Ok, almost everything. We tried! And we took selfies all along the way, so be ready to see a lot of our faces. You’ve been warned.

We left in the late morning, and headed to Martensville. I dropped Brady off at Canadian Tire to grab some plumbing parts for the camper…

…and I drove to McDonalds to grab some quick, cheap lunch. We had GOALS!

From there, we made our way to the blood clinic in the Lawson area. We did not plan ahead, but thankfully, the wait time wasn’t bananas, and Brady was able to get his blood draw in no time.

See the thing was he had an appointment to get to at 1:30, and we had a LOT on the list for the day, so we were trying to crush as many things as possible before his appointment.

From that blood clinic to another, we drove to RUH. I went in to get blood work that I was supposed to get in January. Whoops.

I wanted for an uncool twenty and resent my requisition twice before I said I had to go, but I would come back after our appointment. Merp.

We walked to the other end of the hall and registered Brady for his appointment with *drumroll please* his surgeon, Dr. Fourney! We just got a call from his office that he wanted a follow-up with Brady, and we’ve both been looking forward to it.

He was running late, but Dr. Fourney did not disappoint. I can go into deeper detail in an upcoming post, but what I will say is that he has real confidence that Brady’s tumour will not grow, and that he doesn’t feel that Brady’s cancer diagnosis is as aggressive as some others are saying and believing. He isn’t by any means casting us aside or not caring about the outcome, and backed up everything he said with real information and practical understanding. We will still be going forward with all of our current plans, but hearing his confidence was very comforting and reassuring. He feels much like we do. A fun bonus of that appointment was that he really recognized Brady’s drive, determination, and positive attitude. He said that is a HUGE part of the reason Brady is healing so well, and I fully agree. Obviously, we give ALL glory to God! But yes, Brady has chosen to grab the wheelchair by the horns and keep rolling! (Ha!) And its working. It was a very uplifting appointment.

I went back to the blood clinic after the appointment and they still didn’t have anything. They said come back another day. I told them I wouldn’t be back in the area anytime soon, and they said sorry. So, I left. Merp. Did I mentioned I NEED it soon because I have a day surgery coming up?! GAH!

The Cancer Centre was just across the parking lot, so Brady dropped in there, too, to pick up some meds.

From there, we drove to Saskabilities, where Brady’s brace was being modified. I’m realizing now I should’ve taken a picture of how it looks now, but this will have to do!

His brace used to have his foot fixed Ken doll style, and now the ankle has a hinge! Woot! More mobility is always a win!

Then we hit Walmart. We were SO far across the city, and we never get to the Stonebridge Walmart. See the thing is, I crocheted a project, and I am barely short just ONE color! I’m a little annoyed, because it only comes in a huge ball, and its not even very soft, nice yarn, and I need sooooo little. But, I couldn’t find it at the other locations, so aaaaall the way to Stonebridge, and I can finally bring that purple home and finish my project!

Only mildly passive aggressive about it.

We also got chips and some better plates for camping from Walmart. It was a successful stop!

Aaaaand on the way home, we filled up with gas and bought a few brews from the “scratches and dents” bin! For the laaaaake tomorrowwwww!

We got home shortly after 4:00, and at 5:00, someone from a Saskatoon-based driving school came and picked Brady up. And by “picked Brady up” I mean he showed Brady how to use hand controls, then jumped in the passenger seat, and Brady drove him around Saskatoon until he got home around 7:15.

He had so much fun, and is excited to be approved to get hand controls installed in our vehicle! Apparently it started to feel second nature by the time he was on his way home 🙂 I’m SO proud!

Its been a good day. A HUGE day, but a productive, enjoyable day. We got SO much done! Almost everything 😒I’m still calling it a victory. There is a LOT to come, but we’re doing our best over here. Still, friends, I am overwhelmingly grateful for the help and care we’ve been receiving. I do not take it for granted!

Its an oddly unsettled, discouraging time in some ways. It never hurts to share joy, tho! So in no particular order, here are five things that make me happy.

