Yesterday was a really, really hard day. I tried all day to be even just be a little better, and all day, I failed. I ate food. I drank water. I put on real clothes. It just wasn’t working. I was in a funkity funk and couldn’t shake it.

Brady gave me every option to have a break, and I took them. I hid upstairs from everyone most of the day, yet I felt totally unproductive. When I did surface, I just felt ready to explode at every little detail.

We had some errands to run that we considered to be fun errands, but I was worried I’d wreck the tone and the fun. Also, we try to be really responsible, and at that time of day, it would leave us eating out for supper. However, the day was swirling the drain, and Brady made the executive decision that one supper out would not leave us high and dry. So we packed the kids up and headed to Saskatoon.

Can we just take a moment of silence to grieve the loss of affordable fuel for our vehicles?

*silently barfs*

Anyway…

We got supper first, since the kids would mostly just be sitting in the van, so they could eat as slowly as they wanted, haha! We put on good music and felt really relaxed.

Brady hit Home Depot first. He needed some lumber, which unfortunately, isn’t as easy for him to do on his own anymore. I am so grateful for our beautiful eldest son 💜 Dekker went in with Brady and pushed the cart with the lumber on it so Brady could more easily get around. He can push a standard grocery cart, but it has to be light, and if it at all pulls funny, its just SO much more difficult.

Then it was my turn. I chose Walmart over Michaels because I knew they’d have more of what I needed in bigger skeins. I foolishly motored over to the yarn without a basket, and quickly saw the error of my ways. I grabbed the nearest laundry hamper, determined to get in and out as fast as possible. I purchased a mountain more grey, a bit more yellow, and a whole schwack of BLUES for all you BLUE people!!! Almost everyone who ordered from me ordered blue tones! Which is lovely! There is a great variety of blue yarn out there, and I have some, but I used up pretty much all of my little variegated blues and greens recently, so there were definite holes to fill in my stash. Are all you blue loving people happy with these?

I sure am! Plus my other random ends, and of course some navy in the mix.

I wanted to hit Michaels, too, but I knew me, and I knew I was finished for the day. Maybe another day 🙂 Soon, probably!

Too many creative ideas brewing in this noggin these days. For that reason, I REALLY appreciate those of you who shared, inquired, and/or ultimately ordered from me. It frees me up to be able to work and make a little money doing something I really, really love. Thank you, friends.

So yesterday evening was FUN! I shared some pictures on Facebook of a basket I made, and you guys ordered!!! Those couple of hours were SO exciting for me!

Can anyone guess my favorite colour? 😂💜

This isn’t actually the first one of these that I’ve made! I thought I posted them but the last month has been absolutely upside down, so clearly they got lost in the mix.

First, another round one. Its a little shorter than the one I posted earlier, but the same width.

And then a rectangular one!

I already feel like they’re getting better, so thank you to my close people who tend to be my guinea pigs on these things!

Everyone’s support surrounding my work goes further than you know. From being the person who was labelled “the one who always just crochets something” to being excited and proud of what I make has been a leap, but its happening, and I have many of you to thank for it!

The little details:

Large Basket
14″ diameter
13″ (ish) height.
Colours may vary
$60

Thinking we might start adding light wooden bases for an added amount. Would that be worth the value to you?

Business page coming soon!

🤮 Forgive me, I dry heave when I get nervous.

Yesterday’s blog ended with the sickening issue of water damage on our ceiling. While we have no concrete answers at this very moment, we have hope, information, and some local people who are willing to get up there and help us. What a relief. Once again, our community swoops in to help 💜 We are so fortunate.

it was a very full day yesterday, which was welcomed. There has been a LOT of reminiscing recently, so thats a lot of what you’ll be reading on here in the days to come. Yesterday marks a year since Brady finally got his MRI. It turned out to be the first of many, but we were so ready to finally have gotten the attention Brady so desperately needed! Little did we know, the MRI would leave us with more questions than what we started with. We were told of a foggy, undefined area of the thoracic spine, which could mean a mass, but could also mean something as simple as an issue of blood flow. We still had hope, but goodness, just remembering how those days felt gives me the full-body shivers.

My body was aching to be prepared. Maybe you remember, maybe not. I was meal prepping. I would have a weeks worth of cheese rolls and pre-chopped veggies ready for the kids lunches at all times. I was pre-writing blogs. I had a bag packed for Brady and a list of last minute things to grab in case we ever had to move fast. I had childcare lined up for just about everything.

All that preparing, and we still had no idea what was coming. As in ZERO.

My body feels that same fear these days – the desperate need to prepare for the worst. I cannot shake it, but I think its something it just has to get through, so I continue to coast as smoothly as I can. Which is not very smooth.

Some memories can be really good, though. Lots of good memories made, and MANY more to make 💜

One day, some of these February days won’t feel as heavy. Please, Lord, protect us.

Its been a while, but it was time to take Rowan in to be seen to be fully cleared to go back to regular life. He’s had a few lingering things since his bout of covid, so I wanted to have him checked fully over to make absolutely sure he isn’t fighting any additional infection/sickness. So Brady, Rowan, Wavy, and I went into the city together once the others had gone to school.

