After two days of searching Saskatoon, a friend of ours was able to find a solution to our breaking recliner 💜He happily came over, dismantled the chair, and put it back together in full working order. He cut no corners, and it works perfectly! We are SO grateful for his help and all of the work he put into it, and ALL of the effort he made going into store after store after store, comparing silly little parts. It should NOT be so hard to find replacement parts for furniture!

Dekker weaselled his way into helping, which I LOVED, but the kids spent most of the day outside. It was necessary, finally. We had kept them inside a bit more over the last week with the weather being a bit crappy and a couple of the kids having a few little sick moments. But yesterday it was nice enough that I could confidently send them all out without worry.

And in return, they granted me the grim reminder of the biggest downfall of sending them outside. Dirt. Mud. Mess. Sometimes I take pictures. This time I didn’t. I was SO overwhelmed.

My beautiful children have no choice but to play in the dirt. Thats what we’ve got right now. And thats fine. But a couple of them took it upon themselves to take off their shirts, douse their bodies in sunscreen, and literally rolling in the dirt. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? A couple of them also opted to dump the watering can to make mud. That was truly their end goal. Mud making. Lastly, Laela confirmed to Solly that dirt is healthy, and he should eat it. *sigh*

They were SO DIRTY. And almost all of my children hate baths and showers.

Thus began a very stressful evening of marathon baths. Never before have I scrubbed children the way I have these last couple of weeks. I soap them up good and proper, scrub them, and there were still streaks of mud down their legs! What gives?! I had to soak Rowan, in hopes of loosening some of the gunk, and when it still didn’t come off, I took a soap saturated cloth and basically scratched at him until some of it came off. Its true that some of my kids are pretty self sufficient in the bath, but not on that level of filth.

By the end of it, I was absolutely sweating, and I felt like crying. Whew!

Believe it or not, today I feel kind of uncertain about sending them outside. And thats not ok either. I want them to play outside. But I cannot do that kind of marathon every night, either. I know lots of people bathe their kids every night. This wasn’t that. This was a whole other thing, and I don’t have the energy for it. Absolutely no way.

Time for a new plan.

We were informed on Brady’s last day of radiation that his side effects will peak around 7-10 days after treatment. Today is day 8. So here is an update on how the first week at home, treatment-free, has been.

Brady hasn’t gained back much energy at all, but he also hasn’t slowed down much either.

He is off his medication for nausea, which is awesome! He’s still on a couple of others, and he is pretty discouraged about how fatigued they make him. That being said, though, we know a great amount of his fatigue is due to the radiation itself. Once we’re out of the woods on that, we’ll see just how drowsy he is on his meds. They didn’t knock him out like this during rehab, so we’re hopeful!

There aren’t too many other crazy changes to speak of. Brady has a nice routine of the things that keep his headaches at bay. Workouts. Deep cold. A soak in the evening. He has a chair that works well for his back. He drinks lots of water and monitors it. He’s doing it all right, and its paying off.

Would you believe that there are five people in these pictures?

This coming week, Brady gets to go to Golden Mobility and finally get properly measured up for his custom chair! We received word last weekend that we’ve been approved for funding for Brady to get a beautiful wheelchair that will be built for his body and his needs. SO much better than what he’s working with now! This week also holds his assessment/first outpatient rehab appointment! It will be good and weird to be back at City Hospital, but I think we’re both looking forward to seeing what else they have to offer him.

God continues to protect us. And you, friends, continue to support us. We see you, and appreciate you not forgetting about us. This is a long game situation, which you clearly know, as we’re 3.5 months post-op.

Still so much to anticipate.

So. A funny thing happened the other day.

Brady was sitting on the floor, dealing with taking out the laminate that our dishwasher decided to take to the grave with it, and in this position, he muttered in an Australian accent, “Its a lot of floor work.”

We made a couple of jokes about mermaid dancing, and Cher took some pictures.

And then she added them to her photoshop Facebook group and asked for some backup. After reassuring the group that we would all think it was funny, and that Brady can take jokes, they took off!

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Aaaaand my personal favorite… 🙌

There were also comments are pictures centred around how Brady looks like Jason Momoa. This is not the first time we’ve heard that.

It works, hey??

