Today carried some beautiful things. While it’s not been an easy weekend for our family, I will share the bright spots ☀️
Guitar around the fire is one of the campiest camp things we enjoy around here. It’s such a lovely, familiar addition to the scene.
And goodness. The food. It was just so stinking good today. Chunky chicken salad. Broccoli salad. Garlic toast. And cheese filled gnocchi. Bonkers.
This evening, Brady and I ducked out for a drive to Bells, just the two of us 💜 It was the break we needed, without a doubt. Thank you, dear Dahlsjos, for that time away. What a gift.
Home we’ll go tomorrow, and then all the action begins the following day. It’s coming up quick! Protect us, Lord.
Today has really felt like the first REAL summer day. It’s full here at camp. Every tenting site is full. Yes you read that right. It’s warm enough to tent! We have spent the day doing beautiful things with beautiful people.
Breakfast was cute 💜
There was a fox very nearby! Probably plotting his shoe stealing missions for the summer.
Lunch was perfect 🥪
We hit the beach! You know how Solly feels about his snorkel goggles 😆 🥽
I crocheted by the fire while the babies napped.
Supper was delicious and happy! 😁😁
And the sky during the evening dip couldn’t be beat 😍
Thank you Lord for yet again providing beautiful days for us to enjoy. You ALWAYS look out for us, and we see that and receive Your grace!
Welp. Today absolutely has not gone as planned. Not even sort of. Brady worked quite late into the evening yesterday so that he could justify today’s morning stuff that needed doing, and then this morning turned into a total crapshoot and its been tough to come back from. Nevertheless, things got done, thanks to all of our loving, willing helpful people 💜 and in terms of what actually needed doing, it all went off without too much trouble.
As I scramble to get our butts out the door to get us to the lake, I’m struggling to find many positives in the day so far. So rather than being a total downer, I’ll share a giggle with you.
Last summer, I put a little temporary tattoo of a ghost on my wrist, to fit in with the kids, lol! And it became quite the running joke, as I would randomly thrust it into the faces of my unsuspecting loved ones and announce loudly “A ghost!” in Joey Tribianni style. You can hear it. I know you can.
So. As mentioned. Running joke. Still!
Anyway. Dekker came home from school yesterday and unpacked a bunch of his stuff. Much of the papers he showed me were from art. Sketches he had spent a lot of time on. Things he was really proud of. And then this. For me.
A GHOST!
Can you hear him saying it?? Because he did, and I was proud.
Aaaaaanyway. That’s really all I have to offer you today.
the kids are home and ready to be harassed by me for two 👏 months 👏 straight! 👏
It’s not a secret that parts of summer feel incredibly daunting, but I have intentionally been praying that God lifts the parts that feel super hard so they don’t have to feel AS hard after all. Regardless, we trust, and we keep on going!!!
Today everyone came home and unceremoniously dumped their stuff on the table. Boom. Unpacked. But I’m not even touching that battle until next week at the absolute earliest! Good thing nothing is up next week! 😅😬😩
The biggest thing on the last day of school is finding out next years class! And I have them all EXCEPT DEKKER!!! Who DOESNT EVEN KNOW WHOSE TEACHING GRADE EIGHT!!!! 😩😩😩 whose kid even is he???
Regardless. It’s done. Well worry about it in September.
Here’s to two months of occasionally sleeping in, low key weekdays, and weekends at the lake! 😎
I have really appreciated everyones love on the most recent post regarding Brady’s health. It has already been a pretty long road, but its definitely just beginning! To those who are sticking by us and have been in our corner, we see you, and we thank you 💜 God absolutely always provides, one way or another, and we trust that He will continue to in these ways!
So. The plan. Its still a little choppy as its just in its beginning stages, but I’ll let you know what we know.
Because the pathologists labelled Brady’s tumour as high grade malignancy, it is being treated as aggressively as possible. So, as is common with cancer treatment, there are two parts. Radiation and chemotherapy.
In his case, radiation comes first. It starts ;next week, on Tuesday. He will have third fractions. So, every weekday for six weeks, he has to go in for a radiation treatment.
Hopefully he will be granted his license back in that time, which would make things considerably easier for all of us. That should also be decided next week. Please Lord! 💜
Another fun thing that starts next week is chemotherapy. Yes, you read it right. He will do both simultaneously for the first six weeks.
