excruciating by any means. It was just the beginning of it. I told myself I would reassess at 4:00 and likely take at least some Tylenol then. But by 4:00, I was completely nauseous, and my head was pounding. I don’t even know if my muscle still hurt, but everything else about me felt like complete garbage.

So this post is a little downtrodden, because I am. Brady came home and gave me my meds, as I was trapped under a sleeping baby and didn’t want to disturb him. But I did anyway, and am now upstairs, in our room, laying flat on my back, which is the only thing I’ve heard that could possibly help my pain at this point. Apparently even just sitting in a chair is using the muscle thats angry because its holding my head up. Assuming its an angry muscle at all. Ugh.

All things considered, I’m glad I tried this today. Its the best time for it. I’ll be all caught up for Saturday, and we have nothing planned this evening. So if I spend this evening in bed, I do. I hope not to! I hope to catch up. But I’m feeling pretty ridiculous, and I can’t take more medicine until 8:00. So wish me luck. Or wish Brady luck. Thats probably smarter.

I was just telling Brady that my least favorite part of blogging is making up titles. I actually really enjoy blogging! But often enough, I’ll title my blog, and it informs me that I’ve used that title before. I’m allowed to use it again, its not a big deal, but it drives me bonkers. About 1500 posts into this, I am running out of ideas! Hahaha! So forgive me. This post is just me talking about my day, like always.

Today was the first day this week that I didn’t have anything planned. I wasn’t put off by it at all, though. I figured I’d try to be productive, with emphasis on the word “try.” As I’ve said, it seems like any amount of physical exertion escalates my muscle pain, so beyond dishes and child minding, I don’t do too much these days. But life has to go on, and things need to get done! So I got the kids up and eating while I sorted laundry and put in the first load. Then I started on dishes, and realized that I had forgotten to run the dishwasher last night. So I loaded all of five things into it and ran it. There was no way I was washing everything left by hand, so I stacked it up nicely to complete later.

It was pretty soon after that when my mom called. I had emailed her yesterday and invited her over for lunch, and she had called to make a plan for the afternoon. I finally convinced her to come for lunch! Thank goodness we have the relationship we have, because I still could do laundry and a few other little things while she was around. She even helped with my chores, haha! Honestly, though, I didn’t get a ton done because Solly was SO unsettled today! He has great days where he’ll lay around, wide awake, and watch the world around him. Today, he just wanted to sleep, but never comfortably, it seemed. Poor kid just couldn’t get it together today, but I sure know that feeling, so I can’t fault him for it 😉

We had leftover chicken wrap stuff, just in salad form, for lunch, and had a nice visit into the afternoon. It was after lunch that I finally got a call from someone at my doctors office with my ultrasound results. They came back normal. Ugh. I was (and continue to be) so disappointed. No, I don’t want to have some big problem in there, but I’m frustrated about not knowing whats going on and therefore not knowing what direction to take. My physio will begin on the 18th, so I’ll anticipate that, but at 5.5 weeks postpartum, I’m pretty frustrated at the stage of pain I’m in unless I’m heavily medicated. Somethings got to give. Hopefully it will soon. But that was a piece of discouraging news today anyway :/ Keep praying, if you feel so inclined.

Brady came home at a good time, bearing iced coffee for me. It was delicious. We made macaroni and wieners for supper, which sounds awful but filled tummies and made everyone happy. Anything one can squirt ketchup on is a big win around here with the kids. So everyone was in good shape going into bedtime.

Three out of four are down for the night, Solly is close behind, and I am so anticipating a soak in the tub!! I did end up getting that second load of dishes in, and I finished the laundry! It was a very productive day, even if it sounds small to you guys. I feel accomplished. And I’ve earned my soak! And a snack…

We ran out of a few staple groceries in the last few days, so I decided to take the kids in for them, rather than sending Brady on another errand. He’s always more than willing to run errands, but because of my ultrasound this week, he lost a few hours, and I don’t want to make it harder to catch up by sending him all over the place. So when the kids got up this morning, I got them fed and dressed and loaded into the van.

My plan was to hit Walmart, and get the kids some McDonalds for lunch afterwards to keep everyone happy. We needed a couple of things from Costco as well, but I am not that crazy to try to hit both big busy stores in one day without some extra hands to help. But I needed to fill the van with gas, so when I was at Costco doing that, I figured we could get those things after all. I found a pretty reasonably close parking space and got everyone into/onto the cart. Rowan sits up in the basket seat thing, Dekker rides on the end, and Solly was in his bucket in the actual cart. Laela hates to ride in the cart with Rowan, so she is VERY well mannered in grocery stores and we let her just hold hands and walk alongside. But today, I had to push the cart and couldn’t hold her hand. So we compromised, and it worked! She agreed to ride in the cart beside Rowan through the parking lot, and once we were in the store, she hung onto the side of the cart and walked beside me. I’m so thankful that my kids are exactly who they are. She didn’t stray or try to bail once. She just wants to walk rather than ride. I get that. She really earns those things, as simple as they sound. Proud mommy moment.

