This doesn’t look great, but you’re going to have to take my word for it – this was incredibly delicious. You need to try it with your leftovers from the weekend.
I saw this on Facebook the other day. Thats where it started.
It suggested putting stuffing in your waffle maker, and then drizzling it with gravy instead of syrup. I was VERY intrigued. Brady was equally as interested in this, as was Cher. She lovingly brought over some of their leftover potatoes and corn. She even whipped up some quick stovetop stuffing. I mixed up a pack or two of brown gravy. Brady started up the waffle maker. It took a few extra minutes, and we had to turn it up hotter than usual, but it came together!
The idea had grown past a stuffing waffle to a whole meal! Sooooo I got the idea in my head that it could be like a waffle sundae, the potatoes acting as the ice cream. And it just kind of spiralled.
Once the ice cream *cough cough* was scooped, we added the “sprinkles,” if you will.
The gravy was the hot fudge, because it melted the whole dang thing.
But friends, this did NOT disappoint. Not. For. A. Second. The stuffing was crispy and flavourful, and the perfect addition to the rest of the soft, hot, comfort food on the plate.
This will absolutely be a reoccurring meal. I may just have to start keeping some stovetop stuffing in my pantry so we can do this anytime we feel so inclined. Goodness. Guys. You need to try this, and tell me what you think.
I posted about our friendaversary a little while ago, when Cher and I went to see the Anne of Green Gables ballet. It was a really good celebration 💜 Not only because the event was awesome and a fun first for both of us, but because the five years of being friends has also been really really wonderful.
I don’t know many friends who have survived as many bumps in the road as we have, and come through it better than ever. By the grace of God, we have been protected, and we are stronger and closer friends than we’ve ever been. Cher is my sister 💜 There is no denying that. Anyone who knows either of us knows this.
There is continued effort pouring into positive changes, individually and together. Our friendship is a committed familial unconditionally loving relationship, and while there is a LOT of work that goes into it, that is where our depth comes from. Praise the Lord for likeminded, equally yoked people finding one another and sticking together!
Happy Friendaversary, sweet girl! My beautiful best friend! I love you and I like you 💜 Thank you for joining our family the way you have. It was good to have breakfast all together this morning 💜
So many breakfasts, whipped coffees, snugs, walks, chats, crafternoons, bees, raspberries, and years to come 😘😘😘
After my moaning and groaning on the blog yesterday, Brady and I decided to make an attempt to get the desk out of our room. As I said yesterday, Brady isn’t exactly capable of heaving a solid wood desk down our stairs anymore. But I figured *shrug* maybe I could? Not on my own, obviously. But rather than him doing all the heavy lifting and me more so spotting and balancing for him, we traded spots.
And guys. We GOT it!!!!! We took the drawers out, and evvvvver so slowly walked it down our three flights of stairs into our spare room. And then, of course, the thing wouldn’t fit through the door, so we had to take the desktop and the door off. Ah well. We’ll know that for next time, haha! Dekker was eager to help where he could.
We worked SO hard yesterday, and were completely bushed, so we ended the day with a HUGE treat for our family – a movie night!!
Our kids have virtually no screen time. Please don’t get me wrong, it is NOT some bug official stance against tv! Not at all! We just cut it out for a time and everyone did better than we thought, so we never really reopened that door! I carry ZERO judgement for families who watch more tv than we do!
That being said, Brady made several batches of popcorn and we hacked up some apples, and everyone sat happily and watched Encanto. Our beautiful kids were probably most excited that Brady and I were there, since we weren’t there the first they watched it this summer with grandma and auntie. Every time something funny would happen, they would look at us for our reactions. Wavy would chuckle and say “You LOVE that.”
After a HUGE day yesterday, you’d think we’d rest today. But you would be wrong. In fact, we figured that if we could move a solid wood desk down three flights of stairs, we could probably move a couple dressers around, just up and down one flight of stairs.
And we were right! We gave the girls our purple dresser that is solid and cute and a little bit narrower than their previous dresser…
And we took their bigger Ikea dresser up to our room!
In this case, everybody won!
You can see we do still have another purple dresser up there. Hopefully not for long! We have to clean it out, but if someone is in the market for a nice sturdy wooden long dresser (six drawers) painted purple and grey, you know who to call!
Nothing is perfect yet. Everything is still pretty messy. But things are getting so beautifully organized, and I am feeling the weight lift off of my body and brain and we get things to their better suited homes.