Now, if you remember back to the last run of chemo, Brady took chemo pills. The cycle of medication went like a period, if we’re being blunt. He would take pills for five days out of a 28 day cycle, wait out the other 23 days, and then start again. However, for the first six weeks, he will have radiation treatments five days per week, and take chemotherapy seven days per week, both for six weeks.
If it was unclear, those will be some LONG weeks. They come with lots and lots of bloodwork, as well as LOTS of fatigue. Apparently the main side effect of this type of treatment is fatigue. As in chronic fatigue that refuses to quit. For months. Brady would argue that, as a father of eight, he already has chronic fatigue, so probably the treatment won’t feel like any extra 😅
Don’t worry 💜 He is not naive. We have been here before. He’s just trying to have a sense of tumour about the whole thing 😏
Once those six weeks are done, its smooth sailing! 😅 Ok, no its not, but it slows down, anyway. After those weeks, Brady will start a year of chemotherapy. Which feels HUGE, but Brady and I both agree that its more annoying than scary. Realistically, we’ve also been told chemo could be as short as six months, buuuuut only if his brain tissue is being severely damaged and its not worth it to keep going… Somehow that feels worse than a year of chemo, lol! So I guess we’ll just see how it all plays out!
If you can wrap your brain around these details, I’ll point out the time of year. The beginning of summer. Radiation will BE our summer. At least until mid-August. Which is hard. No week at the lake. No extra long weekends, even. Plus a very tired husband. Oh and did you know our road will be closed for at least a few weeks here, meaning parking the van somewhere else and having to trek to it anytime we drive somewhere? EVERY TIME we drive somewhere?! Ugh. I work pretty hard to stay optimistic, and I do feel a pretty real peace about a lot of it. Truly. But parts of me want to absolutely tear my hair out in total frustration.
Lucky for us, God knows those things, also. He has never left us before, and He won’t start now. So, forward we go!
It is officially Waverly’s LAST day of kindergarten!!! 🥳 There is such a bizarre back and forth for me with these milestones, because she is SO grown up but still my little girl 💜 Today, she erred more on the side of little girl, which is just perfect!
Little goofball wore a Christmas dress to school to celebrate the last day!! 🤣 She explained to me that the dress has candy on it, and she is expecting some candy today. Logic.
I can’t believe we’re already wrapping up school, but upon specifically wrapping kindergarten, I was reminded how awesome grade one is, and how amazing she’ll do! We are incredibly fortunate to have AMAZING grade one teachers in our school. I love them both so much, and I’m excited to learn who she will have as her teacher! I don’t even have a preference, they are both awesome!
Wavy, you’re a rockstar, and I’m SO proud of how well you’re doing in school, as well as every other aspect of your life 💜 You are growing up terribly fast, and I know I’m supposed to be sad about that, but I also LOVE who you’re becoming. It is a true pleasure to be part of your life!
Its been a while since I’ve talked to you guys about Brady’s brain stuff. Lots of reasons for that. Lots of waiting for us means lots of waiting for you guys, I suppose! But we’re here now with some information that we’re ready to share.
*deep breath in*
So much like last time, we have differing opinions about the level of malignancy for Brady’s tumour.
With Brady’s spinal tumour, it showed up like a patchwork quilt of grades. The surgeon said there were portions that had visible cancer cells upon removal, but some places that looked old and stagnant. Saskatoon wanted to call it low grade, but they sent it on a hot holiday to San Diego where they labeled it as high grade. So we treated it as high grade. Unfortunately, we’re in a similar position this time.
This time around, Brady’s brain tumour looked nicely low grade, but with his history, they decided to send the tissue on another vacation, though we stayed domestic this time, sending it to Toronto. While the tumour looked better than the last one, their testing revealed similar molecular markers than the previous one. With that, they’ve decided to call it a high grade mass. A grade four glioma. Or, a glioblastoma. Which is kind of a big title.
We had a pretty good idea that Brady’s brain mass was cancerous the day it was removed. His surgeon informed us that the tumour had fuzzy edges, which suggests spreading. However, we didn’t want to share more information until we had yet further information. And that information is what cancer treatment will look like. Which we now know.
