Yesterday, around 2:00, our favorite people made their way to our house, and after weeks of lockdown, we hung out together 💜 It was SUCH a treat to share space, and air, and fresh air at that!!
I don’t have to say much. The photos write the blog for me.
It was completely impossible to get us all in one picture.
You’ll have to just take us one at a time 💜
We have thee beautiful Cher – poker of fire and bringer of drinks. Laughs til she coughs.
Dekker – the cool dude mini-adult, bringer of sarcasm.
Waverly – the pink one, who swings the highest and complains the least.
Laela – the boss. The wearer of the pants. Stays under the radar.
Rowan – our Elton John impersonator, stuck between the bigs and littles. Wicked style.
Thee beautiful mom/grandma/Jeanne – the bringer of positivity and fig bars. Potentially the only one of us who never complains about being outside.
I’m not one who needs a thing to make me feel better. When I’m struggling, I’m not just aching for some retail therapy. I have ZERO judgement for people who do, but thats not how I roll. Yet, sometimes something wonderful shows up and it can be a really lovely morale boost.
For instance, the other day, my sweet neighbour purged her closet and left a big box of cozy clothes outside my door. That was a lovely surprise, and I had a LOT of fun digging through it and choosing some new items for my closet of cozy things. It was a loving gift and was a fun distraction, and now I have new comfy things to wear on all of these frigid winter days. As in ALL the Costco sweatshirts I’ve eyed but passed up. Woohoo!
Three days ago, someone local was giving away a project carrier for free. I jumped at it, but was not the first person. And that was fine. More people spoke up after I asked, as well, so I assumed it went to a draw or something, and didn’t think anything of it. But then it came up on my Facebook feed again, and it had not been marked as given. So I messaged the person giving it away to inquire, and she mentioned that on her post, she had said to send her a message to get her address. And no one had! So it was MINE!!!!
Guys. Specifically crafty ones. I never have even considered affording this kind of thing for myself! I am THRILLED.
Both of these carrier comes off of their wheeled thing and have handles to carry. They are huge, and will whole a whole blanket worth of yarn and supplies. I can take it to the LAKE!!! No more garbage bags, or white foot basin tubs. They can get some sparks and dust on them, and still contain my project. The top one even leaves me the opportunity to have yarn running out from inside of it with the top closed, so I can work without sparks burning the yarn balls.
This is INCREDIBLY exciting for me. SUCH a win.
Speaking of taking this to the lake, another morale boost on its way!
A winter fire is to come! Gonna catch some summer vibes and breathe in a little fresh air that isn’t directly from shovelling and bawling simultaneously.
Today’s blog is a mixed bag. I have the heaviest heart I’ve had in a LONG time today, so I’m choosing to be busy at home, which isn’t hard, but I’m also being selective. Hear me out.
Priority one is that I’m proof reading/editing a document for someone. It won’t be a hard thing. I can do it from the comfort of a recliner, but my mind will still be busy 🙂 Also, I feel some confidence in my ability to actually be useful in this way, so that feels good to me. A morale boost, so to speak.
Speaking of morale boost, my sweet neighbour cleaned our her closet and sent a boxy of cozy things my way 💜 So that is also a win! I’m SO fortunate.
Another goal of the day is to tidy my room. I feel like a kid even saying it, but its just the truth, lol! My side of our room gets SO cluttered. I’ve been making baskets recently and I’m using up some of my ends of yarn skeins, so I just have tiny little skeins rolling ALL over the place and it needs to change. Also, since I’ve been crocheting so much more, my cabinets have big holes all through them and the whole thing just needs to be reorganized. I’m actually really looking forward to it.
A bigger job that likely won’t happen today but is very much on my list is taking Christmas down. You might remember, or you might not, but it was VERY hard for me to set Christmas up this year. So I’ve felt somewhat justified in leaving it up this long. Yet I’m carrying some deep anxiety for the month to come and something tells me if I don’t take Christmas down now, its staying up until March. So I’d better get to that.