There were a good handful of comments saying that Brady was easy on the eyes, which no one is wrong about. 👌 But the bottom line that everyone agreed on was that he had amazing strength of character. He was VERY well liked, with well over 300 reactions and responses. I mean, how could they not love him? He is clearly so whimsical.

This was a solid laugh, which we all desperately need around here. Hopefully you all laughed along with us. I am SO grateful for a handsome husband who can find humour in less than ideal circumstances.

Did you sing the song when you read the title? I hope you did. I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.

I worked hard on yesterdays post, so today is a VERY basic, potentially boring pic dump post where absolutely nothing relates 😆 Welcome to a very random, mindless post!

This made me laugh, lol! I think my dry jokes are HILARIOUS, but its possible I’m the only one.

Accurate. Handicap parking spots are handi for parking. Like I said, my humor is dry.

Our recliner is breaking, which is SO SAD. Its been our comfy baby snuggling chair for years, and now its the comfiest chair for Brady to sit in. Where does a person buy these springs on their own??

This felt really nice and snuggly 💜 Wavy just came and sat beside me, and put her tiny arm around me. She is SO soft and loving.

Our dishwasher came with a solid $100 worth of lumber with it, so we basically MADE money on that deal! 🤑(Again, jokes…)

This. Is. SO. FUNNY. Have you noticed the geese are particularly close and brave this year?? Let’s restrain them, shall we? Also, can that mean I can go to Ikea? Because I’d really love that.

Once upon a time, a friend of a friend was tipped off that I love chicken lemon rice soup, and instantly made a pot with me in mind. The first jar lasted through lunch and a night snack…

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And I found another jar on my front step this morning. 🍗🍋🍚 I am SO grateful!

There you have it, folks! You’re all caught up! Lol! I know you literally no 0% more about us than you did before, but hey, this kind of post saves my butt sometimes and makes me laugh when I look back on it. Hopefully you can appreciate an easy, nothing kinda post on a day like today 🙂

I have to put the word disability in quotation marks because its simply not an appropriate word in Brady’s case. Not in the basic definition of being unable in general, anyway. I will say I will never forget the bizarre feeling when we applied for Brady’s handicapped parking pass. It was mostly filled out for us by Brady’s therapists, and we were completely stoked to have built-in rockstar parking, haha! But as I scanned the form, I saw the box beside “permanent disability” had been checked. It felt like a punch in the gut. Permanent disability.

Sure, there is clearly a change in mobility. Obviously. It will likely follow Brady in some capacity for his entire life. Its impossible to know to what extent, and thats ok. It may slow us down in some ways, but it doesn’t hold Brady back.

As crappy things tend to happen, our dishwasher died about a week ago. And it didn’t just die, but it leaked BADLY overnight, destroying a chunk of flooring. Brady looked under it to see if maybe a hose had come loose or it was a simple fix. But alas, the pump was pooched, pouring water out. The floor was spongy. So that SUCKED. Misery loves company, I suppose, haha!

A day before the dishwasher died, someone came to our house with a gift bag filled with books, chocolate, and an envelope filled with cash 😳 It has floored me how often that has happened in the last few months. But God had a plan, as He does.

We did some calling and research over the next few days. Our appliances are black, and that is not as easy to find as basic stainless. There were some appliance sales going on, and everyone seemed to carry the same entry level crappy black dishwasher. We were thinking we’d just buy that one and call it good, but no one had stock. Then a large handful of people suggested Hague Hardware. So we called there.

And they had something for us! They had the bottom of the barrel one that was everywhere, but they also had one that was a bit more money on sale from waaaaay too much. They even had it in black. We did our research, decided on it, and purchased it! They even offered to take the old one and dispose of it for us! Woohooooo!

Sooooo first, we took the old flooring out. It was swollen and quite honestly, it was miserable to remove. But we got it!

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With our new limitations that we are trying to be so careful with, removing the floor was one day. Installing new floor was another day. And the actual dishwasher installation was yet another day.

Installing flooring was a decent amount of work, I’d say. Working on his knees when he can’t feel them is a bit of a challenge, but he crushed it!

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Today was installation of the dishwasher itself, and I am thrilled to say it was smooth and successful!

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Aaaaaaand…

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No leaks!!! ✅

To the people who gifted us money the other day – you know who you are – thank you. We appreciate your generosity and care for our family. We are consistently overwhelmed by the many ways we’re being loved. For that – for you – we praise the Lord.

