Today we celebrate SIX years with our littlest guy, Solomon. Solly. Sol. Wolly. Smalls. Smally. Tally. You name it, he comes.

This kid was absolutely gorgeous from the get-go!

And he has remained that way 💜 His last year has been particularly lovely, as he has grown and changed so much. Yet his undeniable happiness has not changed in the slightest.

Solly has been in kindergarten this year, and he has really enjoyed it! He loves his friends and his teacher, and he is VERY proud of writing his own name. My favorite thing he’s brought home to date is this journal entry!

I’ll save you a minute. The thing he loves most about Spring is “eating vegetables at camp.” I thought this was terribly cute!

Some days are trickier than others, but Sol is more and more inclined to run ahead with his siblings, get involved in the game, or participate in pictures. I think kindergarten has been GREAT for that!

These types of things were like pulling teeth not all that long ago, so this feels victorious for us, and for Solomon.

Speaking of teeth, he has lost his two bottom ones 🙂 The second one having just happened last weekend at camp, while eating a s’more!

When they came up with Captain Obvious, they had Solly in mind. He makes all his observations loudly, and had no concept of wit or sarcasm. Its actually quite a riot talking to him. You should all try it sometime.

Solly loves biking, George Ezras song “Shotgun,” and fleece onesies.

Wavy and I walked the kids to school this morning.

As we walked past the houses, the kids friends shouted greetings at them, and Solly replied to everyone “HEYITSMYBIRTHDAYTODAY!” So its safe to say he is into it!

Solly’s supper of choice is waffles. So waffles we will have!

Solomon Brady, you are a true delight to be around. I am SO grateful God gave you to us those six years ago. What an incredible birth you had 💜 I’m looking forward to SO MANY MORE years with you, Sol!

I love you and I like you!!

A few changes have been made recently that feel like failures, and they feel important to share with you guys. 

One of the changes has been my commitment to the farmers market. I was so thrilled to be invited and included, and also to have some income this summer. However, when Brady took his new job, it became clear that the market was going to be harder to organize and actually get to. So I decided to back out. Which was sad but also the right choice, I believe. One less thing on our plate. That being said, I have a good stock of cloths, towel hangers, plant hangers, etc for anyone who is interested. Custom crocheting is still at my fingertips as I’m working on completing a custom tartan. Almost done! 

Another loss over here has been the car show this coming weekend. Another thing I’m very disappointed about letting go of. It had been a couple of years since we had played for the show, and we were excited about it! Unfortunately, a few key details weren’t organized in time, which left a LOT more work and pressure on our band in the last week than we were prepared to take on. So sadly, we bowed out. They do have another band, so no one has been left hanging. It felt bad. But it also felt like things were just left way too late. It’s a whole thing. We did the right thing, but it was hard, and I’ll admit I’m afraid we burned a bridge. 

It’s hard to let people down. It feels awful. Especially when we are functioning better over here and we want to be able to take absolutely everything in stride. We want to be able to do everything. And we can’t. 

Anyways. That’s all I have for today. To those who were planning to come visit us the Hepburn farmers market, or come listen to us at the car show, now you know. 

*falls over, exhausted*

On our way home, I feel more tired than I have in a while. This weekend was very reminiscent of our first weekend at the lake with the kids last season and the season before. That first weekend historically is just HARD. This summer, our first weekend with the kids was glorious, but this weekend was not quite so glorious. Absolutely every single child struggled HARD with numerous things, and took it out on everyone else. It was incredibly challenging, and we spent the first evening hidden in the camper, everyone in bed early, no campfire or festivities or friends. Just 🙌 bedtime. 

Thankfully there were lots of good moments, and lots of breaks as the kids ran between our site and that of our good friends just up the hill. They had a lot of fun, and Saturday turned out much smoother than Friday. I’ll admit, though, it was hard to not be on guard. I don’t want to be like that. 

Today we went down to the beach to throw rocks and take in a change of scenery. It was pretty cute 💜A nice breather. 

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We’re on the drive home now, and it’s a pretty quiet drive. Everyone is tired. The younger two have already napped. Here’s hoping they still sleep tonight! 🤞 Big kids will stay up for baths but then hit the sack in preparation for school tomorrow! 

I hope these weekends are experiences that the kids remember and hold dear as they grow up 💜

We came out to the lake despite the promise of almost constant rain. The forecast called for 60-70% chance of rain every hour of every day. It’s now supper time on Saturday and we’ve had one SLIGHT moment of a few odd raindrops, and that was IT. There had better be some rain overnight because I LOVE the rain sounds in the camper!! 

