Facebook has been showing me a few pictures of my little cuties when they were even littler cuties! Unfortunately they are not all represented in these pictures – no Wavy. But come on now. She has had PLENTY of the spotlight! So let’s skip her today and check out the others, lol!
Baby Dekker is first! There was this one particular day where he wore a puffy vest and he just was the cutest thing I have ever seen! Look how giant his head is!! My sweet big little boy!
Here is Laela, in all her glory, rocking that barf beard like a boss.
Aaaaand see if you can name these babies 🤣
Lastly, these three – Laela, Rowan, and Dekker – all lined up on our old couch in the cabin house we lived in while our Bitner house was being built 💜 That feels like a lifetime ago now!
How I ache to show you the most recent picture of my children. The one I put on our Christmas card. Many of you will have seen it. It was just the CUTEST, BEST picture of my children that has ever existed. But 🤷🏼♀️ you’ll just have to take my word for it. They were this crazy cute back in the day, and they have just continued to get better and better!
I am so fortunate to be able to go to counselling. It is such a valuable outlet for me in these times of life.
We talk family. Relationships. Children. School. Surgeries. Trauma. Foster care. Injustices. Fears. Wins. Faith. Traditions. Hobbies. Plans for the future. You name it, we cover it. And I LOVE that.
I will only see my counsellor once or twice more before she is officially graduated and gone, but I look forward to those final meetings. The conversations we will have. The coffee I will drink.
Thank you, Rae, for making it possible for me to go in, kid-free, today 💜 It is MUCH easier to dig deep when there isn’t a one year old trying to unplug and taste every electrical cord in the room.
Since snow has decided to rear its ugly head in April, it felt like a good day for a cozy soup meal. I’m not fancy, so I only have one soup that I make that isn’t just from a can. I go off of this recipe for Crack Chicken Noodle Soup, so definitely go there for the actual recipe, but hang out here for a very chill rundown of how I make it 😅 Maybe it’ll give you some of the cozy vibes it gave us when we ate it yesterday.
Its a super easy recipe. Put everything into your pot except for two things. So. Thats my kind of recipe.
The only thing I had to prep was bacon. Fry bacon. I used a whole pack, because the single recipe said 12 pieces. I’m not usually one who likes the bacon super crispy, but you want it to crumble. So do it that way. Take my word for it.
Firstly, I doubled it all. It starts with a bunch of chicken broth and milk. I didn’t have nice homemade chicken broth so I rocked Better than Bouillon. Use what you have!
I always feel nervous at this point because it looks like not even close to enough.
Add a couple cans of cream of chicken soup to make it thicker.
Some ranch seasoning. The packets are WAY more expensive than just buying it in bulk and putting it in an old shaker. Its also easier to justify adding more this way.
So the recipe calls for carrots and celery, but I didn’t have celery so I put in double the carrots. I can confirm that it doesn’t feel lacking without the celery. The carrots are a really yummy sweet addition to the soup. And then chicken. Again, use what you have. I’ve used canned shredded chicken. Rotisserie chicken. Leftover turkey. Whatever. This time around, I had some pre-chopped Pintys chicken from Costco that I bought for a kid who needed options for feeding therapy, and I had most of it left. So I defrosted it and chopped it up a bit extra. Put that stuff in there. Oh and the bacon, too, once its done.
Cream cheese! This is the ingredient that sets this soup apart. It is the BEST part, and I didn’t have any! I texted Cher that I was researching how to make cream cheese, and she instantly called me and came to pick me up and take me to buy some 🤣 Technically, this recipe calls for 3/4 cup, so a double batch only needs 1.5 bricks, buuuuut use both if you can swing it, because its SO good that way!
It dissolves WAY faster and whisks in easier if you hack it up first, so take that extra 30 seconds and do it.
If you have a whisk (or whatever utensil you like) that doesn’t fall into the pot, you get bonus points ⭐️
Get it all boiling up and then let it all simmer happily together in there for a half hour or so.
When you’re approaching time to eat, throw in noodles. The recipe says 8 oz. I don’t really get how noodles are in ounces so I googled, and then I still did my own thing. I usually bust up spaghetti noodles, but this time, I used the “No Yolks” egg noodles. Two bags, because we’re a bunch of noodles over here. I hope someday I had use homemade noodles, but that day is not today.
Cheese. Yes. More cheese.
Can you smell it? Doesn’t it look SO good?? Look how much fuller my pot is now, hahaha! It definitely grows from that initial batch of broth!
This all turned out SO good!
Even the kids can confirm. Only one kid stuck with one bowl, and that kid didn’t complain once. Everyone else had at least seconds. This kid was a “seconds” kid, hahaha!
So there you have it. A crazy delicious soup for this random April winter. Use what you have. Its not fancy, but it feels super indulgent.
