Dekker went on his first ever ski trip with his class at school! It was a pretty cool thing, actually. A few notable things.

Not a single one of his closer friends went. Not one. But he still went, happily. I was very proud of him. Not everyone likes to do things when their friends don’t join. But he went anyway.

Because his friends didn’t go, he spent most of that day on his own. He said he occasionally took the lift up with a teacher, but otherwise, he just skied by himself. And he was totally content with it.

He was the last kid on the bus on the way home, and ended up sitting with another student that he does not connect with, and in fact, has a pretty rocky relationship with. They don’t get along very well. But he was game and when asked if it went ok, he shrugged pretty contentedly and said “Ya, I’d say so!” Once again. SO proud of him.

He went to school very early and got home after suppertime. I drove to go pick him up, assuming he’d be completely wiped out. As I drove him home, he informed me he hadn’t eaten yet. I reassured him supper was still on the table because we figured he’d welcome a hot meal. He told me they had stopped at McDonalds on the way home, and I instantly felt awful because I had missed the fact that they were going to, and I hadn’t sent any money for him to buy supper. Before I could say anything, he told me he had brought an emergency $20, and yet again, I felt SO proud of him! He just keeps growing up! He told me he wanted to save as much as possible, however, so he just got “a couple of things to hold him over.” So so smart. Way to go, Dekker! So I casually asked about it.

What did you get?

Oh, just a McFlurry and a couple apple pies.

I DIED laughing!! 🤣 In the midst of all of these beautiful qualities and SUCH depth of responsibility, he is still my little boy, taking a trip to McDonalds without his mom telling him to order a real supper. I absolutely howled with laughter until my eyes welled up. I told him I would have done the EXACT same thing as him, and he really liked that, lol!

My goofy boy 💜 I am SO proud of him. He’s finding his way, and I am positively LOVING the person he is growing into!

A good while ago, someone gave me Costcos hilarious puzzle of (wait for it) Costo. You know that one? Its SO funny, and I was so eager to try my hand at it. Well, I will admit that I have had it on hand for a couple of years now, undone. Now that we’re here, we have more space, and I demanded asked nicely for a puzzle table. And I got one! Its a pretty cute scene.

This is one of my favorite setups to puzzle in 😍 I’m sure you understand why. Originally I had a different table but it was too small so it moved to the one you see in the above picture. I BARELY fit the Costco puzzle on the other table and it was only 500 pieces. Still. We made it work and then Dekker assembled the silver one for me 💜 He’s nice.

Anyway, ta-da!

It was early in the game where I realized how funny this puzzle was going to be to do. Probably when I found the puzzle puzzle piece…

I really enjoyed the humour involved in this puzzle, but it was after it was done that I really got to appreciate all the quirks. I’m here to show you my favorites.

The first one shows a person reading a book on yoga, and someone near her doing the poses. Because who doesn’t do that in Costco?

Maybe you noticed, but just above them, Santa makes his debut. To be clear, this was not a Christmas puzzle.

This one not only shows a woman being pushed in an office chair, but also, a man reading and getting kicked in the head by a child on a swing set.

Clearly, this is a VERY busy Costco.

And then my FAVORITE part of the puzzle was the cafeteria. Because ALL the food was absolutely ginormous 🤣

I’ll leave you with that last one to giggle at. It was SUCH a funny puzzle and gave me some nice moments of relaxation in the midst of all the work and busyness over here.

My Laela is usually bright and chipper in the morning. She likes school, so weekdays are an easy sell, and she just has a zest for life that is unmatchable.

In winter, the days are shorter, and mornings are darker. Therefore, more often than not, she is still fast asleep when I go to get her in the mornings. She is still friendly and happy, but a bit more zonky.

Add a bit of a cold to it, and she is just downright hilarious.

This morning, at the breakfast table, she told me, and I qote:

“I woke up again tonight in the morning…”

Yup. You heard it here first! She woke up again tonight in the morning. In case you were unsure of when she woke up… As soon as she said it and saw my expression, she put her head in her hands and laughed at herself. It was very funny and VERY cute.