Without the rain, Brady has put up the eavestroughs and sealed it off. We’ve hauled and chopped more wood and kept a fire going most of the day. Kids have played games and did crafts with their friends, some of us have crocheted, and we’ve drank a good amount of coffee. A couple of kids got some bumps and bruises, but they also got ice cream sandwiches so 🤷‍♀️ you might say it was worth it. 

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Breakfast for supper going on the camp chef tonight! 

Brady here!

As you may have read in the past, we’ve had an interesting year or two. And we’ve been very fortunate in the way that we haven’t had to worry about money whilst paraplegercizing (that’s a word now, just fyi). But our current setup is not a long term solution.

So I went and got myself a job.

I started on Wednesday as a contractor salesman at Zak’s Home Hardware in Warman! So come one, come all if you have and lumber or hardware store needs.

But don’t actually because I’m very new and I don’t know where anything is. Also, I’m not on the sales floor so I won’t be the one to help you. Unless you need a deck or garage package… I could sell you one of those.

As Solomon would say…

Anyway!

I’ve spent two days working this week and so far I have loved it! My brain hurts at the end of each day and keeping up with stretching my legs and back every hour is a task in itself, but the job is awesome!

I have been added to a team of people estimating and selling material packages for decks, garages, sheds, homes, and probably a lot more that I haven’t been clued into yet. I am given the architect’s drawings for a project and I make a list of all the materials needed for said project, price them out, and hopefully sell and fulfill the order.

So far I’ve been given a few practice estimates to learn the given software, but I was also fortunate enough to be able to estimate a small deck and a fence for a real customer yesterday! It was very exciting to potentially sell some lumber! 🙂

I’m working out of a temporary workspace right now but plans are in the works to renovate a sales desk to accommodate my needs and abilities from my wheelchair. The company and my managers seem incredibly generous and eager to help make things work for me.

Hailey and I have also been nervous about my energy levels being back to work for full 9 hour days. I mean, I have been pretty much just sittin’ on my butt for over a year now. 😬 So, my manager said for the time being I can start with three days per week. Tuesday through Thursday. And when I’m feeling comfortable with it, I can move up to full time.

We could not have asked for a better situation. A career with lots of potential and room to move up, positive work environment, accommodations for my disability, a place to apply my knowledge of the construction industry, and a wage that will cover our life.

God has truly been working and preparing this entire situation. And we are so thankful!

Thank you to all of you who have been thinking and praying for us and our future.

God opened this door and I am rolling through it!

I SO appreciated everyone’s warmth and support on yesterday’s post when we shared that Brady had taken a job 💜 It is SO cool to know how many of you are in our corner! Brady has promised me that he will write a post in the next day or two updating you on how his first two days of work, so I’m not going to get too deep into that, but I will say it is a great success. I am SO proud of my husband!

The days haven’t been too terribly crazy. Yesterday was low key, with puzzles and trampolines, and lunch with Cher while we watched the trial on YouTube. Today was much of the same, except Solly was at school. Wavy puzzles SO GOOD on her own, its crazy to watch!

This afternoon, we were graced by our loving neighbour/grandma Rae, filling our front planters with flowers. She is a sight to behold! Just ask Wavy!

Just as Brady got in the door from work, we all hauled out to the school for the family appreciation barbecue! This is the first one since covid showed up, so it was REALLY nice to be back and see all the teachers and kids in one big space 💜 It warmed my heart.

They also did a book swap, so we found some duplicates of books in our bookshelf and brought them to the school to swap out for new books. With SO many left at the end, we were told to feel free to find more, so we did, and came home with about 15 new books. Leave it to Dekker to snag a dictionary, lol!

I will admit, I felt quite haggard on the walk home. It has been a big week in a lot of ways, and in other ways, not at ALL. Only two days of work, and only three days of school so far. But goodness. I swear my brain has aged 200 years this week.

Is it bedtime yet? Probably have to wait at least until Dekker is down…

This is not clickbait! We are making some big changes around here and they began this morning.

Last week, Brady accepted a job offer. He is now a contractor salesman at Zak’s Home Hardware in Warman.

I believe it is safe to say we are both more excited than we are nervous. This feels more like a step back into normalcy than a step away from where we’ve been. We have LOVED our time together, but the financial setup we have been experiencing is not sustainable.

We are continuing to research and reach out to where we can still receive some financial backing, as it is our understanding that all disability payments will drop off in the next few months. We will not be at a full, life sustaining wage for a while, though the company understands where we stand and does believe that Brady will eventually reach the financial goal we’re aiming for. Knowing it can and will come helped us a lot in making our decision.

