We got out for a walk as a family yesterday evening. It was SO nice and SO refreshing. I was a little nervous as we headed out that we’d run into people along the way, but everyone seemed to be on the same page and kept to the other side of the street. Not long ago, I would’ve felt insulted by that, haha! Now, I’m just appreciative. SUCH strange, hesitant times. 

It was beautiful out! Everyone wore jackets, toques, and mitts, but there was no need for snow pants or anything particularly warm. My little family just added to the beauty 😍

Usually, when we go for a walk, we walk around our little nearby pond once or twice, but not yesterday. The road was almost completely dry, but the path to the pond was totally snowed over. Stroller? Wagon? Sled? We didn’t know 🤷‍♀️ So we opted to skip the pond and just walk down the street and see how far we got. 

We ended up going the length of still another street, and then all the way back. We only had one kid say they were tired, and that was right before we got home. At one point, we walked past Laela’s teachers house. She asked if we could go knock on the door and say hi. I reminded her that we weren’t supposed to really be around anyone right now, and she asked if we could just do it maybe super quick. I told her I was sorry, but no, we couldn’t. Her chin quivered a little, and I took her hand as we walked on. She looked up and me and smiled. It was some good unspoken communication between us. I’m trying to just be grateful she loves her teacher so much, and not sorrow so hard for her loss. 

We got home after a LONG walk, and everyone was just feeling so great. Invigorated, it seemed. And it was oddly early. We made great time! So we opted to get everyone ready to for bed and then watch some music videos downstairs on the comfy couches. That was a pretty solid choice. Not the highest quality of photo, but you get the gist. 

Everyone was nice and worn out, and we enjoyed a little music as everyone wound down. It was kind of the perfect evening. Getting outside, breathing fresh air, laying eyes on a few people we really love (ie: my mom, a few of our neighbours) and listening to music and snuggling up together. 

I’m really thankful for my relationship with Brady in all of this. He makes the whole quarantine thing feel slightly less ominous, because I genuinely love spending the days with him! As much as work is important, I’m very thankful he has this coming week off, and that we can just breathe together. 

In case you’ve lost track, today is Sunday 😉 Have a beautiful end to your weekend, however your next week looks. 

I had to laugh this morning 😆 

Our children LOVE baked oatmeal! Brady (aka Breakfast Man) makes it for them most weekends, and its always a huge hit. Recently, as I’ve said, the big kids are very interested in cooking and baking, and want to get into it more than ever before! So this morning, Brady talked Laela through making baked oatmeal. She loved it, and did a great job. Her egg cracking needs some work 😉 but it was very cute, and it tasted great! 

While she worked on that, Brady talked Dekker through brewing coffee. This wasn’t a first time, but still something that is good to oversee 😉 He got the filter, counted the scoops, etc. I was so proud of them both, working so hard and wanting to learn. And I was proud of Brady being SO patient to let them!

The kids spent the next half hour in the kitchen, staring 😳 No joke. Dekker watched the coffee brew, and Laela didn’t actually watch the oatmeal bake, but she watched the timer count down. Twenty. Five. Minutes. Ya, no joke. 

I started to feel a touch like a horrible mother, because how ridiculously laaaaame are we that the kids are entertained by staring?? Have I trashed their brains somehow?? But then I remembered that they had cooked and prepared thing they were PROUD of!!! No wonder they wanted to wait for the finished product. I’m deciding not to question my parenting right now, and to rather just be thankful that I have content children who aren’t scratching at the doors in a big bad way just yet. 

Dekker was excited when it was time for coffee. “Oh boy, I hope its good!” 

And Laela swelled with pride when everyone thanked her for breakfast instead of me or Brady. 

It was a good day. We may not be “homeschooling” but I’m pretty happy with our new learning curve. 

We are officially all home today! Bradys pre-covid schedule gave him next week off, and as always, God’s timing is the best timing! Its just one week, but its right at the right time. Not only is this within the “ideal” two weeks of quarantine, but its also over the time where we’re all trying to settle into our new normal, whatever that is, and it will go a long way to have him here with us, helping with the adjustment. Now we just pray the work he has scheduled in the future stays put and we don’t find ourselves in a nationwide shut down 😳🤞

We began our day with a coffee and breakfast date in bed before getting the kids. When it was time for them to get up, they were all in good spirits! Set the table and ate breakfast without us nagging them. I think we all like that better! And then the work began! 

