I suppose today wasn’t actually the first snow, because, you know, January… But you get it.

Its fall! The cold season is upon us. And today marked the first snowfall of the season! What promised to be a beastly winter storm left merely a skiff of snow on the ground this morning. That being said, the kids had mixed feelings about the snow upon waking up, but WOW were they all jazzed to get out in it!!! 😍

GOOD THING Brady and I sorted winter gear yesterday because today was definitely the day we needed it! I’m not sure how we would’ve managed without it!

It was a VERY cute, colourful morning 💜 And I was proud of their positive attitudes, especially of those who rallied and accepted the day for what it was.

The day was peaceful. Iced capps and crafternoon with Cher 💜 Thank you Lord for keeping the sun out, making the day feel pretty.

Since Brady worked on Saturday, he had today off. We aimed for rest and relaxation, but as usual, it didn’t take. It rarely does 😅 Over coffee this morning, we decided there were three things to accomplish. Only three!!

We needed to get the winter tires out of the shed.

I needed to make muffins.

And we needed to dig out outerwear for everyone.

So while the morsel slept, I defrosted pumpkin and crocheted a bit. Brady and Wavy went outside and got the tires loaded into the van to bring in for a balance. Do you guys all balance your tires before changing them over? I thought we put them on rims so we could avoid hitting up a tire shop altogether, but it seems I’m mistaken!

I got the pumpkin defrosted and put together a big batch of muffins. After I put the first load into the oven, I decided I had the time and pumpkin to make another batch, so I went for it. And 149 muffins later, we were done.

Whew! Behold! Breakfasts for two weeks!!

Then, in the last hour or so before kids came home from school, we tackled outerwear. Have you heard there is a winter storm brewing? Well. I have. And I’m not stoked. The naive side of me wanted to avoid digging out all the winter stuff until we moved, but if we even get to move, it’s still a ways off. Of course we need it sooner than later. So we dug through all of the storage in the furnace room, as well as the garage, and made some final cuts on what to keep and what not to.

‘Twas an exhausting job, but goodness we are getting rid of SO much. Things we used to love and don’t anymore, or that we’ve simply worn out. We chucked some, and have lots to donate. Thankfully, we found LOTS that is relevant to the season and also fits!! The only holes left to fill are boots for Laela and Rowan, and toques for Rowan and Solly. And maybe neckwarmers. I should do those, too. But, we’re on our way. No one is lacking anything to get the season started.

It has been a HUGELY productive day, and tomorrow will be very relaxing and fun! You’ll hear about that then, though.

Rest well tonight, friends 💜 Dream warm dreams.

We finally found ourselves back at church today! Its been months, and it was just SO nice to be back 💜 We were received so warmly, and our morsel was welcomed as one of our own. It felt so nice and homey.

A few things I can show you from before we got to church, however –

The morsel clocked Dekker in the teeth with a fidget spinner, which made him laugh hysterically and cry just a little 😆😬😩 Don’t worry, he wasn’t wounded too deeply, and rallied pretty easily.

Laela asked to have her hair curled this morning. While I am by far an expert at hair, she accepted my haphazard methods, and let me do my thing. Lucky for her, she is terribly beautiful no matter what her hair is doing. But it wasn’t a total flop.

And then there’s Rowan! He recently discovered our nativity lego, and has been building it the last couple of days. He and Laela use the characters and act out the scene over and over, with their own special tweaks 😆

It was a cute morning, and we are now home and settled and ready to kick our feet up for a bit. I have crocheting to do, and hopefully some staring and chatting and resting.

Happy Sunday, friends! Enjoy the last hours of the weekend! 💜

The work day begins!!!! 💪

For some of us, anyway. Laela got to head out on her birthday date with grandma, so she’s partying while the rest of us are working, hahaha!

A fun new development is Rowan’s love for vacuuming! He happily vacuumed all the carpets in the house for me, which was AWESOME, not only because my floors are now clean, but I had only asked him to do the living room. He did the entire job perfectly happily!

Dekker was on dishes this morning, and I even weaselled him into making me some coffee. He’s a really good sport, and happily did it for me. He was motivated to get through his dishes this morning. We’ll talk about that in a second.

Solly and Wavy got tasked with sorting the laundry out. Neither of them know how to actually run loads through, but right now, thats an easier part for me. The length of time it takes to sort it all out is a fun challenge with a somewhat needy morsel, so the sorting being done makes the rest of the job way easier for me! It took them forever to sort it all, not because it was tons, but because they’re little and doddly, but they did it happily. TOGETHER!

