Behold 🙌 A very quick rundown of my day!

You get it.

This morning, Rowan woke me up at 7:40am. This is NOT the norm. He offered to run around and get the kids up, and I got up and moving. What a huge help!

Kids had granola bars, yogurt, and milk for breakfast. Poor planning. Whatever.

Morning meeting. We went over what everyone had going on today, and a little bit about the week ahead.

Being that I ran late, everyone did, and they just got out the door in time.

Cher came over for the morning. We had coffee together and then both got into the work we had planned. I worked on some things for the musical this spring, put together a grocery order, and made muffins. So. Much. Correspondence.

Once babies were down for naps, Cher and I had lunch and watched an episode of a show together before she headed to school.

I crocheted a little during naps. I created my own pattern a long time ago, and today, I started picking away at some parts of it to test them out before actually getting into the whole big thing. It was fun to actually play with something for myself!

Kids came home fighting. Babies got up. Piano was practiced. Reading homework was done. Day planners signed. I bagged up the muffins. Made broccoli salad. Put supper in the oven. Maybe ten minutes before it was ready, Brady rolled in.

Everyone sat down to eat together. Right then, the grocery delivery was made, so I gathered that all up and into the house. Fridge stuff went in the fridge. Back to eating.

Got the first round of bedtime done. Brady sent me off to crochet in our room for a little, which was lovely. I eventually traded crocheting out for a soak.

Brady wrapped up bedtime and we laid the final baby down for bed. Now comes blogging, obviously. And then snacks and Netflix, because thats how these old folks wind down.

Whew! I’m ready for bed! But actually, snacks and Netflix…

Well, guys. Today was honestly really, really fun. While I don’t love getting up early and going outside in the freezing weather, there is something refreshing about it. And then going into an event that many people are excited about. That anticipation rubs off on a person! So, it was fun.

Laela came with me early in the morning and helped me set up my table. I had headbands, and toques with pompoms, buyers choice.

And it went over really well! I made a good handful of sales, one even before 8am! At one point, I ducked out to the ice area to watch a friends daughter skate her piece, and someone actually came to hunt me down because she wanted to buy something. It felt pretty fun. Good thing I don’t blend in!

Laela stayed for a little in the morning, and then my mom came! She bought us breakfast and kept me company and chatted with me for a while. She even bought me a candy bag! As moms do 💜 We had a VERY nice time together, but eventually we parted ways, and she went home. I stayed put, of course, and I worked on some plans for some upcoming projects I have on the docket. I’m actually pretty excited about them. I’ll let you know as I go 😁 but they’re fussy and my life is nuts sooooo they’ll take some time. But I am absolutely not done crocheting, thats for sure! So I’ll show you as soon as possible!

But first, I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. Today was fun. I enjoyed being away, but I LOVED being smothered in slobbery kisses from the babies when I got home 🥰 What a beautiful trade off!!

Sleep well, all. Tomorrow begins a new school week!

I was invited to set up a table for a marketplace this weekend. I didn’t hem and haw for too long before saying yes. It worked out well, because I split the weekend with another artist, so I only had to commit to one day. Aaaaand that day is tomorrow!!

I had a good chunk of items left from my marketplace at Kinasao, but I figured I’d fill it out a little because you just never know what’ll strike who, and I want to have options. So today, being that I had no other events on the books, I pulled out my knitting machines and got into it.

Except that I completely forgot that my Morsel had pulled down one and broke the leg clean off in the fall. No bigs, though. Brady helped me secure it in a way that we both figured would be enough to last the day. That was the one I make the toques on. While Brady was securing that one for me, I worked on the other one and started to get some headbands going. And then it started clunking like crazy. Like. LOUDLY. So Brady came over and took the handle off, and sure enough, it was stripping inside and it wasn’t going to last.

So once the toque machine was good (enough) to use, Brady got to fixing my other one, and was able to use some adapters on one of his drills, and actually use it to operate the machine! Which is how I gained an employee!! 😅

He looks pretty serious here but he actually secretly enjoyed it. But you didn’t hear it from me. 🤫

In the afternoon, the headband machine officially kicked the bucket. All the way dead. Kaput. So that was it for headbands. I pumped out some more toques and spent the later part of the evening finishing things off, tucking in ends, and getting things looking cute. And I think it kind of worked out.

