Author: haileyborn

Not Our Best, but We had No Other Options

Today had to be an errand day for a handful of reasons.

  1. We were out of basically everything.
  2. A couple of things were under a time crunch.
  3. There’s an impending snowstorm.

We took our time this morning, but left for the city after everyone was dressed and fed. We were bundled up and gone around 10:00am.

Our first stop was pretty unsuccessful. We unloaded everyone and dragged them into Canadian Tire, only to leave with a single thing. Merp. But we grabbed some coffee and continued on. We dropped by Lawson and got my screen protector replaced under warranty by a really helpful employee. Then lunch, and the Walmart.

We needed such a wide variety of things at Walmart, and while we didn’t get them all, we did ok. We got the big kids new helmets, because with skating at school and a quad ride or two, it was clear they needed the next size up. We got some groceries. We got the school kids valentines, and got Laela a new water bottle since she lost hers a couple of weeks ago, and the one she’s using in its place is leaky. We did not find antifreeze, nor a comfy sports bra for myself. Or a new phone case. Possibly most disappointing, I inquired at the pharmacy about those little over the counter skin tag remover kits, and learned I can’t use them. I have a small skin tag that grew right under my eye, of all places, and I can’t remove it myself there. So that was discouraging. But, small potatoes in the big picture.

After Walmart, we headed to Costco. Everyone was fed and watered and happy, but there was a throw down, let me tell you. Solly still sits up in the cart seat, and the big kids hold on to the side of the cart when we’re in the parking lot, because we want them to live. However, whichever side Solly sits on seems to be GOLD, and Dekker and Laela fight to the death over who gets to be on that side. Today, we were unloading everyone from the van, and Dekker and Laela were scrapping over who got to be on which side of the cart. And they started flat out yelling at each other, because we’re not already a bit of a side show. Sigh. Brady stopped their argument and reminded them to speak respectfully. And then yelled back! Would not have it. Sooooo everyone got loaded back into the van, amidst tears from the guilty parties. I waited in the van with them while Brady ran in and blitzed Costco on his own. It went surprisingly fast, haha!

We headed home with our tired, emotional bunch, a bit nervous for what was to come of this nap-free day. As soon as we got home, I fed Waverly and put her to bed. Dekker got into the bath, and the middle kids played hide and seek. We decided on and started supper, and I headed upstairs to blog. At one point, Brady came up to talk to me, and upon going back down, he saw these beautiful little beings.

Dekker had finished up his bath and had joined the others. All on their own, they had found something quiet to do as a group!!! These small moments always feel like such a win, but especially after a big day out.

No promises for the rest of the day, but I like what we’ve had so far!

Guilty Pleasures

I thought it might be fun to share some of my guilty pleasures with you guys! To be honest, I was stuck for an idea of what to blog about, and upon looking on lists of ideas, I figured I’d spare my readers a post about my favorite fonts, or sorority recruitment advice. Guilty pleasures, however, I have a lot of. Here are some of mine 🙂

  1. Food court Asian food. They give you a heaping plate full of rice, soggy veggies, and some nondescript meat. Do you guys find that, no matter what mean dish you order, they all kind of taste the same? I do! But seriously, I could eat those veggies aaaaall day long! Its SO yummy!
  2. Lush bath products. Those bath bombs cost SO much but they’re SO good!! When I have one of those on hand, I know I’m in for a goooood bath! If only I could justify them more often!
  3. Pop music. This can’t only be me. I’ve been buying the guilty pleasure songs that I’m embarrassed to like, just because they really make me happy. Probably my most embarrassing guilty pleasure song right now is “What Makes you Beautiful.” Don’t make me regret sharing this with you.
  4. The Bachelor. Yes, the whole trashy franchise. I can’t help it. I haven’t felt especially invested in any of the recent bachelors or bachelorettes, but its still fun.
  5. Dollar Drinks at McDonalds during the summer! Those iced coffees are so good!

I think five guilty pleasures are enough for one day. Anyone care to share one or two of your own? C’mon, don’t leave me hanging!

January Limbo

I’m having this super odd issue right now, where I have some super fun blogs planned for February, but the end of January is lagging sooooo much!

It doesn’t help that January feels like it has about a hundred days in it. Possibly the longest month of the year. That and the final month of pregnancy, right? My gosh. With the cold snap recently, too, I think I can safely say we all feel a bit closed in and over this season.

After our third van breakdown, and second in four days only, Brady finally figured out the root of our vehicle’s issue! He fixed it yesterday and I was able to drive it in to the city today, right downtown, without it stalling it and giving up on me. I warned him in advance, that if it crapped out and left me stranded, I was going to take to the comfort of the mall, and shop some of my angst away. To his relief, the van fired right back up when I needed it to, and brought me home safe and sound. It even hit a nearby Tim Hortons and brought coffee home! Good bus. Good good bus.