Rowan finished vacuuming and hopped in the tub. Dekker finished dishes and immediately procured my iPad to work on his latest project.

My kids rarely have screen time. Its not a big statement I’m trying to make, it kind of just happened naturally, and now I really like how much of a treat it is when they do get some device usage!

Dekker and I went for a walk last night with the morsel, and we talked about something he’s going to build me for my crochet ventures. I will absolutely tell you about it when and if it comes to fruition! But he got really excited about it yesterday, and it was his priority one upon waking up this morning. So here he sits, coding and planning, and humming to the music we have going. It is SO fun.

Other kids still need to be clean. So do I. People also need to eat. And I have some crochet commitments that I’m working towards completing. Meanwhile, Brady’s all worky as well. Except he gets paid, so its different.

We are productive all around!! I hope the same for you! Unless, of course, you’re going for rest. In which case, I hope you find that rest 💜

Happurday, guys!

Today is one of the Fridays where all five kids are at school! These days can go a couple of different ways, because on one hand, I have a morsel that naps, and I can do productive things. Or I can do restful things! But when Wavy is home, she also is helpful with the morsel so I can still accomplish things. But when Wavy is home, I answer questions aaaaall day. The morsel asks far less questions 😆 We just chat casually.

As the kids just peeled out for the day, I am looking at my list. And its really the best kind of list.

I need to make granola bars.
But, if I run out, I have backups in the pantry.
Low pressure.

I need to do laundry.
But, if I don’t get to it today, there is always tomorrow, and I’d have kids to help out.
Low pressure.

I need to book some appointments.
I’m not on a time crunch, so I don’t have to stress about fitting in a time slot that really sucks.
Low pressure.

Furthermore, the list holds things that do need to get done today.

Foster expenses. I am SO behind, so they feel pretty daunting. But thats a job I know I could sit down to start, and it would just flow. So I know that one will be ok.

Camp stuff. I still have some tubs and boxes laying around of stuff from camp that needs to be integrated into our home stuff. It stares at me, and I know I need to deal with it. Soon.

I have a blog I really want to write, and I know its going to take some time. If I even just jot some of it down, I’ll probably feel that much more organized.

Oh and I want to finish crocheting the toque I’m working on. Because I have some crochet goals and I’m a tad behind.

Aaaaall of this, and I have a morsel rolling around nearby. So. We’ll see how much I get to, and how much wait for when there are more hands in the house. Sometimes that makes it easier, sometimes it makes it harder. I know there are things to do, but there is wiggle room absolutely all over the map, which helps.

At least I’m home today 💜 Thank you Lord for what feels like a more restful day!

I’m a BIG fan of this kid recently. Dekker is really coming into his own in high school. Here, he can be seen eating leftover baked oatmeal from Home Ec, in which class he is the kitchen manager of his group, and next, he modelled a headband I made. Like a doofus.

He is just SO funny, and can take a good joke nowadays. He has always been a decently serious guy, and its really nice to see him laugh at himself more these days.

Today, the younger kids had a family reading lunch, and Dekker came and joined the party! Because, once again, he is awesome. I am SO proud of my biggest big kid 💜 And the biggest little kid. And the middlest kid. And that next one. And the littlest school kid. And the morsel. But, for the sake of this blog, I’m REALLY proud of my Dekker Thomas.

I’d love to be someone who was DONE Christmas shopping nicely in advance, and I’m just not sure thats in the cards for me 😅 Maybe someday, but today is not that day.

That being said, I have a few things on hand already from a month or two ago, and yesterday, I received a few other things in the mail. Thank you, Amazon, for having some great gift options for my kids!!

That being said, I have something I really need to order from Old Navy. And also Walmart. And also Superstore. But none of them meet the minimum required amount for free shipping. And the cheapo in me cannot justify for paying for shipping without very specific circumstances. So I’m waiting on those things for now. I might buckle for the Old Navy item, because I kind of can’t let it pass us by. We’ll have to see.

I’m just feeling like we have SO much in limbo right now, and if I drag my feet even a little, we could suddenly be in the midst of packing and moving and unpacking and all that craziness really close to Christmas! Ack! So I HAVE to get things organized, like, now.

Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. For six kids. Even doing modest, intentional gifts still means at least TWENTY FOUR GIFTS! Hahahahaha! Plus other things for other people we love 💜

Oh and I need Canadian Tire! But I’ll get there in person someday soon. Crisis averted.

