We not-to-delicately visited Brady at work yesterday. Zak’s had a cute fall setup just outside their building with a bale maze, a sand pit, and a big inflatable bouncy house with a slide. I keep forgetting about this setup and finally, its the end of the line and if we wanted to go, it needed to happen now. So I picked the kids up after school and we headed off to Brady’s work!

Bradys work is really beautiful. They love when the families come in. They love the kids. They treat their people really well. Brady knew we were coming so he was totally comfortable clocking out for fifteen to come play with us! After he wrapped up that one email, anyway 😆

Believe it or not, I did pep talk the kids before we went in, and they did good, but it was also like herding cats. Everyone was super lovely, though, chatting with us and making everyone feel welcome 💜

We finally made our way over to the fun, and the kids got right into it! They were wilder than I’ve seen in a good while, but they had the place to themselves so we just let them at it! It was really, really nice to see Brady mid-day, also 💜 I think I say to him every day that I really miss having him at home, but I am SO happy he loves his job so much. There probably couldn’t be a better fit for our family.

When we were done jumping/running/racing/digging/yelling, I made them take a picture. I promise they had fun, hahaha! They were exhausted and sweaty. It was awesome.

We had a LOT of fun! Once we finished outside, the kids discovered the structure inside, so they did that for a few minutes while I perused the housewares. Then we ran into an employee who we’ve met once or twice, and we chatted for probably ten minutes or so until an actual paying customer needed help, lol! At that point, Brady only had about ten minutes left of work, so we waited in the van a little longer for him. Aaaaand then we got McDonalds, which was a HUGE treat for ALL of us. Its nice to not cook sometimes, haha!

Our run to Zak’s was a great success. The kids got picked up from school. They got out of homework. They got to play. We all got to see Brady sooner than usual. We got to chat with new people. We got to play and jump and run somewhere new. We got to eat treat food, and no one had to cook. And we still got home with time to play.

I am so grateful 💜

As you guys know, we bought a minivan recently for Brady to use as a commuter to work. However, he can’t drive it yet, because *ding ding ding* it doesn’t have hand controls in it yet.

Immediately upon buying the van, Brady began the application process to Kinsmen to request funding for a second set of hand controls. He filled in the form, “plead our case” so to speak, got the two quotes required, as well as the recommendation letter from an OT, and got it all in by the required date! Kinsmen assesses their applications once a month, so the deadline is solid. And we met it! Heyooo!

A short time later, a Kinsmen rep called to speak to Brady about the application. He asked if we could simply move the hand controls to the minivan from the bus. Brady said ideally no, as the bus is the vehicle that actually fits the whole family, and it will be our main vehicle. The rep agreed that it made sense that Brady should be able to drive his work vehicle and his family vehicle. He confirmed that we weren’t asking for a vehicle, just the controls, and Brady agreed. It all looked good.

When the day came, we were actually denied funding :/ This was a pretty big bummer because it was a misunderstanding. While the rep told Brady he really went to bat for us, and gave all the correct information, the therapist who wrote the recommendation letter made an error and stated that I would now be the sole driver of the bus, which isn’t correct. The rep refuted this on our behalf, but because it was written word, they took it as truth, and they said to just move the controls from one vehicle to the next.

We were advised we could appeal, but that it would only be reconsidered at the next months meeting. And as it gets colder, the pressure is on to get Brady into the right, safest vehicle. Plus, when we got hand controls on the bus, it took weeks. So we decided not to appeal and just pay out of pocket. We do have the funds, thank the Lord, but we are being very careful financially as we navigate the new job that doesn’t quite cover things just yet. Our savings are important, but this is a very important thing, and I’m incredibly grateful we have the resources to make it happen!

Brady put the call in to Golden Mobility as soon as we were denied, and lo and behold, they have a set of hand controls for our bus in stock. They will be installed next week!!! Brady is SO excited to be able to take his vehicle to work and have the setup we’ve been waiting for 🙂

Praise God for always taking care of our needs and never leaving us without 💜

This is Solly’s first year in full time school! Kindergarten was every other day, which was good, but had its challenges. Solomon is always and bright, but he doesn’t always want to be. He’s content, and not always the most driven little guy there is. Yet he is an absolute delight to be around!