Sleeping. Whether its me or them, I love sleeping. You know that joke people make about how, as teens, all we wanted to do was stay up, and now we cannot wait for bedtime? That rings truer to me now than it ever has before, and consider that I had five children before Brady was paralyzed and diagnosed with cancer. That is how tired I am, hahaha! So, I’m pretty much in a relationship with sleep.

White macaroni makes me happy. It has to be Presidents Choice, and it has to be el dente. Made with juuust a little extra milk to get it super creamy. Made perfectly, this is SUCH an indulgence for me! Yum! Brady and I may have eaten two boxes of it last night in bed after the kids went down for the night. Maybe.

Brady makes me happy. He is the epitome of man. The ultimate husband to me and father to our children. I could not have chosen a better person to do life with. Seriously. We have such a good thing going, and I am incredibly grateful for a healthy marriage. Being apart those nine weeks made us even stronger. Don’t get me wrong, I super hated it, haha! Because, as mentioned, Brady makes me happy. I’m so grateful to God that he came back home to me.

Finding the end of the yarn that pulls from the middle makes me happy! Only some of you will understand this one, but trust me, this is HUGE! Especially with these huge skeins of yarn, that piece is almost impossible to find, and most of the time, you end up just unrolling it from around the outside, and the stupid ball of yarn rolls all over the place. Finding the one from the centre is victory! And I FOUND one!!! And it made me happy!!! (Just you guys wait for the post showing you what I’ve all been working on!! Eek! Projects!!!!!)

And snuggling with my kids makes me happy. I’ve had the privilege of getting closer to my Solly, as he is SUCH a daddys boy! He still LOVES his dad, don’t get me wrong, but its like he sees the value in me, too. He is a total snuggler with me now, and I LOVE it! I often find myself with a kid on either side, or one will just walk by and flop onto my lap. Legs are always tangled in mine, a head is always on my chest, and hair is always in my mouth. But tt is a true treasure, and one I feel very fortunate to know.

I feel so fortunate. Even amidst these darker times, I have joy. We are happy and secure and faith-filled. Uncertainty is there, but not in the forefront. We are breathing in and out, and moving forward. God knows what we need.

So. It was a tough call whether or not to put in a garden this year. Because my goodness, EXTRA!!! I do not have a lot of room in my life for extra. Extra work. Extra plans. Extra conflict. Extra big feelings. Extra dirt. The only extra I can really hack is extra fresh veggies. Hence, the garden.

It helps a lot that Cher and Rae both started tomatoes for me! Isn’t that incredible?!

I also have peppers started, and all my seeds were brought to me in a cute little seed tin. With the promise of helping hands from multiple people, I felt like we could do it! As a team. Definitely not all by myself. Not this year.

In the morning, it looked like this.

We had some tomatoes in already, and they almost all died :/ That sucked. But whats done is done. We had more! Tom had so lovingly rototilled for us recently, so we were ready to go! And today was the day for it, too. We had a couple of friends offer to help my mom and I, plus we only had two littles on our hands! And they were terribly cute!

I don’t have a lot of progress pictures at all because I was super dirty and didn’t want to touch my phone, but we planted tomatoes, peppers, corn, potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. Just the basics 🙂 Many hands made light work, and we were done in no time!

Wavy helped water the rocks, so those should only get bigger…

And Brady got onto the trampoline with the kids at one point 🙂 It was pretty much the best.

The highlight of the day was probably the time where Solly decided he didn’t want to play with Wavy and said to her “You make me a boring person.” I LOVED that! Probably laughed a little too hard 🤣

I am SO grateful for everyone who participated in the garden today! That includes planters, starters, diggers, providers of coffee, and the eye candy. I preemptively am grateful for all the care that will be put into the garden in the coming weeks by the willing hands that are not mine. I know much of it will be otherwise cared for. Praise the Lord for willing, loving, close people who WANT to pitch in in this way!

I wanted to call this post “The Great Lake Deck Build” but it sounds like we built a deck on one of the great lakes, which we did not. Just at our lake. Christopher Lake. Our spot!