Unrelated, Christmas cards. I am so determined to get them out. Is it too late? Would anyone still want one? I don’t know what to do 🙁 When I finally had them ready to go, it was ICE COLD and there was no possible way to actually deliver them to so many people in town. And then we had covid. Ugh. I’m so so disappointed.
Ok friends, wish me luck. Coffee is down the hatch, hair is up, and music is going! Its going to be a good day today 💜
Dekker was invited out to play at a friends house today after school, so I went to retrieve Solly from kindergarten. I almost never get the kids from school, though I really enjoyed it in fall and hope we can pick back up into the habit in spring! Today was such a treat – just me and Solly.
He was still putting his boots on, but I had the pleasure of talking to his teacher, who just came back from maternity leave in January. I have met her so briefly in the past (you know how covid goes) so it was nice to talk to her and make a connection finally! She seemed to really enjoy Solly. It was her FIRST day with him! It reminded me of Rowan’s first day of kindergarten. This teacher was there that day. Rowan was SO shy and SO nervous to go, but Solly ripped right in, grabbed a shovel (as he does) and made himself comfortable. She LOVED Solly that day, and today seemed to solidify that.
We chatted for a few minutes and when Solly surfaced, I panicked!!
Because I could’ve sworn the boy was covered in blood 😅
I had a GOOD laugh with his teacher, who said she had the exact same reaction at first. I was quickly reassured that he had been painting.
Can we just stop to appreciate them peepers? 😍 Ugh.
He is SUCH a nerd. Covered in paint and chocolate. How a good five year old should be.
Upon getting him home and unpacked, we got to see his painting. A self portrait.
An accurate self portrait of his face, covered in spatter. Blood spatter.
So the point of the story is that Solly is a slasher.
Tuesday night wrapped up Brady’s ninth cycle of chemotherapy. It proved to be different than all the rest, in lots of ways, and we are thankful to see it over with for the month!
There was SO MUCH LEAD UP to this cycle! With covid spreading through the house, we lived in some decent fear that Brady would catch it. Many of you have read along, and you know we couldn’t get any kind of straight answer from anyone about whether or not covid would mess up our plans for chemo. In the midst of that mess, we learned that Bradys white blood cell count is incredibly low. A pretty minimal amount of effort concluded that his count was likely down because his body was fighting harder than usual. Which lined up pretty appropriately with fighting to stay covid-free. When the day of chemo came, and Brady had his chemo review appointment with his oncologist, they seemed to think everything was totally fine, and onward we went! We only got covid results halfway through the chemo cycle, but regardless, they were negative! Wouldn’t have mattered anyway! Whew!!
I imagine, due to fighting illness and having a low white blood cell count, Brady was much more tired this particular time around. He was significantly less stable on his legs, and he wore out really fast when he would do his regular workouts. I would say it was his most challenging cycle of chemotherapy thus far, yet in the grand scheme, we are SO fortunate with how easily Brady tolerates the treatments. Thank you Lord, for keeping this huge challenge more gentle than we could have ever imagined.
I have to catch myself. I am SO eager for it to be over, and I don’t want to wish time away. But goodness. Guys, there are only THREE treatments left! As soon as we rounded the halfway point, I started to feel gleeful. While I don’t want to pretend I’m unhappy when I’m actually happy, I want to keep calm and to be able to roll with the punches. The punches being roadblocks, like Brady’s white blood cell count getting lower and needing to delay chemo. I need to be ready for those things. But I am still hopeful 💜
February is a BIG month. If you think of us and want to know how to carry us in prayer, please pray for this upcoming month. Most of our kids are still home, and they’ll likely go back just in time for February break – a whole week off. That will be an upside-down time, I assume. Also, this month holds our anniversary. Rowan’s birthday. Another chemo cycle. And the icing on the cake – the anniversary of Brady’s surgery. My whole body shivers with dread even as I type about it here. What a life altering time. And its SO soon.
So. Many. Deep. Breaths.
Thank you God for bringing us through chemo cycle #9, and every day before and since then 💜 We trust you, Lord.