🥰

Today felt like a bit of a discouraging day. Part of it, I know, has to do with the fact that I picked up a light cold from some of my children, and my face feels so stuffed up. Not only does that add a bit of challenge to the day, but it also feels like I’ve been crying all day. I have not been, but it definitely feels like it.

Today, I let some people down, and felt fairly let down myself.

The kids struggled after school, and there was lots of arguing.

I tried actively to get in touch with multiple different people, and did not get replies.

As I list it, it seems like there were just some roadblocks in terms of communication today, and those are hard days 💜 But we’ve all had harder days than today, and I really can’t complain.

I’m currently tucked into bed in my new house, warm, with a baby on either side of the room. Brady is doing one last helpful thing in the garage before we call it a night. Dekker even set up a puzzle table for me. I am VERY fortunate. So tomorrow can worry about itself. Thank you Lord for today.

Gotta squeeze in a round of Six Cookies before bed still!

Brady and I coined a game during the Christmas season that has weaselled its way into the new year. Its called Six Cookies. The rules are as follows:

Players: 2
Ideally played after kids are in bed
Game pieces: six cookies

Each participant eats three cookies.
Everyone who eats three cookies wins.

Its a team sport.
Its uncomplicated.
It doesn’t encourage poor sportsmanship, as every participant can win.
Its delicious.

So. Brady and I play Six Cookies every night before bed. Last night, when Brady went to gather up the game pieces, he retrieved our last six cookies from Christmas!!! It felt like a bittersweet moment. Bitter because the game was over. And sweet because, well, cookies. So we played, and it was another great success. Everybody won! 🏆

And then something crazy happened! Two crazy things, even!! My mom, who had done some back and forth between our two houses (Ya! Did you remember we own both houses at the moment? I keep forgetting!) and let me know we still have Christmas baking in our big freezer! Heyooo! Six cookies can live on again! But even before we get that all together, we can play Six Cookies with the cookies that walked through the door today, courtesy of a friend who wanted to welcome us and celebrate our move! Those cookies even came with a supper, which was so lovely, and muffins for the next day! How incredible is that!

All of this said, Six Cookies will live on. And I’m so here for it. Its really a great game. You guys should give it a go.

🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Our babies are not functioning at 100 these days. Perhaps there’s a little bug, or a cold, or just big days catching up to them. The morsel was really feeling it this evening. Too tired to sleep, it would seem. You get it. Endless crying with closed eyes. Nothing at all would suffice. After rocking, patting, bouncing, shushing, and whatever else wouldn’t work, Laela stepped in. She has trouble heaving the behemoth morsel from the crib, but was insistent on helping out. While I made some rounds of the house, she stood diligently by, patting and shushing, reassuring the morsel that everything was ok. I tried to tap her out a time or two, but she would have none of it. I went downstairs to do a quick task, and from upstairs, Brady texted and said “I think she did it. Laela pulled a Payton.”

So. We have this vTech toy from one of our hospital stays with the morsel that announces itself by saying “Hi! I’m Payton, and I’m a brave police car! I’m here to stop crime!” She sings a lot of ditties, but that phrase in particular makes me laugh really hard, because it sounds like she says “I’m here to stop crying!” Which is very fitting, considering she and I became familiar with one another during a particularly rough hospital stay 😅 Anyway. I told the kids how it sounds to me, and its become something we all giggle about.

And today, this evening, Laela pulled a Payton, because she was there to stop the crying, and she DID!!! Her persistence paid off, and the morsel settled in at last 💜

This girl 🙌

She’s going to be an incredible mom! She tells me she can’t wait. And she has to. And she’s gonna. But man. She has something very special going on 💜 I am SO excited to see what she does in her life! Whatever it is, I know she will be wonderful at it!