I think I’ve done all I can do for the moment! I will give myself a little rest and then it’s time to keep going! I hope the bulk of the list of craziness is wiped off before snow flies, but at least for now – for our first weekend all home from the lake – we have been productive and feeling good!
I’d like to end todays post by giving our kids a HUGE attaboy! They played lego and built forts ALL MORNING with virtually NO fighting or need to intervene. They did incredibly well while Brady and I were bustling around, working hard and not taking too many moments of pause. These kids are absolute rockstars!
There is a LOT of work to do around this place. You know those huge daunting tasks that just stare at you and intimidate you? We have a GOOD handful of them right now. Part of that is because of our gigantic life changes that make certain jobs just a LOT harder or take a LOT longer. Part of it is that we were incredibly busy this summer and gone for most of it. Now that we’re back, its glaringly obvious that certain things need doing, and sooner than later.
One of the big ones thats been bothering me more than any other is our bedroom. Its just a dumping ground. For everything. There is SO much clutter. Once upon a time, I had a desk up here. I LOVE the desk, but it doesn’t fit up here anymore. Not well, anyway. The desk is large, and solid wood, so it is very heavy. It needs to travel down three half flights of stairs to the basement spare room. You may have noticed, but Brady is no longer able to heave a giant desk down three flights of stairs. Add onto that the fact that all of our stairs have double railings now. Sooooo thats a giant job. One we haven’t figured out yet. But everything is changing in here soon, and its time to find a way. So, at least today, I did my part!
Bear with me. Its still a mess. But it’ll all make sense in a few days.
I got the desk entirely cleaned off and emptied. I moved the brown shelf out of its way so that it will exit our room as seamlessly as humanly possible. I’m not sure if the brown shelf will stay in our room or not. But thats an easy one to move on my own. Also solid wood, but a lot less bulky. The shelf isn’t my enemy. The desk is.
In order for the desk to move, the spare room needed to make more sense. The double bed would not allow for the desk. So, for the time being, we moved in a single bed. The double bed was SO old, and needed to go anyway. So the desk will fit in here, as will a single guest. Not ideal forever, as we’d love to be able to host more people overnight, but in the hypothetical “someday” house, the desk will live elsewhere and the guest room will have a bigger bed again 🙂
For now, this will do.
Still have to cut that topper down but its on its way! Cleaned out, ready for a desk! And a good vacuuming…
There is still SO much to do. Its far from over. But its a start, and that counts. Right now, it feels like moving messes. But it won’t always feel that way, because it won’t always BE that way!
While I am so unbelievably grateful for our weekends at the lake that flowed into October!!! I am also SO grateful to be home now, getting things done and catching back up in our regular life stuff here at home 💜
This sounds like my disappointment is decked out in some cute way, but it’s not.
Todays blog won’t exactly thrill anyone’s soul, but its on my mind, so I’m putting it on here.
Our beautiful campground had the amazing idea of setting up something of a drive-thru Christmas light tour. Us as the lease holders would have the opportunity to decorate and light our sites, and then the roads would be cleared, and people could come drive through and enjoy the beauty and excitement of Christmas out in the bush. We were SO excited about this possibility, as were some of our friends who also have spots.
Unfortunately, the campground had this beautiful idea WAY too late in the season. They sent out an email to their people and gave them about a week to respond, indicating whether or not they’d be interested. I don’t know about everyone else, but their emails always go to my spam folder. I cannot teach gmail that I WANT those emails in my inbox! Anyway. Maybe thats just me. So we contacted a few more of our friends from camp, and none of them had seen the email or knew anything about it.
Unsurprisingly, the camp emailed back out and said there was not enough interest :/ Maybe next year.
This was only in our minds since last weekend, to be fair, but man. Our crew would have LOVED that. The kids said so many times towards the end of lake season how much they want to see our spot in winter. How they desired to see it all snowy and whited out. How maaaaaybe the maintenance manager could clear the roads, just for us?? Lol! And this would’ve been SUCH an opportunity! We would’ve timed it out with our Dahlsjos, so we would come decorate at the same time. Have winter fires and hot drinks. Get excited and festive together. And then actually get to see everyone’s site all lit and beautiful, because you know we’d have made that trip. But its all off. Before it started, I know. Still. I’m so disappointed.
c/o Dekker
I really hope this goes forward next year 💜 Winter is hard for me. Having the opportunity to be back at camp twice in the season would be such bright lights to look forward to.
Facebook memories showed me this little number today.
Brady including Dekker in some vehicle maintenance. It seems small, but it isn’t.
How I ached to be part of that stuff as a kid. I only wished I could’ve learned these skills when I was young, but such is life. My children will learn those things. Happily.
