I’m not sure whats going on. Maybe its the full moon, or the recent lack of sleep, or my period, or the ever-changing covid restrictions, or a craft hangover, or satan, or whatever else, but I cannot shake my sanity back into my head. I don’t feel like me. I feel out of body. I can’t form full thoughts or sentences. I can’t speak properly. I feel very, very foggy.

I am her. She is me.

I don’t know what is going on or why, but I hope it stops soon.

I hope your brains are smoother than mine. 🙃

Yesterday, our band reunited to practice for an appropriately organized/socially distanced Christmas event. (Don’t come for me, its allowed, we checked deep into it.) While I still carry concerns it’ll all be cancelled last minute, we put some good time into it.

Once the kids were down for the night, Carrie came over and we settled into our garage for practice. We can’t always do it that way, because our garage isn’t finished, but it is insulated, and we had a heater going all day in it, and it wasn’t miserably cold out yesterday. So it worked well!

We ran over and over our six songs, amidst lots of conversation and catching up. Nothing is perfect, and they won’t be, but we had a lot of fun and the songs are turning out nicely 🙂 We’re hoping to be able to record them and put them on our band Facebook page, just in case anyone wants to listen.

I have really been missing our regular coffeehouse gigs. We are far from a big name band around here, but we were picking up a bit of speed and had a number of other gigs on the books when covid took them away. *shakes fist at covid* We’ll be back. It may in the form of YouTube for a while, but we will be back.

We started the Christmas tree this morning! We almost always break it into two days, sometimes consecutive and other times, weeks apart.

The first day – today – is the tree and lights! Its good to break it up this way for us for a handful of reasons. For one, putting the lights up on the tree was always a source of stress growing up. I won’t delve into all the details, but its something that I hold in the back of my mind as something that is going to take extra time and be stressful. That being said, it isn’t really stressful for us, and I’m happy for that 🙂 The other main reason we break it up is because its nice for the younger, more terrorizy kids to get used to it being up before we decorate it with all the sparkly things.

The kids were so excited to get the tree up in the living room. They did laps around it and watched Brady as he rounded the tree over and over again, to get the lights super nice! It didn’t need any sections redone. It was perfect the first time around!

I love having the tree up, but truthfully, the snuggles were the best part of it this time around.

The laughs were pretty good too.

It was such a soft, warm, cozy time. I hope they never think they’re too big to snug with me.

Part 2: Ornaments to come!!

I wish I had a better picture of Rowan’s clothes on backwards day, but what you saw yesterday is what you get. He got a huge kick out of wearing his jeans backwards. That was the ultimate win, hahaha!

Since the kindergarten classes are staggered, they don’t get all the same spirit days. Thy do great over there, and sometimes they make their own fun days, or just do them on different days. What a relief, because our kids love backwards day! So, Rowan had it yesterday, and Dekker and Laela have it today!

Dekker figured he was SO funny wearing his mask on the back of his head, lol! He was super disappointed that I wouldn’t let him take two to school.

I love Laela’s dirty knees, or knee pits, rather.

I think they’re cute ❤️ In earlier days, Dekker never wanted to participate in spirit days. I remember him crying, not wanting to dress up for school on Halloween in kindergarten, asking me to just choose a costume for him. Poor little anxiety-ridden Dekker 💔Its been an HONOUR to watch these beautiful people grow and develop and come into their own over the years. I hope we have sooooo many more years together! Thank you Lord!

This morning, ALL the school kids went to school!

The three older ones were super happy to walk to school together!

Can I also add in here that Rowan’s braid was probably the most perfect it has ever been??? Ack!

Good job, me!
Thanks, me!

Shortly thereafter, I was able to take Solomon to preschool! It had been SO long!! He came upstairs, dressed in real clothes, and told me “I look SO wild!!”

Lol! Doesn’t he? 😉 SO wild in his jeans, white shirt, and grey hoodie?

Bring on the time with only one kid at home!

Thank you Cher for always taking pictures 💜 Its a bigger gift than you know.

Nap time! Egg salad wraps, Netflix, and some studying/crocheting with Cher! I hope your afternoon is as nice as mine is going to be!

After a really fun stretch of braids, they came out today.

I honestly truly enjoyed the braids. My favorite thing about them, though, was the part where I didn’t shed. However, as you already know, I’m sure, taking them out came with SO MUCH SHEDDING!

It took a couple of hours for Cher and I to remove the braids, brush out all the hair, and give my scalp a goooood scratch. My hair is ridiculously fluffy now, but I’ll wash it tomorrow. I’ve got time.

