Well. We tried to not buy Wicked, but it just didn’t take. So today, we purchased it and watched it with the kids. Which was very special circumstances. We often watch a movie on Friday nights now, but Wicked is new enough to still be in theatres, plus its super long. Its over 2.5 hours long. And thats all good, kids can have a later night as a treat, but even at a normal time of the evening, the babies make movie nights a big challenging. Mostly because 2/3 babies are really actually toddlers. So they don’t have an attention span worth anything, and they rarely last the whole movie without being really loud or disruptive. And we wanted the kids to be able to focus on Wicked after listening to the soundtrack for weeks and asking a million questions about it.

So. On a day where the babies were really overtired and loud, we opted for supper at the table rather than in front of a movie. The kids were quite disappointed, but they didn’t complain at all. I could just see it. And then I told them that we were going to put the babies down right at 7pm so we could all watch a movie. We made them guess for a while before I finally told them what we were watching, and they were absolutely thrilled.

It did not disappoint.

Not

One

Bit!

The kids were gripped and excited and singing along here and there through all two hours and forty minutes of it.

The “to be continued” at the end was definitely a gut punch for them 🤣 Laela exclaimed mournfully “Its not out yet?! Can we just go into the future???” It was pretty adorable.

Everyone is tucked in now. Each and every one of them is just beaming. Partly because the movie is amazing. Partly because we did something special that we’ve all anticipated. Partly because they’re now in an elite club of kids who have seen Wicked at school.

I am SO glad we got to do this together. Our kids have taken a handful of disappointing hits recently, and this felt like a really special morale boost 💜 Possibly a memory that could live on for some. I’m very grateful we had this chance. What a fun evening together 💜

THE DAHLSJOS ARE COMING!

THE SHAWLDOES ARE COMING!

We will once again be THE BORNSJOS!

So the kids are home (yes, pulled for the afternoon)

The house is marginally tidier than it was before.

Cher got the bathrooms all freshened up for us recently.

Food is planned and needs virtually no prep.

Lemon cookies are filled, because I’m nice like that.

Babies are napping.

Hopefully the party arrives soon 💜

Maybe only a couple years of history thus far, but there is a LOT of love here 💜

See you and your beautiful faces soon, guys!!!

I haven’t had a day quite so all over the place as today was in quite a while! But WOW does that wind whirl!

First thing in the morning, I took one of the babies to the hospital for an eye appointment. It has been a long time since we were there with Dekker, scouting out his crossed eyes, trying to figure out our next step with that. We saw a female optician named Brady, which I thought was pretty awesome, and then did drops, and waited for the doctor. It was a successful appointment, and all good news! Thank goodness!

I rushed home and took calls along the way. I came home to Cher and the other baby. THANK YOU CHER!!! Cher was feeling cruddy and went home fairly quickly, and I got the babies lunching. I did some correspondence for the school musical and then got the babies to bed. Once they were in bed, I attempted to feed myself before I had a phone call with my doctor. She and I spoke for over an hour, and covered the bases of three different kids who need some extra attention. New med decisions were made, and some plans were put in place for followup. As soon as I got off the phone, I had to rush to get my butt out the door to drive to the city yet again, this time to pick a baby up from a visit. Both of the babies at home were fast asleep and I had no time to spare. I ran outside to start the van and, naturally, I had like eight bags of groceries on my step 😅 none of which could wait until my return home.

In a panic, I called my mom and she lovingly came to my rescue and put my groceries away so I could get the babes and beetle on in.

I made it in time, fielding yet further calls from multiple medical people. It just wouldn’t stop today!

I came home right as the kids got home. Dishes got done. Piano got practiced. I did some emailing to our doctors office. I worked on a list I’m sending to some birth parents. I made supper and got it on the table. Brady wasn’t home in time for supper, as he had a last minute CT scan in there somewhere.

But he made it home in time to say hi to the kids before they took off to clubs!

Now, we wrangle the babies, one of which is SO dysregulated, the whole place is up in arms. Whew! Now, the blog is done. So thats one thing off my list. Still a few things to take care of this evening – more emails for the musical and HOPEFULLY tidying up the island. And maybe filling some cookies if I can get there. But that might wait for tomorrow also. There are only so many minutes in a day and I can’t help but feel like I have filled WAY too many already today. Tomorrow is another day. Thank goodness.

Once the kids are home, and tucked, and the babies are down, and LD is asleep, Brady and I will eat and fall asleep immediately! For about half an hour before LD is back up 😅

Make. The baby. Sleep. SOMEONE!

