Today is the day, folks! Lots and lots going on over here, and out of here, for that matter. I was out this morning, I ate and got myself semi-decently put together, and now I’m heading out again! And then I’ll come home, and very shortly after that, I’ll have a houseful of people! And THEN we’ll go see the opening show of Frozen Jr!!! Ack!! I’m SO excited!!
I’ll leave you with this embarrassing picture of Brady and I from yesterday. (Jim Halpert was also there.)
We managed to both cut ourselves while making bagels with cheese. Yup. Very gourmet, I know. I cut my thumb slicing the bagels, and Brady got his thumb with the cheese slicer. So. We fail. Hahaha!
Have a great afternoon in this beautiful weather, friends!! 💜
As has been our theme of 2023, there is a lot on the go over here!
Today is a bit more of a restful day, which I don’t think I’ve said or felt in a while! I’ve already recruited Dekker to help me replace batteries in the smoke detectors after school, and I have to make a concrete list of groceries for Brady to pick up after work at Coop. Oh and I have to get the barbecue up onto the deck from down in the yard. Somehow.
Tomorrow I have almost no minutes. NO minutes. It’ll be busy in a really good way, don’t get me wrong! All the events are good and/or important! But there are LOTS, from morning to night! Ack! Preschool. An outing. A meeting. Company. Frozen! Bah! So I’ve got to get ready!
Today will hold some rest, and hopefully some good solid organization for the next few days. Oh! And I very much hope to finish the body of a HUGE blanket I’ve been testing for a designer! I have a good handful of rows left, and then the border is going to be a beast. But I’d love to finish the body rows up today!!
After I snuggle itty bitty kitties for a little bit this morning, of course… Because priorities.
Yesterday marked the longest rehearsal the kids have had for their involvement in Frozen Jr. They stayed after school, and I went to pick them up shortly before 9pm. If you’ve been around us, you know that is past everyones bedtime over here, so this was a pretty huge deal! But it was really really nice to see how bright and beautiful it still was outside! I love this season!
I waited by the front doors for a while, but suddenly the kids were behind me, feeling pretty good about their workaround, haha! It was cute. They were cute 💜
We headed home in the wind, but they seemed untouchable. They were HAPPY.
And HYPER. WOW! Specifically this one.
The adrenaline from performing, plus the popsicle, plus the late bedtime had her absolutely jazzed! They chattered nonstop the entire walk home, and I basically interviewed them all the way home. It had been SUCH an exciting day, albeit a BUSY day of working at their play!
We got home, and Brady and I tucked them in. Both kids absolutely crashed in their beds, exhausted!! But still – happy!
The countdown is on! They are SO excited! So am I 😍
Well. It has been almost eleven years of blogging, and I officially – for the first time ever – forgot to post yesterday. My goodness.
I know its pretty insignificant in the big picture, but its offering me quite a mix of emotions.
On one hand, really truly, who cares? One day where I didn’t note how the day had gone or post pictures of the kids. This shakes absolutely no one up, except for me.
On another hand, how is it that I have rocked ALL the things we’ve gone through in the last year without missing a single day, only to have me totally miss the memo yesterday? Out of nowhere.
I’m going to resist the urge to feel like I have hugely failed, and rather see this as a first. The end of June will mark eleven years of daily blogging, and I can’t help but feel that alone is a bigger success than missing yesterday is a failure. Aaaaand I’m not defined by little baby mistakes such as this.
Today holds some preparation for the big week ahead. Frozen is coming. Lake season is shortly thereafter. We have a home repair coming up, and an appointment or two. The last few months have been some of the busiest of our lives, but they’ve been crazy productive also, and I’m very grateful. If something had to get skipped over, I suppose the blog was the right thing. Yesterday was important all on its own, with a mix of productivity, struggle, outings, and relaxation. You’ll have to take my word for it 💜
Nothing is broken here. I’m back in the game today.
On Thursday, Dekker joined the local high school for their track meet. Its a right of passage for the grade sixes to participate in the high school meet, kind of just to get acclimated. Dekker got to choose 4-6 events to do, some of which aren’t offered at his current elementary school. However, track is not something Dekker enjoys so much, so he played it safe and chose familiar events. At first, I felt a little disappointed, and I wished he had branched out a little. But, as my children continue to do, Dekker surprised me at track.
