It’s Halloween! We were not quick on the draw this year at all, and only just yesterday did we figure out what everyone would be for the day. Rather than the kids deciding ahead of time, they kind of already knew that they could choose from whatever we had in our dress up clothes. Last year, we were gifted an amazing amount of costumes, masks, and hats. Not too long ago, someone else offered us a garbage bag of dress up clothes their children had grown out of. We are officially stocked up with fun things to dress up in, and because we all knew that, none of us really thought too far past that.

Thankfully, everyone found something they liked. It was fun to see what they gravitated towards this year as opposed to last year. Last year was a similar scene, where they chose from what we had. Dekker flip flopped hard and got really angry for a bit there, but eventually settled on a lion, I think mostly because it was a cozy onesie. It helped that Solly picked the little version 😉

Laela had trouble picking between princess dresses and eventually settled on a bright white, bridal selection. She felt very fancy and girly.

Rowan was straight up ticked that he needed to dress up at all! I felt kind of bad, honestly, because, did he actually have to dress up?? I guess not. But that is the name of the game for trick or treating. So what do we do?? We ended up giving him a few options and he willingly chose between them. Later on, Brady and I kicked ourselves for not giving him the opportunity to actually dress up, like in dress clothes! He would have been ALL over that!! But, ah well. Missed opportunity, and we had a fireman instead. That turned out to be awesome, because the fire chief picked him up and put him on the firetruck for a photo opp! And he only got mistaken for a girl once! Lol!

Solly was still at an age where he did pretty much whatever we asked of him, and Wavy happily complied with the butterfly costume we put her in. She was less fond of holding still for the pink dots to be painted on her face, but she lived 😉 They were super duper cute.

And they will be again!! Dekker was sold on his costume instantly. Laela flip flopped quite a bit and eventually settled somewhere I never would have expected! Rowan saw one costume and knew immediately that it was for him. Same with Solly. And Wavy just wanted to dress up. When I selected basically the only costume that would fit her, she shrieked and shrieked to wear it.

Aaaaand she’s been wearing it ever since. She wore it yesterday for the remainder of the evening. This morning, she bucked breakfast hard. We thought maybe she wasn’t feeling well, but as soon as we gave up and let her down from the table, she made a beeline for the couch filled with costumes and screamed for us to put her in her costume. Its only come off for naps, and she immediately wanted it back on.

Yes, I’m being a bit of a jerk and not telling you all what they’re going to be, because that will be tomorrows post, complete with pictures and details of the actual evening. Be assured they’re going to be some of the cutest little ones out there. We have a solid mix of genres. No cool matching costumes for our family this year! Maybe someday 🙂 But this year is already all set up! I’m looking forward to it!

Now if only Waverly had napped longer….. Wish us luck!

I went to begin some knitting this morning and realized I’m out of grey. OUT. Of GREY!!! I love grey! When did I use it all up?? Crazy, right?? Well its crazy for me. Everyone else like grey, too, right? Please reassure me that everyone likes grey…

On that note, I’m getting really excited, albeit a little overwhelmed, as I look at my list of gifts I have get to gather for Christmas. So many of them are homemade! And I LOVE that! I hope one day to have a fully homemade/thrifted Christmas in my home 🙂 But that’s down the road. Yes, if you know me at all, you know many of the gifts I make are knitted or crocheted, but that’s not all this year. I’m really excited to see how it all comes together. But, with that said, I’m out of a lot of important materials. Whoops! But my grey didn’t all go missing or anything. I’ve used it already, for good things! So its a win.

Brady has an afternoon of errands planned today, and he’s going to grab me some yarn while he’s at it. A handful of greys, plus some blue, coral, dark green, red, aaaaand a fun mixed up one that I’ve been eyeing for a while and finally have a use for! Eek!

More importantly, Brady is getting the winter tires put on the bus. That the was the true motivation behind the errands today. The yarn was an added bonus. As well as the picking up of a part for our broken vacuum and a piece of hardware to complete our laundry area. Woot!

Also a fun thing about his errands – Brady is taking Rowan on a little date. You may or may not know, but Rowan still naps. Yes, he’s 4.5 years old, and I can assure you he still needs it. Every day that we put him down at nap time, he sleeps. Solly is closer to not needing naps anymore than Rowan is. But we’ve been having some struggles with Ro in the recent months and I’m hoping some special one-on-one time, not napping, will help him feel grown up and responsible, and maybe be a positive thing. Even just for today. If nothing else, he’ll likely sleep well tonight not having had his nap. So there’s that. He was SO excited to go with Brady!

