Last week I showed you the popsicle blanket I made, and you were all SO supportive and warm about it! Thank you for being encouragers 💜 I previously had a pretty big complex about being the person who always brought the lame gift, because homemade wasn’t as good. I’ve worked to overcome that the last couple of years, and I have, greatly thanks to many of you. So. Thank you. I owe many of you a lot of credit and thanks.

Todays post is to show you yet another project that I finished up this last week! Its not for anyone. Just inventory, I suppose. Did I mention I was invited to join a weekly marketplace coming up later this spring? Cool, hey?? So I need to keep some skills practiced and seasoned!

Ta-da!

I was feeling like making another plaid blanket, so I did some plaid searching and settled on three purples and some neon coral in there. As I was working it up, I admit, I was NOT confident with the colors. Yet somehow, it turned out, in my opinion, quite beautiful! I am very happy with it.

I made the twisty tassels again! You may or may not remember, but I tried a new method of fringe in January with the pink/blue plaid blanket I made, and I really liked it. Its another step, for sure, but I can confidently say I like it WAY more than basic fringe!

I received my first commissioned order for a family tartan just this week, and I am VERY excited to get that project in front of me! I already had a lot of fun rebuilding the plaid in a way I could that worked for crochet, which took time and figuring but was SO rewarding in the end. Stay tuned for that soon 😘

In the meantime, if you want a plaid throw blanket, I’m your girl! 💜 Hopefully a real website will show up in the next couple of months where you can order your custom items from yours truly! What would you want to see on there?

Brady had another outpatient rehab appointment today. Maybe about 10 minutes before we had to leave, the weather picked up and the wind starting whipping! It went from cold but sunny to miserable and brutal out. That is what we left the house in. Visibility was LOW all down the Dalmeny highway, and it was far from ideal on the 16 as well, but once we were in the city, everything was clearer, and we got to Brady’s appointment with time to spare!

These appointments have slowly spaced out, and its seeming they may soon come to an end. But Brady continues to progress and work hard to improve everything the best he possibly can. But as is natural, it seems like we might be reaching the peak of Brady’s mobility. Not to say miracles can’t happen, because they can! And nerves can continue to heal! But at this point, Brady needs to continue to work on beefing up his hip muscles, and maintain all the rest. And what he has at that point will be what he has to work with 🙂 And thats ok. He is SO fortunate to have all the movement he has! It just seems like we may have reached our natural stopping point. Soon, anyway. The appointment was left open ended, and we will rebook in the coming months when we feel its necessary. Probably once before we start hitting up the lake! I cannot wait for lake season 💜

Please stay safe and warm, friends, with the blowing and snow and the ice it will inevitably create as the sun goes down.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a kid to get up from naps, kids to receive from school, a telemiracle video to leaf through to find our spot for those of you who missed it and have asked 😉 and a really fun evening of Bridesmaids and chinese food to look forward to!!

I’m pretty enamoured with Laela these days. She has a beautiful blend of characteristics. She is so sweet and caring and responsible, while being completely bonkers and nonsensical. I really love spending time with her.

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I worried about her a bit over this last year. As she watched me struggle, she became determined to shoulder the load that is simply not hers to carry. I do not want her to grow up any faster than she absolutely has to, and she was so convinced she needed to. We’ve finally struck a balance, she and I, and I really like it. She takes on more jobs than she used to, even at the moments where she’d rather not. On weekends, if she can tell I’m overwhelmed, she’ll approach me quietly and make a supper suggestion that she can do almost all on her own. Sandwiches for lunch, or macaroni for supper. Something like that. If I say I have a different plan, or something along those lines, she will always offer to help. She also will happily read to her younger siblings, so thats a big help! And she does laundry now! Woot!

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In this time, she and I have grown so much closer, and I am SO grateful for it. Out of her deep desire to solve EVERY problem, she has released some of the control and rather, she just pours love. And that is awesome. She is protective of me, thats for sure, but I too am protective of her 💜 We’ve started to write notes back and forth. She has been leaving me little notes since Brady went to the hospital. I keep them up around my room. I love them. But recently, she wrote me a note that said “please write back” on it. So I did. And I am LOVING this relationship! Oof!

I hope we can always have this closeness.

Laela had the pleasure of going on a date with her dad the other day, and while they were out together, she convinced Brady I needed some new scissors for crocheting. Because she needed to think outside of herself. All on her own.

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I am so proud of my Laela Hazel. Its been beautiful to watch her grow and mature over the last year, specifically. I can see strong traits from both sides of the family in her beautiful face. I can see her brain ticking in new ways at school and in life. When she and I are alone, she’ll come forward with her more personal questions and thoughts, and I am truly honoured to be her go-to. I have eagerly awaited this part of our relationship. Soon, she will be an adult, and my part of her upbringing will be done. She already has her husband selected, of course, so she’ll likely not need me quite as much 😏 Hopefully still some, though. I know I’m supposed to dread her growing up, but I really don’t.

Laela girl, you are a treasure. One of the most generous, selfless little girls I’ve ever known.

To know you is to love you 💜 I think all of your close people would agree.