Find me at the rink tomorrow for your super cute headbands, or any toque/pompom combo you desire! See you guys then!

Its been this kind of week over here.

Don’t come for me if you don’t like meds for kids, please. Its survival. When you have one baby go down with pneumonia, and suddenly the other two babies exhibit the same symptoms, you get on trying to comfort anyone and everyone you can 💪

Also, since one of our babies is medically fragile, it was a nice motivator to actually get a couple little tools that have been on my list for a little while 🙂

The first one I’ve wanted since I stayed having kids but never bit the bullet. Buuuuut now I did. I grabbed an otoscope off of Amazon.

I know we’d still have to go in to get things confirmed if someone had an ear infection, but now we won’t go in for nothing.

Aaaaand what I’m most excited about – I got an oximeter!

We got a really good scare once when we brought a baby to the ER and their blood oxygen was so low, that child was clearly on the way out 💔 So when aforementioned baby showed the same levels of lethargy as they had all that time ago, it was a good push for me to get my own pulse oxygen monitor. And it works! Trust me, we’ve ALL played with it, lol!

Anyway. It appears more of the illness has passed through, and hopefully our life will feel a little less daunting soon. God knows exactly where we’re at and He hasn’t forgotten us. We will all come through the messy stuff.

I channeled my weirdness into soup today. I felt like soup would be a yummy meal for sick kids, and also something I’d feel good about making. So I ordered some groceries, most importantly 12 big tomatoes, and paid the few dollars to have them brought express. They came well within the appropriate range of time I needed to be able to roast the veggies, cook them down, blend them up, strain the hunks out, and serve. Easy peasy.

So I got into it. Tomatoes on pans. Garlic cloves, unpeeled, on top of each tomato. I threw a red pepper in there. Let it roast. It smelled amazing.

I let them cool a little while I sautéed some onions and oregano. Nothing fancy at ALL. Then I peeled the garlic and added it, as well as the tomatoes, peppers, and some veggie broth as well. Thankfully snagged a couple missed tomato stickers that I cooked 😅

Soup simmered and when it was ready to be blended, I realized the whole thing had to COOL first or it would anger my blender to the point of no return. *sigh* So I improvised.

It didn’t take too long before it was nicely cooled off. My blender made quick work of it, and then I stirred it through a sieve and got it back on the stove to get it back up to heat. A little cream and salt and pepper, and it was ready. Garlic toast on the side finished it off. Boom. Easy.

It was good to have something to work on that was positive and not difficult today. As the soup did its thing, I worked on other projects – harder projects – but I could always step back and stir the soup, smell the smells, and settle my heart.

Who would’ve ever thought I’d find solace in cooking?

Its been a really big day and I almost forgot to blog. So! I will tell you these three things from today.

Thing one. Solly had piano and he was SO excited when he came home to tell me he had new songs. BETTER songs, he said. I inquired “More challenging songs? Because you’re such a great piano player now?” Wide eyed, he nodded vigorously. Who would’ve ever thought he would love piano so much?!

Thing two. All the kids drink from a big glass now, so naturally, we never have enough clean ones. So I bought some. And one of the boxes was short one glass! Lol! I got in touch with Walmart and they said mail it back!!! And I’m thinking, nah. So I requested a discount and asked to keep the item. They’re going to let me know in 2-3 days. *sigh* Ok. At least I can use from one of the boxes.

Thing three. This is frigging hilarious and I’m 100% doing it for whoever I buy lego for next! 🙌

Amaaaaazing!!!

Honourable mentions today go to finishing up a blanket I’ve been working on, working on a project thats got me all griefy but needs doing, and blowing my nose four hundred (ish) times.

Goodnight, all 💜

This evening has been a challenging one. Three sick babies. Two sick adults. Two sick big kids, and likely a few more to come. So. Its a sickening scene over here. With that, morale is down and everyone is moving slow. My mom lovingly dropped off a supper for us this evening. Sausage, mashed potatoes, carrots, and gravy. Goodness, that was the most delicious comfort food. Thank you, mom 💜

On top of sickness, there are some griefy things floating about, and I feel a little bit on the verge these days. Specifically this evening. I feel worn down. But I can’t just quit! Even on days where I’d maybe like to 😅 So I had a cry (or three) and then went to tuck kids in for bed. And the girlies started asking questions about birth, and baby having, and delivery, and all that stuff that I just LOVE to talk about. It was SO fun, and I got easily swept into it. It was a nice way to wrap up a tough evening.