Yesterday was the first day I really saw him sound a word out when reading. Without hints or prompting, he sounded out the word “cat.” I know this may seem small, but its a big deal for us, and I celebrated like crazy. And he felt sooooo good about it! It was AWESOME!

Solly is an epic doddler, and he doesn’t like to be rushed, but every morning he comes upstairs fully dressed, with his backpack and all his loose hangers in hand. Don’t ask me why. I really only ask the kids for their hangers on a day where I’m doing laundry. Which isn’t every day. But hey, its a cute thing he thinks of and does to help!

He’s also starting to do more dishes. Again, he is old enough to do some of that stuff, but he’s snuck under the radar but having three older siblings. However, Waverly wants to do dishes, too, and its really shed light on how capable Solly must be, haha! So one of the big kids will volunteer to work as a team with Solly each day, and Wavy always wants to help Laela. We have a good system, and Solly is a willing part of it!

Solly is getting braver in his language, saying things like “I understand why” and “I can explain that.” His “did you know” is “have you known?” Its so much funnier, lol! He also says bizarre things like “welcome tooooo making supper.” He still makes his observations. They’re just fancier, hahaha!

Don’t get me wrong. He’s not all the way grown up. He still does weird things. Like running into the wall and blaming the wall for “hitting” him. Or like wearing his jeans backwards.

Don’t worry, I definitely helped him after I snapped a picture! 💜 I’m not a monster!

At the (literal) end of the day, Solly is the softest, gentlest, most content little thing to tuck into bed. He is always happy to be put down for bed, and he snuggles up with his little blankie that he named Gary, lol, and his blanket that I made him last Christmas. Yes, he sleeps with that thing every single day. No more duvets for him! He squishes down all cozy into his space, with one arm out, and calls “Give me my mommy!” until I come to his side. Its really, really nice.

Its sweet to be loved by Solly, and its sweet to love him, too. I LOVE loving you, Solomon. I’m really enjoying watching you grow! I am SO proud of you! 💜

As I sit in my living room, listening to the Encanto soundtrack with Waverly, I’m reminded of Laela’s depiction of the characters that she drew the other day, and I thought I’d share them!

In no particular order, here you have them! First is Abuela and Maribel’s mom, with her healing bread. Abuela is Wavy’s favorite character.

Then we have the dad who is deeply allergic to bees, and Maribel. I love the commentary Laela added, lol!

Then we have Maribel’s sisters. My absolutely favorite is Luisa with her big muscles and even bigger feelings.

Then we have some more secondary characters, some of whose names have escaped Laela and also me. The shapeshifter. The storm girl. Antonio. And the guy who married storm girl.

Lastly, we have Casita, and Bruno! Our kids loved speculating how Brady would fare in Casita in his wheelchair, whether or not he’d even use it, would the floors bumping around really hurt his butt, etc. Never a dull moment over here!

Laela loves to draw, and I love to celebrate it. If you’ve seen this movie and take the time to really look, she did really, really well on the details 💜 I’m proud of her for being so attentive and artsy. Well done, sweet Laela!

I won’t lie. Brady’s birthday was a bit all over the place. In the end, I’d call it a success 💜

It began with Brady opening a card from Cher and a gift from me. I gave him gitch with pineapples on them. He giggled like a little boy while he put them on. Lol! He is easy to please. Then he had some coffee and went to work.

The first chunk of his workday was pretty rough. As in, a total bust. But everyone rallied and Cher, Wavy, and I got to visit him at work and bring him a treat and a snuggle 💜

After work, my mom came over with supper for the kids, and Brady and I left for a date night out! We don’t get too many date nights, as many couples don’t, so we really really appreciated the willingness of my mom and the opportunity to be out together!

We hit Montanas for some of our favorite food.

I won.

Post-supper, we went to Old Navy to buy Brady some new jeans. Jeans are not as easy to buy as they used to be. Its hard to know if they fit nicely or are “comfortable” when you can’t feel your butt. Yet the stakes are higher, because sitting in bad, ill-fitting pants for an extended period of time when, unable to feel that they’re not right, will result in pressure sores. And that is a scary thing, as small as it sounds. It isn’t. Thankfully, Old Navy had nice fitting, soft, stretchy jeans that worked really well for Brady! At one point, from inside the change room, he realized he hadn’t been locking his door. He remarked “Oh well. Worst case scenario, someone sees my pineapples.” And we laughed like the tools we are.