Maybe you guys are all a step ahead of me, but we’re on the things today! ALL bedding is being washed and changed out. ALL towels are being washed. I don’t know about you guys, but those things get neglected more than other laundry around here. Especially like, the hand towel at the laundry sink, or the basement bathroom. Kitchen towels. Guest bedding. All that stuff is getting its chance today! Laundry is humming, and will continue all day long. 

I also washed their water bottles. We avoid the “one thousand cups all over the house” situation with each kid having a water bottle, but those also get neglected sometimes, and they can get GROSS. So I washed them all by hand today, scrubbing out the straws, brushing them inside, etc. They have never looked so clean!

Besides those things, Lysol is everywhere. I even wiped off the outside doorknob for the sake of the few people that do come in and out.

There is more to come and do and clean, but we’re in the right mode for it! My hands are pruney. 

Meanwhile, the kids are sitting at the island, colouring, playing with paper punches and special scissors lent to us by a friend to help us survive this time at home. (Thank you, Sandy ❤️) They are completely happily occupied! 

Its been a pretty nice start to the day. I don’t hate everything about this quarantine…

My heart feels so heavy today. Specifically based around school. I had a good cry this afternoon as I emailed my kids teachers and read their responses. I need to print them off and save them. 

It was hard to hear them genuinely express their love for my children. It is SUCH an uncertain time, for the parents and the kids, but also for the teachers. They invest SO much, and now everyone has had the rug ripped out from under them. To not be able to say goodbye has been grossly unfair to all involved. Laela had a good cry about it yesterday. 

Maybe I’m foolish, but I’m still holding out hope that school will be back this spring. When the time is right, anyway. I anticipate a celebration when we can all be back together!! Its possible I’ll be a big ball of tears if that day comes, but today, I was a big ball of tears anyway. 

To our teachers, we love and appreciate you. You make a HUGE difference in our lives, and our children feel lost without you ❤️ I hope we see you again soon. I’m a hugger. Be ready.

God protect us, and heal the sick. I believe in You, and I expect miracles!

I feel like all anyone is talking about these days is the Corona virus, myself included. And understandably so. I’m not sure anyone ever anticipated things looking like this, maybe ever. Yet, here we are. School is closed. Stores and services are shutting down. Everything is cancelled until further notice. It feels a little “end of the worldy,” yet I think a lot of that comes from our life of privilege, not ever really knowing an uproar.

I am so grateful to have the ability to stay home with my children already, and not be in the compromising position of losing a job or my income. 

Brady’s work continues to look normal, at least at this point, and thankfully he works mostly independently, so we don’t worry too much about him coming in contact with the virus. 

I’m feeling some peace about the weeks and months to come, at home with the kids. Hopefully that continues, haha! But for right now, I feel less fear and more peace. 

Three kids reading, one kid tossing paper airplanes, and one kid dancing through the house to Walk off the Earth playing in the background. 

I’m going to make a point of not constantly talking about COVID-19 very very soon. I want normalcy back, even if its a new normal 🙂 

Its day one of the quarantine. Not for everyone, I suppose. I know not everyone has the luxury of being home with their kids, and for that, I am SO grateful. It doesn’t feel so different than just an average Saturday over here, but I’m not dumb to the reality that, by the end of a weekend, the big kids are ready to get back to school. Its going to be pretty interesting!

I have lots of goals. Maybe “goals” is the wrong word. I’d LOVE to do a good job of having my kids home for this length of time. I’d love to have some semblance of schedule, where the kids do some workbook stuff for a chunk of the day, and a time where they for sure read. An artistic, colouring/crafty time. So their days are interesting and productive and not just a total free for all. Though there is definitely a place for free for all days. Lots of them. 

I’m for sure taking this first week to just feel it all out. I’m curious what will happen at the end of the week, when school is officially closed closed. I hope, by then, I can be somewhat organized, and make the most of our months. I want to be hands-on, but gentle, and calm. We’ll see how that all turns out. Not all of those are my strong suits. 

I’m happy to say this morning has been fairly smooth 🙂 Apart from one good solid meltdown from Solomon, everyone has been happy and docile. We began with cinnamon buns I found in the freezer yesterday.