But now I’m in bed where I am SO happy to be. I’m exhausted. I just want to eat some dessert and fall asleep with a cough candy burning a hole in my cheek 😆 Those things bring comfort somehow, lol!

Ok. Brady is revving up for a pressure headache! Time to pack it in! Whew!

Brady had to work on January 30th and 31st, and I was kind of bummed about it. I said to him multiple times, who is going to come in on New Years Eve for anything big or important??

Turns out, lots of people! Because as everyone is sitting home together, living within their walls a little more than usual, with everyone home, and add to that coming into a new season, people be planning!

And the only reason I accepted that as truth is because we were doing it, too 😅

The bigger our family the gets, the more fun I start having in the kitchen, and the more I realize I’d like to change it a little, lol! And this isn’t news. Since we moved here, we built a big pantry, brought in two huge fridges and two huge freezers, and replaced the island top with an old table top that we can cut on. There are very few things I actually really miss about the Bitner house, but I miss that big beautiful island.

*sigh*

Our new home has more cabinets, but they’re doors rather than drawers, and everything is just a little more shallow. So we have a handful of goals that we will work on for a decent length of time. But the main thing we are prioritizing is getting a new stovetop. We love having a gas range, but this one is so very old. It’s white, and miserable to clean. When we light an element, it sometimes sparks on other elements. And frankly, its just a little small. Now that we have lots of people, we use big pots and big pans, as you can imagine. And the elements are so little, it takes absolute eons on boil a pot of water.

And as tends to happen, one project grows into many. We would choose a stovetop that is larger. A 36″ stovetop. And our island is set up for a 30″ stove top. So we would want to upgrade our island as well. Which means new cabinets as well as a new island top, because we really think we should go bigger.

So its become a bigger project, but we have time. There is no time crunch. Maybe if it drags on long enough, I can weasel a double wall oven out of the deal 🤣

Well. All three babies are sick. It was inevitable.

Patient zero is on the mend, but its still slow going. It mostly means that this baby snots and coughs like all get out but also gets into more mischief than feels reasonable.

Patient zero’s roommate was next. This baby still eats fairly well, but is SO loud in their communication, its a wonder we don’t have every dog in the neighbourhood on our front step. This particular baby tends to communicate in this register in general, but its up in volume as well as frequency. Picture someone dropping a cracker, and an air raid siren immediately setting off.

Patient LD is absolutely so pleasant and just SO nasty, it doesn’t quite compute. The snot pours, and the baby waves and jumps and plays and just pours and pours and pours. LD doesn’t want to eat or drink. LD wants to sleep, but only in small spurts, and there must be milk in between each sleep. Sometimes the milk HAS to be warm, and sometimes the milk HAS to be cold. No matter how much you prepare, LD will drink less than half of it. It’s just the rules, of which there are many.

But! While I stayed home for the morning with them, I managed to get our whole January calendar written out. I got the sick babies fed a little for breakfast, and then even a little bit of lunch before the rest of the crew came home. Got lunch prepped and ready. It was a successful morning, and then all three babies napped, and I could sit and work on a blanket I’m crocheting. It wasn’t a long stretch, but it was nice to put my feet up.

Tomorrow, the five head to school. I love my kids more than life itself, but I am ready for the school routine to start back up again. Back in action, guys!!! 💪 Ready!

Well. Today I decided to sneak one last puzzle into the Christmas season and I should NOT have done it. Man. Now that the one really good and sick baby is on the upswing (THANK YOU for praying!) they are into absolutely everything. This is my kid who takes the screens off the windows. Takes books off high shelves. Climbs onto the island. So now that aforementioned baby is feeling a little better, the puzzle was NOT safe. And unfortunately, it actually made things more stressful than the needed to be. So. I learned. I’m done puzzling for this Christmas. Onto the next.

I did, however, finish todays puzzle. I will put it away in the morning once everyone has seen the finished result. Then, we will rock Sunday as we do, and Monday will mean school, and with that, routine. Routine tends to help with a lot of things, and I think many of us over here at least are feeling a little idle. Its possible I have some intentions brewing for this coming year that I actually want to sit with and think on a little.

At this rate, I might have to schedule thinking time… A strange concept but I might be onto something 🤔