Today has been filled with sound. Dishwasher has gone twice, laundry is going, and there is constant music playing in the background. Wavy dances and dances, with her arms up in the air, spinning and spinning, and stopping for twerk breaks. Not even kidding. The laundry will likely run forever because I still cannot get the chlorine scent out of my laundry. Please, friends. HOW do I get antiseptic smell out of my clothes?!?! I have washed them with baking sod and vinegar, and its not even denting it. And this is my fussy laundry that I cannot afford to just pitch. Please help me!!

Wish me luck on these things, friends. That I manage to make everything I want to make. That my house isn’t in shambles every day for the rest of my life. Lol! All that good stuff! I hope you all have successful productive days, too!

Brady went outside to get some jobs done yesterday afternoon. Levelling some dirt on our front yard, emptying his van of some garbage and refilling it with tools, blowing out the hoses, etc. He invited the kids to come play outside while he worked, and I was SO surprised that they hesitated! Like, I don’t blame them, because its winter, and that’s the worst, but they LOVE being outside! It took very little convincing, though, and they very willingly joined him outside. And they were glad they did 😀 A bunch of happy kids!

I, however, was a less willing participant, and spent that hour or two in the house, listening to music and hanging with Waverly. 

It could’ve been a lovely bonding time, except I think Wavy was a little jealous…

I laughed SO HARD when I saw this picture later on! She didn’t cry or fuss or anything, but she was glued to the window for a good bit there, and she was super happy when her siblings were back inside. Once we’re all acclimated to winter weather, we’ll have to get her out there to play. I bet she’d be the favourite prop to drag around the yard in a sled. Because, while she walks great, I can almost guarantee she’ll be useless once she has snowpants on, hahaha! 

I secretly can’t wait to see it though. In pictures, of course, where the snow isn’t actually touching me at all…

Maybe it’s the snow. Maybe it’s the headache, and the impending cold. Maybe its the day rough evening yesterday. Maybe its the cold. Maybe its the lack of coffee so far this morning. But for whatever reason, I feel down today.

It’s been three weeks since my D&C. I’m still bleeding. Did you know that? It’s just spotting, but I’m pretty over it. Especially considering I bled for about a week and a half before I had the D&C from the medication I took to avoid the D&C altogether. Whatever. It doesn’t matter, and its slowed way down, but I’m done with it. Its been a month. The only time I bleed this long is postpartum, and in those cases, I have a baby to overshadow the discomfort that comes along with it. Not this time.

I had my HCG checked a week after my D&C. It was nicely down from the previous 55,000 and was sitting at 1,700. Great progress, but not at the <5 I need it to be. So we continue to wait for my body to return to “normalcy.” Whatever that is.

I also need to get to RUH soon to get some bloodwork done. Genetic tests. The OBGYN I met at the hospital was really wonderful and straight forward with me. She encouraged me to get the bloodwork done for myself, more than anything, so I feel like I’ve done everything I can on my end. The genetic testing is a “normal” next step after three miscarriages. But the OB brought me to her perspective, where I have five children, and very likely have no genetic issues. Which is good news, but annoying to have no answers, yet again. Like always. Ugh.

So one day I’ll hopefully be organized enough to get in to the hospital lab to get that test done, and then wait a month or so for results. That being said, the last time I had bloodwork that was supposed to take a month for results, I got results in EIGHT DAYS! Let’s pray for that instead!

I’m sorry for the pity party. I don’t want to be a whiner. Seasons passing is odd. My children aging is odd. And no joke – passing up the formula sale at Costco is odd. I never pass that sale up. I’m always either bottle feeding a baby or pregnant with the next one. And I’m currently neither, and passing up the sale I eagerly wait for, as it only comes around twice a year.

I’m in a new boat. The “no babies here” boat. And that’s fine for many who are in that next chapter of their life. But I didn’t choose to be here. I know many others haven’t either. Many of you know my grief and understand why my heart hurts this way. I know the day I am done having babies will be a big change, and I am already praying it’ll be somewhat positive and I’ll be confident in it. But I’m currently not confident that it’s all over. Quite the contrary, in fact. Yet, I’m in the baby-free boat.