If Brady hadn’t opened his heart up to them and these things at that point, there is no way they’d be so capable and accomplished in these skills at their ages.
In this case, specifically Dekker.
If Brady was not willing to have Dekker alongside him while he worked for those years when Dekker was young and very likely more in the way than actually helpful, Dekker would not have the willing work ethic that he has now, or the wealth of knowledge and understanding that he carries with him. Small house repairs or building jobs. Oil changes. Furnace filters. Winter tire changeovers. There isn’t much that Brady has not opened the door for the kids to join him and learn about.
I am incredibly grateful for those years, because things have very obviously changed in our life and our home, and our children have the know-how to actually help, and to pick up the baton when needed. No job is too big for a couple of kids. No job is gender-specific, either. Work is hard and thats ok.
Sometimes I realize that a few cute pictures have been missed for one reason or another that I would prefer were on the blog! So, behold a shorty photo dump!
We’ll start with Wavy dressing herself, and choosing this little chambray dress and belt as “cozy clothes,” which those of us with boobs are hips know they are not. But she is terribly cute so I let it go.
Another cute thing was my best friend silently photographing herself on my phone and waiting for me to bring it up. Here you have it, Cher. I found it, and I’m telling everyone.
Monday was Dekker’s vaccination day! (Don’t get at me about shots, I’m not having that fight on here, sorry!) I had signed consent forms and then never once saw what the actual date was. Clearly others did, so I just missed it, but I became aware of the date of vaccines when Dekker came home from school with bandaids. Whoops! He teased me and forgave me for not prepping him. Said he didn’t cry and wasn’t afraid. So thats good. Way to be SUPER brave, Dekker!
Rowan made himself and Solly mailboxes. And by “mailboxes” I mean “male boxes.” As opposed to female boxes. The 14 year old in me is giggling…
Wavy dressed herself for preschool yesterday. She has quite a style, that one, and I’m going to ride it out with her. I really enjoy seeing what she comes up with every day.
Cher gifted Dekker a new drawing book with more intricate lessons on how to draw bigger things. He tabbed the pages he was excited about right away, and came to show me. I told him I was excited to see what he drew and that he should get started, he scoffed at me and took off, saying he had to label it all first. Classic Dekker.
Lastly, Laela finished building one of her birthday lego sets, and she LOVES it. I’m so glad she’s into it 🙂 Its a full forest house type of thing, and she had a lot of fun putting all the little details together. She’s a happy lady.
I think thats all I have for you today! I have parent teacher interviews today and tomorrow after school, and work to do in the daytime. Some cleaning in the house. Bathing Waverly. Organizing. And some intentional rest 🙂 Its going to be a good day 💜 Better than yesterday, even.
You may remember that I was invited to join a farmers market this last summer. I prepared SO MUCH for it, but then when the time came, Brady got his job 💜 I have no ill will about that. I LOVE Brady’s job SO much. But with that, there was absolutely no way I could do the farmers market. It would have been WAY too much. I would have absolutely always needed childcare. I would’ve needed to borrow a vehicle every single week. It would not have worked. So I let it go. I was embarrassed to back out the way I did SO close to the date. I felt awful. There were people who were working to donate products for me to sell in order to help me earn more money. People were backing me left right and centre, and I bailed on everyone. I felt so sick about it, and didn’t talk about it.
Now, in my quest to make my house more liveable and less cluttered, I had to address the elephant in the room, which is a HUGE pile of crocheted products I made for the farmers market that lived in my room. They were heaped on a desk that I really need to get out of our room anyway, and if I ever want that thing gone, I need to get it cleaned off. So I did.
This is just some of the stock I put together.
Its not a great picture. Bear with me here.
I have roughly:
30 plant hangers 20 towel hangers (with the wood rings) 50 ish bunting flags in 8 different colors 50 face scrubbies 10 cloths 12 pot holders 15 dish scrubbies Multiple market bags, baskets, blankets, scrunchies, etc.
There are a variety of different plant hangers. The towel hangers are a more modern take on the dish towels with the crocheted top. Both are awesome, but there are a bit more versatile. The bunting flags are like banners. Some are connected, and many are not, for the sake of mixing and matching. The face scrubbies, like almost everything else here, are 100% cotton and do SUCH a good job! The cloths are awesome. I had WAY more but I sold some and used some more for our house and our camper. With cute colors like I used, they were perfect for the summer. Pot holders are luxurious and thick, using two strands at once, and then double thick even after that. They are really really nice! The dish scrubbies are SO effective, and are a lot cuter than those green and yellow scouring pads.