We got through Costco and everything was soaked. There had been a super quick downpour, and I was pretty thankful that it had stopped in time for us to get to our van without getting too soaked. Though my shoes took a bit of a hit. Also thankful I wore some super old shoes today…

As we drove to Walmart, it POURED. As we parked, it POURED. It was a bit ominous. The kids were a bit hesitant. There were no carts super close by, and I wasn’t about to try to run them all in through a crowded parking lot in the rain when I only had two arms. We waited a few minutes, and it didn’t let up. So I left the van running and went to find a cart. Don’t worry, the van was in sight the entire time. I got everyone into it as fast as I could, and Dekker and Laela were super obedient when I told them both to climb on the end and ride inside together. Everyone did as they were told, and we made it inside looking pretty “drowned rat esque” but it worked. We really enjoyed the Walmart shop, and the kids were on their best behaviour. The biggest fight was that both Dekker and Laela wanted to put the cucumber in the cart. That was it. Pretty easy to handle, if you ask me.

When we had paid for our stuff, we walked past the McDonalds, and it was PACKED. Worst of all, it was packed with people waiting, not people eating. I couldn’t imagine trying to get the kids fed there, so we walked past it. As the power of suggestion tends to work, Dekker and Laela saw those dang golden arches and expressed hunger. I told them I was hungry too, and once we brought daddy a coffee, we would go home and make lunch. And somehow, that was enough for them!! We headed for the exit and, praise the Lord, the rain had stopped momentarily. So we made a big scene of running to the van and being super loud about it.

We picked up coffee for Brady and drove to his job site right around when he was planning to take his lunch break, so he brought his lunch in and ate with us. It was such a pleasant family date in the middle of the day. And the kids weren’t complaining about being hungry or anything like that! Total champs! I finally got them fed around 1:30, and all has been well 🙂

I’m calling today’s outing a raging success!!! I had no idea that this would feel so easy, and while I’m sure it won’t be easy every single time, I don’t feel in over my head at all. Very thankful for these little loves! (I’m super thankful for Rowan too! He’s just napping. We’ll get him next time 😉 )

Its been a great day <3

Today was a really really good day with the kids! Solly slept all morning, and Rowan slept all afternoon. No joke. I’m not saying that the day was good because I didn’t have to hang out with the little ones, because I LOVE them all! But I got to focus a bit more than usual on Dekker and Laela individually. They’ve been recently really getting on each others nerves, and I feel like I spend every minute of the day correcting them and going over the same principles of giving each other the benefit of the doubt, using manners, trying to resolve stuff before tattling to me, etc. I realize these are big concepts for such little people, but its got to start somewhere! And today, this magical thing happened! I’d see a situation go down kind of badly, and I’d remind them what the better way was, and then the next time it happened, they’d play out the exact scenario I’d have suggested. Dekker would speak in his polite voice, and even give reason for asking for what he wanted, and Laela would go along with it, with good manners all around. It was kind of amazing.

We had one bout that was a bit rough at first. I was on the phone, and Dekker was digging in our ottoman for toys when Rowan walked by. Ro lost his balance a little, and put his hand on Dekker’s back to stabilize himself. He didn’t even fall. Just caught himself. And Dekker freaked. “Ouch! Rowan! You’re pushing me!” This scared Rowan and he started crying. I snapped my fingers at him and pointed to his room. He ran off, wailing mournfully. I finished my call up pretty quickly after that and went into his room. We talked about how I had watched exactly what happened, and that Rowan had touched Dekker, but he didn’t even come close to pushing him. I told him how rude it is to yell at someone. I told him that, had Rowan actually pushed him to be mean, he should ask him to please stop, and if he went further, to come talk to me about it. We covered all of the bases, but sometimes I can tell things are just whipping over his head, and today, they were. So I decided to tackle him! I dove into him and took him down. He burst out laughing, and I helped him back up. As soon as he was back up, I shoved him over. He continued laughing. We had a good laugh and snuggle, and it helped bring him back to me a little. Then we talked about how I had been kind of rough and pushed him over, but it wasn’t mean. It was fun! BUT!, that being said, if he asked me stop, I definitely would have. Don’t worry, I’m not teaching him its ok to push! But I’m trying to teach him about context. So I asked him if Rowan had actually pushed him, and he said that he hadn’t. So nothing hurt? Nope. And all was well. He jogged out of his room and apologized to Rowan for yelling. I thought the situation diffused really well, honestly. I don’t expect he’ll forget anytime soon.

