Yesterday was a little scattered for a bit. The Access guy came in the morning, which was SO nice! However, the lines were all frozen solid to the ground, and when he did manage to get even a piece of one, they wouldn’t tone. He tried everything and discussed a lot with me. I remembered back when the fence was being dug, the guy accidentally ripped out all of our lines, including the Access line. If that line wasn’t replaced properly at the time, its going to be a pretty decent undertaking to get to it and repair it. And that has to wait for the ground to thaw :/ So thats disappointing, but c’est la vie. At least we still have some signal, and lots of phone data when the wifi just cannot manage. So we have lots of options, and I am very grateful for that!

Since Access came and went in the morning, I could get in touch with our eye doctors office aaaaaaand… make an appointment to pick up Dekker’s glasses! Because they finally came in last week, but we couldn’t get there! We were notified Thursday after closing that they were there, and then we were at the Dahlsjos on Friday and we were on the road before the eye place opened. So we needed to wait for Monday. Assuming Access had already come and gone. You get it. I’ll stop jabbering.

Aaaaanyway. They came! And Dekker is SO happy with them!

Dekker got exactly what he wanted! He wanted black and square like his last pair. The last pair he had chosen that broke, leaving him in the older pair of round ones, anyway. He wanted what he used to have. And he most definitely upgraded!

He looks so much older. I’m not ready.

It was complete chaos while picking them up. Never have I see that many people shopping for glasses at once in their small show room, and then I added myself and my five children who, while being quite well behaved, still did kid things like sitting on the floor, meandered where they didn’t need to, and touched every inch of every surface. *sigh* We were not subtle.

But they’re super cute so that helps!

So. All of my glasses kids have glasses now. Wavy isn’t far behind, we’re all quite sure. Rowan is still waiting on a contact to try. But the glasses leg of the journey is settled for the time being, thank the Lord.

Onto the next!

Guys. The BEST thing about today is the fact that it was light out this morning! Ack!!!

You know how I’ve been waiting for this!! We spent most of the week off sleeping, but now that we’re getting up for school again, I could really notice the difference. And I am SO thrilled! Its basically springtime now, right??

Why yes indeed, it is springtime! At least thats what we’re going to tell ourselves!

Kids are getting ready for school. Dishes are being done. Wavy is tucked into the couch, reading a new-to-us book about a little boy streaking around town. I have one kid skating today, and one skating and curling. So I need to remember that. And I don’t think anyone has Frozen practice today. Oh I wonder when they’ll announce who the crew is! And when skating is over for the season. I’m getting ahead of myself, hahaha!

The main goal of today is to write out the March calendar so I feel less upside down going into it! Also, NEW INTERNET!!! We are officially giving up on SaskTel today and jumping on the Access bandwagon! So I’m a sitting duck until he comes. If he comes during school, I may take the kids to Warman after school to pick up Dekker’s glasses! Assuming the van starts, unlike a few days ago when it bailed on us…

I’m not scattered, you’re scattered! 😆😩🙃

Happy Monday!

After a really fun, really full end of the week, we’ve spent the last couple of days tying up loose ends, doing some chores, and trying to rest up a little. Today, we opted to have a big oatmeal breakfast and spend some more times on a few jobs, all the while sipping coffee and keeping it low key.

We were gifted two giant boxes of books this week, so we spent the afternoon digging through our bookshelves, purging what we could, and adding in all the new fun stuff. SO much fun stuff! It was a large job but it was pretty awesome to get it done! Thank you, mom, for all your loving help!

Now that the dishes are done, and the littlest ones are down for the night…

…I’m running a bath! My body is pretty good and achy, and it needs to be strong!! I believe we have four appointments over the next two days 🙃 so my body needs to be up to snuff!

I hope you all sleep so peacefully tonight, as there just happens to be another Monday tomorrow!! Try as I might, those suckers just keep showing up. So bring it on, Monday! Do your worst!

Or, don’t, because I’m very tired and there is a lot to do…..

Bath time! 🛁

We had SO much fun at the Dahlsjos yesterday! Man. I LOVE that family just SO much. We didn’t manage a group shot this time, but you’ll have to take my word for it. The kids were SO happy to be back in the same space. They drove RC cars all over. They rode scooters through the house. Dragged each other around on big stuffed animals. They shot nerf guns. They talked and joked and pretended and played hard for hours. We ate delicious hot food and snacked all day long. Then the adults sipped coffee while the kids snowmobiled and skated, despite the frigid cold. We crocheted, and visited, and rested, and bundled/unbundled/rebundled the kids.