Guys, it is just frigid these days! Yikes!!

Before Rowan’s appointment, we ran a couple of errands. Nothing major. A stop for coffees, which we haven’t done in forever! A stop at Dollarama to buy them out of certain supplies for Brady’s projects. A stop at Michaels for yarn that they didn’t have, but also for yarn that they did have! 😍 Stay tuned for some new little projects I have on the go.

Then the four of us went to Walmart together, like I said before, for the first time in a LONG time!!! When I went to get Brady’s wheelchair out of our van, the one wheel wasn’t locked, making it a lot harder to take out. But once I got it out, the brake was just hanging by a thread, completely broken. Of all things. So we added that to our list of things to do and carried on.

After Walmart, we headed to the doctors office and Rowan and I waited only a few minutes before it was time. This kid is SO handsome.

He had a VERY long appointment, where we went far beyond covid talk and got into sleep, behavior, mental health, and directions to move in. I feel armed with support, ideas, and information now! And an even bigger win – Rowan says he really likes going to the doctor! Woot!

When all was said and done, we were at the doctors WAY longer than anticipated, and needed to get the kids lunch. And a donut for being SO patient and cooperative.

And one for Wavy too, because it was necessary.

Aaaaand coffee, again, for Brady and I. Because it was that kind of day.

We still hit another couple of stores, because at this point, we decided to just lurk a little longer and then pick the kids up all together. We got the mail, and took our time. It was a really full, really nice day.

And we came home to water damage on our ceiling.

I could scream.

But I won’t.

We have GOT to get out of the house.

*sigh*

I LOVE my plants.

They thrive in the warm months, but with winter and with my capacity being lower than I wish it was, my succulents are dyyyyying.

When I took Christmas stuff down, I could move my succulents out from their little shelves and into more central, sunny spots in the house. Here is what I’m currently dealing with.

I LOVE the long viney ones, and while they can absolutely be propagated and saved, they are really really overgrown and sad right now :/

The ones in the sink are doing ok. One has reeeaaally stretched though. They could both use some help.

The ones on the windowsill are grossly stretched and pretty deadish. They need love. But really who doesn’t?

I really really love these guys, and they’re not SO dead but also not SO alive. They just need some more water and sun, so they’re on the piano now.

This one still looks pretty good but it shouldn’t be flat. So we’ll work on that. It had a bit of dead stuff on one side but I pulled it off.

And this guy I really don’t know about. He used to be SO much smaller. Now he’s like a tree!! But he doesn’t look bad. So maybe he’s fine. No dead stuff. He’s stretched but he’s full.

I need to hang some of these suckers in front of my windows like the cool pinterest people…

It finally happened. I know February is going to be a challenging month. As if January wasn’t 😅 Let’s share a little laugh about that one.

Oooookay, so that didn’t last long!

I plan to still love my life in February, but I want to get some of the big stuff out of the way before it comes. So on the last day of January, as a big storm brews outside, we decided to take down Christmas.

Fun fact. If the kids helped up up Christmas, they can help take down Christmas! Its also significantly easier than putting it up.

Usually we do the big tree and most of the little stuff, and then we do the trees above the cabinets at the end of winter. Because we love them. They are easily my favorite decor in our whole house. But this year, we decided to do it all in one shot. Just get it done so I can be on a ladder one less time this season, lol!

Dekker took on the job of removing the lights from the tree and coiling them back up. Brady announced that he was “the Christmas genius” and took the tree apart in an effort to make it easier for him. He felt VERY good about himself hahaha!

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Its all done now!

And by “done” I mean its all in boxes up in the garage. Putting the boxes back up there is SO hard for me, so if weather permits in any way, any time, we will be asking for help to get the boxes back up in garage storage.

What does a person do with this space now? Every spring, I look up above my cabinets and wish there was something pretty up there. But what? Any and all ideas welcome! My cabinets are naked and they need your help!

Yesterday, around 2:00, our favorite people made their way to our house, and after weeks of lockdown, we hung out together 💜 It was SUCH a treat to share space, and air, and fresh air at that!!

I don’t have to say much. The photos write the blog for me.

It was completely impossible to get us all in one picture.

You’ll have to just take us one at a time 💜

We have thee beautiful Cher – poker of fire and bringer of drinks. Laughs til she coughs.

Dekker – the cool dude mini-adult, bringer of sarcasm.

Waverly – the pink one, who swings the highest and complains the least.

Laela – the boss. The wearer of the pants. Stays under the radar.

Rowan – our Elton John impersonator, stuck between the bigs and littles. Wicked style.

Thee beautiful mom/grandma/Jeanne – the bringer of positivity and fig bars. Potentially the only one of us who never complains about being outside.

Solomon – Captain Obvious. Eater of treats. Banana man. Tiny Brady.

Brady – the man. We needed one. He is the goer of the flow, and foregoer of excuses. The doer of ALL the things.

It was sad to see the fire go, but we made it over three hours! It was such a beautiful day.

I will say, I know better than to wish time away. But this gave me TOTAL lake vibes! I loved it. Goodness I cant wait!!