Since being out this morning, however, my feet have been chilly, and they refuse to quit. I’m wearing socks and everything! I think I’m going to go for a walk on the treadmill to heat up my insides a little.

Wish me luck! And stay inside if you know whats good for you!!

Solly’s Powy Button

I’m sure many people with children can relate to the inventing of words. I know it goes against all the rules of speech therapy, but I just love the words my children mispronounce, and we tend to start using them rather than correcting them. Whoops! Don’t worry, they’re all running their course and being corrected over time. Some of my personal favorites are as follows:

Rockaronie
Ambliance
Hallayyoola
Pokies
Blotter

There are far too many to list. Any guesses on these?

A while back, Solly said something about his belly button, but as a two year old might, he pronounced it more like “bowy” rather than “belly.”

“Powy button?” I questioned, and promptly poked it and yelled “POW!” The entire family laughed SO hard! It instantly became a game. If a belly was ever left unprotected, it was vulnerable to a pow. In all fairness, in the very beginning, Solly was kind of hot and cold on the game. Usually he’d laugh. Sometimes he’d burst out crying. Again, he’s two. Not unheard of that he’d change his mind a couple of times. To be clear, he’s settled on thinking its hilarious.

This morning hasn’t been our best, and it showed that the kids were really feeling it. I made a point to go around mid-morning and have a few minutes of a snuggle with each kid. While they played or colored, I just hugged them and kissed them and told them I loved them. When I went over to Solly, I snuggled him for a minute, and then poked his powy button.

And guys, it was as though we had never played that game before!

He squealed and threw himself into me, seconds later requesting “Again! Again!” So I obliged, and we had a total riot, just he and I, sitting on the floor in a pile of his now-rejected duplo.

After a while, I headed back to have a seat and some coffee, and he followed. He’d stand a few feet away from me, fully out of my reach, and quietly say “Poke my powy button?”

I told him I couldn’t when he was so far away. So sometimes, he’d creep up to me and I’d have the chance to poke him in the belly.

Brady was coming in and out of the house, working on yet MORE vehicle issues (such a fun season of life we’re in…) and at one point, while he and I were discussing his next move, Solly lifted his shirt and placed his belly on my knee where my hand was resting. He was desperate to be tickled!! It was SO funny!

We played a lot this morning, and that may just continue, considering we couldn’t leave if we wanted to. Sigh. Being an adult is SO fun.

The moral of the story is “Pow your kids in their belly buttons! The element of surprise is everything!” Take it or leave it.

Rowan’s Name

A while back now, I posted the story of how we chose Dekker’s name and Laela’s name. I haven’t continued with the rest of the kids names because frankly, they don’t have as exciting of stories behind them. Buuuuut I’ve had the story of choosing Wavy’s name written for a while now, and I don’t want to just completely skip over the little boys and tell her story rather. So, here’s the story of how we chose Rowan’s name!

When we conceived Rowan, we were still living in Radisson. We spent much of that pregnancy getting our house in good shape, painting and purging and everything in between. It was a super busy time of our life! Oftentimes, I have a specific time in my memory of where we were or what we were doing when we decided on the baby’s name, but really, we were just home for this one.

Rowan was our only boys name at the time. My ideal was Ren, but I let that one go for one main reason, take it or leave it. No burn on anyone else’s name, but I feel like we can’t have a one syllable first name with our one syllable last name. Of course, a name thats shortened, or a nickname, thats fine! NO BURN on anyone with one syllable names! I personally love one syllable names, and feel kind of sad that I won’t be able to use them for my kids. It just doesn’t sound right in my head. Too abrupt. So, sadly, I gave up my “Ren” and lovingly accepted “Rowan” in its place.

Toby is Rowan’s middle name. That was the name that took work to pin down. We WORKED to find a middle name that fit with “Rowan.” If you’ve ever talked baby names with us, you know how we pour over names, hundreds of names, and veto and veto and veto. There was a long time there where we figured we’d name our third baby Rowan Patrick. It sounds nice together, right? However, “Patrick” was popping up more and more, and I didn’t want to just choose something trendy in the moment. But we kept it as our first place middle name and waited for something better to come along. And it did 🙂 Toby was my grandpa’s name. Tobias, actually, but everyone called him Toby. We’ve never specifically named our children after anyone, but it was a nice little nod towards a great man!! Rowan Toby sounded perfect!!

