First of all, thank you for ALL the love on my new hair yesterday! Its completely different than I’ve done before, and I’m feeling a little bit brand new 😁 Which is a good feeling. My kids and husband also really love it, which is a bonus. I’ve toyed with the idea in the past of doing a poll and letting YOU, friends, readers, and people on Insta, choose my next hair colour 🤷♀️ I’m not sure if I trust you folks or not, hahaha! But I’m thinking about it 😉
Second of all, does anyone else feel the eerie anticipating of Spring? I’m holding myself back from getting in too deep, but this beautiful weather is really deceiving. Let’s be real, my prairie province friends. There is another blizzard to come. At least one. Winter is not over. But it really, really seems like its ending, and that would be SO nice! Yesterday, I opted to walk and pick the kids up from school, just because it was so beautiful out. I wore a fall jacket and was more than warm enough. My mukluks took on a bit too much muck and water, because, melting. I should say, though, thanks to this season of pain in my life, and the lack of movement that has come with it, I was winded embarrassingly early in my walk. Its time to get back out there and get moving! Yet I know, as soon as the snow flies again, this will all go out the window. But its fun to get out when we can now.
Today’s plan is really chill. Cher is coming over to spend the day. Kids need baths. I’d like to go for a walk. I’m a little itchy to hit Walmart for some yarn I couldn’t find the other day, but I doubt I’ll get there today. Brady will probably practice songs for our upcoming gig. We’ll listen to music, eat yummy food, and hopefully watch a little Parks and Rec after the kids go to bed. Its going to be relaxed and enjoyable and low key. It is leap year, which comes but once every four years, and we’re celebrating it by really not doing anything 😆 And I’m so ok with that.
Today was hairrrrr daaaaay! I haven’t gotten my hair redone since early September! Since then, we’ve suffered some loss, some pain, and some financial hardship. There just wasn’t time or money to play with my hair. But today, I could get back into it! I spent most of the school day at the salon with my hair girl, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I figured I’d share the ever-flattering photo series with you 😆 So, enjoy this on my behalf.
The “before.” My colour was still looking pretty great, but those roots were LONG. It was time.
First was roots. It was suggested I looked like I was wearing a bald cap. Or perhaps a wig cap/headband. Which is obviously what I was going for.
Then we removed the rest of the colour and toned the heck out of it.
When it was adequately bleached, we dried it up so we could get a good feel for where to put what colour. SO yellow! Hahaha!
Then we threw a bunch of colour in it, and some silvery pieces in the front, too.
Then I sat for SO long while the colour worked itself in. And then it was DONE!
I haven’t had anything like this before, and I’m so happy to have a complete change of pace! Its super strange to be back in the blonde spectrum, but I’m happy to be here, lol! Its fun to mix it up from time to time, and in case my bright hair isn’t already mixing it up enough, this is even more of a change!
It was a really fun day, getting my hair done and being all refreshed in this beautiful weather 🙂 Stay, spring! Staaaaay!
I feel optimistic today. As I sit on the love seat, with Waverly grooving to some Shawn Mendes beside me, I feel hopeful for this year. I don’t always feel that way, but today, I do. I think its worth talking about 🙂
My pain is improving, slowly. About two weeks ago, I tried to barely go down in my meds. I literally cut a corner off of a 1mg pill, and my pain was back in full force for about four days. My pain centres are just in a panic, so I’m on a new medication to calm that part of my brain down, and I feel hopeful about that medication!
I feel on the emotional upswing in terms of my kids.
Dekker’s collarbone is strong, and he is back to himself.
The middle boys are doing better! As far as I can tell, no one has any infection left, and even Solly seems back to himself after that perforated eardrum.
Laela remains healthy, well, and overachieving, as always. She just graduated to level N for reading yesterday! Nothing is going to hold that girl back!
Wavy came through her breath holding just fine and is exactly herself. What a relief! She is SUCH a bright little girl, and is talking more and more.
My heart is so happy to watch the kids heal and develop and become more and more themselves!