It was around the time Dekker first came down with covid that I learned Joann’s Fabric ships to Canada. I tried for a solid six hours not to go on that website, but lo and behold, I gave in and was not mad about it. The prices were totally comparable, if not better. There was a blanket 20% off sale, plus free shipping if you ordered over a certain amount. So I was pretty stoked, and I started just daydreaming, and putting yarn in my cart. Just to see. I looked through everything they had for yarn, and I put in just about everything I wanted. Not like everything everything, but things I was excited about! Things I had never seen before. Things that were amazing prices. Things I could not find for the life of me locally. The cart was right around the right dollar value for free shipping when I realized I hadn’t added the coupon code yet. So I did that, and it brought the cost down, but the free shipping still remained. I wasn’t about to turn that down.
In all the back and forthing and hemming and hawing, the coupon added twice. Which never works. But it DID!!!
So, I present to you my beautiful yarn haul 😍
Shall we begin?
First we have these. They’re called “Feels Like Butta” and they absolutely do! They are crazy soft. I saw them at Michaels ONCE and have never seen them since. I have baby dreams still floating around my head, and I have some delicious goals with these. I bought four of each color – pink, blue, and grey.
Now this line of yarn is SO COOL! Its a fairly basic worsted weight yarn, but the colors are meant to mimic skin tones! Isn’t that cool? Really wonderful for people who make dolls or amigurumi figures. I, however, bought them because I think this carmelly color would go super nicely alongside the red/black/buffalo plaid. I bought four.
This yarn is called Big Twist, and they are also CRAZY soft! I ordered four of each of these colors. I only received one of the pink ones. Two are still shipping and one was cancelled. Don’t ask me why. But I received four of the second color and I like it WAY more, which I never would’ve expected.
This one doesn’t look like anything too special. Red Heart is a very cheap, basic brand that is everywhere. However, I have been on a hunt for peach yarn that is not baby yarn. Baby yarn tends to be VERY fine, and I like good beefy yarn. This yarn fit the bill! I ordered four (surprise) and they sent three, with one still in the mail. Again, don’t ask me why.
This yarn I was positively pining for, but it was sold out all over Saskatoon. Its called spice market and the colors are just unreal. The pictures don’t do it justice. I wish I could buy twenty of these and make a stack of beautiful things for next Christmas. But I did not. Can you guess how many I ordered?
Four. The answer was four.
And then I got these, lol!
Lol! So this I was just excited about because its a LOT of yarn in one skein. I really love the color of these that I chose. They’re really soft. In this case, I only bought two, because they’re huge.
Believe it or not, I practiced great restraint while making this order. By then end of it, I will have 33 balls of yarn, and my entire order came to $140. No excuses left. Time to make some beautiful things and put some up for sale!
So you may have noticed Cher teasing me over Facebook, saying I should blog about my leg hair. So. Here you have it!
I have waxed my legs since I was about 18. I have always been bad at shaving. While so many of my friends could quickly shave in the shower, I would have to set in a bath for a solid half hour and I would still come out bleeding. Yes, even with good razors. I was just SO bad at it! While I’m an adult and could probably do a much better job now, I chose to wax, and I vastly preferred it!
So I’ve been doing that consistently since I was 20, so thats 13 years. There have been long spells where I’ve neglected my legs, but my waxing girl just laughs with me and she cleans me up all nice. Zero shame in it, thank goodness.
I neglected everything over covid, as I think many people did. But I caught up. And then this last year, I think I waxed my legs twice?? Like hardly. When I think of it like that, I sound like a total monster. But I’m realizing how I can so easily forget!
Get ready.
I last waxed my legs in October. OCTOBER!
Yes. Its LONG. I know. But look how little there is!!!!
This picture is sharpened so you can really see whats there, but guys, thats all there is!!! Its way less coarse. Its lighter. And its WAY sparser.
I think my 13 years of waxing have finally started to pay off, and I have fewer hair follicles to deal with. Absolutely worth it!
