In order to give Brady and I an extra-quiet quiet time, Cher took a study break on Saturday and invited the big kids out to play during nap time.

Thank you, Cher, for wanting to hang with my kids ❤️

They made their way to the playground and played hard for a nice stretch of time. It was blustery out, but everyone was pretty bundled so they did ok.

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Not too long after that, they meandered their way to the restaurant for hot chocolate, because apparently it was a little cool out there.

The walk there produced some of the BEST pictures, in my opinion.

Eventually they arrived for some drinks and fries.

They enjoyed their date, I like to believe they were grateful and used their manners, and then they wandered back towards the playground…

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And eventually home.

We’ve had a couple of nice, quieter moments in the house recently, and our kids have been well loved on. I’m SO thankful for our thoughtful, loving village. We are so undeserving, but so fortunate. I won’t try to talk my way out of it. I’ll just be grateful.

** Thank you, Cher, for all the beautiful photos. They are SUCH a gift to our family.

I thought it would be important to have on record a few more milestones we’ve hit with Wavy 🙂 As I’ve been watching her in the last week or so, I’m just awestruck by how much she knows and hoe well she fits in our family. 

First of all, and clearly SO notable, lol, Wavy has chunked up in just the last week. All of a sudden, she’s like a stuffed sausage in her little tshirts, with her belly hanging out the bottom. Its as though her belly button is deeper. Its hilarious. She’s such a little tank. 

Speaking of her belly button, she knows where it is. If she’s in the mood, and you ask her where her belly button is, she lifts up her shirt and pokes it. She’s really catching on to basic commands. She’ll happily come when you call her. She’ll run to the window to wave when someone leaves, and wait at the baby gate when you tell her someone’s arrived. She knows what her mouth is, and is more trustworthy not to eat books anymore. She knows what her socks are, and tends to remember where she hid them when we ask. She knows her siblings names. She knows the basics of what she’s not supposed to have, and if she gets a hold of something she shouldn’t have (paper books, phones, hairballs, lol) she’ll usually bring them to somebody, as though to say “I probably shouldn’t have this.” She’s SO sweet. 

She has taken very well to being read to, and will often waddle her way over to me, waving a book. When I take it from her, she giggles madly and flaps/reaches for me. She LOVES to be read to! BUT, weird side note. She hates Clifford. Like hates him. Lol! So, take note. 

She is changing so quickly, and is in full toddler mode. Man alive, I love her so much. I love them all, but these beginning milestones just thrill my heart.

On a day where my heart is heavy and the temperature outside is cold, I spent a beautiful day in my warm house with my closest friends. I am SO fortunate.

Brady went to work early, and the kids and I took our time getting the day started. Jerilee came with coffee, and we visited while the kids played nicely together for the morning. Except Waverly.

She wasn’t feeling very well, and was a bit of an emotional wreck. She would come for a snuggle, but the moment she wanted to be done, she’s struggle and fuss. I’d set her back down, she’d take two steps, and immediately disintegrate again. It cycled all morning, which was pretty exhausting. She rallied right around 11:00 out of nowhere, so she got some happy playtime in before we packed it in around 11:45 for lunch. Everyone ate lunch pretty well, and Wavy giggled the whole way to her nap.

Jerilee left shortly after naptime started, and Cher took a study break and joined me for a couple of hours in the afternoon. We visited quietly while Dekker and Laela assembled a lego set together. It was so nice to see them play and work together with minimal arguing. We had a nice, quiet afternoon together.

Brady finished his house much quicker than we had anticipated, and made it home around 3:30, just as the nappers were waking up. It just all timed out so nicely.

The evening will just be the seven of us, and leftover tacos are on the menu. I love taco night that I always make a couple batch and then just eat the leftovers consistently until they’re gone. Anyone else??

We had a rare friendship moment between Dekker and Laela after school today. It was simple, but worth remembering.

Dekker and Laela occasionally want to wrestle each other, and it never ever ends good. Its one of those things where I warn them its going to end in either blood or tears, and I’m not going too feel so bad if someone is upset about it at the end. But they insist, so I leave them to it. Today, that was a good choice.

It went from wrestling onto a chair to one trying to sit on the others lap while the one tried to prevent it. From there, it became one lying across another. And then I heard Laela chirp “You be a desk!”

So, Dekker dutifully became a desk.

And they LOVED it. Laela read on his belly, which was the whole joke to begin with, but eventually the “desk” flipped the book up and clocked her in the chin. She handled it tho.

The game grew. Laela pulled a “mom” thing and started teasing Dekker.

“Oh! Whats under here?” she’d ask, and lift up his shirt and poke his belly button. He could not handle it, he laughed SO hard. She walked her fingers up his arm and tickled his neck, and he just screeched. He flopped around and eventually fell off of her.

