I was pretty excited when I put my last load of laundry in the dryer, and checked the time to see it was about 11:50am. While it wasn’t like ten loads or anything crazy like that, I still felt very accomplished. Know why? Because we have a laundry obstacle in our house. An obstacle that makes laundry take waaay longer than it should.

We have old machines, but they have great settings and I really like them. However, a long time ago already, the washer started squeaking. It has gradually become an unbelievably loud squeal. However, its only loud when it starts to spin dry. Not the whole time, just when it starts, almost like it warms up. So twice per cycle. Not a big deal. (Actually, its horrible, but I don’t want to fork over money for new machines…)

Our laundry room is in our basement, so its easy to wash clothes while the kids and I play downstairs in the day. But then the washer squeals. And Dekker runs over to close the door to the laundry room. Sooo helpful, right? But our washer doesn’t have a buzzer at the end or anything. So oftentimes, our clothes sit and sit and sit in there until I finally remember, and then I deal with them. So laundry can easily take twice as long as necessary. I’m very proud that I completed all of our wash in a logical amount of time today 🙂 Go me!!

I saw an ad on tv today that showed a bunch of people sitting in vehicles. The narrator said some stat about people spending over a year of their lives commuting. And then it said “Enjoy the commute – with tic tacs!” What do tic tacs have to do with commuting?!?! Ok so that was related to nothing but is it just me? Does this make sense to the rest of you guys?

Onto other things. I spent the morning in the city with the kids and my mom. Did a quick Costco shop, got a coffee, and finally found some awesome gladiator sandals! Best of all, they were only $20! But even better!!!, at the till they were $13!!! Success.

Laela slept on the way home, and Dekker did not. But it was actually perfect because she woke up at noon, which is a pretty normal wake up time for her morning nap. So I thought if I could keep Dekker awake, and Laela after her pretty short nap, they could go down together at 2:00 like usual. They were both rubbing their eyes by then, so it seemed perfect. They both went down very sweetly, without tears or fussing. Dekker was out like a light pretty much right away, while Laela always rolls around a little bit first. I’m still feeling nice and tired since our beach day, so instead of accomplishing stuff like I really should have done (unpacked, done laundry, swept up the sand from my kitchen, etc.) I lay in bed and watched old episodes of the Duggars on YouTube. It was awesome. Until I checked the monitor.

Laela was sitting right up in her crib, pulling at her bumper pads. I went into their room to lay her back down. As soon as I opened the door, she squealed with excitement to see me and was waving her hands at me. I walked over to her, trying not to laugh, and lay her back down. I gave her a blanket to hold and put another one overtop of her. Before I was even out the door, she was rolling around. But I can only control that so much, so I left. She was pretty quiet, and Dekker was cashed out. Probably fifteen minutes later, I checked again. Sitting up in the corning, trying to pull down the Christmas lights. (Yes, they have white twinkle lights in their room. We never use them :/ ) I moved the strand out of her reach and finally flopped her down on the ground and swaddled her. The ultimate look of betrayal. She was devastated. She cried and cried. She really hates the swaddle, so its not like I did it really tight or anything, as she used to just work herself up trying to get out of it, and then be all hot and bothered. But I just did it enough so she couldn’t roll as easily. And she was out within two minutes.

Those kids can sleep, wow! Over two hours later, Brady was home and the kids were still out! We ate supper before they got up. It was honestly one of our best days in the recent past. My sunburn hurts less, and I’m feeling refreshed. Hopefully I can be productive tomorrow and get some of our house back in order soon 🙂

We skipped church and spent the day at the lake with my parents 🙂 We were at their place just shortly after 8:30 this morning, loaded up the van, and headed out. We got to Waskesiu by 11:00 and headed for the beach. The water was too cold for swimming, but the sun was out and nothing was too populated right away.

Laela hung out in a diaper and her sun hat, while Dekker wouldn’t give in to swim shorts, much less take his shoes off. But he had a blast! We build sandcastles and took pictures blew bubbles. The wind started to really take the bubbles off in the directions of a few blankets of people, but they were awesome  and made a point of telling us they didn’t mind. Dekker ran out near their blankets to chase the bubbles and try to knock them out of the sky. It didn’t bother anyone. It was awesome.

