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.

Ok. Its been officially official for a while, but its still worthy of a post! Brady finally got a new nameplate on his office door at work.

He manages all of the contractors packages!

Jokes. But he manages the sales of the material packages for contractors. I know you know. Still.

So, while Brady was promoted last summer, its fun to finally have it on his door. It feels good for me to see, as well. I am SO proud of him and all he has worked for and accomplished, especially during such a wild year of life. Praise the Lord for consistently taking care of us in these ways.

As an aside – how is it only Tuesday?? What a strange week! Anyone else??

As I went over the days plans with the kids over breakfast, it was clear that today was BIG. Not bad, but with lots of moving parts. Since then, most of the things on the schedule have been cancelled, called off, or postponed. Which is actually fabulous, because no one has to go anywhere in this miserable cold!! The babies and I were able to stay home and hang out all day, baking muffins, destroying the house, and blasting the Wicked soundtrack.

While they napped, I’ve worked on one of my four crochet priorijects. Yup. You read that right, and you understand it. I made a good dent in it! I watched some YouTube and answered some emails regarding the spring musical that our elementary school is putting on! Have I talked about that yet on here? 🤔 I’ll have to look back. Anyway. I did a little work on that, and fielded some schedule changes. It was relaxing and also productive – my sweet spot.

School is out now, and the kids will be home soon. I need to make supper right away here, and then I’m out for the evening once Brady is home! Just here in town, thank goodness. Its too cold out there to go anywhere far for any length of time.

Stay warm, friends 💜

I was in Walmart yesterday and my family was waiting in the van. I was looking for a pretty specific yarn that I have been having trouble finding recently. Brady texted at one point and asked if it was going well. I said it was and that I was finding some alternatives. I asked him if it was going ok in the van, and he said it was. And then he sent this picture.

I responded with something along the lines of “It seems like it isn’t…” He told me everything was under control and already over, and that it was a good story. But as you might imagine, I didn’t exactly drag my feet exiting Walmart to rejoin my family.

I opened the back of the van to put my purchases in, and immediately Laela piped up.

“Something bad happened!”

Every parents favorite sentence. I told her I’d be inside in just a second to hear about it.

And this is what happened 

The whole point of the trip to Saskatoon was a change of scenery. No one went in anywhere except me. The kids were going to stay in the van, so they all just wore jammies, most of which were onesies. While they waited, they were playing. Kicked off seat belts. Music was going. Everyone was being silly. All was well. And Laela and Rowan began “being potatoes,” which apparently means they put their arms and legs into their onesies and just sat in a ball. Get it? They were potatoes. At one point, the Morsel dropped their toy – a pop-it. And without hesitation, Rowan got down to grab it.

However. Rowan was a potato.

So by “got down” I mean that Rowan dive bombed the floor of the van and landed square on his face.

Ok so nothing about this is funny. Not yet, anyway. Just a second.

So he was on the ground, absolutely screaming. Screaming to a degree that he sent the entire group into hysterics. Everyone was in total panic. When he started actually saying words, Rowan was screaming: “THERE’S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!!!” He couldn’t verbalize what had happened, and he refused to get up. When asked, he offered up the kicker.

“I AM A POTATO!!!”

*sigh*

😅

Part of me was sad that I wasn’t there when it happened, but actually, I think its great that I wasn’t. For me, anyway. Sucks to be Brady 😬 But it was definitely nicer for me to come back to the group when it was already over and was funny.

As of this morning, Ro is left with a gash on his lip, and the bridge of his nose is pretty swollen. But he’s in good spirits, and thinks the whole thing is totally hilarious.

And because he insists, I present to you 🙌 the potato itself.

…perhaps slightly more mashed that it needs to be, but a potato nonetheless. Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes?

🥔