After that, the afternoon went nice and smoothly. The kids were on their best behaviour, and I could sneak away once in a while and get ready for my evening. When 5:15 rolled around, I went to pick Kim up. We went for fish tacos (Seriously guys, Taco Time. Try them.) and then drove to HomeSense. I’ve been there all of twice in my life, and while I’m not looking to buy a ton of new things for my house just now, I wanted to just meander through and get ideas. It was SO fun, and I only bought a couple of little things. I’ll definitely be back though!

As per usual, we couldn’t have a date without Value Village! The one by HomeSense isn’t as good as the other, so we don’t go as often, but I actually did pretty good! I got a pair of shoes, a shirt, a bathing suit top, and a couple of things for Rowan. It was a good haul, which was a nice surprise.

I drove her home afterwards, and came home to a sleeping husband. It was 9:30. Which is why I’m trying to pump out this post, lol, so we can head for bed soon! I had a really nice day today, so let’s hope Solly allows us a really nice night as well. He’s such a rockstar. Last night, I was SO zoned and dizzy and overtired when Solly woke up. Brady informed me that I did diaper change though! Who knew!! I guess I’m officially an “experienced mom,” changing diapers in my sleep! Win!

My kids are completely rockstar beautiful, as always, but today they just seem extra gorgeous. I have found that our new house has windows in just the perfect places, and I have recently pulled out our camera again. Not that the iPhone doesn’t have a decent camera, because it does! But our point and shoot camera is pretty close to unbeatable.

It just about pains me to only post the pictures that are currently loading, and there are ten!! But I had to pick and choose because another factor that comes with camera pictures vs phone pictures is that they take way longer to load, haha! Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Before I post their beautiful faces, I’ll admit that Dekker was still sleeping when I was snapping pictures this morning, so the ones with him are from a couple of days ago. But they still count 🙂

Behold!

Just try and tell me this kid and I look nothing alike. Sure, he definitely looks like his dad’s side of the family, but I’m seeing some serious resemblance here, even if its just mannerisms. Two of a kind.

Yes. His face is as soft as it looks.

Breakfast was cute.

Post-breakfast playtime was also pretty much adorable. Maybe seeing their faces over and over again is just one of those “something only a mother would love” things, but so be it!

My favorite part of this morning was taking band photos, or at least what could be band photos!

Ro is looking pretty hardcore in the last one, hahaha!!

I’ll leave you with a bright eyed picture of Solly, because one says enough.

“Hello, everyone. I border on flawless.”

True fact.

I’m so very happy that today was exactly what it was. Brady and I stayed in bed a little bit longer, and had coffee and muffins for breakfast. We got the kids up for breakfast, bathed them, dressed them, and headed to my parents for the afternoon. We rocked a quiet, relaxed day there. My mom and I ducked out quickly to Costco for one simple purchase, but otherwise, we were home and fairly restful all day.

Its not a secret that our family has fallen out of the habit of going to church. While I honestly would say that we have lots of good reasons, with all of the busyness of our life, it boils down to it being really really hard to get back in the habit! Today we were feeling good in the morning, and thinking we should really make an effort to go today. But I’m SO glad we didn’t, because Rowan is cutting teeth and is SO screamy and weepy and out of sorts, poor kid. There would have been no way to have him in church, even remotely quiet.

Another silly thing that made me feel content about having a quiet day is my silly pain. I’ve been fighting with this epigastric pain for a month now, and now, over the last few days, I’m having a lot of cramping as well. The cramping isn’t anything special, or over the top painful. I’ve had cramps a thousand times in my life. But with the amount of pain medication that I’m taking these days, I can’t help but wonder whats going on in there, and how its managing to get its way past my meds. What kind of shape would I be in if I weren’t on my medication?? I’ve often heard it said that if there is a real problem, pain medication won’t cut it. I’m starting to wonder if we’re there.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll go for an ultrasound, in hopes of getting some answers. I don’t know what it could all be, but I know of a few small possibilities anyway. I’m honestly hoping they find something in there, so I can have a direction to go in to find recovery. I suppose, if they don’t find anything, we’ll have at least ruled a few things out. Either way, I’m greatly anticipating my scan, and hopefully getting some results in the next day or two. I feel like, in the last yearish, I’ve had an incredibly painful pregnancy, and an incredibly painful month postpartum. Its also as though Solomon’s delivery was the easiest, most comfortable part! Time for some more of that comfort.

So because of those few factors, I’m so thankful that today was relaxed, and quiet, in good company. It seems I can do very little that doesn’t upset my muscle, or whatever is getting upset in there. Spending the day with my feet up is really nice when there are extra people around to chase the kids 🙂 So thanks, family, for all you do!