And then all of a sudden, it was pouring!! So we rushed everyone in and got the stuff in the van. It was too early to go eat supper, and frankly, everyone who was outside would probably now be inside, and we don’t always do great in big groups. So we decided to go for a nice drive and see some of the scenery. And the kids napped 🙂 it was perfect. Short, but enough!

Once we got to the restaurant, it had cleared out quite a bit so everyone was comfortable. Dekker and Brady took selfies while the rest of us went to order food.

We played at the table while we waited and when the food came, Dekker didn’t even scream at the waitress! He ate his whole meal and was very happy about it. I had easily the best fish and chips I’ve had in I don’t even know how long. It was sooo good! I fed Laela most of her bottles and Brady finished it up before we decided onto the next thing!

Which was ice cream. Always a hit. I forgot to take pictures of the last bit, but we grabbed some ice cream and walked the kids in the stroller down to the water. The pier was completely flooded over so we pulled up on some sand and skipped stones. After a few minutes, Dekker climbed back into the strolled, leaned back, and said “Detter done.” So we left.

We drove home with the insane storm coming and going. But the kids are now safely tucked away, hopefully to sleep for a very, very long time. I am off to nurse my sunburn with vinegar (did you guys know that?? Just spray your burn with vinegar. Gone! Smells like salad, but worth it!) and sit in a lukewarm tub. An episode of The Mindy Project won’t hurt either.

Hope you all enjoyed the photo post! I did.

Nope. Not the ice cream.

It was a rough day, I’m not gonna lie. You know those days when your whole family feels out of sync? We had one of those. We got some tidying and organizing done, which is great, and we grilled burgers for supper, which was delicious. But those were pretty much the high points.

Tomorrow will be better. We’re headed to the lake with my parents for the day! I’m thinking it’ll probably not be swimming weather, but it will be town walking, bubble blowing, ice cream eating weather! Laela’s first time there, too. Wish us luck!

Sleep deep, all.

I’ve had a decent amount of productive days over the past couple of weeks, but the other day I had a fail day, where none of the tasks I started I completed. I stripped diapers, only to discover that I hadn’t stripped half of what needed to be done. And I sorted through a large pile of paperwork thinking it was the last of its kind, only to find a much larger second pile. I was sooo bummed at the end of that day that I didn’t try and finish the tasks up.

I saved them for today, apparently. It was a good day, really. The kids were in great spirits when they were up, and both slept beautifully for all of their naps. I can’t complain at all. In the morning, I stripped a ton more diapers. I still have ten more to strip another day, because I didn’t feel good making the laundry load so large. But I got most of that done anyway. It wasn’t so bad. And I finished up that large stack of paperwork! I discovered most of it was garbage and I threw it out. Yay!! I felt quite productive in the small way of having two tasks. I had a nice visit with my mother in law in the afternoon, and the whole fam went to visit my parents for a couple of hours in the evening.

Today felt refreshing and like I wish every day felt. Happy kids, got a couple of things done, but nothing labour intensive, I could rest for part of the time that the kids rested, and we didn’t have screaming over supper. Couldn’t have asked for more, really.

I hope everyone else had as good a day as I did! Any good stories?

I think I’ve talked about them before, but my friend, Willa, gave me some daylilies a few years back. They were beautiful and enormous and I was so happy for them. And then I doddled and doddled and they were dead by the time I planted them. I felt guilty and yucky. Low and behold, they bloom beautifully every year, and the ironic part is that Willa’s don’t. I’m sorry!! If mine have babies, you can definitely come steal from them! That’s kind of a scary thought. Stealing babies is frowned upon. Maybe we’ll call them the neighbours instead. That seems slightly more socially acceptable.

We spent the better part of the day at home, being lazy. The kids hung out in their diapers in our hot, hot house.