Brady and I were gifted yet another weekend to go up to the lake and get as much work done on our deck as we could possibly do! We approached actually a pretty good handful of people and asked for help, but unfortunately, it just wasn’t the weekend of availability! And thats ok! We’ve had SO much help along the way, we figured we’d go and do as much as we could possibly do on our own 🙂 So we left Friday morning and got there before lunch!

We got to our site and unpacked the van. The first order of business was getting the hand controls on the golf cart! Freedom!!!

We ripped around a little but and then got on the real work!

Brady counted the lumber package. It was all there!

We still needed the ground levelled before we could really begin building, so while we waited for the skid steer, we nailed on all the joist hangers. It might’ve been the most fun of the whole weekend, honestly. It was very relaxed, but productive. Felt like real quality time.

It was REALLY good to see Brady back at it, woodworking, busy.

Once the joist hangers were done, the campground manager showed up, ready to work! We discussed our plan, and he got to it!

Can you imagine if we had to dig it out by hand?? 😳 Oof. We were SO grateful that he was so willing to help us level the ground out a little bit. The goal was to build the deck pretty much flush with the ground, so Brady could wheel right on and off of it, and have a nice big chunk of level ground to feel stable on. Woot!

Once the digging was done, Brady and I hauled concrete blocks over and worked hard to level the first few footings. But it was gruelling, and we had done enough for the day. So we tidied up and called it.

Saturday! Brady and I managed to level and square up nine of the twelve footings, but in the afternoon, two lovely strong pairs of arms arrived at our site, offering to help. THANK GOODNESS!

We were already quite worn out for the day, and if you’ve ever built any kind of structure, you know getting the base of it square and level and perfect is easily the most miserable part. These men came and lifted a lot of that weight off of our shoulders, and together, we got the frame put together properly. One of them stayed and shovelled dirt for probably an hour and a half, to fill in some of the gaps underneath. While he did that, Brady cut joists and I put them into the hangers that we had already put together the day before. It was SO nice to already have that done!

By the end of Saturday, we felt SO good about our progress! It was far from done, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel!

We woke up to POURING rain the next morning! Which normally, I LOVE, but it was not ideal for the day we had planned!

In a last minute change of plans, a friend of ours went forward and called her dad, and asked him to help us. He recruited another family member – his nephew – to join him, and they happily drove out from Nipawin, to build with us. It was unbelievably humbling, and we were truly grateful! We have what seems like an immense blessing over us, where we are never without the help we need, and our help is always warm and willing, while being extremely productive. It is just unreal. Undeniably God-given.

So, they arrived around 9:30am and got to work!! They wanted to know Brady’s vision for the deck, and completely embraced our ideas without any pressure to change anything. They just dove in. They helped us get the awning out so we had some cover, and everyone got to it!!

I say again, it was SO good to see Brady working out there!

We worked HARD all morning! Once the blocking was attached and the edges were extra strong, perimeter boards went on, and the deck boards began. It went pretty fast after that!

The final product!!!

We are SO happy with our new lake deck!!! 😍 Isn’t it beautiful???

It still needs strong stairs, a landing, and a railing, but we’ll start that next weekend. That is lower pressure. This we can work with!!! This makes life at the lake SO much easier!! We are overwhelmed with gratefulness for the help we received, from the people who helped us build to the people who fed us to the people who cared for our children. We are beautifully cared for. It is clearer and clearer that God is in control, as if it was ever in question. He is working through His people.

As the rains continued to pour, it was time to pack up for home. It was pretty awesome to just back up to the deck and load up from there!

Cannot complain about that!!

There are still things to do. Work to complete. Things to build. Ground to level. A fire pit to move. But all of that can be picked at over the weeks to come. We have a good setup here. We are SO grateful, I say again.

Today’s post will be short and sweet!

Yesterday evening, we were invited to join another couple for supper. We had a really lovely time, with good food and great company. It is such a special, warm community out here! We are incredibly grateful!

