If you get a gift from me this coming Christmas that smells like sunscreen and has flecks of topsoil in it, you know I was thinking of you in June already!

I know its too soon, but Christmas is already on my mind! Its probably because we’ve been home for three months or so, and usually, that would mean we’re into September already, where I’m basically completely prepared for Christmas. But, thats not the case. Its still only June! Whew! But we’re officially less than six months away! Just barely 😉 

Do you remember last year, where I organized a homemade gift exchange? I am actively fighting the urge to start that up 😳 Already. I want to pick names for my family’s gift exchanges. I want to brainstorm everyone’s gifts, but I keep catching myself, realizing there are still birthdays to consider before Christmas. I say again. Its June. June. JUNE!!!

I want to do a homemade gift exchange again. I’d love to ONLY make homemade gifts, for everyone! Wouldn’t that be awesome?? Or thrifted gifts! I got into my own head thinking about it just the other day. I could do a homemade gift exchange and a thrifted gift exchange! Aaaaand a baking exchange! And then I calmed myself down and figured I’d stick to one, if any 😆 

Guys. Its June. Yesterday, I sat outside in 25C temperatures in a bathing suit, knitting a scarf. Something may be wrong with me. I need a summer craft…..

I’m sure you have seen those videos online that show people growing their own fruits and veggies out of stems or seeds on the veggies you’ve already grown or bought. I know, that was all a bit of a mouthful, but hopefully you can picture what I mean. Some of them feel extreme, like digging the teeny tiny little seeds out of strawberries, drying them, and planting them. I can’t be bothered 😬 But, for interest’s sake, I decided to give the lettuce one a try, because it was the easiest! Lol!

Aaaaall I did was take the cutoffs from two lettuce hearts (taco night) and put them in water. I found a bowl that was tall enough, and I added water out of my rain barrel to it. So it began on a Wednesday.

Wednesday/Thursday

Friday/Saturday. That was a CRAZY overnight change!

Sunday/Monday

Tuesday/Wednesday

Isn’t it CRAZY how fast that happened?!?! One week later, it outgrew the space I had for its picture 😆 In all fairness, it would take a pretty long time to be able to keep up to our family, but I was totally surprised at how fast it grew!

As you know if you read yesterday’s post, I was visiting Cher Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. While I was away, Brady added another lettuce heart to the bowl. That was Tuesday night. Today, Thursday morning, we have this.

I am SO impressed with how fast this grows!! It starts up SO FAST! I admit, I had a moment where I wanted to rehome all of my succulents and just have planters of lettuce on my windowsill 🥬 Buuuuut I can’t see it happening, haha! Even if it’s just a fun experiment, I suggest you give it a try! I couldn’t believe how easily it happened!

The garden may not be thriving, but my bowl of lettuce is growing!!

I’ve been away from home for the last two days, and I have had SUCH a lovely time of refreshment! Thank you Lord for rest, thank you Cher for the invite, and thank you Brady for giving me the lovely break away without any bitterness. 

I’ve spent the last 30 ish hours, snuggled up comfortably, watching movies and shows, crocheting and knitting like mad, eating delicious food, and chatting with Cher 💜 It was SO fun! 

Yesterday, we scratched an itch we’ve both had for a good while now, and we ordered Chinese food. It was SO yummy, and we ate SO much. 

We jumped around from show to show, watching a few episodes of Schitts Creek, the beginning of a few movies, a scary movie that almost made me poop my pants more than a couple of times, and our movie – Bridesmaids. All the while, we chatted, worked on projects, and were lazy. It was really really really nice. We accidentally stayed up until 3:00am 😳 

In the morning, Cher cooked a whole big breakfast for us, refusing to let me help her. It was SO loving, and SO delicious! Bacon and eggs, tots and toast. And coffee! It was ridiculously yummy. We ate SO much, again. It tasted like maple and love 🥓 ❤️ 

The plan had been to go home after breakfast, but the plan changed, and then changed again, and I ended up staying until about 4:00pm! Whoops, but also not whoops at all. We had SUCH a lovely afternoon together, where we sat out in the rain together for about a half hour, and then worked on our separate projects in the dining room, listening to the rain continue for a bit. 

We finally gave in to reality, and Cher drove me home. It was so lovely to spend that extra time together, and then it was so sad to have her leave, and not stay for the evening. I LOVED our sleepover! SO much fun! I love you, Cher! 

I have to say, though, how fortunate I am to have the people I have. I have an immensely close friend who wants to spend time with me as often as we can. I have a supportive, involved husband who let’s me go for breaks without guilt or anger. I have children who receive me back so warmly, with cards and signs, and a toddler who hugged me and whispered unmistakably “I missed you.” 