I put them down for their nap early, because we were going out mid-afternoon. They went down at 1:00 and Dekker was out immediately. Laela, however, rolled around happily for over an hour and a half!!! All of a sudden, she burst out crying, and moments later, she was asleep. Twenty minutes later, I woke them both, got them dressed, and we headed out the door.

Yay for getting your legs waxed! I hadn’t had a chance to welcome summer yet due to the grossness of my legs. The wind in my leg hair felt like spiders. I know thats a lot of information, but its true. It was this morning, when walking up our carpeted stairs and feeling the static electricity pull my hair towards them that I knew I was overdue. So that was a huge relief, and I feel considerably more comfortable now than I did then. Yay!

Brady dropped me off at the mall after that. I went to Bath and Body Works while he went to pick up some food. Dekker loves his fries, and since he’s been so misbehaved in the city lately, he keeps losing that privilege. That means we lose it to, which is a super bummer, haha! So this trip, he didn’t get to go out anywhere, so we all got fast food for supper. Yum! On my trip to the mall, I returned a bunch of product I wasn’t happy with, paid $3.50 and got eight candles!!! It was a great haul, and my bedroom will smell like earl grey tea for MONTHS! I love that smell.

We quickly hit up our banks drive-thru ATM to grab our weekly savings (is anyone else doing that?) and were on our way home. Not tons of errands, but we got out of the house, which was the most important part.

When we got home, the kids played in the living room, Brady played guitar with them, and I did a bit more work in our bathroom. Brady put up a shelf above our bathroom door to hold all of our extra things that kind of sort of go in a bathroom but have no real place, like extra hand soaps, candles, cleaning supplies, etc. I don’t have a picture of the shelf with the stuff on it, but here’s the shelf anyway.

I highly recommend that everyone gets one of these. It is incredible.

Kids are tucked away, and a not-too-hot bath is waiting for me. But first, Brady and I are going to wander around the garden for a few minutes. Its all weeded and tilled and doesn’t require much past watering right now, but I’m curious to see how much its grown since the huge job of getting it so cleaned up!

Off to get some sun before it goes down  ☼

Our day was like any other day, except that the kids woke up at 6:50am. They were happy in their room for a little while, but not long before I had to go in and get them up for the day. Thats a really early day around here. I knew I’d have tired kidlets on my hands. No big deal. It wouldn’t be the first time. Plus, the little miss popped her eighth tooth! All of the front ones are officially through!

Laela went down beautifully for her morning nap at 10:00, and I woke her shortly after noon, since the kids go down for a nap together around 2:00pm, and I wanted her to be able to sleep.

The cruel joke was that she didn’t. I’ve never had a problem with “quiet time” as opposed to actual napping, so she climbed around her crib and cooed for about an hour while Dekker slept through the whole thing. She started crying and I figured she’d be out right away. If she cries before bed, its never more than a minute or two. But she did not give up. Because she normally goes down so easy, I went to check on her and cuddle her a little, and tuck her back in. I did that on two separate occasions. She just wailed. Wasn’t having it. When I went in a third time, Dekker rolled over and looked at me through his squinty exhausted eyes and made a sad “I’m about to cry” sound, so I took Laela out. Poor kid. Deks slept like a log after that.

Laela, on the other hand, could be consoled for a moment here or there, but otherwise she basically cried for the next 2.5 hours. It was intense, and not in a good way. Once Dekker finally started to move around, I went to get him and put Laela in bed. She was wiped and dangit, she was going to sleep whether she wanted to or not!

She obviously wasn’t sleeping very deeply because she woke up when Brady came home. She didn’t lull awake. She woke up and bawled her eyes out until I finally went to get her. It was clear she wasn’t going back to sleep. So in total, she got about a half hour.

So this is a big long whiny post but guys, I’m exhausted and grumpy and I spent the last hour of the kids awake time running around the house getting things done just because I was so frustrated at the day.

*deep breath* I don’t need to be upset about today. I did all the laundry, and its all put away in its respective places. Can we all agree that he putting away is the worst part?? Yup, its all tidy. I fed the kids well and even ate lunch myself. I changed a lot of poopy diapers. I did dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. I moved around some shelves and got our dvd collection looking good. I did my hair!  And best of all, I was available to my crabby kids when they needed someones full attention.