I worked SO hard leading up to this, and I will admit, it was a tough pill to swallow when I let it all go. But It was a time, and I had some awesome drive. I still do 💜 I hope I get a chance to do a different market another day, but for now, these are all lovingly packed away in storage, therefore allowing me to free up some space in my room and hopefully make sense of the furniture in there someday soon.
Laela celebrated her birthday this past weekend at the lake, which was literally all she wanted! 💜
It was such a beautiful fall day! The weather probably couldn’t have been more beautiful. It was the perfect day to be loved on even a little extra!
We ate cinnamon buns, and then drove to Bells Beach in the golf cart, just for fun.
We came back in time to meet my mom, who joined us for a very beautiful morning around the fire 💜 Laela opened her presents in the morning, as per her request. She was gifted three lego sets, a coloring book, a drawing book, and a clipboard to draw on! Plus candy, because, candy. Because, birthday.
Laela’s main request was for a pizza supper! So we did some calling, found out the pizza place in Christopher Lake was in fact still OPEN!! So we ordered some of the best pizza any of us had ever eaten from Papa Gs. I kid you not, guys. It was SO good.
Aaaaand then Grandma make cupcakes, which was a HUGE weight off my shoulders and made Laela SO happy 💜
You may notice the suspicious “sprinkles” on Dekker’s cupcake. Its gravel. Rocks. Not giant skor chips as they may appear. He dropped his straight down on the ground, lol! He got another one, don’t worry. We unceremoniously torched the other one.
It was a true treasure to be able to be intentional about pouring into Laela and making her feel like a rockstar. Our friend at the lake who pretends to hate everyone but secretly likes us even chased us down at once point and gifted Laela a card and $10. She felt SO important.
Because she is 💜
Laela told me that she felt SO special, having her birthday at the lake. The idea really landed, and I think she had her favorite birthday to date.
Its a pleasure to celebrate you, sweet Laela. All day, every day, all the time 💜
Thats it, folks. Our beautiful oasis at Kinasao is packed up for the season. While I welcome the simplification of having one less place to pack and prepare for every weekend, I will deeply miss our regular getaways to the lake to sit around a fire, swim, see our friends, eat easy food, and maintain no deadlines whatsoever. Kinasao campground is such a gift from the Lord, and I find myself thanking Him for it literally every single day. And you’d think the kids would forget, but they don’t. At least they didn’t last year. We constantly discussed when we’d be back 💜 I have to say, though, we had a beautiful last weekend.
First, I’ll show you the last sunset we enjoyed. Last night. It was gorgeous. The weather and the view simply couldn’t have been better.
Today was a day of working our butts off. After our final smorning, of course. Once we had eaten our body weight in cookies and marshmallows, we visited way too long before getting to our work. That meant stripping beds, packing up all the stuff that had gathered over the summer – outdoor toys, books, pantry food, etc etc etc. We emptied out the fridge and put away all the mattresses. We swept and put in the bump out. We took the golf cart batteries out to charge them over winter. Though we are less than hopeful they’ll see another summer. But we’ll sure try!! We cleaned off the deck, and chopped a massive amount of wood to age in our bin over winter. Brady flushed out the lines, dealt with all the inside stuff I don’t know about, and braced the deck. We did a TON.
As time allowed, I took some sneaks around the campground and down to the water. I love the fall colors so much. It felt so extra special to be at Kinasao at such a beautiful time. I LOVE the trees.I lo
I love the path down to the lake.
I love the water. I love the water SO much.
We expected to see our dear friends, the Dahlsjos, this Sunday, when they came for their last load and wipe down. We were SO happy that half of the family joined us a day early, and we spent all day Saturday together! But today, the rest of the group showed up, and we all enjoyed each others company! There were treats to be had, lots to talk about and plan for, and LOTS of hugs and “I love yous.” This is our first group selfie where we had everyone, and I have to say, it turned out beautifully.
We will DEEPLY miss our people 💜 They are some of the best people we know, and we are already anticipating trying to find windows of time where we can share air and be together 💜 We sure love you, Dahlsjos!
This is my happy place. My home away from home. Sometimes, my home feels like my home away from home, if you can follow that. Kinasao feels like home. I’m so grateful to already have such a special place already so soon in my life. We only dreamed of such a setup, maybe in retirement, maybe someday.
As we pulled out of the grounds, the kids bellowed “Byyyyye Kinasao!” and that was it 💜
Until next time, Kinasao 💜 Thank you for the most beautiful summer.