Maybe some day, normalcy will restore and I’ll actually be in the city once in a while, and I can get back to going in more regularly, to even do my pits!! Because those suckers are just as neglected as my legs but they do not look quite so sparse 😬
Well. There you have it. My bare hairy legs. You’re welcome.
Rowan and Brady had PCR tests last Tuesday and we FINALLY got the results yesterday evening! Goodness! I think Brady must’ve checked his ehealth account every hour or two, but while we were eating supper, Dr. Guselle texted to confirm all that we had been believing to be true.
Rowan is covid positive.
Brady has remained covid negative!!!
This helps me feel SO much more content about Brady having gone forward with his chemo round without having answers. And it clarified what we already believed about Rowan.
This does mean, however, that we are under lockdown even longer :/ Ugh. All the boys are allowed back at school before the week is out, but Laela – being the one school aged kid who didn’t get sick – has to stay homethe longest, as she’s been exposed the entire time. Really, it feels like she’s being punished for staying healthy 😆 I know its for her health and wellness, but my goodness its been SUCH a long stretch! Lucky for us, she is one who is happy to do work from home. So that helps. But she for sure won’t be back to school before February.
They’re making the most of their time together, though, so I really can’t complain. They play hard while Brady does his thing…
And I do mine.
Happy Monday, friends. I hope your week is starting strong and that you feel capable! And also that you didn’t dump your coffee down your shirt this morning like I did. *le sigh*
It seemed like a simple enough day. I enjoyed how peaceful it was and how well the kids did. Brady enjoyed being productive in the garage. The kids played outside for a bit and seemed to play well inside as well. They colored and kept busy.
I crocheted and wrapped up part of an order that I was really excited about.
We did a little reminiscing, as we’ve been trying to make space on the laptop to help it run better. It was nice to see summer and remember how good it was.
Goodness I cannot wait for nicer weather.
We ate breakfast for supper, which we’ve really been enjoying recently. Bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns. Boring for some but our kids LOVE it, as do Brady and I. Though. We did suffer a great loss.
*sigh* My favorite whisk. Tis a sad day. But supper still tasted good.
Aaaaand then the day when down the crapper. It was a serious doozy of an evening. NOT our best, or even close. Truly one of the worst. I haven’t felt this shaky on my feet in a good while, and I’m glad the kids are down for the day now and I can rest my heart, brain, and body.
It doesn’t hurt that our friends brought us some (a lot) of their birthday cake to wash the day down.
If hard days could always equal cake, I might be slightly less rattled when they come along. I don’t care to relive this evening, but I do care to relive this cake. And I still can! Its not over.
Tomorrow, some normalcy will reappear around here. I’ll talk more about it tomorrow 💜
I’ve talked a lot about how we’ve been feeling, and how I’m tearing my hair out, waiting for ANY answers. But I figure you’re all probably ready to hear about the kids! There isn’t a ton to report, but I’ve got a little.
Now that Dekker is feeling better, he’s back at his usual stuff. Today he made a whole brochure about remote control cars. If you ever want to know, just ask him. He is bursting with information.
Laela was at the island a lot today, being artistic and crafty. I am the very proud of recipient of her gifts today. She is both incredibly artsy and also incredibly soft and warm and loving.
“She is always the princess” caught me in the heart. Oof.
Rowan has been incredibly low key these days. Doing lots of reading on the couch. Occasionally humouring Laela and playing downstairs with her. Today he even went outside for a little bitty bit! He’s definitely still himself!
Solomon is also quite low key these days. He’s been playing lego like crazy, which has been really awesome for him! But I don’t have a whole bunch to report there, either. He’s been relaxed.
Aaaaand Wavy. Her top priority is FASHION! Hahahahaha!! She’s terribly cute, and is always changing outfits and accessories. She is such a ham, and a very real source of entertainment around here.
We’re honestly having a really nice time being together 💜But I think all of us will welcome the structure of school when the time comes.
Dekker can go back on Monday. Solly on Tuesday. The rest remain home until further notice. Which will hopefully be very, very soon!
