So. We’re there. 

I know I’ve been having some pretty ridiculous issues with my hands in the recent months. While my pain is currently managed, and I can do most things without pain, it appears they’re weaker than they were. Hopefully some strength comes back soon. 

That all being said, maybe we’d be here even if I was at full strength, and pain-free. 

This morning, I couldn’t open the new carton of almond milk. Sometimes I find the seals on the 4L milk jugs really hard to break, but the almond milk spout has never been an issue. This morning, however, it was just seemingly pushing into the carton more than not, and I couldn’t get a good enough grip on it to open it. 

So Dekker did 😳 Like, immediately. Without problem. 

So. We’re there. My eight year old son is stronger than me. It probably helps that he has smaller hands than me, and can more easily grab the small twist-off cap. Maybe I’ll choose to believe thats why. Or that my hands aren’t up to snuff. 

Orrrrr he’s just stronger than me. 

Where has time gone??? 😩 

My last basement update included pictures of each useable space and how NICE its looking. I’m SO thrilled! It is a well used, well loved space. Quality of life has gone up significantly since finishing the basement for use! What. A. Relief.

However, there were three things on the last update that were not done. 

One was the drop ceiling. That thing is a ways off, because its not a priority. It’ll get done after the fence and yard. Its barely even really on the list. Its neglected.  

One was a little bar for a hand towel in the bathroom. Boom. Done. Very easy. 

One was shelves. Now, I was going to write this out and say it’s DONE done, but technically, we still need some storage shelves in our furnace room. One day. Thats not really a huge, huge deal. BUT!!! The shelves in the laundry area are done, and I’m SO thrilled!!! 

I’ve wanted a simple shelf above my laundry machines to stack all of my soaps and little products. Once upon a time, on TLC, I saw a family who had their dispensers on a shelf directly above their machines, and they could dispense soap directly into their machine’s little drawer. I wanted that. And now I have it!!

Now that our products and containers aren’t on a wobbly shelf beside the washer, I got the littles shelving unit I’ve wanted! It just looks and feels WAY cleaner now! 

One more thing down! I’m SO grateful for our basement!! 

The snow came DOWN last night! Wow! SO much snow!

Because of where our house is built, and how the weather almost always plays out, there grew a HUGE drift across the street. Now, by “across the street” I mean it crossed the street. Like, there was no “through.” It wasn’t about being unable to exit our driveway, but our inability to actually drive down our street. Laela bawled at the thought that we weren’t going to church after all. She LOVES church. 

I posted about it on Facebook, laughing/lamenting about our last minute change of plans, our priority going from church to snow removal. Within minutes, one of our neighbours commented than he’d be out shortly with his snowblower. I replied right away, trying to explain clearer that it’s was the street, not just the driveway, He didn’t respond, but he did show up on the street in full winter gear, pushing his snowblower. 

Everyone was enthralled. 

There was a TON of snow, but in a surprisingly short period of time, there was a nice big path cleared! Once we knew it was open, Brady loaded up the church-going kids into them van. I had to stay home with a couple who weren’t going to be able to go anyway, but because of the clear path, my mom could come spend the morning with us! It was a super nice morning after all! A HUGE thank you to Landry for clearing the road!!

Once everyone was home from church, my mom and I ducked into Saskatoon for a quick errand or two.

The sun is SO beautiful and we had SUCH a nice little outing. Today has been a really lovely way to wrap up the weekend ❤️ If winter could just not show up again, that would be excellent 👌 

Yesterday was pretty adorable 😍 

Waverly did a pretty excellent job of messing up her sleeper over supper, and it was decently crusted up in the evening. In an effort to not forget to change it, I stripped her down to her diaper.

She loves hanging around in just her diaper anyway. But this particular time, she wanted to take it one step further, and just yanked and yanked on her diaper. She wanted it off SO BAD. And I figured, what the heck, why not?? Little naked babies running around the house are a right of passage in parenthood! So I let her, and she was pretty enthralled with her newfound freedom. 

It wasn’t long before she seemed to forget, and brought a book to me on the couch. 

“Book? Sit?” she asked. So I heaved her up and she sat next to me, rubbing her bum, while I read her a story 😂

Aaaaand it all ended abruptly when she peed on the couch, and by default, me. She was SO innocent about it, too 😆 Very “Who, me??” Luckily, her blanket was right with us, and I sat her on it quickly, to soak up the worst of it. Meanwhile, Brady and the kids scrambled for paper towel and Lysol wipes. It was over in moments. We all just laughed at her. I’m thankful for our leather couch and the ease at which it cleans! 

We diapered Wavy right after, as you can imagine, and decided to watch some music videos with the kids before bed to get their sillies out. Wavy couldn’t get enough…

Of her own bum, that is! We’re going to have to keep an eye on this one…

I keep wanting to make a post of all the things Waverly is saying these days. She has SO MUCH to say! Never before have I had a kid who is talking “enough” to satisfy the verbal standard set by public health at 18 months. In all fairness, she’s about 20 months now, but thats basically the same. And she says EVERYTHING. 

She calls everyone in her family by name.

She knows all of the greetings. Hi, hello, bye, ni-night, etc. 

She speaks lots of short sentences. 

She says please and thank you.

I’m running. I’m dancing. I want that. I don’t want that. More, please. Up, please. Help, please. All done. I wear that. 

When she farts, she announces “Poop.” That might be my favorite. 