I always love my kids, but somedays the job seems to get to me. Today was one of those days. Please don’t judge me. I assure everyone out there, I am doing the absolute very best I can!

Today was full and truly great 🙂 Brady had to work for a few hours this morning so the kids and I hung out for a bit on our own. They are just the cutest things.

My parents came over mid-morning to do some work on the garden. Laela was still napping, so as soon as Brady got home we all went outside, Dekker included, and weeded/played trucks. When Laela was quite awake, I brought her out in her carseat to sit in the shade and have some fun outside with us. She was totally happy with the setting, and we all took our turn ducking in and visiting her. The garden now looks beautiful, and I expect our plants to skyrocket from here on out!

We had grilled fish and broccoli salad for lunch, and then had a bit of a visit before my parents left. They just got back from a trip yesterday and needed their rest. Plus, we had plans!

The always-flawless Jerilee recently offered to take our kids for the evening so we could go catch the fireworks. I know lots of people are bored with the fireworks, and I don’t blame them! But we never get to do stuff like that and really wanted a date night, so we took her up on it. Poor dear, though. She came straight after work, arriving around 6:30 and we got home after midnight :/ But we had a wonderful time out and appreciated the help SO MUCH!!

Even just the drive was nice. We listened to music we liked at a “healthy” volume 🙂

For supper, we didn’t have tons of time to go sit down somewhere, and didn’t want to just hit up a Wendys or McDonalds like we normally would do when pressed for time, so we bit the bullet and went FULLY unhealthy! 7eleven provided us with a delicious once a year supper of corn dogs, potato wedges, and candy. We got some iced coffee and were on our way!

We parked pretty far from the grounds in an attempt to get out easier, rather than being right close to the park but taking hours to get out of it. Trust me, it was smart. We grabbed a blanket, hoodies, and our candy of choice – Live wires – and walked a solid twenty minutes to our spot on the hill. It was at our first that I realized that some people come to events like the fireworks specifically to scream, curse, and drink. I don’t mean to be rude, as people have the right! But it was just a lot and really, really loud really, really close. We moved our blanket once before we settled in.

 

We watched the family in front of us fill their babys bottle with chocolate milk, which we kind of did a double take on. We decided to stop judging when she was just an adorable little girl who made eyes at us and waved and, what the heck, why shouldn’t she have a treat?! Who am I to judge??? I was so thankful to not have to make any decisions like that tonight.

I tried to photograph the fireworks, but it didn’t really work out. So I tried to photograph us. Which also wasn’t super flattering…

The walk back to the van was actually pretty nice, since everyone was moving in relatively the same direction. Made us move a little slower and enjoy the walk more than book it back. We got out incredibly quickly, stopped at a Tim’s to pee, and headed home. It was lovely to arrive home to a quiet house, two sleeping babies who ate their food and listened to their babysitter, and Jerilee, who came willingly to love my kids while we were away. That is a HUGE part of getting out of the house – knowing your kids love the person who is coming to watch them, and knowing she will keep the house running the way we like it to run. Thank you from the bottom of my heart <3

Ok ok ok, its bedtime. I’m sooo old, and was yawning before 10:00pm. Its time. Sleep deep, and happy Canada Day!

Guys!!! There is still sooo much to get done around here and I’m starting to feel considerably less pumped about it. This is going to be a problem. I was going to list on tonight post what is still left, but in a crazy rant to Brady, I realized there is WAY too much to actually write down. I love lists, but as of about two weeks ago when the great house purge began, I decided to not list, since I knew that would overwhelm me. So no lists. But sooo much!

I had a rough night and the kids were pretty irritable this morning as well, so we didn’t do much. I put all the cloth diapers that Dekker wore last time he broke out in yeast into the wash to strip them. Yes, I used bleach. Don’t judge me! I did a bleach and rinse, detergent and rinse, and then three full wash cycles without soap, so basically six rinses. I think they’ll be ok now!