Meanwhile, I feel so happy to have our basement finished, and to already have SAVED enough money for a fence to be installed in the spring!! Thank you, Lord, for a change in Brady’s job, making him SO happy, and making our life more feasible. Quality of life has gone up!
I’m really excited to be back playing music with Brady and Carrie every week, and to have an upcoming gig in March, and one in April, too! Its been a while, and we’re dreaming a bit bigger in a few ways this year 😉 Please stand by!
Speaking of dreams, I’m trying to be vulnerable and talk about some dreams and goals I have with people close to me, and my passion for those things is reigniting! Bigger things feel more doable, and important. I’m excited for what this year could bring!
In a simpler window of joy, supper is already in the crock pot! Heyo! Lol! Honey chicken is making a reappearance tonight, and I’m SO looking forward to it!
If you remember from my “to do list” for the year, I mentioned wanting to plan a couple of little weekends/day trips. I’ve been really putting thought into them, and I’m getting very excited for them! Its always nice having something to look forward to! And our whole July is basically mapped out already! Woot!
I am loving the sun and the warmer weather. Its fickle, but I’ll enjoy it while I can!
I have some knitting and crocheting projects I’ve started to pick away at, too, which is a relief for my poor creative outlet. That thing has been neglected since I found myself in all of my pain, and its good to get back into some of it now that I’m healed enough that my hands allow for it.
I feel optimistic about my life. I have joy. Currently – today – feels lighter than many. And I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for every day, but today is just a little easier somehow.
Tell me something you’re grateful for today, or optimistic about!! ☀️
Thank you, everyone, for your love on yesterday’s post. From comments to Facebook messages to texts, I felt so supported, and that a great deal of people care about Waverly. I am always blown away by people caring and loving my family who aren’t required to. So for that, friends, I thank you ❤️
Onto the next!
Yesterday, we got an itch to run into Saskatoon for some quick errands. In the last few days, a few non-grocery things have graced our lists, and last night seemed like a good night to run out and get that change of scenery with the kids! So we ate hot dogs as an early supper and got the kids out and ready to go!
If you remember, Rowan got a booster seat for his birthday! With that switch, we moved seats around, and absolutely every kid is in a new spot! We worried that one or two would be unhappy, but everyone liked where they landed!!! When does that ever happen??
So Rowan and Solomon are still in the back row, but Rowan is now in that back corner and Solly is out a bit more reachable, since he’s the one who can’t buckle himself up and Rowan can. Then, Dekker used to sit on his own in the middle row, but Laela took that spot. Now Dekker sits up beside Waverly, next to the window. Wavy sits in the middle of the front row where we can more easily buckle her up, aaaaand we turned her around got forward facing! (I know, its controversial. Please no negative comments on the subject!) Everyone – EVERYONE – is happy with where they’re sitting! I don’t have pictures of the back row, because, hindsight, but the front troop was happy!
We didn’t have tons to do in the city, so we just took the straight shot down the highway and went to Walmart.
The kids were SO happy and SO happy to be out after supper, which we basically never do. We started in groceries and got the few items we needed because, while that wasn’t why we were there, it would’ve been silly not to grab it while we were there. We buy a few things only from Walmart, so we got those things, plus milk and bananas, because we always need milk and bananas. Then onto home stuff!
Our living room curtains got pulled down a few days ago 🙄 The curtain rod had already been broken and jimmied back together once, so it was pretty weak. And then a kid chose to sit on the window ledge with the curtains hanging down, sat on the curtains, and effectively tore the curtain rod off the wall. So we went to the curtain section and bought a new curtain rod – a different one that isn’t quite as easy to break. We loved the simple style of our curtain rods, but its a bit too fragile. So, new curtain rods.
We went to the back auto/paint section in search of some things, but were unsuccessful. We needed some drywall anchors, shelf brackets, etc., and they didn’t exist there. Ah well. We tried.
I went to the yarn section to feed my sickness, hahaha! I have a project brewing and I needed a couple of colours. I only found one out of three, but its a start, anyway.