As our evening wrapped up, the rains came. You probably know how I feel about rain 😉 I LOVE rain. So I was ALL for it.

It rained overnight, and it sounded amazing! I am confident the fire ban is on the way out! At least for a time!

Unfortunately, today is THE DAY for the deck build. We had loving, willing help yesterday, and managed to get the frame built, squared, and levelled. But yesterday was sunny. Today, two men we had never met drove out around two hours to help us. A friend of ours called her dad on our behalf, and he wrangled up her cousin to join the fun.

And they have been working in the rain ALL morning, HAPPILY. We are SO fortunate! Overwhelmed. Grateful. Those are all good words…

I’m calling it on the blog for the day. I’ll show you how far we got soon enough. Tomorrow, maybe, even. But its time for me to head back out there.

Camping feels like home.
Not in every way, but many.

There is lots to do.
Building the patio.
Digging. Hammering. Digging some more.

My fingernails are so dirty.
Deodorant once a day is not enough.
Heart rates are up, and things take longer than they should.

Yet…

I climb back into the camper for lunch.
Easy food. Leftovers or something snacky.
Pizza pops.

Off go the pants and into the bed to watch a show and eat lunch.
Just like at home.
Once lunch is done, I crochet.
Because I’m a die hard.
Just like at home.

The metal crochet hook is cold against the blisters on my hands.
The pineapple cider can is cold against my blisters.
My rings pinch my blisters.
I won’t take them off, though.

The AC is pumping in there. Thank you, Lord, for operational AC at the lake.
When not even everyone has it at home.
Feels unfair, but I am grateful.

I smell of sweat, dirt, and bug spray.
As I should.

Dishes aren’t done. Water is off.
We have a leak.
Merp.
We’ll get there.
The deck comes first.

The deck comes now, in fact.
We will do our best.

Supper with new friends at the camp, because people are lovely.

Tomorrow, BIG work will go down!

Camping feels like home.
I cannot wait to get the kids up here.

Today begins round two of Brady and I going to the lake without the kids! This will be the last time, which I am completely happy with 🙂 Its been SUCH a joy to get some things organized, as well as having some time of refreshment, just the two of us. We are loving our time out here together, but we are also SO excited to get the kids here!!! And so are they! Hopefully very very soon.
The drive up felt different than the drive last weekend. Almost more like old times? We talked about all kinds of non-stressful things, listened to good music, and time flew! At least for me. We were at our spot in no time!!
I unloaded the van into the camper and Brady emptied the cooler and got the food organized. Together, we got the AC working! Just think. Last weekend, we needed a heater, and this weekend, we need AC! We are thankful that we have both options! Our little spot here is just so cozy and perfect for us and the months ahead. I hope it feels as havenish this summer as it does right now.
Currently Brady is outside, counting the lumber package. The deck build begins tomorrow! We weren’t able to wrangle up much help this time, unfortunately, but we have received literally ALL the help we’ve asked for (and not asked for, for that matter) for the last few months! So we are not dismayed, and we’re looking forward to putting together as much of it as we can tomorrow! We like to work together, and we’re both handy. HA! Handi joke. Its going to be good, I’m confident 🙂 Its going to come together. It always does. God knows what we need.
Before ANY kind of building begins, though, something exciting came in the mail!!! Our portable hand controls for the golf cart have arrived, and we are EAGER to put them on so Brady can take it out for a spin!! That will be especially victorious!!
Have a beautiful weekend, friends! Enjoy they heat when its there, and the rain when its there. Both are goooood!!!

I realize that our daily life, while it seems boring and frustrating in the moment, might be of interest to at least some of you. So I’m going to give you a quick rundown of whats new with Brady, how he’s doing, and where he’s at with treatment.

Brady has entered the outpatient rehab program at City Hospital. So far, its nothing too riveting. He’s been given some more stretches to do, and he really likes them actually! Its a quick circuit and it helps immensely with his headaches. Win! Through the program, the ball is also rolling on getting his AFO (brace) split at the ankle so it has a hinge. Up until now, its been fixed, and now Brady has enough strength that the fixed brace holds him back. Time for a hinge at the ankle! Hopefully next week he can actually see the doctor who needs to sign off on it, and then go forward with the change!