More on that soon. Tomorrow or the next day. Its a lot to share really close together. But how else can our people pray if they don’t know the happs?! So. Now that we know them. You will, too.
We are home 💜 After a fairly short whirlwind weekend, we have arrived back at home. We made it through the tornado warnings and the rains that were SO strong, they had me pulling over on the side of the highway with my hazards on. That was a first for me, but I was far from the only one taking the shoulder. The rains passed and the clouds were gorgeous! There was a double rainbow that was being enjoyed by many others along the road, phones out, taking pictures of the sky.
Now, we are home, things unloaded and kids tucked in. No one is bathed, but campfire is not an offensive smell for a day or two. I’m ready for a hot bath. I have a cold and haven’t breathed easily all weekend, and I miss that.
That’ll do it. A bath. A snack. And bedtime. Sounds like a recipe for a lovely night at home in my own bed, where I’m not sharing 300 ish square feet with my eight kids… 😅
Sleep well, all. It’s the last week of school! Enjoy a couple of quiet moments while they exist!
It’s been a really lovely day out here at the lake. We couldn’t go Friday, but we got up at balls o’clock and made it to camp by 9! The fun of celebration weekend began right away, and the party kept on going until after 10pm. Unfortunately, the power didn’t want to join us, and we have been without electricity for way too long. I really hope our fridge food survives 😬🤞
The day was a huge success 🥰 the kids played all day. We ate great food provided by the camp. And the blanket I made for the auction sold for so much more than I anticipated. It’s been lovely 💜
While I really wish we had electricity, I’m doing my best to look past that and enjoy what I DO have. And it’s a whole lot of beautiful things. I’m so fortunate. Thank you Lord 💜
The other day, I took all eight kids grocery shopping. Our plans changed a bit last minute so I began the shop extra frazzled. But who wouldn’t be? So forward we went, and had a really successful, really cute grocery shop.
Except, as we unloaded our groceries onto the conveyor belt, I realized I skipped the entire fresh section!!! The way we entered Walmart, it was first, and I wanted to do it last. And then I skipped it. Nooooo!!!!
At that point, of course, the babies were starting to break down, and I didn’t have the nerve to go back and shop more. Knowing I’d be back in the city fairly soon, I decided I’d let it wait for the next chance I got.
That chance was today! What I didn’t anticipate was having a load of groceries that I felt really good about! Hahaha! Sometimes I’m embarrassed by my groceries at Walmart, because its not usually where I get my healthier stuff. Its where I go for things like treats, condiments, cereal, and other things that are only on the list sometimes. But today, I felt great about my purchases! Granted, not everything qualified as “fresh stuff” but I still really loved how it turned out.
Ok. Before you come for me about some of these details, let me explain a couple of things.
Rowan has been struggling in a few new ways, and one way that was suggested to us to help him was to give him more snacks – more feeding his brain. Not just any snacks, though. Good fats. Not too sweet. Fibre. Protein. You get it. I have some really good stuff at home, but its starting to bore him. So don’t come at me about how unhealthy baby carrots are. I know they’re not the best. But I’m going for grab and go. So while we’re finding our feet with what Rowan wants and needs, I’m just trying some stuff. Easy stuff.
So we came home with standard fresh stuff that we always try to stock. Lettuce. Cucumbers. Peppers. Apples. Little tomatoes are ALWAYS an easy sell. Also some baby carrots and snap peas for quick, easy, and healthy. Kiwis, because Rowan LOVES them right now. As some asides, I got dried apricots, honey garlic pepperoni sticks, pistachios, and cashews. Nuts and dried fruits are supposed to be really good options. And then he used to reach for pepperoni sticks, but the ones we got last were “too spicy.” They were original. So, honey garlic should solve our problems. The nuts he will resist, but I’m hoping to be able to convince him to at least give them a try!
I also bought pasta salad and potato salad, because I really like them at camp. Some raspberry pure leaf iced tea because it is SO yummy and was on a super good deal. And yarn, because, you know, yarn.
I didn’t feel bad about a single part of this shop, which was so refreshing. As I filled my fridge with my purchases upon getting home, I felt so fortunate. Thank you, Lord, for providing for us in such a way that we can buy fresh, delicious things for our family and to help us get well 💜