We drove the fancy neighbourhoods in the city like we used to, and picked up some ice cream 💜 It was a very chill date, which we really needed after such a struggle in the morning. Its not fair to give over the power to ruin his day so easily. So we didn’t. And we really enjoyed it.

I’ll admit that we were EXTRA tired at the end of the day. But it was a success to end up beside each other, content, in love, and continuing to grow and change together.

I hope your birthday was happy, my love 💜 I loved being with you, and I look forward to MANY more birthdays together. As many as we can possible get.

We wanted to be productive today, but also not to spend the day working ourselves into the ground. We struck a beautiful happy medium by having a fire in the backyard – something we haven’t done since January – and burned a whole schwack of cardboard.

This summer, we hauled stuff to and from the lake in the flat, open boxes from Costco. They were easier for the kids to carry stuff around in, so we had a LOT of them. We also recently received a few boxes out of Ikea (I still haven’t posted about that! Ack! Sorry, folks! I will so soon!) that needed to be disposed of. Believe it or not, our family produces a decent amount of garbage and recycling, so our bins don’t have a ton of extra room in them at the end of their two week cycle. It would take forever to get rid of this stuff through those pickups. So today was the day to get rid of it!!

Also, our back yard is incredibly neglected, and full of tumbleweeds, haha! Sooooo we burned a bunch of that too. I’m embarrassed of our backyard. Be nice. We had quite a mess on our hands.

Its not over, so there is no big glorious “after” picture. But it was still a very cute morning 💜

Dekker was the first out to join me while I got things started and organized. He ran around and found me some gloves, tools, and a fresh lighter.

Eventually everyone joined! Even Cher came for a little!

We worked/burned/played until shortly after noon, and then we packed up the backyard. There will still be some work to do back there – blowing out the lines, covering up the AC, etc – but it was a really nice morning 💜 I’m so glad we got things done that definitely needed doing, but wasn’t back breaking. Now, with all the boxes gone, it’ll be easier to get the garage tidied up for the winter! We need to get a vehicle in there soon, and its been left to its own devices for months. Lots to catch up on 💜

Enjoy your Sunday, friends! We don’t know how many snow-free weekends we have left!

We got everyone out of bed nice and late this morning. When they were up and dressed and ready, we headed to one of local centres for the fire departments annual pancake breakfast fundraiser!

Maybe you remember, and maybe not, but a few years back, we had to call the fire department when our CO detectors went off and would not stop screaming. It was scary, and they were SO good to us. We are incredibly grateful for our fire fighters!

Specifically, we really love Tom. You may have picked up on that over time. Tom is an incredible grandpa to our children, and also a father figure. On top of that, he is one of our local fire fighters!

Rae came and met us at the door when we arrived. She helped everyone get their food cut up. She refilled cups and poured syrup and fulfilled every need she found.

Aaaaand then she got the kids out to play in the fire trucks! Thats such a cool touch – to let the kids check out the vehicles! It was cold out, too, so the warmth of the trucks was well received.

You know breakfast has been a success when everyone is sticky and smiling. Even Brady’s push rims are covered in syrup. It was a yummy, loud, friendly, loving morning 💜

Wavy and Sparky forever 💜💜💜

Thank you for breakfast, Dalmeny Fire Rescue!

Brady. I made a dorky thing for you. You’re welcome.

This year, you have complete ALL of your cancer treatments.
You got covid.
I actually think you got it twice.
You got the long-awaited haircut.
You got a job you love.
You may be happier than I have ever seen you.
And that alone says a lot about who you are 💜

My heart is absolutely not at its strongest today, but it is STRONG for YOU, sweet man.

I could not love you more than I do today.

But I felt that yesterday, and I expect to be proven wrong tomorrow, when I love you even more.

Happy birthday, beautiful Brady. I love you.

Cher brought pumpkins over yesterday for a crafternoon we had booked into her tight school schedule. We LOVE our crafternoons, so if we want them, we have to be intentional about them! Thankfully, this one was able to go ahead as planned, and it even began a little early so Waverly could join in!

She was amped to get to use the tools and help hack into the “punkins.” It was fun and I think she felt pretty important.

She took it pretty seriously, haha!