It was all fun and games until Laela was to be the desk. There was an abrupt ending, but no one was upset. It was a good moment. I’m glad I got to see it.

We have a new hurdle on our hands. Waverly, however, does not feel its a hurdle. Its now a game. And she LOVES it.

So Wavy mastered stairs a good while back now. Not going back down the stairs, but she’s fabulous at going up them! We try and teach her how to back down them, but she screams and just wants to keep motoring forward. There have been a few times I’ve noticed her a few stairs up, and before I can reach her, she’s backed down them. She’s done good so far, but I don’t trust her 100% yet, obviously. So most days, we drag our toy ottoman in front of the stairs to block her from them. I know, she needs to learn. But she would NOT leave them alone, and we were just constantly carrying her back down while she waaailed. Over and over and over again. Wasn’t a teaching moment in any way.

So as you might expect, Waverly decided to learn to get over the ottoman. And myyy goodness, she was SO proud of herself.

It didn’t even take effort. Just swung a leg on up and she was over.

Since her new skill was discovered, she still tests out the stairs from time to time, but her gaze has shifted. She cares less about stairs and cares much more about climbing!

*sigh* Ya, thats the top of the piano.

So we’re going grey over here. We’ve never had a climber before. My kids are always pretty relaxed about getting places, but Waverly is just ready to be in it all.

Today, she got up on the little black recliner. She was pleased as punch!

She cracked open the book she had brought and “read” it for a second before slamming it down on the floor beyond the chair.

“Uh oh,” she said. “I dopped.” Ya you did, girly.

She leaned WAY forward to try and reach it, and almost went down before I caught her. I tried to turn her around and show her how to get down but that fiercely independent baby would have none of it. She was ANGRY at me, like I had stolen her right of passage of a forehead goose egg or something. I’m sure she’ll have her chance eventually, lol!

I’ve been realizing recently that, when we moved into this house, we had two “big” kids, Rowan was juuust learning to walk, and Solomon was brand new. We now have five completely mobile children in the same amount of space, and its tiiiiime for more space! GAH! Our only big holdup for the basement is carpet. Carpet would make it all liveable, and we could pick at the finishing over winter and finish it up. Do flooring stores ever have promos?! I’m antsy!

If you live where I live, or in any surrounding town, you know what I mean. Power cut out around noonish kind of out of nowhere. Its windy outside, but not miserable, and not stormy. We figured it was a little flicker, which happens a bit too often for my taste but not even close to as often as when we lived in Radisson! But it didn’t come back on. As tends to happen, someone mentioned it on Facebook and we quickly confirmed that it was in all parts of town, and it had not been announced as a planned outage. 

SaskPower clued in maybe 15 minutes later and announced their crews were en route to see what was going on. It was determined there was a “burnt structure” that caused the problem. The estimated time of repair is 6:00pm. Guys. Thats late. 

We some plans today, but everything was shot in the foot that very moment. No family pictures for us today, thats for sure! Brady and I managed to scratch together a lunch from our pantry and the fruit that lives on our counter. We managed, but it wasn’t great. I ate party mix, some tomato slices, and a couple of cookies for lunch. It was something, anyway. Better than some other days honestly. 

While the kids napped, Brady and I pulled out Skip-Bo. I don’t know what it is about a power outage but it always puts us in the mood for a card game. Nighttime power outages, too. I feel so unsettled falling asleep if the power is still out, so we usually stay up late into the night and play tile rummy by candle light. Its fun 🙂 Today was fun too. 

Supper will be interesting. But also maybe awesome. I think we’re going to have peanut butter and honey sandwiches. Which I know isn’t great, but with such a long power outage, I’m hesitant to open my fridges or freezers and risk our food spoiling. No way no how. We’ll work with what we’ve got. We have apples, bananas, and fresh garden tomatoes available on the counter, and a whole pantry filled with food, much of which is packaged convenience food. Again, not great, but not starvation either. I’m grateful for our options. 

But I do admit, I’ll probably skip supper so I can eat real food later! There are some delicious leftovers in the fridge calling my name… 

I had a really lovely morning, sitting on my recliner while the middle boys played in the bedroom, building forts. It was pretty chill until the screaming started, and then the bloodbath continued until nap time. So that was fun. But it helped that Brady only had to work the morning, and came home with groceries! Woot!

My mom called around lunch and invited me over to play succulents with her! Haha! She was hoping to re-pot hers and knew I had been saying the same thing, so she had purchased some soil and fertilizer, and was offering for me to share. I jumped at it and limped my poor little succulents over to her house. Once upon a time, they were so lush and pretty, and now they’re all dry and sad and in desperate need of fresh soil, better drainage, and a little trim here or there.