I hate this stupid boat. I LOVE the people in it, but I don’t belong here.

It’s been a really, really nice morning <3 I spent it chatting with my neighbour over coffee while we watched Waverly play. It was a first coffee date for us – the first of many, I hope – and we had a really time. Christmas music played as we chatted kids, family, plans, work, etc. Wavy didn’t last, unfortunately. She was a little on the fussier side, as she rubbed her ears and cried on and off. She went down for a super early nap in the late morning.

My mom came and joined us, and as lunch approached, my neighbour headed back home to her husband and son. My mom asked if she could help with any lunch set up and I realized I needed to come up with an actual lunch plan. It was already after noon! Whoops!

I settled on waffle grilled cheese. Have you guys had that? It goes like this.

Make a waffle in the waffle maker. Once its done, open the waffle maker and put cheese (sliced or shredded off the block) on half of the waffle. Fold the waffle in half to sandwich the cheese, and lean the waffle maker closed until the cheese melts. Boom. Waffle grilled cheese.

These things are ridiculously delicious. They’re like butter. My goodness.

We all ate lunch, except Wavy, and the nappers napped. As it tends to happen, once everyone was down, Wavy woke up. While Brady and I played cards with my mom, Wavy ate her waffle grilled cheese. And that aaaaall on its own could be a blog post.

• 

• 

• 

• 

It was pretty much adorable, and while it doesn’t look so appetizing here, I think Waverly would vouch that her lunch was delicious.

My mom left after a couple of card games, and Wavy couldn’t fathom her leaving. She kept reaching up and grasping with her hands, wanting up. They had a really nice snuggle before mom hauled out.

The afternoon will be super chill and restful, or at least thats the plan. Maybe I’ll knit. Maybe we’ll finally pick out the kids Halloween costumes from our dress-up clothes. Maybe the music will keep playing all day long, now that we were gifted Spotify. Either way, its going to be a lovely end to the day and start to the week.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting carpet for a lot of reasons. One reason was more unconventional than the rest, but I admit, it was towards the top of my list. And last night, we got into it.

Yesterday, once the little kids were in bed, Brady, Cher, and I went downstairs with ALL of the Lego, ALL the old instruction books, and some treats. Dekker came along for the first half hour, as he has a later bedtime than the others, and he helped us get started. We dumped the Lego out onto a sheet and we began the work of breaking everything apart. Everything. We also made a pile of tires/wheels, and one of Lego guys. (Does anyone elses kids disassemble the guys?? Yellow. Hands. Everywhere.) Dekker helped as long as we let him, and was disappointed when bedtime came, but he’s such a good kid and understood. Once he was off to bed, clicked on the Office, episode one of season one, and got things moving.

I separated the books out and found which ones went together. Brady did another task before he joined us for the Lego. And Cher began the gruelling job of separating colors.

Brady and I each grabbed a set and got to work. Cher opted for separating rather than building, and once I had completed my set, I passed it to her with a ziploc bag, where she broke it up once again and bagged it. Boom. One set done.

I gave Brady the biggest set to work on so he didn’t compete his in the one sitting. Considering we’re sifting through maybe 10-ish sets, I won’t heckle him on it too much 😉

We probably worked (played) until 11:30, maybe midnight, when we hit and wall and no one could find pieces anymore. It was time to pack it in. Plus we were all completely exhausted, haha! It was so worth it, though. I had so much fun playing (organizing) Lego, watching The Office, and drinking vanilla Coke. (Anyone know where I can get cans of that stuff? Because I need more.) I’m also really excited to present my kids with these sets all separated back out. In the beginning of their Lego days, they’d build the set once, and then we’d just bust it up and play with the pieces. The kids are getting so much better at Lego and enjoy the sets so much more, I think they’ll love this! Its going to be so worth the work. Aaaaand if I’m wrong and its not, at least we had fun!

I had so much fun this afternoon. I worked on a gift for the homemade gift exchange, flopped it, chucked it, and worked on it some more. I was disappointed at first, but was able to make it work even better than my first run!

While I did that, Cher worked on a project, too. She overtook the island and carved…

Brock.

Brock is hilarious and happy and well loved by his family. He’s a little old, perhaps, based on the security of his teeth staying in his mouth, but we’ll do our best not to beat him up too hard. He seems happy to be here.