He scheduled all of his events in the afternoon, which was smart. He had high jump first, which he enjoys, but even he would say he doesn’t excel at it. He was all lined up at high jump, but before the event began, he was called to do his 200m run first. Small towns can mix things up a bit more that way, haha! So he took off and ran the 200m against a few older boys.
And he got second! He really pushed it, and he passed a couple of people in the process! I was VERY impressed. When that was over, he made his way back over to high jump, and did his jumps. It was over quickly, and his immediate move was to run over and poach Wavy from me. He took her to the concession stand (or, as Wavy called it, the food castle) and bought her a candy bag. And then he wrangled her up a second time to get her a freezie. There was a bit of a break in there, and Dekker and his friend hung out with us, watched other races and jumps, and played with Wavy. It was cute and very relaxed.
Then the time came for the next event – running long jump. After one jump, Dekker was oddly called away for his other running event! So much overlap today! So off he went, and eventually the gun sounded, and Dekker and two of his buddies were running the 400m!
This was a pretty cool race to run, because they were in a decently tight clump for most of the run. Two laps of the track. Dekker and a buddy were pretty much head to head, just a few steps in front of another friend. Dekker blew me away by kicking it into super high gear towards the end. He went SO fast and worked SO hard to overcome his friend! He did not beat him, and he pulled another second place spot, but I whooped and hollered at him like any embarrassing mom would. Because he was SO DETERMINED and driven. I have not seen him put so much energy into something like RUNNING. Dekker does not at all care for running, and he still gave it absolutely everything he had. I was absolutely floored. SO impressed.
After the race was done, the poor kid had to come back to long jump!! Gah!!
Lucky for him, his next jump was significantly better than his first, and they happily called it a day for him. His exhaustion was written all over his face, but he was being just such a good sport.
When it was all over, he asked to come home. I reminded him that he had to do Frozen after school, and he slumped his shoulders. He groaned a little bit, SO tired, and said he might still like to come home, just for that 20-30 minutes to regroup in the air conditioning. I said of course I would take him home. But after he grabbed his backpack and caught up to us, he said he had decided to stay and just hang out with his friends.
The boy is growing up 💜 I am SO delighted to have my Dekker Thomas. What a gift he is.
Remember how Dekker tirelessly saved up for a kayak for this summer? He brought his beloved kayak home in March, but the sucker didn’t have a paddle with it! Which we should’ve known, really, because they don’t. But it was in the picture, so no one really thought about it. An oversight. Ah well. He continued to save, and yesterday, we went to pick it up from Zaks!
‘Twas a family affair, lol!
Dekker opted to save for the black paddle over the yellow one, even though it was a couple bucks more.
He brought his own cash, and chatted with the cashier about the price he was paying. She complimented his math skills. And then it was his! His guitar, to be more specific…
And then it was his comfort item, hahaha!
He was such a happy boy 💜 And very eager to hack into it the moment we got home.
Its YUGE!
Dekker is not finished saving up, however! He has one more item he plans to save up for to make his kayak adventures even better, and that is a personal music player! It will play solely off of our Spotify account, so it doesn’t require a phone or speaker with it. Its basically an iPod shuffle, but for Spotify. Anyway. If you’d like to donate your bottles or cans to his kayak cause, he would greatly appreciate it! He would even come to you locally to pick them up!
Thank you to those who have put into his thus far, especially my mom, taking him for Sarcan runs and searches for more. We couldn’t have done this without you 💜
It’s really fun to see the kids growing up attending the same school that I went to. I admit, I’m sad there isn’t more of a rollover with the teachers who taught me, but there are still a few familiar faces hanging around, which I am SO grateful for 💜 I hope there are still a couple floating around the high school as well!!
Something that remains the same, at least in some capacity, are the playgrounds. Some things have come and gone, of course, but some of the good old structures remain in place. And it is a lot of fun to see my kids gravitate towards certain things.
Specifically, my Laela. She loves the three bars. And I, too, loved the three bars.
I wasn’t particularly agile or brave as a kid, but I worked hard to get up onto that top bar and to sit there confidently.
I never got to where Laela is so quickly, and I am so impressed with her determination.