Together, we made a mess of her kitchen, starting with little rocks, and charcoal, and then soil. We broke up my sad dry crusty plants and got them all rooty and loose before depositing them in their new happy home. I put four of my littler guys in one pretty new long, narrow pot that will fit beautifully on my window sill. I repotted one that’s still doing ok, but it needed new soil. And then two were SO stretched and SO weird and angry, roots growing out of their stalk. Just messy. I unceremoniously beheaded them and they now live in the sun, waiting for the cut to “scab over” before I attempt to replant it. So wish me luck on those ones!

Overall, I’m so happy with my new little set up. These pots used to occupy ALL of my dessert bowls, and now, I have my small bowls back, and a way cuter little look! My cactuses stayed the same, but they’re still happy.

I doddled on the way home, got the mail, etc., but I came home to a pretty happy house that smelled like grilled cheese sandwiches. It was a happy supper.

As I write this post out, Brady is practicing guitar for tonight’s band practice! We have most of what we need for a basic sound setup, and we borrowed the missing pieces for the evening so it could be a plugged in practice! They’re a lot of fun 🙂 And we’ve gotta prepare, for another giggity gig! Woot! Who has plans for October 10th? You do nowwwww!

The whole gang packed up for church today. You guys know, church has been extra hard with Wavy these days. Not because she’s not a TOTAL peach, but she’s at a tricky stage.

She’s really screechy and loud with her newfound voice, and she really wants to go, but she also doesn’t want to be put down, or be held constantly. Its hard for me to find that delicate balance between letting her wander and babble a little, but without letting her get disruptive or distracting. The screeching alone has been reason enough to keep her home recently, as much of it was based on fatigue and teething, but today we decided to all go together.

We made it in time to drop Brady and the four kids off at Sunday school. Solly went without hesitation this time, which is pretty great. They all ran happily to their rooms, and I got Waverly settled in the stroller for our walk! A couple of other moms with babies had decided to meet and walk a bit during Sunday school, and while we got ourselves together, we were joined by a few others! It was SO nice to got for a walk as a group in the beautiful morning sun. Four of us with strollers and two without. It may not have been in the church but you can’t tell me it wasn’t fellowship! I loved it. None of the babies even fussed. It was perfect.

We got to church just in time, and my mom and I sat down to hold a bench for my family. They joined eventually, and the music started. A couple of the older kids abandoned us to go sit with friends, and the littles stayed put. Waverly is not wanting to be held 100% of the time, and now that she’s walking, I set her down and let her wander into the aisle. While everyone sang, she walked up a few steps closer to the front and stood in this little squat position, and bounced and swayed to the music. I was so enamoured with her, and she was a bit of a hit to those around her, too.

I couldn’t resist taking a picture! Lol!

She did great through music, and schmoozed a little during our greeting time, but she was getting pretty vocal during the quieter parts of the service. I took her out to walk her around a little, and made my way back in after a while. She insisted on going down from my lap, and of course the moment she was down, she wiped out and bonked her head. More crying. We left, and came back in again, and she was just so unsettled. Brady took a turn and lasted about ten seconds before having to take her out. Finally I gave in and decided she and I would go home. We had the stroller out anyway.

So Wavy and I went home early, but we still had some lovely time with our community. We definitely tried.

Church is hard with kids. Plain and simple. Its not glamorous. But we’re trying so hard to bring our children up in a family where church is the norm. Laela said today that Sunday is her favorite day. I love that. I want them to all love Sunday. One day Waverly will scream less, and it’ll be easier. Right??

I feel like I was asked this a lot this week, and I’m pretty sure I consistently said we had nothing up. Which is almost unheard of. There is always something to do, especially now that Brady’s work has picked back up. We got used to having time together to putter away at all the activities and errands we could possible imagine throughout the week, and now, we tend to cram our weekends full. So I was completely floored that somehow, we had this whole day off!

I remembered yesterday, when I bothered to check my phone calendar, that I had my hair appointment this morning!! My faaaavorite day that only comes a few times a year 🙂 I was SO excited. So I knew I had that this Saturday.

(Don’t hate me, I forgot to take hair pictures and now I don’t have pants on, so, no pics today! Whoops!)

Now that my hair is done, I came home to a quiet napping house, with one big kid playing lego and another big kid working in a work book, because apparently school itself just isn’t enough. Brady made me a little lunch and now I’m holed up, talking to the blog, trying to figure out what to write on a day when I have nothing too big on the go.

And of course, its hitting me now all the things we could be doing!!

We should be carpet shopping!
I should be making granola bars!
We should be practicing music for our next gig!
We should finish up the laundry!
We should get supper moving!
We need to grocery shop!
I should knit!
I should prep lunches!
We need to vacuum this place!
I really need to tidy my room up!

Does the to-do list ever really end? I think not. But perhaps today is just a day to rest and not accomplish ALL the things. I can’t remember the last time we did that. Maybe today is the day 🙂

I hope some of you are enjoying really restful days! And that some of you are feeling productive and on top of all your goals 🙂