Today is my moms birthday. She is the BEST mom I could ever imagine calling my own! The BEST mom to model much of my parenting after! The BEST mom to grow closer to through adulthood and become close friends with! And the BEST mom to have in my corner during this last stretch of life.

The last year has been radically different for my mom, and she has rolled with the punches more gracefully than anyone could have expected. As if 2020 wasn’t enough for her, our life turned upside down in February and she was THERE for it. She dropped EVERYTHING. She left her job. She moved in. I drove her car everyday, which she filled with gas. She watched the kids. She communicated with the outside world for me. She fed kids, bathed kids, and put kids to bed. She signed day planners and read books. On top of her own life, she took on mine and that of my five children, while I laid in bed in horrible anxiety, a shell of a human being.

She just knew what to do, and when to do it. She knew how long to stay and how to gracefully step back while making sure we were still cared for and content.

During this time, my children did not suffer in the ways we had expected. They had warm consistency and security with their grandma, without their dad, and with their mom barely there. ALL glory goes to God, of course, but He worked through her, and she was willing to put in that brutal hard work to keep us afloat.

If I can be a shred of the woman she is someday, I will have succeeded.

I feel truly grateful to be connected to this incredible woman. She is an example I watch closely, and value greatly. I want to be her when I grow up. Gentle. Thoughtful. Humble. Strong. The strongest woman I know, bar none. Persistently seeking God’s voice.

I love you dearly, mom. Words cannot express. I hope you feel celebrated and loved and truly cherished by your people today. 💜

I’ll admit straight up that this is a bit of a nothing post 😬 I know that’s not the way to preview it. Yet, here I am, shamelessly posting something unimportant during a really bananas time in our lives. Because sometimes stuff has to be light! Shall we begin?

Does anyone ever feel this way about their Facebook memories? Just me? 😬 Cool.

I’ve been online glasses shopping recently as Bradys glasses broke and mine got severely scratched. We both want co tact’s but need appointments so in the meantime, we need glasses. Facebook showed me these and I’m a BIG fan of the top pair!! 😍

This popped up on one of my groups and it makes me want an excuse to crochet something Halloweeny. Anyone? Anyone?!

Yes. The picture was saved like this.
saw this body spray 🤢 Anyone buying this these days?? Sounds horrendous!

Don’t judge me. I just had a little giggle 🤏

Does anyone feel this deep in their soul the way I do sometimes?

Aaaaaand this. Because nuggs means poop huggers at our house. Even Wavy refers to tiny poops as nugs. Original or spicy? Is that even a question? No one wants spicy!

Sooooo the end! 🤷‍♀️ I know these posts don’t appeal to everyone but I like them once in a while 🙂 I hope you had a great weekend!

Brady blog: entry #… I have no idea. I’m here again to blog about another project we took on this weekend.

We built a small outdoor kitchen at our campsite, next to the barbecue. Though it’s not much of a kitchen yet and more of a table with storage. 🤷‍♂️

This whole thing was built out of scraps from the deck roof build so we had to do some planning as to where to use the different materials we had.

We started with a basic structure and used the existing roof posts to our advantage.

Side note, Hailey had the idea to make it a bit taller than a standard kitchen countertop so that I could stand straight while I’m working at it. Standing at standard counters makes my back sore since my surgery because I have to lean over just a few degrees and my back doesn’t have the stamina for that anymore. 🤷‍♂️

Next was adding shelf supports and figuring out what to use for the back and sides of the cabinet.

I’m gonna be honest and tell you that there was some tension in these decisions and while I’d like to say I’m a decent builder, I’m not the best planner. But we came to a resolution with a small amount of hushed discussion and we were back on track.

At one point I may have found myself inside the box.

Maybe many times… 😂

Once I had the sides all filled in it was on to the shelves which we made out of two by material. Various 2x6s and 2x8s. Cut to length and screwed down. Very simple.

At that point Hailey had the idea to use 2×2 spindles glued together to create the countertop which I was totally on board with. 🙂 But we didn’t have enough spindles here to make the whole thing. So we waited for the next day when Cher was coming and she brought the rest of the spindles from the garage and we were back in action.