My final message to you folks – whoever you are who put your winter gear away, shovelled off your deck, took off your winter tires (whoops), or whatever else, this weather is YOUR fault 🤨 I digress.
I ran around like a chicken with my head cut off all morning. It was a wild first few hours, and I felt SO unbelievably frazzled. However, there was a stretch of time in the afternoon where both of the babies slept 😍 So Brady worked on his work laptop, and I put in an ear bud and listened to some true crime while I played yarn. And by “played yarn” I do not mean crocheted, haha! But I have some prep to do before I can dive into one of my projects fully, so I did some of that. It was restful and nice and quiet.
Once the kids were home, both babies continued to be pretty peaceful, so Laela and I walked to pick up the mail, as well as a couple of prescriptions. Laela and I both love the rain 💜 So I thought it would be fun to walk in the beginnings of the rain together, even though it was cold.
I was a little bit wrong, haha! It was fun, mostly, but I foolishly picked up the mail, which ended up containing a large parcel I had the pleasure of carrying home. But thats ok! It wasn’t too heavy 🙂 Just awkward.
We grabbed the meds and our mail, and were maybe halfway home when Tom pulled over and invited us in for a ride! What a relief 💜 We sure love Tom over here! Thank you for the ride 💜
We got home and warmed up for a little, but I got up pretty quickly to get supper put together. Now, don’t come for me. Our latest cozy easy meal is VERY basic and boring, and starch heavy. But its also delicious, uses up leftovers, and no one fights it. Its called riceandstuffandsauce. I know. It really rolls off the tongue. Anyway, today’s rice contained corn, bacon bits, and leftover turkey. Butter. Salt. And then sauce was thick mushroom soup. Souper simple, like I said 😏 My favorite part of it today was that, after our walk, Laela wanted to help me!
She stirred the sauce and told me stories from school.
I have yet to make the kids help in the kitchen. Sometimes I’ll ask for little help here and there, especially if I know its a job they enjoy, but usually I prepare the meals without making them help. But I LOVE when they ask to 💜 Its really really nice for me to know they want to spend that time.
Well. Today Brady worked in store for a couple of hours! Meanwhile, I took our morsel to an appointment. Bought the lemon drop the next size up in sleepers. Filled up the van with really, really expensive gas 🤮 Picked Brady up. And picked up a swing for our older baby to use on our swing set this next season! I can’t wait for that! Still have to get that thing assembled, though. *adds swing set to list*
Tomorrow has less outings and more innings. A friend is coming to make a big fat garbage run for us, which is AMAZING. Brady will work some home hours. I don’t think there are any appointments on the books. Maybe I’ll get to bake again! Or put together a to-do list, because goodness there is a lot to do around here. Dig all the deadfall out of the flowerbeds. Replace the kitchen faucet. Replace the island top. Paint one wall of the kitchen. Trim up where we took down that other wall. Figure out some electrical work for our new pantry. Laundry laundry laundry. I also need to start making a list for camp things!! Ack!
Before then, I wait eagerly for garage sale day in hopes to procure a fire pit, as this house doesn’t have one, as well as some bikes for the upcoming lake season. And if I can be honest, I REALLY want the kids to have a climbing dome in the backyard. Oh and I’m on the hunt for raspberry and strawberry plants to put in my backyard. Yikes. Thats quite a list.
Goodness. I’ve rabbit trailed. My mind is going a mile a minute, yet the rest of me is so unbelievably tired. My brain, body, and heart are all a tad on the weary side today, so I’m a bit all over the place.
Today was good. Quite good in some ways 💜 Thank you Lord for giving us all You have. We don’t know how good we truly have it.
Baking days have been trickier since we gained our little lemon drop. A lot has been trickier, in fact, and many things have been left by the wayside. However, things still find their way to doneness, and today, that meant some baking got done! Some. Definitely not all, lol! But it felt good to get some items ready for breakfasts and lunches around here! The trick may be more bake days with smaller hauls. If thats the case, so be it!
I had a helper for a little bit.
She helped with the first batch of oatmeal-to-go cups.
After that, I made some orange chocolate chip muffins. I made some a few days ago and they have been very well received! Almost too well received 😅 I need to make more quick! So I got on that today as well.
Wavy helped again with scooping them out of the trays, even though it was all still pretty warm. She had no fear tapping them gingerly to make sure she could manage the temperature.
And then I asked Dekker about helping me wrap it all up, and I gave him a very sincere, guilt-free out, but he opted to do it anyway. Which I loved.
Cher came over in the afternoon and I urged her to snag a few treats. She assured me they passed the test.
I feel like today was quite productive. I ended up making a second batch of oatmeal-to-go cups, because they come together so quick, and they’re also extra filling so they last a bit longer too.
The baking is never done, but I’m really enjoying it! On a day like today, where I get some batches of baking done, I feel more like myself.