I am feeling the love. SO much. I am SO blessed by God to have my people, and these chances to feel extra love and care. Its been such a special time to build myself up closer to capacity, so I can put more into my people 😊 It feels selfish, but it’s SO healthy, and I am so grateful to have my people who want to put in to me. 

For these things, I praise the Lord. 

Ok! A couple of days late, but, happy Father’s Day to Brady!! 

Brady is not only the ideal partner in life for me, but he is an unbelievable dad. He embraced the role beautifully, and softly, and naturally. I remember feeling SO uncomfortable after delivering Dekker, and how he so easily swooped in and changed diapers, swaddled, burped, and advocated. Neither of us knew anything about babies, and he fell into the daddy role so seamlessly. 

Now, he is the father of five beautiful children on earth, and 3+ in Heaven. Its been a RIDE building our family, but God gifted us the same hearts. I am SO grateful to have a husband whose goals are the same as mine. Whose convictions are the same as mine. Who loves our people as much as I do. 

Brady works hard to be the best man he can be. And I saw that with total and complete honesty. He is working to raise the standards for men, to not only fit the stereotypes, but to give to his family, wholly and fully! I could brag and brag, but you can just take my word for it. Thanks to Brady choosing to love his family this way, our boys will have the influence of a warm, loving, gentle father who includes them, explains things to them, teaches them respect, consideration, kindness, and to love the Lord their God with all of their heart, soul, and mind. 

I could not be more thankful to God for giving us Brady ❤️ 

A couple of days ago, we went on a long mosey walk, to check the mail and entertain the kids for an hour or two. We landed at the high school track, and I’ve gotta say, that was the BEST. 

At first, the kids just joked around and ran here and there, but then it became laps, and it was SO crazy to see how far they could go! The younger ones had shorter attention spans, obviously, but Waverly would trot/walk around the whole track, just to be with everyone else. 

It was just SO cute, all around!

Brady and I have both talked about our desires to be more active, and we’ve tossed around the ideas of maybe running with the kids if they show interest. Brady did a lap around the track with Dekker, and it really seemed to make him happy 🙂 Both of them. 

You may not know about me, but I used to be a pretty decent runner. It was a LONG time ago, but my mom insists I was a very natural runner. I LOVED running. I am garbage at team sports, but track was my jam in school. The 1500m was my race. I remember, in seventh grade, my school ran grades 7-12 at the same time, and I crushed absolutely everyone by about two blocks. All that to say, I loved running. It was SO easy for me. And sometimes I want that back. 

I ran a lap with Laela, too, and I have to say – I really really loved it. 

I can confidently say that Laela is a natural runner. 

She is amazing. 

Its so crazy. Her stride is huge, and she has mad endurance. She’d run a lap, stop for a few seconds to chat, and run another lap. Then she’d run across to walk Wavy the rest of her lap. Then she’d run another. Then she’d backpedal and run back to meet Rowan. Then she’d run another. I think she lapped the track six times? Maybe more? I’m not sure. While I can’t see myself run as a child, I can pretty confidently say she runs like I did. Effortlessly. I was SO impressed. 

It was actually sad to leave the track that day, but I’m confident we’ll be back again. In the meantime, we may have to nurture some skills we didn’t know about! I’m excited!! 

We’re a day late, but better late than never! We did do Science Saturday on Saturday, but I had already blogged in the morning, completely forgetting our usual system. And now its Father’s Day, but that post will be a day or two behind regardless. Aaaaanyway, here you have it! 

We did the lava lamp experiment!! Maybe you’ve seen it online. It looks suspiciously easy to make a lava lamp tornado ish type of thing. Suspicious enough that maybe you wouldn’t even try it. All it claimed to need was oil, water, food colouring, and an alka seltzer tablet. I looked a little further into it, though, and it seemed like it was real, and doable! All I needed to find was the tablets ($5 for 24) and we decided to give it a try with the kids.

We used a stemless wine glass, so it looked fancy. Laela poured the oil and Dekker poured the water. They layered. The water sat on the bottom of the glass, below the oil. 

I did the food colouring, because they couldn’t agree on a colour. Also, because I didn’t want food colouring all over our island. 

It just sat at the bottom of the glass in blobs. 

Lastly, we bust an alka seltzer tab in half and each kid got to drop their piece in. 

Behold! Lava! 

We could’ve watched it all day.

When it slowed, we did another tab. And then when everyone was up from naps, we did yet another tab, so everyone could see. It was SO exciting! 

So, while I can’t speak to ALL the sciency aspects of it, I can tell you that it works, and is definitely worth a try!! 

