We’re going to do this weekend a little differently, because we CAN! I imagine we’ll know pretty quickly if its a easy enough setup or if its extra overwhelming without Brady home. So far so good! Most of the work is done already, so once food is organized and the van is packed, we’re ready! Of course we have to wait for Brady to actually finish work, lol! The nerve of that guy to have a job 😏 I tease, of course. But I miss him being home.
As we come into July, there is a lot to do and a lot to look forward to. Long weekends at the lake. Visits from family and friends. Birthdays. Dekker’s week at camp. So far, there are four appointments on the calendar for July, and there is still supposed to be an MRI in there.
So. July is filling. But I’m not mad about it 💜 Its going to be a beautiful summer.
I’m really excited to get to the lake a day earlier and to stay a day longer!
I’m feeling a little shaky today, to be honest. Which really makes no sense. Our morning has been slow paced. I didn’t have to rush anyone to do anything. Everyone ate breakfast. Rowan did dishes. Dekker took our the recycling. Laundry is humming, and I have one of the big dreaded loads of linens folded, with another one in the dryer, and another in the washer. I’ve already packed my bag for the coming lake trip. I’ve made a list of food we need to bring, and another list of things I still have to sort out. Kids laundry is caught up, and there is a plan in place for loading up tomorrow. Lists are listed. We have music going. Upstairs kids are playing lego. Downstairs kids are planing dress-up. Its been productive and fun and free of much struggle 🙂
But yikes. I feel on the verge of tears, haha! I know I’m just letting down from the rush of school and the schedule and the routine. I’m truly happy to be free of it for at least a little while. But my body and brain disagree today, and want me to pout and not accomplish my goals. Don’t worry. I’ll win. My strength is bigger than my body.
Ok. Blogging has been a nice break 🙂 And also something I can cross off my list of things to do now! Onto the next! 😅
That’s a wrap, folks!! The 2021/2022 school year has gone, and summer has come! The kids are visibly relieved, except for Laela, who can never get enough school! Even she is looking forward to some downtime, though 💜 It was a really nice pickup!
We missed Brady, but this worked 💜
For a quick rundown of ages…
Dekker will be entering grade six this coming year. His last year of elementary. Laela is moving to grade four. Rowan to grade two. Solly to grade one. And Wavy to preschool.
Almost everyone got the teacher they were hoping for, too! If your kids are my kids’ age, let me know which classes they’re in!!
After a very warm pickup of the kids, with lots of hugs and some laughs with some teachers, and lots of sweat and only a few tears, we are HOME! Now begins the chaos of backpacks and school supplies and aaaaall of that cleanup! So if you come into my house and my island is stacked to the ceiling with paper and markers, look away. Don’t pretend yours isn’t just as full 😘
Happy summer, friends!! ☀️ Sleep in where you can.
I would NEVER have thought I’d reach this milestone. When I began blogging, NEVER would I have said I’d still be blogging ten years later.I remember celebrating when I reached ten days!! That felt big! Somehow, today feels like slightly more of an accomplishment. Well, actually, maybe not more, I suppose, but definitely different.
I started the blog when Dekker was a baby. I enjoyed writing, and with a new baby, I had stopped journalling as often. I was also learning that I was not good at maintaining a baby book for him, but I still wanted record of our life, and all the cute little things. So the blog began as an outlet for me, where I could record things, keep in touch with people, and to start conversation, make friends and feel less lonely.
My single regret is that I didn’t begin the blog one year earlier. I missed Dekker’s first ten-ish months of life. It would be pretty cool if all the kids had a pregnancy series leading up to their birth, but it had to start somewhere!
Over ten years on the blog, we’ve had four of our five children, and four recorded losses.
We’ve celebrated 54 birthdays just within our family.
Ten anniversaries.
Brady and I moved from our twenties into our thirties.
We moved from Radisson to Furdale to Dalmeny to Saskatoon to Dalmeny.
We had our dream home built for us.
Hoping to do that again someday.
Brady consistently resided in the home building/contracting industry until just this last year. That was a very consistent thing in the last ten years on the blog.
We went from our little Mazda to a minivan to our passenger van.
Four of our kids entered the school system.
We played a LOT of music in church, and a LOT of music in coffee shops.