You probably remember that Brady finished his radiation treatment a few weeks ago. He has a phone appointment next week to speak to his systemic oncologist to discuss the next steps. Yes, folks, Brady does still have to go through chemotherapy :/ We are NOT looking forward to it, but we feel peace with the decision. Last we talked to that particular oncologist, she was still unsure about how long the treatment would go for, be is 6 – 12 months. She was still awaiting results of molecular pathology, so hopefully thats back by now and we can all make a concrete plan together. It will likely begin this month, and it is daunting. We are nervous to say the least, but we are praying protection over Brady’s body, and trusting God in the process. Working HARD to get the lake all set up before Brady is hypothetically down and out again. (Whooooo wants to come help us build a deck this Saturday?? Anyone?!)

Brady has been using a loaner wheelchair from the hospital since he left, but this week the purchase order for HIS wheelchair went through! We have another few weeks to wait, but he is SO excited to finally get his own chair that is fit for him! With that, he also qualified for the funding of a second set of tires that resemble mountain bike tires, which will be SO good for the lake. Lastly, they approved him for a super cool motorized attachment for his chair. It’ll basically make his chair into a scooter, but without having a whole scooter to store. I’ll show you when he gets it. It is going to be AMAZING for our longer family walks, or going around the pond. Man. You don’t realize how sloped the world is until you’re pushing yourself through it on wheels!

I think thats it?? If anyone has questions, please ask. We are not afraid of offended. Sometimes we forget what is old news to us and new news to you 🙂

Thank you, all, for following and caring and praying and supporting us in so many ways! Our family is overwhelmed.

Yesterday, you heard from Cher what she spent the weekend doing. Today, I’ll tell you where Brady and I were and what we were doing!

We got away to the lake! 😍Isn’t that wonderful?!

We were gifted the weekend to go and get things set up, kid free. It was SUCH a beautiful, loving, generous gift!! Of course we couldn’t get everything done, but we took a good bite out of it!

First of all, we brought EVERYTHING. MOUNTAINS of stuff!! But, to be fair, we brought EVERYTHING home last year, for fear of mice eating all of our stuff. We are mouse free, and it was time to bring everything back. Five mattresses. A big water jug. A BBQ. Seven pillows. Tubs of miscellaneous items. Kitchen stuff. Tools for the inevitable work we needed to do. Eight new blinds. Blankets, sheets, toiletries, clothes, etc etc etc. Oh and then Brady’s wheelchair, which takes up a LOT of space!! It was ridiculous in there!

Its hard to truly convey how much stuff was in here. You’ll have to take my word for it.

Aaaaanyway, we got on the road nice and early, and grabbed bagels and coffee on the way, as it tradition. It was a really really beautiful drive.

Even just the drive in cleansing! My goodness it was SO nice to be on our way back there!

Once we arrived, friends came to help us unload our gigantic van of gigantic things. It was a (ready?) gigantic help. And because that wasn’t enough, they then came back and delivered our lumber package to our site!

We are officially ready to build the deck! Who wants in?? 🙋‍♀️

We worked a lot that first day. We put up blinds, and Brady got the water heater working while one of the guys from camp set up our plumbing. I made everyone’s beds, and while they’re not all uniform or tidy, they look cozy. I’ll take cozy off of pretty any day!

My kids aren’t fond of the sleeping bags, so I think they’ll be really excited to have blankets instead!

Once we had worked hard enough, we drove the cart down to the lake and sat in the wind, enjoying the beauty of our surroundings.

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We wrapped up the night over a fire and a beer. Cher bought me the prettiest beer she could find! Why is a drink so much more enjoyable when the can is pretty? I don’t know why, but I won’t fight it.

Yes, remember our pink cabinets? They’re still just as pink, and just as pretty! No regrets!