The kids LOVED that. It was as though we were celebrating the quarantine. See? Making the best of it. Dekker and Laela finished breakfast first and I asked if they’d help me a bit in the kitchen. I was going to ask them to help me unload the dishwasher, but then as I ran around, doing things for the other kids, they finished that up and loaded it together, too! I’m so grateful for my kids. Once dishes were done, I started to assemble supper in the crock pot, and while I didn’t give the kids much to do with that part (its a VERY sticky supper) I talked them through the recipe and how to read it, how to use a slow cooker, etc. They listened great from their spots at the island. Both of the big kids have been asking more and more to help make meals, so I guess we’re going to do that now!

Since the help in the kitchen wrapped up, this has been our morning. 

All on their own. Just reading to each other, and themselves. There are stuffed toys, blankets, and books littering my floor, and I’m really happy about it. I know every day won’t look this way, but its a pretty sweet kick off ❤️

So it begins. 

You guys all know what I’m talking about. 

The Corona Virus, COVID-19, is upon us. Whether you think its a scary, deadly problem or just a dumb over blow inconvenience, it’s undeniable that its having an effect on just about everything, everywhere. The topic is pretty controversial in terms of perspective, so I’m not going to delve into all of that. 

Because of the situation at hand, schools are closed. Indefinitely. Many are speculating all across the map whether it’ll be a couple of weeks, months, or until Fall. There’s no way to know for sure at this point, so we’re going to do what we can to make the best of it! 

Conveniently/unfortunately/fortunately, my big kids have colds bad enough that I decided to keep them home today, and then this all happened in the afternoon! So, now that we have our answer for the time being, it would seem we’re jumping into quarantine with everyone else!! 

What a bizarre time. I never thought I’d say something like that in my lifetime, but 🤷‍♀️ here we are! Brady went for a good solid grocery shop today after work, so hopefully that will last us a nice long while 😊

Time to get a bit extra creative with our food. Learn how to homeschool, however loosely. Maybe finally start up a chore chart. Potty train. We’ve got nothing but time!! 

I spent the weekend at a craft retreat for the first time in a long time! It was SO nice, for a handful of reasons. 

I enjoyed the change of scenery and the break from mommming.

I enjoyed meeting new friends and laughing, story telling, and getting to know them.

I enjoyed the food.

I enjoyed getting an exciting new crocheting project going.

Most importantly, I enjoyed being about to work on something I enjoyed without crazy repercussions!!! My hands held up, thanks to my staying on top of my med schedule, and taking lots of breaks. 

Everyone sat at tables, except me. They put out a big comfy chair for me to snuggle into close to the rest of the group, which was SO thoughtful. Most people who attend either scrapbook or quilt, so they need tables, but I didn’t. My setup was the best setup. 

I stayed up until 2:30am or 3:00am each “night,” which I haven’t done willingly in forever, and it was SO fun. Exhausting, haha! But fun 🙂 

The food was delicious and the crafting was also excellent! I got so much more done than I expected!

Pretty, right?? 😍 

I’m home now, unpacked, and ready for a cozy evening at home! Good thing the Corona virus didn’t keep us quarantined at the retreat. Or is it…? 🤔 

A while back, I had Brady write a post about what he did for work. Being that he’s home often enough for people to notice, I was getting lots of questions about what he actually does. I’ve also have some very tasteful people say things like “good thing you have money.” I bite my tongue a lot 😉 I won’t go into great detail, but I’ll say that last year was easily our worst financial year. The promise of work kept coming, but it wouldn’t. The people who did scheduling where Brady worked predominantly either quit or were laid off, and ALL loyalty was lost. Brady scrambled around from contact to contact, builder to builder, and kept us afloat. He stayed loyal to the builder he’d been with for several years, but added multiple others to the docket. It was not glamorous, or fun, or easy. He was ragged from working longer, frustrating days for WAY below his pay grade. He often earned in one week what he was previously making in one day. It was a low time. The whole 2019. Come December, we got scared. There simply would not be money for December. We had Christmas to think about, plus multiple fundraisers, a “bring something yummy to share” here and there, presents, food, not to mention our overall cost of living. We told a few more people about our situation and they began to pray actively. We were gifted food, as well as grocery gift cards, and were cared for around every corner. 

It was about halfway through December when someone called for Brady. He had previously worked as a site guy at the home builder that was currently letting Brady down hard, and he offered him some work. It wasn’t finishing, but if he wanted it, he could have it. Now, this guy had called before. Painting, and a few home repairs, he had said. Brady had turned him down, and regretted it a bit too late. So this time around, he jumped. 