I never realized our basement couch was so big. It feels like a very average sized couch. But, as with our family size, just because it feels normal to use doesn’t mean it doesn’t look YUGE from the outside!

On moving day, our crew of people tried every which way and could not get it into the main area of our basement. Try as they might, it simply couldn’t wiggle past the one wall, and maybe your couch is different from mine, but ours doesn’t go full accordion around corners. So when the day was done, the couch was lovingly tucked away inside Bradys wood shop 😂 And as funny as that was, momentarily, it couldn’t last that way forever.

A few days after the move, some of our people came over to try and find a solution for us! Tom and Kevin (actually Evan, but, he knows where I stand on that) came happily to haul things around a bit for us, and to try to get that stinking couch into the rec room. But. No dice. Rae and I were standing nearby, bothering the guys offering ideas, and Rae casually suggested that we should just cut the thing in half. And Tom followed that statement with “Well, if we pulled back the upholstery…”

Aaaaand that was how we got to this point.

Yup. They legitimately decided to cut our couch in half. A couple of the kids were skeptical…

But Tom and Kev were confident! They cut just enough of the framing to keep it attached but bendy.

Aaaaand we got it!!! And by “we” I definitely mean THEY got it!!

And because that wasn’t enough work, they then rebuilt it.

We now have a full large couch in our basement, and I imagine it will absolutely ALWAYS live down there, hahaha! In fact it has been overtly explained to me that the couch lives and dies in this basement, hahaha! And I’m comfortable with that! I just so deeply appreciate having these guys in our lives!! 💜 Thank you, Tom and Kevin, for getting our couch into a state where we can actually use it!

You guys heard that we moved, right? Ya I thought you might’ve. 😅 It wasn’t an especially subtle event, as our crowd was the only group of people nuts enough to spend that day outside. So we got fairly noticed, and thats super ok, haha!

Yes, we stayed in town. I’m not being super public on here about where we are living now, for the sake of it being the internet and my not being stupid. Also with foster care, its not to have my location a bit harder to find. As well, I’m enjoying the privacy from some people who I’d rather not stop by. Not you, friends, but the grapevine can do a person dirty sometimes, so I’d like to keep my new physical address a little quiet at least for a while. But if you ask me, I’ll of course tell you 🙂

So with all the change, I’ll give you some little house updates! And hopefully give me and my house some little house updates 😅 Our house is positively LOVELY, but its fairly dated and needs some changes. We’re already elbow deep into it!

We took possession of this house on January 10th. A Wednesday. The very next day, a fast moving crew came and took down a wall that divided pretty much the entire main floor. Nothing like keeping the woman in the kitchen and literally behind closed doors, hahaha! Losing that wall opened up an amazing amount of space! Which is good because the kitchen will change before too long!

Ok it actually already is changing. See a BIG priority for me upon moving was having all of our food on one floor. No garage fridge or basement freezer. None of that. Its ALL going to be within reach. So a good long while ago, mid December, we ordered these two big fridges and two big freezers. It was a whole debacle, maybe its own blog if I feel so inclined, but the fridges arrived the day after we took possession. And they don’t fit. *sigh* Another whole debacle there. So Brady is working on moving some cabinet boxes and re-wiring the oven so we can put the fridges where we want them. Of course, the freezers are suddenly incredibly elusive and taking FOREVER. So we have the little bitty fridge that was here when we moved here, and a couple of hulky fridges across the kitchen, just floating around, waiting for their permanent home to be established. So its kind of a blessing in disguise that the freezers aren’t here yet, because I have no idea where they’d go, hahaha!

This house also doesn’t have a pantry. Well. It had some tall cupboards that claimed to be a pantry, bur they definitely aren’t, haha! So we have some plans to build one across the kitchen where the big fridges are currently lurking. *sigh* Its a whole thing. If you haven’t pieced it together, this house had a little baby dining area, and a “formal” dining area. We took out the wall that separated them, and will be obviously using the larger area for our big table. And the area that was the smaller dining area will be enclosed and become a pantry.