*adds Canadian Tire to the list*

It has been a LONG time since I had my hair coloured within the same color family twice in a row!! But I loved the pink so much last time that I decided to go for it again today. Pink. Again.

Well. First that super attractive bleached out look…

I know. I look great.

And then we added the pink. My only request was “Pink. Bright. I don’t even care what shade. Just, pink.” And my hair girl ran with it.

And she ran in the right direction!

I am officially neoned the heck up for the fall season! I am almost always blue for the colder months. Maybe purple. Never pink. So this is super fun for me 🙂 I’m stoked. I feel lighter, somehow. I know the color of my hair shouldn’t dictate how I feel about myself, but its fun to feel fresh.

I came home to a happy family who complimented my refreshed look lovingly. It was a very warm reception 💜 My beautiful people, wanting me to feel like a rockstar. Thanks, guys.

Tomorrow is a *gasp* HOME day! Coffee with Cher in the morning, and likely some crocheting and restful time in the afternoon with Wavy. Thursday is busy again, so I’ll make sure to soak up some chill time tomorrow 🙂

As if I wasn’t resting at the salon all afternoon 😅 Thank you, Carlinna 💜 I can always count on you!

I’m trying SO HARD to keep the house in order now that its listed on MLS. I want to be ready for a showing at the drop of a hat. Or, if there is suddenly to be a last minute showing and I can’t prep it first, I want it to be not too disastrous. You get it. In general, our house isn’t too big of a mess, but there are areas that get SO bad SO fast. And my island is the worst for it. It always has been. The beautiful large clear island is a total dumping ground, and its the first thing you see when you come into the home. It has to stay tidier than this.

Real talk – this isn’t even bad. At least its not a million things. But its enough things, and its taking over half the island. So its time to clean it up!

Currently it holds:

my calendar that I took off the wall for the sake of repainting, and I won’t be putting it back up, because either a nail hole or adhesive. So it kind of lives on the island now :/ Any ideas?

some bath and body soaps I was given! Ack! I haven’t had these soaks in FOREVER! I need to go put them upstairs.

my tool kit. Just needs putting in the junk drawer.

the med bottle will have its last dose taken from it today and then its getting pitched! Whew!

That box in the back is medical supplies that need to go into a closet. Trying not to have clutter out, I need to find space in a closet for it.

Kids photo proofs are on top of that box. I want to file those away but I know some kids want to cut out and keep one or two of their own photos. So we’re waiting on those decisions to be made.

Pumpkins!!! They need cooking!

The basins came to our house when my mom brought us a meal on the weekend. I need to return her pots to her, as well as her basis, and some of the towels used to keep in the heat got messy, so I need to wash those up.

That pink box is a new parcel that came this weekend – I’ll tell you more about that shortly.

And the laptop came down with me this morning because I use it periodically all day. Like right now. As I blog.

Today’s day isn’t too chaotic. Most of our commitments are after school. So this morning, I will tidy this all up, wash the towels, and hopefully cook up some of the pumpkins! Tomorrow I will barely be home at all, so I need to get things organized today if possible 🙂

Don’t forget to buy our house!!

https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/26088074/103-bitner-place-dalmeny

We realized yesterday evening that we were just about out of diapers. As we’ve been having house showings, I’ve been hiding absolutely everything in our house. That being said, we may very well have more diapers 🤷🏼‍♀️ Somewhere. But I’m not sure. So we figured we’d go in this morning for diapers, and a few other things. Not a big shop at all.

Which was convenient, because Costco was HOPPIN’! Man! It was crazy in there! And our crew just added to it, hahaha! But it was a VERY cute train, if I do say so myself 😍

Two carts because one needed to hold a box of diapers, and one needed to hold a car seat. Basically, one was a stroller 😆 It worked.

We got our diapers, and the few other things we needed. Potatoes. Chicken stock. Parmesan cheese. Nothing crazy.

Once we got back to the van, we started into the city for a quick Walmart shop as well. Two of the kids needed jeans, and Brady needed shoes for work.

Goals achieved 🏆

And the last hit was Michaels, because yarn was “buy two get one free!” And maybe you know, maybe you don’t, but I committed to a marketplace at the end of the November, and now that I know the direction I’m moving in for it, I need to get my colors in hand!! Its going to be a very pretty season!

We made it home for a late lunch. Now, kids are mostly bathed, laundry is running, the dishwasher is running, and Brady is out in the garage working on the power steering in the minivan.

While this is not our preferred way to spend Sundays, its been a really nice day 💜 I really love my family, and its a true joy to be out and about all together. Thank you, Lord.