And it fit perfectly 😍

😚

We figured we’d call him Roro. But if you’re around our life now, you know we almost always call him Ro. Just Ro. Though sometimes I wonder/wish we had gone with Row?? Thoughts, anyone?

Vehicle Troubles, Y’all

Yesterday was a full day of working on our stupid bus. We finally got the thing started this morning, thank the Lord! We spent today visiting with Cher, and wrapped up the evening with more vehicle trouble! Grrrrr! Can winter just be over already?! Its not all to blame, but it sure doesn’t help!

Tomorrow will hold yet a little bit more vehicle work, but with Brady home, the timing is actually kind of perfect for things like this. Our week is slowly filling, but some good things are getting accomplished without being completely slammed busy. So far, at least, we have a nice mix of work, relaxation, and productivity this week.

On a separate note, Miss Waverly cut her two top teeth!!!! One surfaced nicely yesterday, and the other just this morning! She is a CHAMP!

A drooly champ, but a very happy one! Wavy, we are just as proud of you as you are of yourself!! 💜 You are such a happy part of our day!

Wish us luck tomorrow!! 🤞

All Dressed Up with Nowhere to Go

Our van died again.

Sigh.

Do you remember when this happened over Christmas? And the fuel lines had frozen? It was a really long story at the time, yet we figured it out, not without a handful of ridiculous arguments and a few tears.

So I admit, when the van turned itself off just a few blocks from home on our way to church, I was instantly nervous. Brady, too. He coasted it to the side of the road where we tried to restart it. No dice. Very reminiscent of our Christmas vehicle trouble.

I called my mom and she came and shuttled us home.

Brady’s working on making a plan with one of our amazing neighbours, yet again, to bail us out and limp our vehicle home. Its possible the fuel lines are frozen again from being parked outside yesterday, but it was there for only a few short hours. It can NOT be this temperamental. If this kind of thing happens every time its cold outside, we could easily get stranded in Saskatoon or anywhere else. Once we get it home and thawed out, it should be fine to run again. But Brady will call our mechanic tomorrow and see what we can figure out. If our fuel pump is going, the sooner we can get that sucker replaced, the better!

So thats how we ended up in our Sunday clothes, washed and brushed and looking nice, at home. Well, I say “looking nice” loosely, haha!

The moment after this picture was taken, Dekker was in sweats and a tshirt, and Wavy went down for a nap. Everyone is playing and happy. It should be a smooth, normalish morning for them at least. Meanwhile, wish Brady and I luck! We need a vehicle that operates well, and fits us all in it. We do not care to relive the minivan rental from November!!

Now That Brady’s Home

We’re entering a time where Brady will be home from work for a while. I started writing a post about the last time he hit a slump at work, but its tricky to talk about that kind of stuff on the internet. So I won’t. But I will say that our last slump from work was long and difficult, but well timed. God provided, and we learned a lot. It was a good learning experience, and a time of high anxiety, also. Lol! And now we’re coming up on another! Thankfully, this one is much shorter than the last, and its not a total work hiatus. There is still enough here and there that we’ll be taken care of. We’re less afraid of this one. Now we’re just laying out what needs doing while we’re home together!

We are just itching to work on the basement! However, as logic will tell you, we may have the time now, but we have less disposable income to actually make it happen! Haha! We had some money we could’ve used in theory, but when Brady’s van died on the side of the highway and needed replacing ASAP, that money went kaput. So while I anticipate we’ll putter on the basement and do little bits here and there, it won’t be a grand time of crushing that project.

I haven’t caught the Marie Kondo bug just yet. I imagine I would if I watched it, though! While I don’t know all her methods and specific ideas, I definitely have a strong urge to throw everything in my house away. Like everything. Hahaha! So I think my goal while Brady is home is to do a bit of a purge/clean/I’m not completely sure what. I want to get into all of those little corners and clear them out. Just today, I was sorting laundry downstairs and noticed a corner of our furnace room. It had two of those tubs that roll under beds stacked on top of each other, covered in dust bunnies and old curtains. Super gross, super useless. What do I do, guys? Just chuck it all? Try to sell it? Donate?? I just want that stuff gone! My garage, too. I swear, a third of the stuff in there is toys that no one has seen since we left Radisson three years ago. Can I just get rid of it all???

We need a hefty clean and reboot about here. I’m getting a decorating itch, as well, but now isn’t exactly the time to start spending money on home decor. So I’ll hold that in check for now, but I want to get everything ready for when I can!

I have a few personal goals as well for the next month or two, and I’m planning a whole post around those, but there’s just so much to sort through in my head and heart, it’s hard to type it all out in a way that makes sense. I’ll get there soon 🙂

What are the things you need do to around your house but consistently forget or put off? Help me make my list of things to make our house feel more like a home and less like a dumping ground! I need some new routines around here.