This isn’t everybody, but I assure you the gang was all there and all happy 💜

We dragged our butts out of there around 8pm. We had a drive ahead of us, but we wanted to see all of their beautiful yard lights first! Do you think we thought to take a picture? No, we did not. But they were just awesome, and worth the later departure!

The drive had its bouts of action and peace, but I’m surprised at how few of them slept! Wavy did, for sure, once we hit the highway. Solly nodded in and out for a bit, but when we stopped in Rosthern for gas, he woke up and stayed awake.

We made it home shortly before 10:30. It was absolutely freezing out. The kids rushed into the house with the bare minimum – jackets and full blown easter baskets, because the Dahlsjos always come bearing treats – and I got Brady’s wheelchair inside and assembled. Meanwhile, the kids were zombies, completely unaware of themselves. A few were wandering aimlessly. One was reading on the couch. One was sitting in their doorway, staring straight ahead. Not a soul was getting ready for bed. Dark eyes and quivering chins told the tale, and we got everyone moving quickly. No glamorous bedtime routine. Pees and beds. Dekker stumbled up the stairs in his gitch, bleary eyed, asking if we had to do bedtime stuff. I said no, straight to bed, and he said “Whew! Good!” and went back downstairs to bed. Everyone was done with the day. Guys 🙌 Same. It was AWESOME. And we were all TIRED.

This morning I have had the true pleasure of emptying our van of all kinds of beautiful things. Thankfully, I remembered to bring in all the delicious food the Dahlsjos sent home with us! Today I unloaded the bags of handmedown jackets and boots, as well as the two GIANT boxes of books they passed down to us! I think tomorrow will be a day of gutting bookshelves, putting series’ together, and organizing what goes where. Luckily, that is a crazy fun job! Even Dekker and Laela really enjoyed the sorting of it all last time, so I like to think there will some willing helpers!

Since unloading the van, however, I am absolutely frozen and cannot shake the cold from my body. So I’m hiding upstairs with a heating pad, writing this, and thinking a soak is in order. This season is just not my season hahaha! So funny how this break has been just so stinking cold, hey? Not must outside time during the week off! But if it warms up in time for school next week, I’ll take it!

Happy Saturday, friends. I hope you can stay inside today and be SO warm!! And if not, guess what. Its almost March. Which means almost almost April. Which means almost spring!!! ☀️😎

Today is the daaaaay!! We are overdue to go see our dear Dahlsjos, and since Rowan’s bday was just yesterday, it felt like an appropriate time to get the families together and catch up!! Plus, we got to see Jaxon right around his bday, so this is only fair 😉 

Its been a long time coming, so we’re loaded up with snacks and sleds and heading out for the day. It would be cool if it wasn’t so miserably cold outside, but very little is going to get in our way 💜 

Anyway. I’m clearly writing this is advance, so I’ll leave you with my favorite picture of our crew all together from summer, because it is the best.

As are the Dahlsjos.

Remember when we were tanned? *sigh* We’ll get there again. Someday.

Our dearest Rowan Toby turns EIGHT today! WOW! Eight years. I cannot believe he is already so OLD! I feel like time has picked up speed recently, and Rowan is suddenly halfway to adulthood. Which he is not at all, but he is one of the oldest kids in his class, so maybe thats part of it. He seems WAY too grown up to be in grade two. 

The last few months with Rowan have been an absolute treat. We have worked for literal years to try and help Rowan live easier. We went down avenues to check his physical health, get him some extra help at school, get him sleeping better, and being frustratingly patient with things we never thought we’d tolerate from one of our children. We worked HARD. HE worked HARD. And we stayed close, thank the Lord.

After speaking to our family doctor at length, as well as my counsellor also at length, we decided to finally start him on a medication in December. And guys. That kid changed. He didn’t become some zombie, free of emotions or thoughts. He became the exact kid we always knew he was, but seemed to have a wall around. It became clear, I kid you not, THAT DAY, that he was absolutely burnt out. At age seven. Probably way sooner. 