With the weather being SO back and forth between blizzards and blazing sun, it seems we’ve mixed up our smallest crew member. And the result is VERY cute.

Todays outfit includes a tank top watermelon dress, fleece lined Christmas leggings, a hoodie, and bare feet.

This girl has quite a style in general, and she LOVES to change her outfit multiple times a day. I know many others have kids who do that, but she is our first. She has recently discovered a basket of headbands that lives in her closet, so she has aaaaall the options to accessorize, hahaha! On any given day, she’ll have a pullover sweater over a dress, thick winter socks, sunglasses, and whatever else she can get her hands on.

She brings a lot of laughter these days 💜 I’m very grateful for her free spirit.

Every once in a while, you get what I call a pic dump here on the blog. It tends to be just a handful of things that didn’t really warrant their own post, but are still cute, and still things I’d like to share! Unfortunately I don’t have recent pictures of ALL the kids to share in this one, but I have most of them. I promise I love them all equally!

So we begin.

First off, I’ll show you Brady after he vacuumed his hair before coming into the house after he was working on the lathe. Ya. I’m not kidding. He took a shop vac to his hair. He looks a little insane, but also, look at how that bright grey tuft of hair in the front has all become ONE CURL! Cool hey?!

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He’s been sprouting greys for a good few years now, but that grey streak only showed up when his back and legs started to act up. Crazy what a tumour can do! (Feels important to note that I accidentally typed the word “humour” instead of tumour.”)

Miss Laela and I have grown SO CLOSE over the last year. She has always been nurturing and warm, and just itches to help and work and be responsible for things. I regularly pray over her that she can remain young for as long as possible, because she is just desperate to be grown up 💜 My dear Laela. If I ever seem at all distressed or tired, she will come intentionally to lay a hand or face on me, and reassure me.

She is really really soft.

My kids were really fortunate to get to spend quality time with their grandmas this weekend!

They spent a whole day across the street. Grandma Rae took this pic of Wavy helping plant her starters 💜 There was some good bonding to be had over that bowl of dirt.

And then Sunday, we had the pleasure of having my mom over ALL day!! Stories and cards were out all the live long day!

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Today, Laela has taken the time to make name signs for every single bedroom door in our house, and then she put up a sign in our dining room. She said she just picked a verse from the bible at random to add to the sign. I think she did pretty well 💜

We all ate a big lunch, and now comes quiet time. Our cold is over, but my voice doesn’t feel 100% so I’m getting a cup of tea and heading to my crocheting. I always want to love tea. Its so pretty and smells so good, but I just cant get into it. I hope this doesn’t end my friendship with the Kennedys 😬 You guys good? I have to say, though, Costco got in Cold 911 from Davids Tea, and it really hits the spot for me. My kids have coined the name “sickness tea.” Lol!

Stay well, friends. The school week starts again tomorrow, but its absolutely beautiful out today!! Soak it up!

Thank you so much, friends, for celebrating Telemiracle with us this year! I know some of you saw our story played out on the air a couple of different times, and many of you tuned in for our quick little live visit. It was really, really fun for us, as a family, to be part of it!

For those who missed it and asked for a recording, we don’t have one! Hahaha! Sorryyyyy! When the final video is posted, we’ll look for our timestamp and share it with you 🙂

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We are so proud to say that Kinsmen Telemiracle pulled in over 8 MILLION DOLLARS!!!!!

This is the BIGGEST total they’ve ever seen, and we are SO happy for them, and ALL of the people they will help in this coming year. If not for these donations, we would not have all that we have. The Batec is an incredible thing, but Kinsmen also funded Brady’s wheelchair! We needed that, and would not have it without the generous donors that put into the charity.

So thank you, friends and family, who followed along, prayed, supported, or donated. We are so fortunate to be connected to so many beautiful people 💜

The kids weren’t around these parts today, so Brady and I had the place to ourselves! We could see the kids hard at work…

So we did the same!

First, coffee. Then work.

Brady was out in the garage almost all day. He is putting together an inventory of items, so his work was a bit repetitive, though gratifying. In the afternoon, we discovered he needed a different item to continue his work, so he drove to Martensville to locate the material, plus a couple burgers to make for a quick lunch and back to work!

By the time he got home, we were both feeling like the clock was already ticking, so I grabbed one burger and left him in the garage to eat it while he worked. Meanwhile I went back upstairs to my crocheting haven. You guys really left me feeling confident and encouraged after yesterday’s post about the blankets. Thank you 💜 It means a lot to me to have so many of you in my corner.

Cher came and joined our quiet house for the afternoon and evening in order to get some schoolwork done.

All three of us worked in our respective locations and got lots done 💜 All three of us felt pretty productive, I think!

Grilled cheese sandwiches and clam chowder have filled my belly up to the brim. What a lovely way to wrap up the evening! I hope your supper was equally as delicious as mine!

Lastly, if you’re at all interested, its Telemiracle weekend!! I admit that I don’t have real tv and have NO clue how or where to watch it, but you can tune in right to the Telemiracle website and watch the livestream 🙂 We’ll be on LIVE tomorrow, early afternoon! Yikes yikes yikes. Who doesn’t want to go on live tv with five children during naptime??