The Entrance of the House

When we built our house, the entrance wasn’t something I put much thought into. We picked the tile color, but beyond that, it was just the entrance. We didn’t care. What do people really think about in that area?

A lot, actually. It seems like most houses have this teeny tiny entrance, and without really knowing about it, we ended up with a decent sized entryway! Its not huge, but it could be a LOT smaller. There isn’t a lot of room for people to move to the side once shoes are on, but it can hold a lot of people. I hold the memory of our entrance on the day of Wavy’s party. It was covered in shoes. You could see where the first few people had tried to line them up, but before too long, it was just a free for all. I loved it. I loved seeing how many people had come through our house that day.

This morning, as many of you know, it was frigidly cold outside. Like BRUTAL cold. As has been the theme this week, it was clear I needed to drive Dekker to school. It wasn’t reasonable to expect him to walk, though he’s such a tough cookie, I’m sure he would have. But no way. So when the time was drawing near, I asked the kids to head into the entrance to get their coats and boots on.

Thank goodness, only one kid was dressing for school that day. Dekker was trying to get into his snow pants and all the pieces, and that takes up some space. Laela was getting her boots and jacket on, and Solly was working on his boots after dragging his jacket from the closet to the middle of the entrance.

Pretty quickly I noticed that Rowan was wearing neither socks nor a shirt. Sigh. I hustled him up the stairs and convinced him to wear socks. He has brand new socks, so he was easily talked into it. A shirt, not so much. Ok fine. He wouldn’t be leaving the van anyway. I got him back to the entrance, where he swung his jacket around, “trying” to put his arm into the second sleeve.

So while they were doing that, I went upstairs and woke Wavy up. I moved her right from her bed into a thick onesie that she can wear in her car seat. I carried her down, strapped her into her seat, and carried it into the entrance. Laela was zipping Rowan’s jacket up. Solly wasn’t letting anyone near him, but his boots were on.

Shoot! I forgot Wavy’s blanket! Ran back up the stairs. While I was up in my room, our doorbell rang.

Who could that POSSIBLY be?!?!

Was someone coming to offer to drive Dekker? Because thank you, but also, you’re too late.

But of course not. I ran down to open the door. It was a FedEx guy, dropping off Brady’s replacement phone case. When I let him into the house, he just stared. As if our “decent sized” entrance wasn’t full enough. He looked at the kids and just whispered “wow…” under his breath. We shared a two second comment about the weather, and he was gone.

I couldn’t close the door right away. Would’ve pinched a kid in it.

It was pure chaos for that ten-ish minute span of time this morning, but it keeps up close 🙂 Me, my five kids, and the FedEx guy.

There’s the Wavy I Know!

We’ve been missing our Wavy over here.

She has been such a calm, content baby girl from the start. Always such a peach to have around. We barely have her on any schedule because she just rolls with whatever. SUCH an easy baby.

Until recently. Her sleep has tanked, she’s stopped drinking her bottles well, and she cries a lot more unless we’re holding her. I know she’s fine, though. She’s still growing like a weed (A very, very chubby weed,) hitting milestones, developing curiosity, and is generally herself. We’ve just been rolling with the changes, because as we all know, people change constantly, no matter the age or stage. She’s allowed to have opinions, and push for what she wants. Its a natural thing.

Yesterday evening, she woke up around 10pm. This is far from our “usual” that try to have, but since she doesn’t drink her milk well anymore, she hadn’t drank much before going down for the night. It made sense for her to get up to drink, except it was different. She wasn’t sad. She was giggling!

We were SO thrilled to have OG Wavy back!! Brady brought her to bed so we could change her diaper and feed her, and she was all laughter! We tickled her and she positively lost it! She ate a little, not a lot, and then we broke the rules of parenting and sat her up in bed with us to play, tickle, and watch some Netflix. We just couldn’t imagine putting her to bed while she was so happy. I forgot what her good, free giggle sounded like, but guys its like MUSIC. She is just SO sweet! I haven’t seen her like that in so long, and it did my heart good to know that chipper, warm, happy little soul was in there! Not that she isn’t still all of those things, but this was next level Wavy!

Eventually, she had to go back to bed, and she did. And then she woke up two more times in the night, just because. And then I had to wake her from a total deep sleep because its too cold for Dekker and Laela to walk to school. Poor tired baby! However, we have an explanation.

Those top teeth are SO CLOSE! The one actually looks like it through, but it isn’t. It’s trying, though! Hopefully when those puppies make it out, Waverly can be much more settled and content! Until the next ones start moving…