Then we hit the pharmacy area for a thing or two, and headed out!
And by “out” I mean we left Walmart, but Brady ducked into Lowes for some of the things we couldn’t find at Walmart. They weren’t all at Lowes either, but we got a couple, anyway.
We got home maybe fifteen minutes after bedtime, and everyone tucked in and went down super easily. I think the outing had been a total win.
And thanks to that outing, Brady is currently installing our curtain rod, and I plan to feed my creative outlet a little bit this afternoon! Woot! With Walk Off the Earth playing on Spotify, the boys playing nicely together downstairs, and Wavy dancing in the living room, it feels like a pretty good morning! I hope you’re having the same!
Its been about a week now, so I feel less trembly sharing with you guys.
Waverly had another breath holding spell last week Wednesday.
*sigh*
I’ll link the post here where she had her first one, and I shared all of the information I learned. Having never heard of breath holding spells before, it was all completely new information to me, and as it seemed, many of you had never heard of them either!
This second spell was marginally less scary than the first, mostly because we had been there before, we knew what was happening, and we had done our research. I will say, though, it was not easier seeing her limp body and her eyes rolling back in her head. I think its worth sharing this experience, though, because information is power! We learned a lot the first go round, and this second spell felt like a test. So here’s what happened.
Waverly fell off of a chair. It was that simple. What kid hasn’t tipped out of a chair before? Ours all have, for sure. So, she fell out of a chair and landed on her back. I was upstairs and heard the thump. I heard her burst out crying. She cried out for so long, not taking a breath in, that her voice started to fade. At that point, I had stopped what I was doing and was listening for the second burst of wailing. But it got eerily quiet. I called to Brady “Is she ok?” And after a one second pause, he called back “No. No! She’s going to do the thing again!” I heard his footsteps pick up, bringing her unconscious little body up to me in a panic.
I called to him the only thing I remembered from our research that would be helpful in the moment. “Lay her on the floor! Put her down!”
So he did. We met right outside our bedroom door on the little carpeted landing. He had lay her on the floor and she had woken up immediately. She lay on the floor and looked at us quizzically. Then her eyes would roll back into her head, and we’d rub her chest and talk her back awake. We did that a few times before she furrowed her brow and finally started crying furiously!
Guys 😭 I kid you not, it was like waiting for the first cry of a newborn baby. Once she was crying, we knew she was back, that blood was where it belonged, and that we could lift her up and comfort her properly.
Now, from the last time this happened, we were told over and over again that breath holding spells are WAY scarier than they are dangerous. There would be risk if she fainted from a high place and fell, or situations like that, but the breath holding in general is not something to fear. Yet, everywhere acknowledges how scary they are for the parents, and forgive me language, but that feels like a “no shit, Sherlock” fact. They’re horrifying. I hoped we would NEVER experience a second one, yet here we are. But according to everyone we’ve spoken to about breath holding spells, because they are not dangerous, she doesn’t need to be seen after these spells. And that just felt INSANE to me!
So I called the Health Line. Because somehow it felt negligent not to. I spoke to a nurse and told her what had happened, that we’ve been here before and had her seen and diagnosed. I told her I was just hung up on the idea of NOT bringing her in afterwards. It seemed crazy, yet the logic was there, and I understood why. Maybe I just needed someone to talk to :/ I don’t know. She was really understanding and helpful, and told me that if I was actually worried and my gut told me to bring her in, I should. That’s ALWAYS true. But she read through everything on breath holding and also assessed her behaviour after her fall, and it was established that she didn’t need to be seen.
So we didn’t have her seen 🤷♀️ That felt BANANAS. Like, is this just going to be something she does now?? Is it our new normal? Ack! I am NOT a fan! But I’m learning. And this experience reiterated a couple of things to me about breath holding. Two things specifically.
Thing one is that, if it happens for a FIRST time, go in. Its a HUGE peace of mind to go in and learn about what happened. Breath holding is actually a like a built-in safety feature for some kids, and when you know what it is and why its happening, its a relief. Its good to have those pale lips and that limp body explained by a professional.