Those are just little details. For now, he just settles in. And he was SO happy to go in this morning 💜

This job is a clear gift from God. It will provide our family with structure, routine, and a guaranteed income. It will continue to raise our credit, and even make it more possible to buy/build another home someday. We will finally appear lower-risk to lenders. Brady will feel productive and accomplished, and I will feel more secure in my role here at home.

There are tricky parts. We’ll need to sell Brady’s work van and find a different second vehicle for Brady to commute in. Ideally something that doesn’t require him to dismantle his chair down every single day, but something that is still good on gas. And affordable, as its a 2K bill to have hand controls installed. Thankfully this is less of a must until winter starts rolling in.

None of this is perfect, but it is clearly God’s plan, and if we know anything at all, we know we don’t always get to know the plan. And thats ok. We have faith that God is at work!

Please, if you’re the praying kind, carry us with you 💜 We have a lot to navigate in these coming weeks and months. We’re anticipating great things!

As I mentioned in the previous posts, it was a very full weekend! Lots of fun, lots of memory making, lots of working, lots of visiting, and lots of photos to prove it 💜

So forgive the lack of organization on this post. There is no rhyme or reason. I also didn’t ask ahead of time about out friends kids being on the blog, so no unfamiliar faces in this one! You’ll have to take my word for it that our campsite was often filled to the brim with people we love 💜 It was AMAZING. Last year, we usually had our two chairs set up. This year, we had six adult chairs up at all times, as well as four kids chairs, and someone was still always sitting on a stump or the golf cart nearby. I loved that so much.

The drive up is always well loved by all. Its such a tradition now that rarely do the kids feel antsy or impatient. This time around, we opted to treat them to supper on the road so they could just arrive at run! It was worth it 🙂 They were SO happy. Definitely won’t be able to hit a restaurant every time, but I will ALWAYS try to arrange supper that we can eat in the van!

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Fires are an immediate part of camp. The first move was to scoop out the ashes from the last weekend, but then we started a fire. It just feels more like home.

You might remember that Laela became quite the tagalong to my bathroom visits last year once I told her that girls pee together. Its really the cutest thing 😍

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A very big part of this weekend was getting our deck roof completed. We did a little bit of work each day and it came together very smoothly.

Dekker has grown up a TON in the last year and was eager to actually be helpful and push himself in new ways. Isn’t he incredible??

Rowan couldn’t be left out, of course.

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We brought the Batec out this time to see how well it would do in the camp setting. Its ok. Its not perfect. Its not great on hills, of which there are a lot. The golf cart is still vastly more versatile and makes more sense. But the Batec makes going for an actual walk as a family more possible. It was really nice, honestly.

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Did I mention Cher was with us? She came on all the walks, picnics, dock viewing parties, etc. She is always a delight to have along with us 💜

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We had one iffy moment where we misplaced a few kids, so Brady and I took a rip around to find them. It was a quick fix, and everyone was easily accounted for. Dekker chased us home. We won.

On the very last day, we got the final roof panels up, and the deck roof is officially all shaded! Next time, we will put up an eavestrough, and then that should be IT! Isn’t it SO pretty?? It looks like home. Because it is.

Going home is hard.

But we will absolutely be back! We have some BIG things in the works this week, so I’ll fill you in more about that tomorrow 🙂 For now, we’re just going to get through week and prep for the next time we’re out at Kinasao!

💜

I have to say, this was possibly the best May long weekend we’ve ever had. The kids only had a blast, and no one struggled to fall asleep or to acclimate, as crazy as that sounds. They just settled in to their environment, and thrived. Not a lot beats camp, that’s for sure.
We played, and worked, and ate, and chatted. We walked and rolled and explored and wandered. We felt SO relaxed but were also so productive!
Yesterday wrapped up on the beach with our friends, marvelling at the view of our beautiful lake, completely ready for the season ahead.

Thank you Lord for creating beautiful things.
Until we meet again, Kinasao 😘

It has been just such a wonderful weekend 💜and it continues to be. Our site has been bustling consistently with people we dearly love. There has been some fun and excitement in the way of using out new camp chef grill for the first time, the docks being put out on the water, and a cold, windy picnic by the lake. We’ve had good treats, scraped knees, and lots of sun. I could not have asked for more fun! 

We still have one day here before the week of reality begins again. Tomorrow holds music, more good food, hopefully a bit more work on projects around the site, and soaking up more hours with our friends 💜 

We are SO fortunate to have this second home.