Lately, when people come over and see our house, they comment on how “together” it is already. I’ll admit, I agree that we’ve done a pretty good job of making the main living area look nice. I sure love it! It is lived in, but looks good, and the few new-to-us pieces that we’ve added have really topped it off nicely. It looks like we’ve always lived there…

Except that every single room still has boxes stacked waaay up! It is SO far from being done! I know, we’ve lived here for less than a month. I’m not worried about it being perfect right away, or even for quite some time! But I want the boxes taken care of, and its proving to be difficult to get that done! Consider this. Yesterday was a great day of relaxing and visiting. The SINGLE THING I did that wasn’t my usual daily living was moving some clothes around in my closet. And by the end of the day, I was SORE. That stupid abdominal muscle (or whatever is going on in there) is really giving me a run for my money. I do not push it around here, because even the tiniest amount of work I do sets me back. So while I would love to be working on boxes, and I have all the motivation to do it, I can’t 🙁 Merp. Its pretty frustrating, to be honest.

This afternoon, Brady and I decided to try to at least make some progress on our master bedroom. I don’t know about your bedrooms, but ours is always the dumping ground for things that don’t have a home. Its the land of “We’ll put this here so we remember to do something about it later” and then it seems to just snuggle in and overstay its welcome. A few weeks ago, we started tidying it up, and the pile got smaller, which made us feel good. But it stopped there. So today, we gave it a go, and we did pretty good!

A few tubs belonged downstairs, so those got carried down. A handful of things got thrown out. A few boxes got consolidated. Some stuff moved onto the top shelves in our closet. We didn’t do tons, but we did enough to know what we still have to deal with. Here’s the main list.

A dresser. Brady and I NEED a dresser. We have a couple of old beater dressers downstairs, so if we don’t find what we’re ideally looking for soon, we’ll likely drag one up and use it. I have a big tub of bottoms that fit me at all different times – pregnant pants and shorts, non-pregnant pants and shorts, freshly postpartum pants and shorts, sweats and comfies, etc. So. Many. We we have a couple tubs of clothes that need to find a home. That should finish off our closet/clothing.

Bathroom products. I have SO many of those, whether its makeup, hand soaps, lotion, bubble bath, you name it, I have too much of it. What I really need is to be able to dump those boxes out, see how much I have of everything, and organize it. It wouldn’t be the most productive to go one box at a time, because its just all mixed up. Its going to be a huge job.

The white tubs. *sigh* Those stinking white tubs. When we started renting, none of the places we ended up in had a junk drawer, or room for one. So we ended up just chucking all of our random junk/papers/everything ugly into these little while tubs from Dollarama. Now, we have probably eight of them, just full of crap. Those all need to be sorted through, and the stuff needs to be re-homed. Also a huge job.

Last huge job to do is the kids clothes. Again, since we moved from our previous house, all of the kids have sized up at least once. But we’ve been living in disorder, and all of the clothes they’ve grown out of have all just been dumped into tubs, willy nilly. Not order. We have tubs of clothing that the kids have grown out of in the past, and the right sizes need to go into the right tubs. Which means I have probably four big tubs of clothing to fold, pile up in the correct piles, and then try to locate the right tub in the basement somewhere to add them to.

Don’t even get my started on the state of the basement…

SO! While its all a bit overwhelming, it was actually a good day, full of discussion and planning and basically putting it all on the table. Our clothing will be taken care of when we buy a dresser, so that’ll be easy. All of the bathroom products have moved up into our room now, and that will eventually be my job. I’ll likely sort through the kids clothes too, but those tubs still look ok, so they’re still stacked up int he kids rooms. Brady is going to take on the organization of the white tubs, which I HUGELY appreciate! That will be more legwork, whereas my jobs will be more sitting on the floor while I sort.

There is obviously still work to be done, but those are on our radar right now as priorities. We planned out a laundry hamper rack for the basement (just wait until you see it! Eek!) so Brady will likely buy the materials and build that for me soon, and that will make doing laundry SO much nicer!! We also made some plans for a few purchases we’d like to make in the near future for the house. When we ordered our kitchen from Ikea, we got some money back in gift cards, thanks to the kitchen event being on at the right time!! So we are very excited to use that money towards some nice things for our new home. But you’ll find out more about that all soon enough, I hope. I think a quick road trip to Edmonton is going to look a little bit different now, haha!, but we’ll try!

All things in, its been a really nice day 🙂 A morning outing to Costco, followed by some good planning and organization. Solly is having some awake time now, and its just about suppertime. I hope you’re all enjoying your long weekend 🙂