Thing two is that laying the kid down on the floor really does help. The blood reaches their brain a lot faster that way! The nurse I spoke to said some kids stop breathing for up to a whole minute 😳 Wavy stopped breathing for ten seconds MAX and it felt like an eternity. But lay that kid down, and it’ll rectify itself faster than if you’re holding the kid close in a snuggle, as much as you might rather do that. I think that really helped.
Bonus thing number three. Your kid might be really soft and squishy afterwards ❤️ At least ours is.
The small pro that comes along with injuries and sickness is the snuggles to follow.
Lucky for us, in this case, we kept Wavy up a little later than day and she was a complete peach, fully recovered very quickly. She was completely herself once again.
Aaaaanyway. Always learning. She is the sweetest little thing but she’s certainly always teaching us new stuff!
Rowan’s birthday was yesterday, in case you missed it. We do birthdays super low key around here, and our kids are so happy with them ❤️ for which I am so thankful. Rowan’s birthday was on a Sunday this year, so we woke him up with singing and snuggles, and then a very standard breakfast of milk and cereal. He was happy. Previously, we would skip church on a birthday and do a family day at home, but our kids have learned to LOVE church and Sunday school, so we got everyone dressed and took the kids to Sunday school! It was actually a bit odd, because there was no Sunday school for adults this week, so Brady and I stayed home with just Waverly. She was so uncertain, I think with it being so quiet. It was funny.
We did church together as a family, and then went home for lunch. I had given Rowan the opportunity to choose his birthday food, and he had asked for peanut butter and honey sandwiches for supper 😳 I talked him into having them for lunch, so thats what we did.
During nap time, my mom came and picked Rowan up. He had requested a candy pizza for his birthday cake, and that is a grandma-made dessert, so she invited him over to help make it! He was super excited to go, just him and grandma.
Ro and grandma resurfaced maybe around 4:00pm, and not too long after that, we began assembling supper. At Rowan’s request, we had pancakes, breakfast sausage, and canned peaches. It was a SUPER yummy meal, and once it was all over and done with, Rowan was too full for his candy pizza! So we decided to break for presents and try again after 🙂
I LOVED how Rowan’s presents turned out this year. Brady and I got him a booster seat, which is SO exciting, because, independence! We also got him a long stuffed snake that has the flippy sequins all along its back. Seriously, guys, they’re at Dollarama and they’re amazing. My mom printed and framed a bit poster of a fox for his wall! He is the FIRST one to have real art up in his room! She also brought everyone a Hot Wheels car, as well as a duck call with a beak attached to it. Those things were SO popular and hilarious! And loud, lol! But they’re downstairs toys 😉
After gifts, Rowan was ready for dessert, and we sang to him again. It took forever for him to actually blow out his candles 😂 he seemed to blow over them, and I finally pushed his head down a bit and it seemed to help, haha!
We all ate some candy pizza, and then Rowan got to choose between watching some music videos or going for a walk. He chose music, so we all moved downstairs. We usually put our little list of songs on shuffle but this time, we let him choose each and every one. And none of the kids fought about it! It was awesome 🙂 He even dictated when he figured it should end, and told me the next song would be the last one 🤷♀️
Everyone stayed up a bit late, and then we visited with my mom a little after bedtime, too. When she did head for home, Brady and I went to the van and installed Rowan’s new booster seat, as well as moved the other kids seats around a little bit. When we came inside again, we discovered Rowan was still awake, likely still jazzed from his birthday festivities, so we gave him his last gift. Cher wasn’t there, but we had her permission to give it to him. A hilarious, light up, singing card, and some glow in the dark stars. He opened the card and replayed it over and over while he dictated to Brady where the stars should go. The stars were perfect because, upon going to bed, Ro had been discouraged that he couldn’t see his poster in the dark. But now he has something he can see, and he was SO happy for his bonus late-night gift!