Choose a glass or a bottle, and fill it about 3/4 full of oil. Top it up with water. Then add roughly ten drops of food colouring. Aaaaand alka seltzer! In my research, some places said to drop in a tab, and some said to break it up a bunch and drop it in piece by piece. I vote break it up into as many pieces as you have people 😉 

Its cute, and it works. Enjoy! We did! 

First of all, thank you for all the feedback on our new housekeeper! Her name definitely fits her personality. The kids call her by name already, and I’ve got to say, after her two runs yesterday, she has done an excellent job! We are BIG fans of Meryl.

Onto the point of todays post – CLOUDS! 😍

Cher and I went for a drive after bedtime yesterday to pick up pizza, and the clouds on the way there were unreal. As you can see, it was bright in front of us, and weird and dark to the south. It was bananas. Bananas beautiful!

They looked even crazier once we were within Warman, though MUCH harder to get a good picture of! No power poles for me!!

And on the way back, pizza in hand, the clouds gave us one last hurrah!

It was SUCH a beautiful day of clouds! The only thing that could’ve made it better would’ve been a hefty thunderstorm. But nah. Maybe another time 🙂 I’ll take what I can get. I LOVE clouds.

Better late than never! I decided I wanted a robot vacuum of some kind for Mother’s Day, so I did some research, and Brady did some research, and we landed on an Ecovacs Deebot 600.

She is already a much-loved member of our family. The kids love her. We spent a full half hour this morning watching her drive around our house. 

Ok, Waverly doesn’t love her. She spent that half hour in someone’s arms or up on a bed. Dekker shrieking “run for your life” didn’t help. Meanwhile, Rowan watched her go into his bedroom, and he ran to turn the light on for her.

It was hard to tell if she was doing much of anything, but it became very clear at the end that she had done a good job after all.

We’ve lovingly named her Meryl Sweep. She hangs out under the coffee bar, and will only be surfacing after bedtime and sometimes during naps. 

Welcome to the family, Meryl. 

There are just way too many pictures that need posting, so prepare for a completely random pic dump. And if some of them are repeats, I’m sorry and also not at all sorry. So many cute things that need remembering. 

Salted caramel Bailey’s in chocolate milk 👌

Three in a tub!

Still curly on the bottom of her hair! Do you think it’ll stay?? PLEASE stay!

Wavy swings like crazy on the big swings now 😩

Poor Solly, lol! After a morning of sweating in a helmet, he looks pretty rough 😆 But also VERY cute.

The kids all need a wipe down at the end of outside days, and the girlies included my less than clean feet in the mix!

Wavy and Auntie 😍

We’ve been eating a LOT of big chunky salads around here! Can you spot the happiest chicken nugget hunk that ever lived? 🤔 Lived? Existed.

Wavy and Daddy

Lilacs from a friend 💜 They were such a nice brought touch in our kitchen for a day or two!

Laela plays a great game of Skipbo now, and this was a particularly exciting hand!

She was laughing SO HARD. Look at her little belly!!

My helpful boys!

He just looks like summer. See the tickler behind him? He didn’t, lol!

Never has a brighter bathing suit existed. She glows.

Sprinkler action!!

Look how BLONDE!!! And how dark!! Its crazy how her hair looks lighter than her skin all of a sudden!

Little grump 😆

Laela made baked oatmeal!

Solomon got tangled trying to put his shorts back on 😂

He was unimpressed.

Foot soak! Listerine, vinegar, and warm water. It was surprisingly meh 🤷‍♀️

Giving this whole thing a try. And its working!! WAY faster than I anticipated! This was just overnight!

We’ll end on these snuggly girlies!

Sooooo was that enough? Lol! SO many things, but they’re all cute and necessary to remember! Share some of your pictures in the comments, if you so desire! I’d LOVE to see what others have been up to!

I know you’ve noticed I’m on a plant kick. I definitely haven’t kept everything alive, but I also haven’t killed everything, so I’m calling it a win. 

My windowsill that holds all of my succulents is super overfilled and I’ve been wondering where to put my other plants, both current and future. In my searching, I came up with a couple of cute ideas, but only a couple that I could do on my own. So I did one! Well, two. These! 

I crocheted these cute little plant hangers with 100% cotton yarn, like the gathering bags I’ve been making. That way, it feels nice and beefy, and there’s very little stretch.

My first observations are that they’re super cute, and they feel great, but I like the small one a lot better. The big one wants to be more upright. Basket-like, almost. The littler one hangs nicer. That being said, I don’t have command strips on hand to actually hang them, so take that opinion with a grain of salt. 

These just make me want to grow my own little herb garden all year round above my kitchen sink….. 🌿 🌱 💚