Was a fun productive day of projects that we both enjoyed doing and didn’t have to do. It was fun! A good way to spend a Friday. And there is so much more fun to be had! I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.

Not so long ago, Rowan didn’t care to color or draw or anything like that. No way. He’d sit at the island and watch the others, and at the most, he’d scribble or draw a couple of lines and call his masterpiece complete. Its changed recently into crude drawings of “vehicles” that are basically just squares. But just the other day, he discovered our book that shows step-by-step instructions of how to draw animals. And wouldn’t you know – he’s pretty great at it!! This was his first animal.

Pretty awesome, hey?? He was SO pleased, as was I. Its escalated from there, and sometimes I don’t actually know what he’s drawn, but he’s always super proud. And really, I can usually figure it out. Its mountains above where he started! But we al start somewhere, I suppose.

He’s getting braver to try new things, and its almost always geared towards the crafty side of things.

Maybe its a pro of him being left handed 😉 I hear those kids tend to be extra creative. Now that he’s started, he is such a natural!!

Great job, Rowan!! Keep practicing! Its paying off!

Sooooo…. our basement has carpet now!!! 

Isn’t it pretty?? It still needs baseboards, so it looks a little naked, but we’ll get there shortly. This needed to come first, and I’m SO happy with the results! 

We couldn’t resist, though. The couches already came down, too 🙂 That was a labor of love. I don’t think my wrists are going to work for the rest of the week…

Was worth it! Eek! Its like people could actually hang out down here!!!

So, here’s how it went. 

We were under the impression that the carpet guy could come Monday morning, work all day, and the job would potentially run into Tuesday morning. But it didn’t quite go that way. I waited for the guy for a couple of hours before I texted Brady at work that he wasn’t here yet. It felt a little odd, but we hadn’t nailed a time down, so we figured maybe he had a previous job to finish up that morning. We get what its like to work in the trades. No big deal. But truthfully, we were pretty antsy and eager. He finally showed up around 11:00. He introduced himself and headed downstairs. And he just kind of hung out down there for a while, measuring and such. Then he went to his truck and brought a bunch of stuff in, but he was really quiet about it. Had headphones on the whole time. While that was happening, the kids tidied up the toys and had lunch. And as it tends to happen, the moment they were all down and quiet was when the hammering began. So he hammered and hammered and naps were kind of shot, but sometimes my kids rest even better when they have something to listen to, so they rested and listened and it kind of worked out. 

And then he left around 4:00, which kind of surprised me. We were constantly told that the prep was WAY longer than the actual carpet laying, and that was only a five hour day… 

But ALL the prep was done!!! Wooooot! Underlay and tack strips were all in place. The underlay was so soft, and the tack strips were straight with no gaps. It already felt so much homier. It doesn’t echo anymore, which sucks for our band practices but rocks for the rest of our life. 

Tuesday was the last day our carpet guy was scheduled to be here. And once again, he showed up after 11:00! Gah! Whyyyyy?? I decided to trust him, because, being that he wasn’t the youngest guy, he probably had experience and knew he could finish in the time he had left himself. 

He worked later on Tuesday. It was just after 5:00 when he surfaced with a load of stuff to take to his van. And then to my surprise, he only had one load, and he never came back in! Just left without saying a word! I felt kind of crappy that I didn’t thank him or speak to him about his work, but I had no opportunity! Totally missed the mark :/ 

As crappy as I felt, you better believe I ran downstairs and checked out the situation immediately! And guys, it was just SO NICE!!! 

We broke it in my letting the kids loose down there, where they ran laps and raced through bedrooms and slid around and wiped out without crying. They LOVED the new carpet. I invited our neighbour to pop over to check it out and her son joined the fray while the rest of us talked basement renos and motivation and project goals. It was pure chaos and awesomeness. I loved it. We all did.

We love it. The kids love it. It smells a little funky, thanks to the adhesive he used to close the seams, but that’ll dissipate soon enough. I can’t wait to truly finish it up!! The reality that we’re actually on our way to being done is crazy amazing and a bit surreal. And this is one HUGE step taken! Eek! 