It was a very cute day. Rowan was SO happy, and SO satisfied with his normal, casual birthday party. I’m so grateful for how the day went, and I’m so grateful for Rowan.
How is that this little baby is suddenly FIVE years old!! 😧😭🥰
Mr. Rowan Toby has had a BIG year! Being four was a year of hard work for him, and by default, us, but he continues to learn and grow and mature into a big kid!
Its seemed for a while that Ro has been stuck in the middle between the big kids and the little kids. He is our middlest kid, and I can tell he’s struggled to find where he fits. But he never gives up, and is usually very happy to include his siblings in the games he plays.
Rowan loves drawing, colouring, cutting, stickers, etc. Crafts, I guess. He loves preschool. He loves going to church and Sunday school. He loves soft things, most importantly, his stuffed foxy. He loves music, and wants to learn the drums.
Ro is basically the same size as Laela. He is our BEST eater. His hair is down by his bum, and while he asked for a haircut recently, he has since taken it back and wants to leave it long. He willingly lets me throw it in a braid or ponytail really any time I deem it a good idea, such as going out in a jacket, eating a messy meal, etc. He has a big beautiful smile, and all of his teeth, still. He is confidently left handed. He is less “intolerant” of lactose these days, and more so just a bit sensitive. Now that potty training is long taken care of, we worry less about little bits of dairy here and there. He can take care of that stuff easily.
Speaking of Rowan’s abilities, just for fun records sake, I’m going to make note here that he is pretty self sufficient, which I love! He can easily get all of his winter gear on, and has just started to learn how to zip zippers! He can complete lots of tasks around the house and is an excellent helper when given a job. He likes to be responsible. He also knows most of the alphabet, and counts very easily. I can’t say perfectly, but pretty darn close. He loves to ask how to spell things, and write words. Sometimes he needs refreshers on how certain letters are formed, but he really enjoys practicing, it seems.
I am SO proud of Rowan. He has been my first experience with a “strong willed” child, and it hasn’t always been smooth navigating those waters, but there is no one else I’d rather put that effort into than Rowan ❤️ We have a loving, smushy, snuggly relationship, with nothing but love.
Rowan, my dear, I cannot believe you are FIVE! I wouldn’t trade our five years together for anything, and I’m excited for all the years to come, as many as I can get! What will this next year bring for you, Ro??
Yesterday, once again, felt like Saturday. We spent it with my mom! She came for a bit of the morning, and then she and I ducked into Saskatoon for some errands.
We moseyed through a couple of stores and just took our time. It was really really nice! We got back to the house mid afternoon, and everyone ate a huge taco supper! Tacos are always a bit hands-on, because as fast as you can make them, they eat them, so there is not sitting and eating for the adults assembling the tacos. We often just make a big taco salad, which is easier to serve them, but they vastly prefer to have soft tacos like we do. Wavy ate taco salad, and everyone else had wraps. All four of the other kids had two good sized wraps, loaded with meat, veggies, and some yummy toppings. I couldn’t believe how much they ate, but they all loved it. Solly kept saying “This is SUCH a nice supper.” I loved that.
After the kids went to bed, the three of us played some Skipbo. Probably the longest, slowest, worst rounds of Skipbo ever, but we laughed through it. 😂 Two rounds of cards and almost two hours later, we called it a night. It was a really nice day. On top of all of the fun, Brady did a bunch of laundry and got started on taxes. Woot!
Of all the Saturdayish days this week, today is actually finally Saturday! We had baked oatmeal for breakfast, and I’ll be heading out for a lunch date and some shopping with Cher this afternoon. We have no deadlines or big goals to meet today. Just enjoying the actual Saturday.
Thank you, Lord, for nicer weather, and the ability to let the kids run some energy off!
I’ve been eagerly waiting for a parcel to come. I don’t know if I mentioned it or not, but I ordered more blog books at the end of January. They shipped quickly, but the estimated delivery date was FAR off, and apparently, because they shipped via Canada Post, they were deemed untrackable. Had I known that in advance, I would’ve just put my house number and had them couriered. Regardless, I checked the mail yesterday on the way into the city, and they had arrived!!! Five big beautiful beefy blog books to add to my collection! I now have 14!