This blog saw a pandemic. It saw the schools close indefinitely. Stores shut down. Food and product shortage. Everyone wearing masks in public places. Limited people in households. Scary strange tides of change. Historical change.
We have gone through countless bouts of illness and appointments. Yeast rashes. Chronic pain. Hand foot mouth disease. Fevers and flues. Jaundice. Hair loss. Births. D&C. Covid. Twice. Strabismus. Eye surgery. Glasses and patches. Anxiety. PTSD. Counselling. Breath holding spells. Silent reflux. A broken collar bone. A concussion. Teeth pulled. Uterine surgery. Spinal surgery. Paraplegia. Pressure sores. Clonus. Cancer. Chemo. Radiation. Migraines. Pulmonary embolism. Nails pulled out of hands. Nerve damage. And more ultrasounds/xrays/CTs/MRIs/scans than one family knows what to do with.
Our ten years on record have been loaded with information, history, and memories. You have watched us grow and change from a floundering couple of kids with a baby, to a thriving settled family, back to floundering, and back to thriving.
I know there are those we have lost along the way. Sometimes a daily blog is a lot to keep up with. I totally understand that. But there is also the reality that not everybody likes us or who we’ve become. Thats always a hard pill to swallow – when you truly feel at your best. In SO many ways, our life is better than its ever been. Our family is at its strongest, because we have lost ALL of our own strength and have only relied on the Lord. And if those around us don’t like that, that is very sad, but we must move forward. We have suffered some loss, but our corner has never been more full of love, care, and support. We absolutely could not still be thriving the way we are without God’s constant care, and by His guidance, bringing our community of people together 💜
I won’t lie. I considered concluding the blog at this point. Especially with the recent malware issues, it felt like maybe things had run their course. But then what? We just stop recording our life? What about all the fun thats still to come? There were a lot of things privately in the works before Brady’s surgery, and none of them are off the books, but merely on pause. What if we want to share those things with you?? What about our future road trips? Our kids accomplishments? Our family goals? Our gatherings? Our businesses? There is SO much that I’m still excited about, and maybe I’m a little self absorbed (?), but I imagine at least some of you are also excited! So, for now, we keep on going 🙂 I can’t promise for how long. I can’t promise the blog will stay the same, and I also can’t promise it’ll change. But I am completely THRILLED to have hit TEN YEARS! Of all crazy milestones!!
We have come a LONG way.
Thank you, all, for witnessing our lives over the past ten years! I am incredibly grateful to have the outpouring of support and love from so many of you. The blog is vulnerable by design, yet I have no regrets. And that says a lot about YOU.
From my household to yours, thank you for coming along for the ride. The train is still chugging, and we look forward to seeing how many of you will hop in for another round 💜
Today closes off our last weekend at camp while the kids are still in school. The rush home to bathe everyone before bed so they’re clean for school will be over. We can embrace the kids smelling like campfire and bug spray, staying up later, and the ability to sleep in! At least for some of us 😆 Brady has a job now, so he has to be responsible still, hahahaha!
Our last day here this weekend has been a bit bumpier. Wavy got positively MAULED by mosquitos and her legs are swollen to no end. Rowan got sick overnight and wasn’t quite himself during the day. Everyone got a ton of sun and a ton of sugar. It was both exhausting and incredible.
We spent some good time with some great friends before abandoning our kids at their site and going back to our spot to pack up. We made quick work of it and are on our way home already 💜 A yummy, easy supper is on the books, and we should have time to unpack and bathe everyone who needs to go to school tomorrow. The others might wait. I don’t know yet. But we’re working on it.
It’s almost summer holidays, friends. I know that doesn’t change a lot for some of you, and it changes a lot for others. Whatever your scene, I hope you find a way to enjoy the days and weeks of summer! I know we will be 💜
This is our first ever celebration weekend at the lake! We didn’t know what that meant or what it entailed, but we’re here, and we’re in it!
The kids were up late last night after a movie at a friends camper, and then some cookies and hot chocolate afterwards. We enjoyed treats in their lovely heated outdoor dining shelter. So many treats and it was only the first night!
This morning, we all enjoyed a camp wide breakfast, and then the kids took off to their respective activities.
Our lovely friends signed everyone up for some fun stuff, so they went off together, and we sipped coffee at our fire.