Brady and I haven’t been to our chiropractor in years. Literal years. Not since before Brady first surgery left him in a wheelchair. We ran into him once out at Brainsport, buying shoes, and he was very shocked to see Brady the way he was. It felt nostalgic to be back in the office, waiting to see him.

He lit up big time upon entering our room, and we chatted before we even got into the appointment. As you can imagine, there was a LOT to catch up on. But, we did. We talked about Bradys first surgery, and now the second one. His height of injury, and level of mobility. Where he works. Cancer treatments. Brady has a long list, as you know. We talked about the kids and what they’re all into, and then fostering and what goes into that and how many people burn out doing it 😅 All true, haha!

And then he responded to all of these things in a really cool way.

First and foremost, he asked out of the blue what church we attend. We responded, and he said we HAD to, because people couldn’t manage all we manage without strong faith. I thought that was incredibly loving and humbling, and also AMAZING that he gave the glory to God! I don’t know if he knows God or follows Him, but it was pretty cool that he recognized it in us.

After that, he complimented our children, and said they must be an amazing group of people. We readily agreed, and told him all they have been able to learn through Brady’s paraplegia, as well as fostering. He said they are being set up to have special purpose in the world. Missions. Doctors without Borders. Serving people. It was a very honouring perspective he offered of our family.

So we said our goodbyes, and we hope to get back to see him soon. We’ve all aged. He’s quieter than he used to be. But he’s soft and warm and as always, very good at his job. But it felt a little like going back home, as corny as it sounds. I love it there.

Today was large. Tomorrow is larger. We have SO many appointments this week its crazy. But this was not one to miss 💜 I’m grateful. For my chiropractor, and my family.

As a foster parent, the dynamic is pretty wild sometimes, and its never the same from birth parent to birth parent. A coin certainly has more than two sides in this realm of things, and just when you think there are two totally opposite experiences, there is a third opposite! Who knew?!

Today I had a really nice interaction with a birth parent. We have a relationship that I can hardly even call a relationship. They have resisted connection for a long, long time. And today, through prayer and petition, God moved 💜 He opened a door for connection that I have ached for. Through that hour or so that we spent together, my heart lightened and I could feel some calm.

To be clear, I seek God’s peace first and foremost, and I did have that before, but it was pretty lovely to feel some comfort from a person as well in a situation surrounding a child that we both truly love and care about.

I know its vague. But today felt like a win after so many losses, and I am so grateful to have had such a soft interaction. My heart feels restful.

Now if only my body got that chance! Whew! Make the baby sleeeeeeep!

This afternoon, we bit the bullet and ordered our cabinets to redo our island! Cue a happy dance!

We already have countertops on hand to make into an island top…

And next up is ordering our new stovetop! Ack! I can’t wait 😁

While we wait on delivery for all the pieces, I will be almost as excited to receive my more recent order tomorrow – a puzzle with yarrrrrrrn!!! 🤣 Merry Christmas Money to meeeee!

Tomorrow is large, but I am looking forward to getting through the huge morning and getting into a puzzle in the afternoon. And hopefully sleeping in the night, assuming LD changes their ways 🤨 These have not been gentle nights.

There is never a shortage of firsts over here. Whether its regarding fostering, childrens milestones, Bradys health, house stuff, or any number of other avenues, there are always firsts. Lots are good. Some are not. Some are more of a nuisance than anything. But regardless, they come around absolutely always, and we roll with them, like it or not.

While we have some daunting firsts on the horizon, Brady and I got experienced some fun firsts this week!! We both got our first tattoos!! I went Monday evening. Cher came along and took pictures, visited, and witnessed this first with me 💜

It hurt a bit more than I thought it would, but with time I got used to it and it was smooth sailing.

We laughed a LOT with my tattoo artist. He is a riot, and had a good way of teasing me but also being amazing at his job and reassuring to me. I knew I was in good hands.

Zero regrets. ZERO. Not. Even. One.

There is SO much love in this tattoo. In part, it is meant to represent the love we pour into children in foster care, regardless of their length of stay. There are specifics also that I cannot share on here, but I’m happy to talk to those who would like to know!

Bradys tattoo was the next day. He took the afternoon off of work, anticipating a long sitting. Conveniently, he could barely feel his tattoo happening, and it went faster than expected!!! Midway…

His artist freehanded the entire piece, which was a first for him, and turned out amazing!

To Brady, this tattoo is a symbol of God’s power and presence in his life.

We are both thrilled with our results, and will likely only feel better about them as they heal and settle in. Every time I use my left arm and catch a glimpse of mine, I feel so peaceful and content with my choice, and I know Brady feels the same.