In NO TIME, Brady had scheduling all through December and into the middle of January. Those two weeks of work in January alone promised to pay for a full months expenses. So anything on top of that would be catch-up money. Or eventually, get-ahead money! 

Brady has been over the moon ever since. Once he expanded his realm of work, he’s realizing how bored he was with finishing. Same stuff, same floor plans, over and over, and there weren’t even nice people on staff anymore. At his new place, he is wanted, and appreciated, and well liked. He gets called first. Already!!! Since that day in mid-December, Brady has had consistent work. He still has flexibility, which is HUGE for our family. And if you see him home in the day, it very likely means he’s crushed his work in less time than he was given 🙂 Because he’s like that. Produces excellent quality of work without taking an absurd amount of breaks or dragging his feet. 

No big ties have been cut with his previous builder, but he hasn’t had a call from them in months now and he is WAY happier. I actually had my own little relief cry the day he sent me a picture of himself wearing a new toque. His old work toque proclaimed his home builders name on it. He wore it into the office of the business he is working for now, and they actually took it from him, threw it out, and replaced it with one of theirs. I was SO thrilled, and so was he. He is wanted and appreciated there. 

So now, Brady works for a property management company. He does what needs doing in the units between tenants. He called them suite turns. I call them sweet turns  Its different. Lol! He is still a finisher, but he is also a painter, flooring installer, cabinet installer, countertop installer, changer of all fixtures, blind guy (lol), and all around basic general contractor handy guy. They love him because he is only one guy, and can do the whole job. It costs more money, time, and hassle to have multiples trades through one unit when Brady can do it all! Because of this, and the quality of his work, he is already a preferred trade. 

I am SO proud of him, and SO thankful to God for bringing us work when we desperately needed it. Please keep it coming! We have some catching up to do, but we are SO grateful for the headway we’ve made thus far!

I am SO thrilled to report that yesterday’s gig was a great success!! I admit, I was somewhat nervous about this one, because the list of people we knew would be coming was pretty small. But we were SO excited to see how many people came out! A good amount of our friends and people we know, and then a solid handful of people we don’t personally know! It was invigorating to see people had come out intentionally to see us who didn’t otherwise have loyalty to us. 

We weren’t as polished, musically, as we usually like to be, but that being said, we had SO much fun!! We had great response, and people clapped after every song, as opposed to some other times when we’re a bit more background music. The place was packed. People would come stick their heads in here and there, and listen for a bit, but seats were hard to come by. In between songs, the baristas would shout out what orders were ready to be retrieved from the counter. It smelled great. The ambiance was excellent. The background of people talking, playing card games, etc., just fit the bill. 

We played our set until 7:15 ish before a couple spoke up with a request. They come so often to our Martensville gigs, and they wanted to hear “I’m Gonna Be.” We had played it at the first gig they had attended, and we thought it was super cute that they wanted to hear it again. So we did that, and then took a coffee break ourselves. I always really enjoy that part, because we get to schmooze with people who came to see us, whether we know them already or not. The man from that couple who made the request insisted on buying us coffee, which was SO sweet. As was my salted caramel latte 🤤 It was so lovely to be among such a big group of people who came to see us!

While we were taking our coffee break, a little boy came over and told us his favorite song from our set and asked to hear it again. So we finished up our coffee and played it for him to dance to, along with a few more songs, just to fill the time out, and for the sake of a few people who came a bit later in the evening. We played until maybe one or two minutes before closing. Whoops! The owners and baristas are always SO pleasant, though, and host us so willingly and happily. 

I should speak for myself. I had SUCH a good time. I left feeling so happy and light. It had been an unusually uplifting evening of music, coffee, visiting, and happiness. I am SO grateful for everyone who made it, whether local or out of town, whether close friends or new friends. It was so so good. 

The cherry on top was coming home to the news that our children had done really well that evening. That they ate well, played well, went to bed well. Thank you, Tom and Rae, for your willingness to spend the evening with our people, and for taking care of them so well. I asked the kids this morning what their favorite part about hanging out with you yesterday was, and they said “All the parts.” You aced it. Again. As usual. Thank you. 

All in all, yesterday was an absolute win. Thank you, everyone who contributed to making yesterday great! I hope we see many more of you back at Clearcut next time!