Her hands are blistered and sore, and she’s usually dirty from being in the sand, but she is SO awesome and driven, and I’m really impressed by her.
Laela has flourished in a lot of cool ways this year, and it’s a true pleasure to witness 💜
Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a struggle. Solly and Wavy could tell I was having a hard time, and took it completely upon themselves to boost morale. This is especially cool, because while Solly is happy to follow what everyone else is doing, he doesn’t care much for organized activities, and he definitely doesn’t want to LEAD. But yesterday, he did. And it was incredible.
Wavy was drawing peacefully at the table when Solly gave me a note. A note he had written. By himself.
“You mom are as sweet as a cherry pie.”
Oof. My heart is all full and crumbly at the same time. This was just SO cute.
What made it even better was his eager face asking if he could teach me this craft. He insisted, very seriously, “It is VERY creative.”
So while I felt 0% like crafting, I was absolutely not going to turn him down. So, to the table we went.
The craft involved cutting the corners off of a sheet of paper, writing a message inside, and taping it shut. But that level of complicated is something I can get behind. He set up the table for us, giving each of us a paper and a pencil, though we shared the tape. We also shared the scissors, and he made sure to move them away from me when I was done with them 😅 Safety first! So we got to it. Sol suggested we write messages to each other, so we did.
“You mom are well loved.” It sure feels like it 💜
I will treasure these messages for the rest of my life. They were just SO sweet and beautiful and very much what my heart needed in those moments. Solly does not prefer to take risks, which includes literally everything he doesn’t feel 100% confident about. Reading and writing are on that list, but he took the plunge because he felt he could fulfill a need.
I was, and am, and will continue to be, SO proud of Solomon.
Virtually none of these things are like one another, but they’re all worth noting, and they all come with pictures. So, here you have them!
Laela is a kitty. She likes to find a sunny spot and sit there ☀️
Some of us are enjoying the new warm, sunshiney weather more than others…
Have I talked about it on here lately? We’ve lost four teeth in what feels like just a few days?? Its probably been longer than that, but not by much. Anyway. Laela lost another one yesterday. Her second one in the very recent past.
Yesterday, Brady and I attended an appointment together in the worlds least accessible building ever 😅 Ok so its probably not the least accessible, but it can’t be far off, haha! A VERY old building with a VERY treacherous staircase, and absolutely no other way up to the second floor!
This particular event wasn’t as cute as the kids ones, but it was undeniably noteworthy!! It is INCREDIBLE that Brady managed his way up and down these staircases. Twice!
Last picture to share – we bought a printer today! A fancy pants one!
We’ve got some goals, and our printer just never ever works anymore. So its time to upgrade. We’ve been holding off, but not anymore!!! Our friends are officially off the hook for printing our things! Now WE can print our documents, music, colouring pages, etc. We’ve got this!
Whew! Lots going on these days, and no sign of slowing down! Access internet guy is coming back today in hopes of finally switching our internet!
Feels like a Monday today. Weird. Happy Monday Tuesday, friends.
Last weekend, Brady took Laela out to the driveway and taught her how to change tires. He has done this for a season or two now with Dekker, and he had done the minivan tires with Rowan the weekend before.
So it was time for Laela to learn, which really warmed my heart. She was SO gung ho.
They went outside and Brady talked her through the entire thing. He helped where she actually needed help, but otherwise, he let her do everything she possibly could. She loved the sound of the impact, and putting the lug nuts back into place.
Her confidence grew fast.
She was fully capable, and fully happy to be working outside on the van. She stopped regularly to look at pretty rocks on the driveway or make mention of something totally unrelated. But she still really enjoyed herself!
She finished the job in good time, and both she and Brady came back into the house HAPPY. And DIRTY.
I saw SO much of myself in her that day. The excitement to learn. To work on the vehicle. To do a good job. To collect the pretty rocks, haha! I positively ached to learn these skills as a kid, but was unable to actually be part of vehicle maintenance until I had graduated. I LOVE mechanics, but even if I didn’t, it’s important to know, and both Brady and I want the kids to at least have an idea of how to do it.
It helps that they are happy to join in and learn, and that Brady is happy to teach.
I am SO happy my boys and girls are learning these life skills at their young ages. And I am SO happy that Brady is patient and loving and so willing to teach them.