This all being said, I finally have a hair appointment booked for December. The last time I had my hair done was February. I don’t care to complain, because my hair is not my priority, and we simply haven’t had the extra for it. At the same time, I am SO thrilled to be able to get it done once again. Its actually being given to me as a gift, which makes it just that much sweeter.

Thank you to my people who want to take care of me in all the ways. I feel so loved and important and thought of.

Yesterday, I had three kids at home, with Dekker and Laela finally being able to go to school! Today, I’m down to two at home, because Rowan could go today! Upon getting him up this morning, he was SO excited for school. His hands were out as he exclaimed “I am really looking forward to seeing my class again!” I loved that.

I, on the other hand, am not having my best morning. I had an incredibly short sleep, therefore getting everyone up late, which was completely my own fault. I had to rush through everything, and then some stupid mistakes like pouring yesterdays hot chocolate all over the kitchen floor, wiped me right out. Oy!

At least the kids aren’t fighty this morning. The three are off, and the two will be home today. It is a preschool day for Solomon, but he’s still snotty :/ So home he stays. But he’s not hard. I just come down from using my bathroom, and Solly was returning a stool he had taken into Wavy’s room to help her get a hoodie from her closet. As I zipped her into it, she said “Thank you really much, Wolly.” And he said “You’re very welcome, little Wavy.” Goodness I love them.

I think I’ve earned a coffee, and then I’m going to work on some Christmas projects. No shortage of things to work on and complete!

The older two kids are FINALLY well enough to go back to school!!

It was a whole family affair, lol!

I spent the morning making lunches, emailing teachers, and organizing a photo show and tell for Dekker. The kids ate, got ready, Dekker did some dishes, and everyone colored and read until it was time to leave for school. It felt normal and good!

It doesn’t show well in this picture, but everyone was waving. It was so nice.

I feel so happy to be home, with a couple of kids at school, with Brady at physio and then work. Cher is even here to coffee with me.

What a lovely start to the week!

We can all believe different things. I LOVE when my kids pray. I feel like there is SO MUCH power in their prayers!!!

Rowan has a different depth of prayer than any of our other kids. He seems to understand it a bit better, and he loves to pray. He repeats a lot of what he hears, but I still think there is immense power in those prayers!!

Yesterday, Wavy prayed a prayer she has heard countless times.

“Dear Jesus, thank you for today.
The devil is not welcome here.
Amen.”

Brady and I stared at each other and all the kids responded with “awww” and “thats so nice!” And then, Wavy… 😂

“Oh, and coffee!”

Say what you will about kids not understanding, but it was an AMAZING unprompted prayer from our two year old!!

I am so proud of our little Waverly Violet. Thank you for praying for the safety of our home. We all slept SO well last night.

Cher and I went to the city today with a short list of Christmasy items, and a long list of groceries. We started with the fun stuff, and hit up a few stores for smaller items. I got the end of the materials needed for the homemade gifts I’m making, which is SO victorious! Thanks to Brady, Krista, and myself all hitting different stores at different times, we got it ALL! I also got a few more gifts for the kids, and enveloped for our Christmas cards. Weeeee!

We grabbed some Wendy’s burgers for a cheap lunch and then hit Costco for the motherload. It wasn’t our biggest shop ever, but one of those gigantic ones when you know everything is about to close again, and you feel the need to be extra prepared with ALL the staples before you can’t find them anymore. There was NO toilet paper at Costco, of course, but I got a good haul of hand soap, meat, veggies, granola bars, some freezer food, and a handful of aisle stuff. If everything closes down, at least we’ll be set for a while, and then we’ll just have to get creative!! (Meanwhile, I came home to a gift of beef for our family from our amazing neighbours across the street!! Thank you so much, Tom and Rae! You don’t realize the impact that has on us.)

Brady helped us unload and put the groceries away. I should really update you on his life/pain/numbness soon, hey? I’ll get there. Its not like I’ve had other stuff on the go. Cool cool cool.

Once everything was unloaded, Cher went down to her room to work on some school stuff, and Brady and I watched a little Netflix before it was time to get the kids up from naps. It was a nice wind down from being out, but I truly enjoyed being out with Cher. Its ALWAYS a good time with that one. She’s super helpful and game for whatever, but just SUCH a joy to have along. Whatever we do together is fun.

Now, to waste the rest of the day away working on projects and eating perogies. Anyone else? Whatcha serving for supper?