The next morning, we drank coffee and ate brownies for breakfast. It. Was. Awesome.

We had less we could accomplish the next day, so we puttered with the things we could. First, a fire, which was considerably smokier than the one the night before. But we made it happen.

We started talking about laying out the frame of the deck, but there were a big dumb stump in the way. I’ll be honest – we got a little carried away with that. I was quite determined, but my square shovel would have none of it.

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Not to mention, I didn’t have a lot of bulk to throw at it…

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• 

Then Carrie came with a spade and got pretty invested too. She made WAY more headway than I did. Brady had the axe and was chopping the big roots we were unearthing. But finally, Braden came to save the day, and pulled the thing out with his truck. It was a bit of a debacle, and took probably a confident 2+ hours, but we laughed a lot 🙂 which is often the most important part.

Back to our camper to hide out afterwards. Rest, and eat lunch. Which was chips.

Then we headed back to the water and watched a bunch of poor suckers people put the docks in the lake. It was entertaining, and we didn’t even have to feel guilty because we don’t have a boat, and therefore no obligation to help. Also, paraplegia. Win! Disability “benefits.”

The goal of productivity after lunch was well intentioned, but short lived. We measured out where we want the deck to be built, and laid out boards so we could really visualize it. But at that point of the day, Brady needed to take one of his medications that tends to knock him on his butt. So he did. And it did.

Brady napped for about 45 minutes, and I crocheted for about 40 minutes. Then I noted a big mistake I had made in my work and pulled it aaaaall out. It was around that time I decided it was time to get things packed up for the week. Brady had only wanted to nap for a half hour anyway, so I started moving around, and he lulled shortly thereafter.

The gross majority of what we brought stayed at the camper, thank goodness. We brought home our own bags of clothing and such, though I forgot the laundry there. Whoops! We moved the tools for the deck build into the camper, so they’re there and ready to go. We closed all the blinds and turned everything off. We parked the golf cart off to the side so the deck area could be cleared. We locked and loaded up, which – let me tell you – did NOT take as long as loading up on the way there! Oy!

It was a bummer to leave, but we will be back soon!! I can’t wait!! I’m pretty sure the sun misses us…

Saturday:

Step 1: Display a sense of authority by turning on a brand new Netflix movie at 10am, called “Dog On Trouble” and commanding the children to enjoy it.

Step 2: Deliver highly nutritious snacks to the minors so they can taste your toughness. 

Step 3: Spend HOURS cooking and baking lunch from scratch so they know you’re capable of anything. 

Step 4: Work the oldest girl to the bone during naptime. Cinderella isn’t a myth. 

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Step 5: After naptime is over, teach the children tough lessons about basketball through a dry documentary called “Space Jam.”

Step 6: Leave them out in a dangerous storm.

Step 7: Cook a healthy meal so they don’t enjoy life too much. They must learn that disappointment is a major part of growing up.

Step 8: Science Saturday never ended. Time to learn about why pollination is an essential part of life on earth. I like to use “Bee Movie” to explain these necessary values. 

Step 9: Crush their spirits by making them clean up the toys they played with in between visual lectures. 

Step 10: Toss them in a room with the lights off for hours. 

Step 11: Keep the oldest girl up to organize papers until she is too tired to “even.” 

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• 

Sunday: 

Step 1: Send the children downstairs shortly after breakfast. It’s cold down there. 

Step 2: Visit with their grandma until lunch time while conducting an extreme plan to feed them food that was grown outside, followed by more food that makes them healthy. 

Step 3: In the afternoon, drag the children outside to a place full of water and rocks and caution signs. Feed them horrifying snacks.

• 

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Step 5: On the way back, welcome the oldest boy back home from a weekend away by requiring him to bathe before supper.

Step 6: While the grandmother cooks perogies and sausage for dinner, command obedience while aggressively playing the Hamilton soundtrack. 

Step 7: Abandon the children after supper to go have a fire with someone else, leaving them with someone who loves them dearly. That oughta teach them.