Dekker was pretty lazy today…

But thats my favorite kind of lazy 🙂 We watched a bit of tv and had lunch and Dekker finally ventured away from me to check out the new set up of our basement. Its much more open and he can really run around.

When the kids finally went down for a nap, I sorted through a ton of papers that were in a pile from when they were born. It was fun to go through it and see how different their lives have been already! Dekker’s hospital stuff was peppered with info on nursing, while Laela’s had basic info on formula feeding, since I had decided to bottle feed before she was even born. Dekker’s vision info had somehow slipped into the pile, while Laela’s contained more about jaundice and all the fun dangers that it carries. Of course, after I finished that huge stack of papers and got them separated and in order and put away, I found TONS more. Sigh. So that was a bummer.

I was so relieved when the diapers were done, only to be pushed down again by realizing that Dekker wore a couple of the diapers we had bought for Laela when we were in a pinch, and we don’t know which ones. Which means we have another day or two of stripping diapers ahead of us. Another sigh.

I don’t mean to be a downer, even thought I really, really sound like one. I’m just starting to lose my gusto, and it feels like everything I tried to accomplish today flopped. I even overcooked the ham for supper.

Luckily, surprisingly, Dekker was super excited for ham! He asked and asked until we’d give him more. And then something set him off and he got really angry, and just started screaming. We tried to relax him, but he was thrashing and furious. Sometimes, even if we know whats bothering him, he works himself into such a frenzy, he needs to cool off alone. So I walked with him to his room and said I’d get him when he calmed down.

Over twenty minutes later, we tucked him in for the night 🙁 I was so sad. He slept sooo much this afternoon, but he was clearly in no shape to be with us for the evening. It wasn’t much earlier than usual, but he pretty much got up, ate, screamed for a half hour, and went back to bed. It was awful. However, every once in a while, he seems relieved by a punishment. Its like he knows he can’t be around people sometimes. So once he accepted that it was bedtime, he was smiling through his tear stained face and making jokes, giving big kisses, saying he loved me, and that he was happy. And he went down fine.

Hopefully we’ll get a bit done still here this evening before we go to bed. I need to get this motivation back! Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Before I even talk about today, Laela popped a new tooth overnight!!! Tooth #7 is here, to the right of the two bottom ones. The left one is not far off.

We decided to hit up the city today, but the kids woke early and were tired early. We put Laela down for her first nap and hoped for the best, but Dekker was incredibly tired much sooner than usual, so as soon as she was up, Dekker had to go down. Therefore, we only ended up leaving around 3:00pm. I rocked my bed head, because why not, right?

It was actually perfect, though. Our only place that we had to get to by a reasonable time was Costco, and we made it easily. Brady and Dekker ran in and got a few things while Laela and I listened to Frozen and hung out in the car.

After that, we did Walmart for a couple more groceries and one of those rolly storage tubs that goes under a bed. We plan to fill it with extra wipes, diapers, etc. and put it under Laela’s crib. I’m actually pretty pumped about that thing. Wish we got two. Maybe we still will. We got some cereal on sale, and the stuff to make my delicious cherry cream cheese square dessert.Do you remember when I first made it and said it looked awful and was a total flop? Oh my gosh, it is sooo good! And gooey and horrendous looking, but really yummy. Its time to make it again.

Our only other planned stop was the Broadway Cafe for milkshakes, and it was closed today :/ So we went home. Sadly, no fries for Dekker, as he screamed at too many people. Boo for all of us. Brady and I were really disappointed too.

On the drive home, Brady punched himself in the nuts. Well, in the nut. The right one. I laughed.

Turns out that our evening was great anyway. We had delicious stroganoff for supper, While Dekker wailed his way through the first minute or two of the meal, I snuck a bite into his mouth. He liked it, and ate a decent amount more. Yay for force feeding your children!

After playing upstairs in the sun while Brady cleaned the Keurig and I took a bunch of pictures, both kids are not officially down for the night. Time for a soak, as well as some popcorn and BC cherries. Best. Snack. Ever.