Rowan has ADHD! Even on just half of the medication dose a child his age/size would normally be on, he became so much lighter and more reasonable. He still has all the feelings, and gets frustrated, and sad, and overwhelmed, and every other feeling humans have. But now, he can think at the same time. He can comprehend what makes sense, and best of all, he can think about what he needs!! Sometimes its space. Sometimes its company. Sometimes its physical pressure or exercise. Touch is almost always part of it. Being held or scratched comforts or grounds him, it seems. 

Sometimes he is still very loud and yelly, but he will express himself so clearly that I can absolutely get past the volume and take the words for exactly what they’re worth! I LOVE communicating with Rowan! 

Since starting medication, Rowan has WAY more mental energy than before. He has a whole different capacity. Previously, we would see how warm and loving he could be, but it was hard to get past the fear of him exploding. Now, he is soft and warm and loving probably a confident 95% of the time. Its as though everyone can breathe out again. We all feel the relief, himself included, and everyone has embraced Rowan, not holding anything against him from the struggles of before. Its been incredibly obvious how much better he feels, and by default, we ALL feel. He has FUN now!

Very shortly after Rowan’s diagnosis, we found out about his poor vision in the one eye! Crazy!! And thank goodness our discoveries went in that order, because I imagine patching would’ve been SO much harder before his struggle was managed. Rowan rolled with those punches and patches, and continues to, so very smoothly. He feels so much better, and it is SO clear 💜 

Now that Rowan’s brain has so much more room, he loves so many more things! He reads out loud to Wavy and Solly.

He builds more elaborate lego. He sings along to the music. He plays rowdy without anyone getting hurt, and the rare time someone does, he apologizes immediately and tries to help. He helps in the kitchen, does dishes, takes out the garbage, and even tries to do jobs that are over and above his capability. It is so clear how much was within him that couldn’t come out before.

Rowan is taller and heavier than Laela. He likes to have a buzz cut and to wear sunglasses. He would wear a muscle shirt every single day. He lives for summertime. He loves his friends, the morning, and soft snuggly things. He is a VERY good friend, and my only kid who asks me every single day how I slept the night before. He is an excellent specimen of a little boy, and I am SO proud of how strong and courageous he is! 

Rowan, I hope you have the best birthday today, and that you enjoy being thoroughly enjoyed!! You are DEARLY loved, sweet Ro. I hope you always stay close to home, unless you’re off being a surfer somewhere hot 💜 Both of those mental pictures are totally your scene. I can’t wait to see where you end up! 

Happy birthday, Rowan Toby!!! I love you!!!

We’ve had some quieter days, and the fun starts tomorrow! So today is a day for a few more worky things. I didn’t get everything done yesterday that I wanted to do, so today I cut up granola bars, and I will wrap the gift I need to wrap. I need to pre-write a blog or two. Brady worked on the van a little bit. I made party mix this morning. I had to go steal ingredients from a friends’ panty though, hahaha! Whoops! I’m very grateful that we have what I call “cup of sugar” friends.

Brady and I are working on some important things on the computer, but MAN the internet is horrible these days!!! We finally bit the bullet and decided to switch internet providers, so that will hopefully be installed on Monday.

We have a parcel being delivered at some point today, and the big kids are ducking out for a short trip with grandma. I completed my crochet project from the other day, and plan to start another one. We have a drive coming up in the next couple of days that I’d hate to have idle hands for! Eek!

This week off has been really nice, with some slow days, and then some fun to look forward to! I’m so grateful for the balance, and the fact that we have Brady home with us 💜

Off to pre-write some blogs!!

This week is OFF school for us here in Saskatchewan, and thanks to some banked holidays from last year, Brady was able to take this week off of work as well! I am SO grateful for this opportunity to have a week of holidays all together during our heaviest month. I feel like we’re over the hump of struggle, and my body and brain are feeling a bit stronger than they were over the last couple of weeks. This week together came at the perfect time 💜

The week holds a little bit action towards the end, but first we have a few lax days, and today is one of those days. There are still things to do, of course, but nothing pressing or large. I need to cut up granola bars I made yesterday. Brady is gutting the bottom of the freezer. I wrote an important email, and I’m (ready?) blogging. I prepped for a blog for later this week, all the while having Frozen Jr pumping for Laela’s benefit. I have to wrap a gift, and I’d really like to finish up my current crochet project. I have a few on the go and this one is well within my grasp to finish in one day.

So you see, there are things to do, but they’re all very low pressure things. No one feels rushed or locked into anything. In fact, its quite peaceful thus far. Rowan set up his spirograph, in kind of a weird location, mind you, and started making everyone necklaces.