Enjoy your Saturday, friends. We sure did.

I haven’t talked crocheting in a while. Here’s why. I got this AWESOME order for baskets a while back, and the longer it takes for me to get them out, the more embarrassed I’ve felt. They’ve been crocheted for a while already, but I’ve been working to acquire some little extras, like leather tags, rivets, etc. We’ve tried a few things that have failed, and its taken some time to get our ducks in a row. Meanwhile, a couple baskets were different from my usual, so they took extra figuring and need some additional reinforcement. So there’s been some waiting on that homefront, too, to figure out the best options and what will finally work. The official FINAL missing piece of these things will be walking through our door this evening, and ALL baskets will be ready for either delivery or mail by tomorrow! Thank you to those who have paid in advance!! 💜 That REALLY helped me get things going!

With ALL of that going on, I have still been working on other projects, and I’d love to show you, finally! 

First, I made this baby blanket for a friend of ours! 

They had a baby boy recently, and I’d been itching to try out this honeycomb type of design for a while now. It gave me a good excuse to go buy this beautiful dusty blue yarn that I’ve had my eye on, as well! Its not your traditional baby blue. Its called “ice blue” and I really, really like it. I think the blanket turned out really well! Just waiting to actually drop it off, which takes a lot longer when a baby is involved and our household has a cold. Sigh. 

Second of all, I want to show you what I’m MOST excited about!!! Eek! 

I present…

I started this blanket earlier in the year, and its been on hold as Michaels sold out of the yarn I needed and it just wasn’t getting restocked!! Ack! This pattern ate up more yarn than I anticipated, so I was ill prepared, and I got really nervous I was going to be stuck pulling it out and making the whole thing narrower, or just somehow having to jimmy rig it back into a blanket that was a reasonable size. But thank goodness, Michaels came to the rescue, with the same dye lot of yarn and everything! 

This blanket was unavoidable when I saw that beautiful creamsicle coloured yarn! I made the pattern up, and I actually hope to write it out and officially produce it as my first ever original pattern! I feel really excited about this 🙂 I hope you can be excited with me!

Did any of you finish any cool projects this week? Care to share with the class?

A lesser known fact about Dekker is that he absolutely cannot sit still. I don’t even mean that he’s always hyper or rowdy, but in general, he just has ants in his pants. When given the opportunity at school, he always opted for a standing desk. He can hardly sit at the table without gradually moving into a squat on his chair. He just wiggles and wiggles.

Back in winter, I took some pictures to document it. It is the most prominent when he reads. Its like he can’t find a comfy spot. I assure you NONE of these poses were coached by me. He is either unaware of me taking his picture, or I walked in on him in these positions.

Some are much more common than others, but things like sitting upside down on the chair was not a one time thing. He just does it. I don’t know why, but I am not mad at it in the slightest. I think he’s adorable.

Its not for show or for attention. If I poke fun at him, he’ll definitely smirk and giggle back, but he immediately dips back to his book and is instantly lost back in dreamland, completely oblivious to the world around him.

I love that he is such a reader. Never saw it coming.

So. Random mixed bag today, friends.

First, a couple of you asked for the chicken spaghetti recipe! The actual link that I started with is here, but I’ve changed it. Here is how I make it.

I fry up hunks of chicken breasts. Fewer than you’d think you need. I use four.

I mix up one can of cream of chicken coup, one can cream of mushroom soup, and two big cans of tomatoes in a bowl with a giant blob (about a cup-ish) of sour cream. You don’t NEED the sour cream, but its better with it. If you don’t have it, I’d eliminate one tin of tomatoes, because its too watery without the cream.

Boil up a bunch of noodle. Yes, a bunch. A handful? Half a bag? I don’t know what to tell you. A normal amount that you would normally make. What I can tell you is, for some reason, this is better with long noodles, and weird with things like rotini or shells. Its not just my opinion. Its the facts. Go spaghetti or vermicelli. Something like that.

Mix it all together and put in a GREASED pan. Foil wrap it and bake it for about 45 on 350. When its bubbly, lose the foil, add cheese, and let ‘er melt. And you’re done!

I always try to serve it in pieces and its always comes out sloppy and messy, but it tastes great. You’re welcome.

Thing two!

I thought this was pretty cute. Solly hadn’t been to school in a while and brought home some Piggy and Gerald books for everyone to read. They are pretty young books but the kids LOVE them. Brady does a great Piggy and Gerald.

Solly also came home with this.

The spelling of his name is just SO cute. He’s terribly sweet, this boy. He and his penguin both have giant eyes, hahaha!

Last thing is a Facebook memory I couldn’t resist sharing 🙂

Little baby Rowan 💜

I would say that Rowan looks the least like his baby pictures of all of the kids, but his little features are just SO beautiful, and SO himself. His lips! His little nose! And ALL that hair!! I love his little old man wrinkles too. Goodness. He was SUCH a sweet little baby 💜

I hope you enjoyed this SUPER low stress, light on the information post! Have a great rest of your day, friends!