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Thank you Cher for taking some of these photos and editing them all for me 💜 I appreciate you!!

I’m not one who needs a thing to make me feel better. When I’m struggling, I’m not just aching for some retail therapy. I have ZERO judgement for people who do, but thats not how I roll. Yet, sometimes something wonderful shows up and it can be a really lovely morale boost.

For instance, the other day, my sweet neighbour purged her closet and left a big box of cozy clothes outside my door. That was a lovely surprise, and I had a LOT of fun digging through it and choosing some new items for my closet of cozy things. It was a loving gift and was a fun distraction, and now I have new comfy things to wear on all of these frigid winter days. As in ALL the Costco sweatshirts I’ve eyed but passed up. Woohoo!

Three days ago, someone local was giving away a project carrier for free. I jumped at it, but was not the first person. And that was fine. More people spoke up after I asked, as well, so I assumed it went to a draw or something, and didn’t think anything of it. But then it came up on my Facebook feed again, and it had not been marked as given. So I messaged the person giving it away to inquire, and she mentioned that on her post, she had said to send her a message to get her address. And no one had! So it was MINE!!!!

Guys. Specifically crafty ones. I never have even considered affording this kind of thing for myself! I am THRILLED.

Both of these carrier comes off of their wheeled thing and have handles to carry. They are huge, and will whole a whole blanket worth of yarn and supplies. I can take it to the LAKE!!! No more garbage bags, or white foot basin tubs. They can get some sparks and dust on them, and still contain my project. The top one even leaves me the opportunity to have yarn running out from inside of it with the top closed, so I can work without sparks burning the yarn balls.

This is INCREDIBLY exciting for me. SUCH a win.

Speaking of taking this to the lake, another morale boost on its way!

A winter fire is to come! Gonna catch some summer vibes and breathe in a little fresh air that isn’t directly from shovelling and bawling simultaneously.

I am determined that this week has to be better!

Today’s blog is a mixed bag. I have the heaviest heart I’ve had in a LONG time today, so I’m choosing to be busy at home, which isn’t hard, but I’m also being selective. Hear me out.

Priority one is that I’m proof reading/editing a document for someone. It won’t be a hard thing. I can do it from the comfort of a recliner, but my mind will still be busy 🙂 Also, I feel some confidence in my ability to actually be useful in this way, so that feels good to me. A morale boost, so to speak.

Speaking of morale boost, my sweet neighbour cleaned our her closet and sent a boxy of cozy things my way 💜 So that is also a win! I’m SO fortunate.

Another goal of the day is to tidy my room. I feel like a kid even saying it, but its just the truth, lol! My side of our room gets SO cluttered. I’ve been making baskets recently and I’m using up some of my ends of yarn skeins, so I just have tiny little skeins rolling ALL over the place and it needs to change. Also, since I’ve been crocheting so much more, my cabinets have big holes all through them and the whole thing just needs to be reorganized. I’m actually really looking forward to it.

A bigger job that likely won’t happen today but is very much on my list is taking Christmas down. You might remember, or you might not, but it was VERY hard for me to set Christmas up this year. So I’ve felt somewhat justified in leaving it up this long. Yet I’m carrying some deep anxiety for the month to come and something tells me if I don’t take Christmas down now, its staying up until March. So I’d better get to that.

Unrelated, Christmas cards. I am so determined to get them out. Is it too late? Would anyone still want one? I don’t know what to do 🙁 When I finally had them ready to go, it was ICE COLD and there was no possible way to actually deliver them to so many people in town. And then we had covid. Ugh. I’m so so disappointed.

Ok friends, wish me luck. Coffee is down the hatch, hair is up, and music is going! Its going to be a good day today 💜

Dekker was invited out to play at a friends house today after school, so I went to retrieve Solly from kindergarten. I almost never get the kids from school, though I really enjoyed it in fall and hope we can pick back up into the habit in spring! Today was such a treat – just me and Solly.

He was still putting his boots on, but I had the pleasure of talking to his teacher, who just came back from maternity leave in January. I have met her so briefly in the past (you know how covid goes) so it was nice to talk to her and make a connection finally! She seemed to really enjoy Solly. It was her FIRST day with him! It reminded me of Rowan’s first day of kindergarten. This teacher was there that day. Rowan was SO shy and SO nervous to go, but Solly ripped right in, grabbed a shovel (as he does) and made himself comfortable. She LOVED Solly that day, and today seemed to solidify that.

We chatted for a few minutes and when Solly surfaced, I panicked!!

Because I could’ve sworn the boy was covered in blood 😅

I had a GOOD laugh with his teacher, who said she had the exact same reaction at first. I was quickly reassured that he had been painting.

Can we just stop to appreciate them peepers? 😍 Ugh.

He is SUCH a nerd. Covered in paint and chocolate. How a good five year old should be.

Upon getting him home and unpacked, we got to see his painting. A self portrait.

An accurate self portrait of his face, covered in spatter. Blood spatter.

So the point of the story is that Solly is a slasher.

Also an artist.

Mostly a villain, though.