There is also lego and colouring spread all over the table and island, and I am LOVING it.

We had things that needed doing during afternoon quiet time, but they are temporarily on hold, so thats off the list too! Even one less thing to do today! Lol!

Whether you’re at home, work, school, or somewhere else, I hope you’re all having beautiful days 💜

I think we can all agree that the kids are stinking cute in their glasses, and that patching is going well! We are optimistic moving forward that our new normal will be decently smooth. Of course, there is more work to come for Rowan. His contact is still in the mail. And he needs some vision therapy, but it happens to be readily available and close by. So, wins all around.

I figured I’d share a few more cute pics with you 🙂 Because I can’t not.

This picture of Solly is the lock screen on my phone. Because he is straight up irresistible.

Rowan has fallen into patching quite seamlessly, and he is still a goof when while he has it on. What a relief to all of us!

The kids are no longer strangers to the glasses fog! I thought they’d be frustrated, but they handle it so easily.

Happy Family Day, friends 💜 We are spending it doing laundry, playing, listening to music, and keeping an especially low profile. Laela got her script for school before the break, so I imagine she’ll do a lot of familiarizing herself with that!

Doesn’t she look so much older?? 🥺 Man.

I hope you have a beautiful reading week, local friends! And for the rest of you suckers, enjoy your thoroughly normal week of life stuff! I am beyond grateful that Brady was able to have this week off! So many fun things to come 💜

To continue off of my last post, let’s talk about what else is going on alongside the glasses wearing! 

You may remember that Rowan’s poor vision was a big surprise for all of us, including Rowan. Conveniently, he really likes his glasses, so that hasn’t been a struggle. But he was incredibly apprehensive for wearing a patch, understandably. But we had talked a lot about it, and he knew there was no leniency with it. The rules are the rules. Patching at home, no matter what. Not at school, or church, or Saskatoon, or a friends house. But at home – always. Deal? Deal. So I showed him his options (He LOVES options now, whereas they used to overwhelm him horribly) and he chose some patches off of Amazon. They arrived before his glasses did, so they sat and waited for him. The evening he brought his glasses home, we left him to just adjust. That might’ve been just so cruel to force the patch on him that same day! But the next day, he came home from school, and we put the patch on. 

And he cried and cried. It was horrible. 

He begged to take it off but I just held him and let him cry really good and proper. I held him until he calmed right down. I offered him a freezie, and he was interested, but he was shaky on his feet and super bummed. He did NOT want to wear his glasses yet on top of his patch, but I persisted and convinced him it was truly the only way he would actually be able to see out of his left eye. So he gave in, got his glasses on, and got up. Immediately Laela told him how cool he looked. A VERY nice big sister move 💜 Rowan, upset, bypassed her compliment and sat at the island quietly with his freezie. I let him be. I did, however, join the party. It helped a little. You can see here that his glasses are all fogged up from crying 💜

After a while, Rowan asked quietly if he could pull out some lego. Once he was settled playing, Laela pulled out a game and went to sit with him. It was a pretty cute scene, because she didn’t really play as much as just be close to Rowan and give him some company. I LOVED it.  

At the end of the day, he peeled the patch off on his own and was SO relieved. I won’t lie. It was a HARD start to the patching game. 

The thing about wearing the patch 100% of his home time is that it includes the morning. So Friday morning, I made him a deal. Fabric patch in the morning, sticker patch in the afternoon and evening. And he happily agreed! 

Fabric patches are more comfortable, but they have more room for error, so to speak. There are often little uncovered areas that kids can look around, or just move their glasses to see over the patch. Even subconsciously, the light getting under the fabric patch can distract from the process. They are good to have, but the sticker patches are ideal. 

The afternoon came, and the kids made their way home from school. Rowan ran around and did his things – washing up, putting away his backpack, etc. – and then I heard him say “Time for a patch!” 

😳

He was so casual about it! Like, it was no big deal. He chose his patch, and passed it to me. I didn’t make a stink about it, and just put it on his face and passed him his glasses. And he thanked me and took off to go play. 

It. Was. Bonkers. 

These children just surprise me absolutely constantly. Sometimes I’m ashamed of myself for being surprised at how amazing they are. They just get better and better. 

Thank you Lord, for our experiences and for guiding us along the way! We are ONLY strong because of You!