This isn’t the most clean and precise wood shop setup for glueing things up but it worked for our outdoor countertop.

I did end up glueing and clamping sections of spindles together and then glueing the sections together as I screwed them down. I didn’t want to screw each individual spindle down separately. And the glue ups worked well.

Then came notching and cutting the sections to fit in place. Last was screwing them down as you would with any countertop, from underneath so that there’s no screws through the top of the counter.

Hailey and I are both incredibly happy with it and we’ve used it a couple times already.

We also plan to add some doors to the front in the near future and maybe some more cabinets on either side of the barbecue next year. It’s a work in progress but this is a start. 😊

Yesterday had the most beautiful weather. We enjoyed some of it at the beach. It wasn’t warm and balmy but there were people to play with and rain to dance with! 

And again, you cannot beat that ponytail 🙌

The kids were all starving after all the rowdiness so they awkwardly stopped for a very bizarre obvious apple eating break 😆

They ate supper well still, thankfully, but Brady and I cooked up our meal after the fact. In one of the many care packages we received along the way, there was a Swanson skillet meal. It looked beautiful and tasted even better!!! 🤤 

I really really enjoyed it!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wavy looked a little funny by the end of the day, but she reacts to all bites, and I wasn’t surprised. 

By morning, she looked craaazyyy!!! 

Poor girl! But she didn’t complain! We fed her sugary cereal from a cup and she was good to go! 

It helped that auntie Cher was here 💜 

She makes everything better!

We spent the day sooooo chill, beside the fire, at rest. That in, with the exception of the project Brady worked on today! Hopefully we’ll tell you more about that tomorrow!! Ack! 

The day wound down with perogies and bacon on the barbecue, and the kids playing with their friends. I am immensely grateful that our children have developed true, meaningful friendships here. Thank you Lord!

I spent the morning splitting wood. I do that now. My hands have open blisters to prove it. Also, what takes sap off? Asking for a friend 🙋🏼‍♀️ I will say, though, I’m really enjoying it. I have never appreciated campfires the way I do now 😍🔥 

Once I had done my job, I grabbed some ice cold water and made use of our fire pit. 

THIS is my element. My natural habitat. Beside a fire, crocheting, in the rain. 
Note how much wood is already burned 😆

☺️ Bliss. 

Meanwhile, Brady is barely ten feet away, working on yet another project to make things run a little smoother over here. It’s always SO good for my heart to see him still capable of creating beautiful things with his skills. 

Today is a beautiful day 💜

Today I mainly want to share with you that I put Wavys hair in a ponytail for the first time since we shaved her head last September. At first, it pulled a little and she started to cry. But the second I let go, she lit UP!!! 😍

She laughed and laughed, and has had it in for hours since I put it in. She is SO happy! 

She is a new woman 💜

To clarify, she has not pulled her hair out since September either, so we’ve been growing it back out 🙂 it’s short and shaggy but she has SO much hair!!

Brady had his sixth MRI yesterday. With that, plus two CT scans, I imagine soon he’ll glow in the dark! Yet another fun bonus of all the junk we’ve done through in the last seven months or so! Woohoo!

Cher willingly, lovingly, offered to watch the kids, and we planned out our morning to get a couple “cancery” things done. Bloodwork, pick up meds, MRI, etc. Its kind of a long story, but everything went to poop when he checked in for his MRI fifteen minutes early, around 9:45, only to learn his scan was actually at 10:00PM! That was kind of a huge letdown, only for the reason of kind of having to psych ourselves up for it, and then knowing we actually have to do that again, later! Ugh. What a debacle.

Aaaaanyway, the MRI did happen. It gets darker earlier these days! Yikes! I didn’t think it happened this soon!

I came prepared to kill time, with some true crime downloaded on my phone and some crocheting in my hand.

Some of Bradys MRIs are a half hour. Some are two hours. Its impossible to know.