I know this is a bummer without pictures but guys its SO MESSY. Please take my word for it. When any part of it is done, I will show it publicly!! But it is just unbelievably messed up right now, lol! Not for long!!

Beyond the kitchen, lots of things are needing doing. Or, rather, wanting doing, haha! This is the biggest need right. Things like rebuilding closets and replacing light fixtures can wait 🙂 We have our people, and we are warm and safe and settling in slowly 💜 Thank you Lord for ALWAYS providing!

It definitely felt closer to a “normal” day over here.

I got very little done but I got to see some people I really love, and speak to some others that I also really love 💜 How fortunate am I?!

I spent time holding a baby while they napped after they fussed a lot.

I ate lunch and watched a little YouTube while holding said baby.

I got a couple of kids out of school and took them to a doctors appointment.

After a successful appointment and a prescription or two, we headed home.

I retrieved the other five kids from Rae’s care (thank you, Rae 💜) and took everyone home.

Brady came home.

I made a super casual supper and everyone ate well.

A friend popped by with treats and welcomed us to the new neighbourhood. Goodness will there ever be a muffin emoji?!

I took Dekker to youth and picked up the prescriptions.

Upon coming back home, we got kids to bed and Brady started doing some work on the kitchen. Woot!

And now, babies are starting to squawk. One of them pooped. Both are red in the cheeks. Its almost time to wrap it up over here. Soon, it’ll be true crime and treats o’clock. One of my favorite times of day.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a touch more productive. But I carry comfort in the fact that we have big productive Saturday plans as a family 💪 Tomorrow will be good too, but I have no big worries 💜 God always knows how the things will turn out, and I am finding more and more comfort in that. Thank you, Lord!

Hey guys 👋 I’m baaaaack! I could not be more grateful for how my last few days have looked. I have SO much to tell you all. So many updates to give. So much gratitude and credit to dole out. Probably even a few more tears to shed. But for right now, I’ll just say a gigantic thank you to our village.

People talk about a village as a concept. Find your village, they say. It takes a village. A village implies security. Home. Comfort. It is a notion that sounds lovely to all, but not one everyone has the pleasure of experiencing personally. In the midst of Bradys surgery, our people showed UP. We had a beautiful circle already, for which I was grateful, but I had no idea the loyalty built into our people. Our cheerleaders. Our village.

And then here comes this last weekend. The coldest weekend of the season thus far. And once again, our people SHOWED UP. Plus!!! A whole schwack of people we did not know showed up, because a friend of ours reached out to them, and because they are in each other’s village, they came into ours to help us. It was like, a village by proxy. It was absolutely heart wrenching, and a gift we NEVER would’ve expected. We had a group of maybe ten people come in to help us move, and we personally knew three of them. Three. I couldn’t even tell you all of their names. Out of the three people we knew, two are like our family, one was from work, and they came in happy and willing and loving. As did the crew of people we didn’t know!!!. It was a bizarre, beautiful, wild day of working. And if you missed it, it was cold as BALLS out there!!! No joke, I dropped a soother, and this is what happened.

It shattered. THAT is the level of cold they were dealing with. Every last one of them had smiles on their faces, reassuring us along the way that they were happy to help, one even noting “Oh I get it, it is so vulnerable letting others help you move.” I’m not sure I could’ve felt more comfortable or taken care of in the moment.

As the cold begins to let us juuuuust a little, everything feels marginally more doable. For example, going out to the garage. That feels less uncomfortable and like something I’m more willing to do. But when I consider how much work was so willingly done on our behalf this weekend by people who had no loyalty to US and didn’t have to help us, it seems silly and petty and entitled. Rather than pick these things apart, though, and rather than taking on guilt, I choose gratefulness and sheer joy.

To our village, and our village by proxy, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We could not be here to this capacity without the help of so many willing hands on such a blisteringly cold day.

Photo dump in the days to come 💜