And by fire, I meant our smoke signal.
Lol! Everything is wet. I tried.
As the afternoon approached, we gathered for lunch, and then booked it back to our site in a violent, abrupt, albeit short, hail storm! Wavy was concerned.
As we all wait out the weather, it seems far fetched that the rest of the days activities will play out as originally planned. But we have a warm camper, yummy snacks, music, books, and flashlights when the power flickers. What more could we need??
Yesssss! My favorite kind of road trip day! 😍 it’s grey and rainy and lovely. It sounds beautiful. Everyone is content. We have a van load of children staring out the windows. We have fresh coffee. We have some music going, but not loud enough that we can’t hear the rain past it!
After a full day of counselling, packing, and grocery shopping, I am ready to sit for two hours, sip coffee, and watch the clouds burst.
I know it seems small, but I LOVE my kids dots. Birth marks. Beauty marks. Freckles. Whatever you want to call them. I love them, and they know it. They’re always very eager to show me new ones their discover on their bodies. Half the time the “new dot” ends up being dirt, food, or a scab, but once in a while, its actually a dot! They are always SO excited, and we document it like the weirdos that we are.
Just the other day, I found TWO new dots on Laela’s face, and they are SO pretty!!
She loves them, too, thankfully!
See the little dot right at her tear duct? That was from the time she walked directly into a tree branch and started bleeding out of her face moments before we had our family pictures taken, lol! This tiny face has already been through a few things, poor girl, hahaha!
Anyway. The moral of the story. Dots are awesome. I love them! And I love her 💜
Its official. The school supplies are starting to make their way home. Yesterday, Solly brought home the first haul of things. Crayons, scissors, glue sticks, and markers.
I don’t know about everyone else, but out of all the options, I always preferred markers. ALWAYS. Somehow, our collection of markers has grown pretty significantly, and we almost never throw any away. I couldn’t help but think we had a mountain of dried up markers living in the bottom of the marker box, which was overflowing into the drawer. Now that four kids are going to bring home their used up markers, I thought it was an appropriate time to go through them and pitch the old ones.
But thats why we have children.
So I actually thought it was an appropriate time for them to go through them.
Them, to be specific.
These little turkeys tested SO MANY MARKERS for me this morning.
And then threw away less than ten. I thanked them for their help and accepted the reality of having to check them again later. Which is fine. There could definitely be bigger problems.
Cher came over in the afternoon and grabbed the job right away. She found a handful more to throw away, but for the most part, the kids were right on point with their judgement calls!
I have NO IDEA how so many markers have survived so long!! I LOVED markers WAY more than pencil crayons or crayons. And my kids color often. So I have no idea whats going on. Maybe markers are the one thing in the world that hasn’t gone drastically down in quality recently…
I’ll leave you with Wavy’s assessment.
“Aunties favorite color!”
*sniff*
“…Ew.”
Good luck, friends, with the upcoming haul of half used school supplies!!
Its been a little while since Wavy and I had the pleasure of walking the big kids to school, but today was that day! It was a very cute walk 💜 There was lots of chatter, chasing, playing, and more hand holding than usual. I loved it.
We got to the school, and I figured we’d do a lap around the school so each kid could drop their backpack at their doors and then run to play. But every one of them opted to stick together until everything was dropped off. It was a really nice moment where I felt like a solid family unit. The first to break away turned out to be Solomon, who found one of his friends and eagerly ran off to go dig stuff up. Dekker was next, but he made a point to grab onto me for a hug and a kiss before he took off. Laela and Rowan were last. I got my hugs and kisses, and they took off, but Rowan was back at my side in seconds, walking me to the very edge of school property. It was very sweet. I loved it.
If you’re around here, you know there was mad rain yesterday in Saskatoon, and a ton of homes and businesses were flooded. Dalmeny got next to no rain, but the sky is dark and foreboding. Wavy still asked to go sit by the pond for a little while. She told me she was still happy if she got cold. So we did that.
We took our time getting home. Why rush? We arrived home to our warm cozy house, clicked on music, got some coffee going, and puzzled together. This girl could puzzle absolutely ALL day, and I’m much the same.
Its been a very peaceful morning 💜 but I sure miss having Brady home.