This morning I had the pleasure of going on an early morning coffee run with my best friend, the lovely Miss Cherice 💜
Each year, we mark this important date with medium iced capps, topped with whip. And this year was much of the same. It was a really nice outing. I keep wanting to say it was nice to be just the two of us, but we definitely also had a baby in the backseat 😆 Because thats the life!
Church was next, but the babies both have colds and I simply knew they would not manage well at all at church. So I stayed home with them, and Cher and I had a chat and finished up our iced capps. It was a really lovely morning 💜
My mom came home from church with the family and stayed for a couple of hours into the afternoon! We ate waffle grilled cheese (we’re SO fancy) and relaxed for a brief period of time before we had to get back up and go once again! Though my mom offered to hang back and keep one of the babies. Which was SUCH a lovely help!! 💜 Thank you, mom!
Dekker got back from his weekend away, and we immediately left to take Rowan to the city for a birthday party! While he partied, the rest of us did a Walmart shop and grabbed some supper. It was a weird shop. It was mostly boys clothing, and then also condiments. Weird. But then for supper, we did what we call redneck food court, and everyone got to choose their fast food supper. Wavy and Solly had happy meals from McDonalds. Laela had chocolate milk and a bagel from Tims. Dekker, Brady and I had Subway.
I missed this kid. I’m so glad he’s home 💜
All in all, it was a fun day, though perhaps holding a few too many outings for Brady. Poor guy. Its definitely all a little too much for him still, but he wants to keep moving forward! As per usual, balance is hard to find, but we’ll keep pursuing it!
As good as it all was, I’m beat, and I know the rest of us are too. Time. For. Bed.
Goodnight, all. Sleep well and kick the week off strong 💪
I saw this the other day and related way too closely 😅
I’m usually pretty good at not doing this, lol! Especially with the blankets I’ve started to make in the last couple of years, because they’re such big undertakings.
However, I’ve gone and done a bad thing, and I have three projects on the go. Whoops. 😳
Good thing I don’t have two babies currently in my home, one of which needs to be held 25 hours a day, and the other that needs to be chased jyst as much. 😳
So. When everyone goes to bed, I pick away a little on one of my three current projects, and it feels peaceful and nice. Until my eyes glaze over, which happens sooner than I care to admit, lol!
I think one of my projects is going to become a camp project, though. I think the Kinasao blanket I started a while ago deserves to get a little campfire smell on it while its under construction. And since Bradys surgery has left me the sole driver, at least for a time, I won’t be crocheting on the drives to and from the lake. May as well keep a project up there full time!
Lots of thoughts from a fried, disjointed brain. Sorry everyone. My contacts are blurry. I think I’d better call it. G’night, all.
Today, Dekker is eating early, before everyone, before he jets off for a weekend of fun. He is great about just digging leftovers out of the fridge and making it happen. He had his eye on something specific, but unfortunately, it had juuuuust turned, so I vetoed it. Instead, he opted to make a big salad out of the chopped salad stuff and leftover chicken nuggets.
As he does in many facets, Dekker flew under the radar, and I found him eating his salad on the couch, tucked behind a book. And I’ll admit. I was feeling a little bit silly. So I went into the pantry to see if there was a fun way I could sabotage Dekker’s peaceful meal.
Aaaaand I found a way! I grabbed what I needed and casually made my way back to the couch where Dekker was deeply tucked into his book. Dekker enters another world when he opens a book, so he was totally unaware of my approach. Which was lucky for me considering I was smiling like a doofus at my own prank even before I had pulled it.
Don’t worry. It did not disappoint.
I put a handful of Christmas sprinkles into his salad.
Yup. That was it. But MAN was it funny 🤣
Maybe you also think its funny. Or maybe its just showing how tired I am 😅 A little bit of both, perhaps.
But its allowed. Because its Friday. Thank GOODNESS. What a week!!
We used to go for a family walk every evening a couple of years ago, and it became a nice tradition! It has petered out over time, with life getting fuller and a bit more chaotic in a few different areas. 🏕👶🏼🧠 Ya know. But as Brady recovers more and more, and the weather gets nicer and nicer, we have been trying to get out there and soak up some of that fresh air!
The last two evenings, we’ve taken the kids out on walks. The first night, we hit the park. How old does Rowan look?!
Fun!!! And…
Terror!! 😂 Poor Solly!
And the second night, we made our way to the high school track, since Laela had expressed interest in going running with a friend who ended up not being able to join her after school today. No biggie! We went as a fam! Dekker had youth both evenings, but he was able to join for at least a little today 🙂
Today we even managed to get both babies into the bike trailer and hooked it on Brady’s wheelchair, so the Batec pulled three people tonight instead of just one! A VERY cute setup, I only wish I could show you all 💜 You’ll have to take my word for it.
Welp. Its almost 8:30, which means its basically my bedtime 😅 The walks tucker the kids out, but also the parents. I’m ready.