Then the scooping began. She was NOT a fan of how slimy it was, but when she was offered a spoon, she got right into it!

She actually did a really good job, though auntie helped quite a bit behind the scenes 😉 When the dirty work was done, they cut out their shapes together, which once again, Wavy really liked to help with!

Aaaaand from the day of punkins came two decorations for our front step!! A super silly face, and a silhouette of Snoopy laying on top of a pumpkin, backlit by the moon!

We’re not an especially spooky group, if you hadn’t noticed 😆 Though I’m still hoping a Stranger Things pumpkin graces our steps this season, haha! Either way, this is a very cute setup, and the day itself was VERY cute!!! I am so grateful to have an auntie close to home to love on our kids 💜💜💜 Thank you, Cher, for making time for our family in the midst of your busiest season of life 💜 We love you!

Behold! A shorty post about how each of the kids are doing, with some unrelated fun facts thrown in!

Dekker (11) is doing great 💜 He still reads constantly, and is getting into longer books for older kids. I asked him the other day how his book was he told me, wide eyed “Its a murder book, mom.” So. Crime. Beyond his reading, he is a bit more grumbly than he used to be, but he’s finding his feet in some of the aspects of growing up as the oldest of a larger group. He really values his alone time, and his freedom to do more things independently or later in the evening than the other.

Dekker and Laela have become closer, recently. They go for walks together regularly. Just last night, Laela was behind in her dishes so she couldn’t go for a walk and she was sad. So while she got ready for bed, Dekker got into the kitchen and finished her dishes she they could go together 💜 I loved that.

Laela (9) is doing really well, too. She is coming into her own really beautifully, becoming a very strong little woman. She is struggling with her desire to control every activity and everyone around her, but after a very genuine heart to heart a week or so ago, she is working HARD to recognize what is her job and what is the job of an adult 💜 Her heart is to help, and to lead, and it is beautiful. We’re actively working to nurture the leader in her without her being rude or bossy. Its a big challenge for her, but when it goes smoothly, she’ll tell me how relieved she feels not to have to be responsible for xyz that went down. Unrelated fun fact – Laela almost never will wear a hoodie, but she loves a cozy flannel shirt. When its really really cold, she has a couple sweatshirts I can talk her into, but she has two cozy plaid flannel shirts and she wears them most days. I love her style.

Rowan (7) is doing really well these days 💜 There are absolutely still days of struggle, but they are much further between! Sometimes, this makes it easier to get discouraged because we are all less conditioned to them, and they seem HUGE. Rowan especially feels AWFUL when he has a breakdown. But we get through them quicker than we used to, and he is encouraged by that. He has regained some of our trust, and he has gained back a little bit of freedoms. Rowan loves to be loved by ways of physical affection. Closeness. Cuddling. Back and head scratches. Hugs and kisses. He loves to give love the same way, but also largely in acts of service. He will jump up faster than anyone to meet a need or offer his hand to help. In fact, he helped Dekker do dishes last night for the sake of the walk. Rowan didn’t get to join on the walk, but he still wanted to help 💜 He is a GREAT friend. Rowans heart is to care for people. It always has been, and in spite of his struggles, his heart remains the same!

Solly (6) is doing so well these days. School every day has been an adjustment for him. He is tired at the end of the day. But its really good! He goes to bed happy just about every single night. His understanding of the world around him is growing, and his language has expanded unbelievably. I’ll tell him something, and he’ll repeat it in a different way, and say “I understand why.” He is getting clearer and clearer, which is really fun to watch. Solly is a very content dude, and doesn’t always like to push himself, but he settles into change quite quickly and easily adapts. Oh and his hair is ALL him. He does not want a haircut. I’ve tried. I love the long hair, but he is a sweaty, sweaty boy. Aaaaall summer I offered him a haircut. Not having it. So shaggy he remains.

Wavy (4) is doing awesome. She LOVES playschool. She loves her friends. She loves the independence she gets having her thing away from the house. She is eating it up, and its a pleasure to witness these changes. Wavy plays lego every single day. She sings beautifully, knowing how to hit notes and picking up lots of lyrics. She is ALL the way in there. She runs fast. She does lots of jobs. She is a total package, and she is thriving this fall.

I am overwhelmingly proud of these children 💜 Thank you Lord for bringing them to our family.