Since Brady’s surgery, everyone has agreed that his determination is a HUGE factor in his healing. If you know Brady, you know he is an exceptionally hard worker, and its been a shakedown having some of his mobility taken from him. He, like me, struggles with finding the proper limits and not overdoing things that he could’ve easily done before. Psh. Before. 🙄 What even is that? Who even cares?

Today, we had to run an errand. I’ll tell you all about it in a day or two. After we ran it, Brady needed to pee. Normally I put his wheelchair in the back of the van in one big piece, but today, I had needed to pop the wheels off and put them in a different spot. When we needed to stop for the bathroom, he said he wanted to get his chair himself. He is actively working towards total independence, so that he can truly go out on his own once he gets his license back.

And… He did it!!!

Those strong legs, though! That strong work ethic! That STRONG determination! 😍I am SO impressed!

And so is he!

As he should be.

Thank you, Lord, for strengthening Brady’s heart, mind, and body!!

I’m sorry if you’re getting bored of pictures of my filthy children. Our life is a solid mix of scary cancer stuff, and kids that are head to toe dirt. Not a lot in between, haha! Our time outside yesterday was pretty cute and pretty dirty. I don’t have a picture of Dekker, unfortunately, but please take my word for it that I dearly love him too!! He just hides out a little when everyone is rowdy outside, and takes some alone time. I can’t blame him. I like alone time too.

Aaaaanyway, here’s the other kids.

Rowan didn’t feel like getting super dirty, and he kind of just wanted to do what I was doing. So we both read on the deck for a little bit 🙂 It was nice.

Laela lives with this perpetual crust of dirt on her face. I will wipe her down, and ask her to wash her face, and no matter what, there continues to be dirt on her face. Still. Forever.

Solly was just so stinking charming here, hahaha! I couldn’t not laugh at his derpy face.

And Miss Wavy gets SO dirty that she looks a little scary, hahaha!

Or like a lot scary. But don’t worry, I washed her before bed, haha!

So much dirt. And almost all of the kids hate baths. If all the health stuff doesn’t take us down, these filthy kids might!

I hear people can purchase sod cut offs for cheaper than full blown sod. Confirm or deny. Asking for a friend, of course 🙃

Brady and I were granted the beautiful privilege of having a day away together yesterday. Not only did we get to be kid-free and out of the house, but we went to our lake spot 😍 Our first visit of the year! We have tight limits these days, so we went just for the day, just to make some plans, just to get a feel for what this upcoming season might look like and what we might need that is different from last year.

I won’t make you wait. It was the BEST day. We really couldn’t have asked for more.

We drove into our spot and checked everything over. Looked good! We went into the camper next. It is exactly how we left it!! It looks amazing. None of our measures taken against rodents were even disturbed. Praise the Lord for a critter-free camper!!!

We have some plans in the making for this season, but we can handle SO little at once :/ So this day was just for planning. We called the site manager to let him know we were there, and he headed right over to meet with us, as we had planned. He was very surprised to see Brady in a wheelchair, so we had quite a bit of catching up to do. He was really warm and understanding, and very willing to help. He quickly got on topic about where we wanted to move our camper, and if it were possible, and he eagerly offered to go get his skid steer. Rather than just planning with us, he decided the camper move was happening NOW.

I have no pictures of us moving the camper because it was a very hands on process, and it was much more on me this year! The site manager offered up understanding that he knew Brady would prefer to be in there like a dirty shirt, which was both insightful and true, but he was so encouraging that I would be able to do it, too, which was also insightful and true 😉 I’ve not always been given the opportunity to be strong and handy and helpful, and yesterday, I got to. He showed me how to get the legs up under the camper, where to move the railroad tie, and how to block things properly. He also explained to me where he was going to drive the camper, where I needed to be, and where it was the most likely to hit. He would be driving backwards the entire time, very very close up against the trailer, so I needed to be his eyes. I loved that he trusted me.

He raised the camper up, and I climbed under the pulled pins, and locked the feet up. I dragged the tie to the side of the sight into the bush, and then helped guide him out. He definitely knew what he was doing, but our camper is pretty big and it wasn’t an easy gig. We did a whole round around the hill until we got back close to our site. By that time, one of his friends, who also resides at camp, had come to help, and myself, he, and Brady guided the camper into place together.

It went perfectly. It could not have been placed better!