If you don’t like tattoos, thats super ok!! No bad feelings over here! 💜 But thanks for respecting our choices to get our own!

Yet another first to cross off the list! It was a lot of fun 😍 Hopefully some more fun firsts to come!!

Yesterday, I posted about serving my family meals and what others thought was the smoothest, productive way. Almost everyone said the same thing!!

You all voted for buffet style! And truly, I think you’re right! This will be a challenge for our family in one big way. The island is our dumping ground. Which I absolutely hate, but remains to be the case. Not only that, but this island is smaller than the last one, AND the stovetop is on it, so its even SMALLER smaller than the last one! And you may have noticed that our family size is also kind of up there in numbers, meaning we eat a pretty good chunk 😅 However, I think it would be smart to try and likely will be the answer.

What will make it even better will be redoing the island. I think I’ve mentioned it on here, but we finally have a concrete plan worked out. Back to drawers on the bottom. Nice deep drawers on the one side, same as the old island, and shallower drawers on the opposite side! The more storage the better, especially in the kitchen of the home with 10+ people inside. Big island top. Big gas range.

I don’t have any awesome before and after action picture for you, but this might help.

This is what we used to have. And it was glorious.

It was 7′ long. The cabinets had 2′ drawers on the inside section, and the top was 3′ across.

Now…

The top will be 8′ long. There will be 7′ of cabinets – 2′ cabinets along one side and 15″ cabinets along the other side. Yes, we will lose the top drawers to the overhang but we are comfortable with that. We will lose some of our island top to a new stovetop, but being that it will have eight elements, we are not mad about that either. We don’t expect it to be the same as the old one. Change is allowed.

In this process of redoing our island, we’ll also move it a little further from the counters in an effort to make more room for Brady to move around comfortably.

It is very tempting to throw caution to the wind and redo the whole kitchen but thats bonkers and we cannot do that. No way, lol! But we can start with the island. Its central and important and is used all day, every day.

Now we just wait for the fateful day when every piece of the cabinetry we want from Ikea is available 😂 Thats the dream!

Folks, I’m here for input! Lay your best guesses on me, please!

Here’s the sitch. Ten people eat at my verrrrry long table. How would you serve your family?

Option A. Pots of food sit in the middle of the table, where only a small handful of children can reach them. Children have to serve one another, or a parent is up, helping scoop food. Which would always be mom, since dad doesn’t stand and reach as well.

Option B. Make two stations of food at opposite ends of the table. More accessibility but twice the dishes.

Option C. Buffet style at the island. Kids carry their plates over to the table afterwards and predominantly serve themselves.

Option D…….

What am I missing? Whats the way? As was the norm in my home growing up, I’ve always just brought the food and set it in the centre of the table. But when your table is 10′ long, the “centre” isn’t really helpful. An obvious solve would be moving one of the adults to the centre of one of the sides so we could be more helpful service. However, we can’t, and this is why. I sit on an end so I can drag the high chairs around and feed the babies, so I need the freedom on the end. And Brady in his wheelchair doesn’t fit under the side of the table, but this unique table has the leafs on the ends, and they don’t have the bulky skirt under them, so he can actually fit under the end. Therefore, on the ends we stay.

What do we do? How would YOU do it? I’d love to hear from others on the subject. We’ve been doing it one way for so long, and I’m only really realizing now that there might be a better way!

Not every day feels peaceful, especially recently, but today has been that way. It didn’t seem like it would be. After the Lemon Drop got up four times in the night (goodness, that baby) I was dragging pretty hard right off the hop. And then the babies alternated, which is not ideal, as I tend to count on nap time as some nice downtime for me as well. But having one baby at a time actually worked out fairly nicely today. I did a puzzle. I watched some YouTube. I chatted with the baby that was up. It was relaxing and calm.

I feel so fortunate to have days like this. That isn’t lost on me. Some days as a stay at home mom are pure chaos and have me questioning my life choices 😅 and some days, I spend the day in sweatpants, sipping coffee and smiling at the sweet soft shenanigans, and most days are somewhere in between!

Tomorrow will pick up again, but today has been relaxing and for that, I am grateful. As I sit in my chair, writing my blog, Laela is practicing piano, Solly is playing lego at the table, Rowan is playing in his room, and Wavy and Dekker are downstairs. Both babies are resting a little bit, which won’t last long at all, but still counts. I will start supper shortly. It’ll be a yummy one that no one fights.

And clubs are tonight, so there will even be some quiet time in the house with Brady and I and the babies.

Thank you Lord for giving us such a beautiful life.