Who’s coming for a movie night?!?! 🙋

I went to Edmonton this last weekend! Cher was going on the hunt for some Christmas things, and invited me to tag along. So I did! It was really refreshing to get away from my house and all the sad things we had been dealing with, and get some real relaxation and rest. We stayed at a really comfy, quiet hotel and ate yummy food for every meal. We stayed up late and slept in. We watched a movie and ate cheeseballs and dried pineapple. Its safe to say our first sleepover was a huge success 🙂 Hopefully she agrees. 

Our first day in Edmonton was spent at the mall. Neither of us were rolling in money at all, so we moseyed slowly, ducked into whatever store caught our eye, and were pretty choosy with our purchases. That first day, all I purchased were a few little dresses for Laela. She has recently discovered a new love for dresses, and she only has one dress at home that isn’t a tank top style. I’ve kind of nixed the tank top ones for the season, so she requested more long sleeved dresses. Old Navy took care of that. 

To jump ahead to the last day, we headed back to the mall, where I purchased Solly one of his four category Christmas gifts. Just a little cheapie but he’ll be pretty excited, I think 🙂 We even hit up Value Village that day, but didn’t buy anything. 

Ok. Saturday. Saturday was Ikea day. I LOVE Ikea. Could’ve spent the whole day there, haha! But I did enough damage in the few hours we did spend. That being said, very little of it was frivolous shopping, so I don’t feel so bad about it. Here’s a run down of my purchases 🙂 

I got two boxes of small drinking glasses. They’re the ones the kids use, and while they haven’t broken any themselves, they’re kind of fragile anyway, and we had a few break within a few weeks of each other just in the dishwasher or in the sink. Merp. So, more glasses. Might only open one box at first but we have extras. They all stack into each other really nicely, which is why we wanted to get Ikea ones again instead of going to Walmart or somewhere like that. 

I bought dessert bowls. Like, just little bowls. Our cereal bowls are really big, and sometimes we just need a small bowl, and we don’t have any! We have two or three, but that’s not enough. So I bought some cute matte pink ones, because the boys in my life are tolerant. I somehow came home with 13 instead of 12 though. Whoops! One for good luck, I suppose. At least they were only $2.

I bought an oil and vinegar set, not because we really do much of that, but because our beautiful oil drizzler thing clogged forever ago and no matter how hard I worked, I couldn’t get it clean and had to pitch it. And now, I just have a big jug of oil that I have to heave out of the pantry and pour from every time, and I’m over it. So I bought the set to have an oil drizzler again. And a back-up, I suppose, unless someone wants one! 

I bought napkins. Three packs, I thought. But I definitely only came home with two packs. Oh well!

I bought more hanging baskets! Have you seen that we keep apples and bananas and other food in hanging baskets under our cabinets now? Its SO pretty, and I love having the food off the counter. Plus the apples being in the baskets frees up room in our fridge for more veggies! Lettuce almost always lives downstairs, and now it can live up! Our current baskets have been great, but these are deeper and fit a little better. I like them better. The old ones will still be useful, though. I think they’ll end up in closets! Maybe for sock and underwear. Maybe. We’ll see. 

I bought Brady and I a new duvet. We’ve had the same one for several years, and it has been a picture of luxury, as its a real wool duvet. However, a small drawback is that is gets lumpy over time. A large drawback is that is it NOT easy to launder, and after years of babies feeding and changing on our bed, its getting pretty yucky. I found a beautiful heavy, warm, washable king sized blanket at Ikea with rave reviews. I also purchased a new duvet cover with matching pillowcases that I LOVE that is Brady approved. It’s floral. Eek! I love it. The blanket and cover was more than half of my bill at the end of the Ikea shop, but hopefully it takes us a good few years. Luckily, our pillows are a few years old and still amazing. 

I bought some massive ziploc bags that hold a whole batch of granola bars. 

I bought another duvet cover set for the kids. We have four kids currently using twin sized bedding, and we have seven fun sets. Changing bedding out is a bit frustrating when we have to do laundry before putting fresh bedding on, so ideally we’d have two per kid. And now we do! I bought a robot set. 

I bought Wavy a Christmas gift 🙂 Her “want.”

Aaaaand I bought myself a pair of cute craft scissors, because my scissors that I use for knitting and crocheting barely cut anymore. So I didn’t feel TOO bad spending $4 on a fun new pair 🙂 

I’m genuinely excited about pretty much everything I got. I mean, I’m neutral on the napkins, lol! But everything else 🙂 I feel productive and like I made good, informed decisions. Win! 

It feels like things are coming together. Finally.