Her vocabulary is too long to really list, but to name a few: Happy. Puppy. Dance. Cow. Boots. Milk. Car. Zoom. Go. Lunch. Diaper. Pony. Book. Bum. Phone. Ducky. Runnin’. Treat. See. Sit. Watch. Mine. Hat. The list goes on and on.

The best thing about Waverly’s language is that she is neck deep in the mimicking stage, so as long as she’s in a cooperative mood (which is basically always) she’ll repeat after us. She is SO on top of it. I’ve never worried for her language skills, because she’s always been solidly babbly and a good communicator. She understands WAY more than I’d expect of a child her age. 

But hearing real words come out of her mouth always thrills my heart ❤️ 

We’re channeling Spring and rocking some barbecued burgers today! 

BBQ season never actually ended for us, but today it just feels hopeful and yummy and appropriate. Brady is grilled in a tshirt, as you can see, which I don’t necessarily recommend but is his own personal choice 😆 

I’m not complaining. He can smell like BBQ all he wants. I’m a fan. 

The ONE thing that would make it better would be some potato salad from Costco, but my mom is here, so thats the next best thing 😆😘 She’s pretty delicious. 

I hope you’re all enjoying the warmer moments we’ve been given before the inevitable March and April blizzards show up! 

My surroundings this afternoon are goooood 🥰

Dekker is reading a library book, because he LOVES reading these days!

Laela and Brady are getting their snug on 😍

Cher is working on an assignment. 

The middle boys are colouring and hanging out together at the table. 

Wavy is dancing to our most recent coffeehouse playlist and unpacking the bookshelf. 

Poutine supper is on its way, and an evening of Parks and Rec for Brady, Cher and I is to follow. 

I want to be present, so excuse me while I join my family ❤️ Have a lovely evening, friends. 

Yesterday produced a lot of super cute photos, so that is going to be this post. I spent a couple of hours just sitting downstairs with the kids, taking pictures and playing. It doesn’t require a lot of words. Just a lot of super cute kids. Enjoy! 

I don’t always get pictures of the middle boys, so this was a bit of a treat for me 😁 I sure love my crew of littles. All of my littles, for that matter. The big littles, the middle littles, and the little littles. 👦🏼👧🏼🧒🏼🧒🏼👧🏼

Here we are, Monday morning, snow flying. I’m so thankful that its not miserably cold, at least. After a really nice break, having Brady home for a bit, he’s back to work today. I’ll have to tell you guys all about his job soon, because its changed up a bit, as is over quality of life! He currently has confirmed work all March, halfway through April, and even one job scheduled for May! Going from last years incredibly long, challenging, unceasing slump, to this, is a HUGE answer to prayer! I know for a fact some of you prayed actively for us, and God answered! But we’ll get into that all another time soon. All of that was just to say, Brady is back at work today, and I’m back home chillin’ with the chillen. Lol!

Dekker and Laela are off to school, the middle boys are playing downstairs, and Waverly is upstairs with me, dancing to the new playlist I just put together in preparation for our next coffeehouse! Who wants to come?? 🙋‍♀️ Its at our usual place in Mville, on March 12th, starting at 6pm! We had plans to do a coffeehouse for Valentines Day, but my pain was just not under control leading up to that point, and we took a full hiatus from basically anything extra. Merp. I don’t feel guilty and responsible for that AT ALL 🙄 However, things are under control now and we’re back at it! PLEASE come out and enjoy some super tasty coffee and dessert while we play! We have SUCH a fun time to Clearcut! 

Today holds a quiet morning of coffee and music and playing. 

I have a lunch date with Cher, and the plan is to finish up a Netflix series we’ve been watching together. So that will be a delicious, relaxed, and somewhat unnerving afternoon 😆 Not unnerving because Cher, but unnerving because Joe Goldberg. Anyone else? 

And the evening is band practice! Suddenly our gig is only ten days away! 😳 We have some work to do!!! 

All things considered, its going to be a super lovely Monday! I hope you all have the same! 

Brady’s been talking about cutting his hair recently. Not that he’d cut it all the way off, but maybe to his shoulders, or somewhere around there. It’s SO much work to get it detangled and cleaned nicely, only for him to wear it down for maybe a half before before it goes back up in a bun.

Now, it’s his hair, this I know. But as I was getting my hair done the other day, I lamented to my hair girl that I would be SO sad to see his hair go. My hair girl actually moved salons a couple of months ago to a place very well versed in curly hair care. I told her I had made a deal with Brady that, before he went for a cut, he should go to her just once and see if she could make him love his hair. She was all for it, and said she would absolutely do her part in helping him along! And if not, she’d cut it for him. A deals a deal!

We were discussing it with Cher over coffee this morning, and all the hair talk got a little out of hand. We rabbit trailed a little bit…

Sooooo the last time Brady had straight hair was when we were at bible school. Brady had recruited Jerilee and I to colour and straighten his hair. That was about 13 years ago. His hair is WAY longer now, and we figured it would be fun to see how it looked! Brady settled into a chair in the kitchen with a coffee, and off I went! It took about an hour. Wavy was OVER it…

We went piece by piece, layer by layer. It took a lot of time. But it was worth it!

It got a lot longer, haha! Surprise!

Bonus! We figured we’d add Rowan’s length in here, too, for comparison. 

My long haired boys 🥰

It was pretty fun to play with…

He didn’t hate it, but I think everyone agrees it won’t be a usual thing 😉 

Can’t imagine why 🤷‍♀️ I still think he’s terribly cute ❤️

It was SUCH a fun morning 😁