Its hard to show in pictures, but it was off to the side last year…

Note the distance from us to the fire pit.

And this year, its at a completely different end of the campsite, freeing up a MOUNTAIN of space!!!

Our camper was previous off to the right side of this picture. Can you see where it was, and where it is now?

It doesn’t look like much yet, but it will 💜The trees will fill in, and soon, we will build a beautiful patio and make it more homey, and to add some even ground to make life easier. We are SO excited.

We ate some lunch together in the sun. It was beautiful weather. My mom packed our lunches. She is officially adorable.

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And as if God knew what we wanted most, as soon as we were done eating, the rains came! YESSSSS! It smelled amazing!! We thought about hauling out, but then we decided to hole up in the camper and play some Skipbo, because that is exactly what we’d have done if we were staying. It was perfect. Smelled and sounded amazing.

And then we drove home 💜 That was it. It was SUCH a beautiful, simple, unexpectedly productive day! We were SO grateful to get our camper moved where it needed to be! There are still some changes to make and things to do, but now we know what we’re looking at, and we feel more prepared and capable.

It will be very hard not to overextend ourselves in the next month. Unfortunately, being done radiation does not immediately bring back our energy. Brady gets headaches when he overdoes it, and I have anxiety attacks. Its just where we are right now. I wish I could say we’ll be out there May long, but I don’t think its feasible without a deck. Maybe we’ll make a day trip with the kids. Maybe we won’t. We’ll have to see 🙂

We are SO grateful for our spot. For the friends we have out there. For the help we have out there. For the comfort and care we have out there. For the rest and relief to come. For the getaway.

For these things, we praise the Lord.

As you likely know, Brady finished his radiation treatment program yesterday!

Five weeks. Twenty five fractions of treatment. Twenty five trips into the city, to the cancer centre.

So many days at the hospital. Man. What a year already, and its only May.

His last week at the cancer centre was honestly really challenging. It seemed, as treatment went on, he felt worse and worse :/ He managed to keep his headaches as bay with regular workouts and limiting our activities like craaazy. I would say the hardest part about this week has been knowing its coming to the end of radiation, but feeling limited and unable and overwhelmed with all we have to do, or want to do, in the coming month or so.

We’ve learned we have to be pretty careful what we say on the internet about what we need, or what we’d like to do, because many of you are almost TOO generous! But if I can be honest, sometimes the list feels so long, and we have to make choices that are hard.

The bottom line – Brady being done radiation does not mean either of us is back to “normal.” Brady can still feel the symptoms of radiation for another two weeks. My anxiety certainly is going nowhere fast. And there is still so much to do 😅 It is next to impossible to not look at those things and to focus on the now.

But, lets.

We are SO happy to see radiation in our rear view mirror. There is more fuss and struggle ahead, but we are SO grateful to have completed this part of the experience. Nothing is easy, but that doesn’t matter. Onto the next!

Tomorrow is the day that I’ll tell you all about Brady’s fifth week of treatment, but today we celebrate the fact that he is DONE radiation!!!!! 🥳☢️It doesn’t mean all the hard things are over, but one leg of the journey can be behind us anyway. Symptoms are expected to follow Brady for another couple of weeks, but I believe simply going to the cancer centre every day puts a weight on us, and that being off the schedule will improve the quality of life!

I went in with him today. I went in the first day, and I came along for the last day. I was actually invited into the back radiation room while they set Brady up, so I had the opportunity to see the machine first hand, see him all the way up in the air on the exam bed. I left when the lasers came out and started tracking their way along Brady’s body. I was so grateful to be welcomed back to see the setup.

On the way out, Brady rang the bell on the wall, which signified ringing cancers bell! 🥺🔔

There was cheering and clapping from all around. It wasn’t some big ceremony, but I felt pretty emotional. The bell is a really nice touch. I loved it.

Out we went. The security guard who Brady’s has a really nice rapport with left his post to come intentionally say goodbye and wish Brady well. It was celebratory and warm.

We picked up ice cream and went home to this 💜

There is so much love in this place. I am SO grateful that Brady is home. I am SO grateful for all of the love and support we’ve received along the way, and continue to receive. I am SO grateful Brady has made it this far, and I am SO looking forward to the success story at the end of all of this mess.

Thank you, Lord, for your covering and protection. Watch over us. We trust You.