This one went for about an hour and a half. It was 11:45 when I heard he was coming back out!! Thank you Lord!

So, it happened. Brady figures six MRIs should earn him a free coffee or sandwich or something. Where is the MRI punch card?! That should absolutely exist.

I guess I should add in here that this MRI is to assess the situation post-radiation. It was booked by his radiation oncologist when he finished that treatment in May.

We pray that we only go onward and upward from here!

You are brave because you keep going with a positive attitude, even though you know there are more challenges today than there were last year.

You are brave because you choose to rely on God for answers instead of trying to control the outcome of all your situations.

You are brave because you push yourself to learn new things, even when it scares you. 

Because you don’t know what the end game is, but you keep looking up and forward, despite all the roadblocks and detours. 

You follow through with everything you say, even when it’s easier to let things go and walk away. 

You make unpopular and difficult decisions because you know they will produce the best outcomes.

You are brave because you have learned to speak up for yourself and maintain healthy boundaries.

Because you choose to believe that your opinions matter and your time is valuable. Because it is.

I know it has been a ridiculously disappointing day, my sweet best friend. But know that you are doing such an amazing job just being yourself. I love you so much.

Your best friend,

Cher

Today was a big day of colouring for the kids. I think Rowan and Laela specifically were making cards for Dekker’s upcoming birthday, but Wavy got in on it, and I have to say, her picture was EASILY the best!!

Why, do you ask?

Not just because she’s super cute, or the youngest, or anything else stereotypical.

Its because her picture comes complete with a booger in the top corner.

• 

Can you see it?

She was SO excited, and presented her picture to us in the living room with great pride. And all I could do was laugh at her booger.

This 🙌 is original art at its finest!

Cher here! 

After almost two years being in COVID purgatory, I got some news. So, I have this professor that I really love because she is SO smart and pushes me very hard. Her name is Professor Sidloski. She was the very last class I had before COVID struck. I was able to finish that English class, and then I got into her Linguistics class at the beginning of this year.

For those of you who don’t know what linguistics is, the course goes through 14 years of grammar in about 3 months. We went through morphology, which is the break down of words like prefixes and suffixes and learned every meaning and how to write it out using symbols. Then we did the Reed Kellog Diagram where every word in each sentence has a form and function and you have to prove it using a diagram. Believe it or not, many words function differently in each sentence so you really have to know your stuff. 

I met with her before the final because I got 54% on my first exam. The quizzes went up to 70s, then 80s, but I was so nervous for the final. I organized a morning meeting at the College and she bought me breakfast so I didnt have to wear my mask, which was cute. She went through three very complex diagrams with me and sent me on my way. Well, the same day of the final, she emailed me to tell me I got 92% on the final. That was SO TOUGH. BUT I DID IT. She is the type of prof where you feel extra special when she is pleased with you. She is a pretty strict lady. Very fun too. I am unsure how she has that balance down so good.

I emailed her last week to ask if she knew classes were in person, and I wanted to take a third class of hers called “Writing for Academic Success”. Well.. she emailed me back today and THIS IS SUCH GOOD NEWS!!!!!!

Any class that says WEB is online, and everything else is…. IN PERSON!!!!!!!!!!! My prof also expressed she loves hearing from students, especially me. So my tires are INFLATED! ALL THE WAY! She gave me the info for the class and told me she would love me to take another one of her classes. So I think I will. IN PERSON!!!!

I know this is Hailey’s blog and I am writing about myself, but honestly, if it wasn’t for Hailey, I couldn’t do school as well as I do. She is SUCH a consistent support in my life. She and Brady help me a lot and celebrate my victories with me. It’s really nice to have people who are so excited for me. The 92% is absolutely shared with Hailey because she extra supports my English classes that I find so difficult. Which is funny, because my mom is an English teacher. Didn’t pass down…that’s okay!

I am going to end this rambly blog on this note:

Do not EVER settle in your life for sub par people who don’t stick with you through the hard things or celebrate your victories with you. Get yourself a Hailey. They’re pretty neat.

And here is a picture of Linguistics……