Except. *sigh*
Upon just flipping through them and examining them quickly, I found BIG errors. MY errors. I am SO disappointed.
The one saving grace is that the biggest errors are all on the same book, so likely, when I have more books to order, I’ll fix and reorder this one. I am SO choked.
I don’t mean just basic grammatical/spelling errors in the blogs. I left those in. To go back through the books page by page would be a nightmare. I tried with the first one and I wanted to rewrite everything smoother and “better” and thats just not what this is all about. There are plenty of errors in there that I’m ok with.
Except on one book, I made a spelling error on the spine. Which is SO frustrating!!! I am SO careful to look over the exterior of the book before I order it, so no titles or dates are messed up. I can’t believe the spine is messed up. I’m so embarrassed.
Also, in just flipping the pages in my hands, I came across the story of Waverly’s birth, complete with pictures and details. A very important post, into which I dumped a LOT of effort. And somehow, I had overlapped photos on top of text, and lost about half of a page of her story. Of ALL posts! And this one, I came across so quickly, who knows how many more places I made that mistake?! But seriously, of all posts, Wavy’s bday post! I am just sick about it 😔
The sooner I can reprint that book, the better. But I still have all of last year’s posts to save, and a laptop with only half of a working keyboard. (I’ve been blogging on my iPad for quite some time now, and the program I use for the blog books won’t work on it.) I think I’m at a bit of a standstill, and thats really discouraging.
But, for now, I am content that I have such a beautiful stack of my books staring at me. I feel so happy to have these years recorded for my family to read someday, if they so desire.
Today, once again, felt like a Saturday. This whole week, really, has felt like a Saturday. But today was an errand day. We haven’t done too many errand days recently, opting for Brady to quickly do a thing or two before coming over after work, but those trips are usually for things like milk or bananas. The rest of our list had grown, and it was time for a big shop.
We got to Superstore as it opened!
The kids honestly did SO good. They were happy to wander the big grocery store with us, as they always are. We don’t get much fresh stuff at Superstore, as we tend to go bulk for that stuff, but we got all of our little canned stuff, some little toiletries, creamer, dressing, and a few other things we don’t buy in bulk. It ended on an especially successful note, as we used up some gift cards that were gifted to us around Christmas, and paid less than $30! Woot!
We hit Walmart next. We didn’t need too much from there, but there are those few things that we always get at Walmart. Dekker needed a dress shirt or two, as he’s grown out of all of his. We needed some oil for the work van. A mattress protector. Stuff like that. But the biggest thing we needed was our gift for Rowan’s birthday, and Walmart was sold out.
We grabbed some lunch for everyone and drove to another Walmart. And then the other Walmart. Finally, the third Walmart had what we needed 😅 But then we had to backpedal a bit to get to Costco. So. Many. Stores.
We haven’t done a big Costco shop in a long, long time, and we were out of everything. Except diapers, strangely. We didn’t need diapers. But seriously, everything else. I’d try to read through our list, and it would’ve been more efficient to have a list of what we didn’t need. But we made it through, and the kids helped grab stuff and load up our cart to overflowing. We should’ve got two carts, and we thought about it, and decided against it because we weren’t getting diapers. It all fit into one cart, but the lovely people at the till repacked it into two. Because there was just SO much stuff! We were able to use a rebate cheque and knock $150 off the top, thank goodness! Also, thank goodness my medication is working and I was able to push a cart today! Yay!
Brady often rants about how we need to build shelves in the back of our van. He might be right. It gets tricky knowing what we can stack and what we can’t and what will squish and what won’t.
We got it all home and unloaded, which sounds like the work is done, but its definitely not.
Lots of things were already in the freezer or in the basement fridge, like some convenience food and five jugs of milk.
Its also late. Like, 2:30. Which isn’t late in general, but is late for naps 😳 So that might make for an interesting evening! Wish us luck!
