I love a good list, but my list of things to do before Christmas has been chaotically spread across several pages in three different notebooks. Its dumb, really, because its a good way to lose things in the shuffle of life. I like to think I’d eventually come across them again, but likely not until I was up against a deadline or it was somehow too late.

Over the last little while, we’ve been chipping away at the ever-lengthening lists, and it seems the rush (our own personal rush, not the holiday rush) is starting to slow. Today, I sat down and consolidated my lists. They all fit on a single page now, which feels amaaazing! Some of the stuff is tiny and easy, but some of the smallest words on my list are the longest jobs. Send cards. That is a huge one. Bake. Also huge. But I think I’m going to try to make plans and actually schedule days to accomplish those ones, if I can. But really, I think things are under control!

I have a short list of purchases to make, a list of things do or accomplish, and a list of things to watch for in the mail. Thats it, thats all! Its so very nice to be ahead of the game this year! Hopefully we’ll decorate the house in the next couple of days. The outside already looks great!

How are everyone else’s Christmas plans coming along?

If you see us driving around in the next few days, you may notice that we’re back in our black minivan (that is still for sale, might I add.) We haven’t given up the bus for long, but it is back at Driving Force today. We’ve been getting to know our family bus better the more we drive it, and we’ve picked up on a few little sounds and things that we opted to get checked.

Brady called Driving Force about it yesterday and they were very quick to say they’d happily take it and get it checked out as soon as possible. They have been the best to work with, honestly! I recommend them with 100% confidence!

After I dropped Dekker off at school, I got the other little ones dressed and Brady swapped the car seats from the Transit to the Town and Country, and we convoyed into Saskatoon. After we dropped the bus off, we took the van around and ran a few errands that we weren’t able to complete on our trip in yesterday. Guys, we’re almost done Christmas shopping! I’m so thrilled to be ahead of the game this year. I always have such good intentions, and then the time just gets away on me. But this year, its going according to plan. So far, anyway!

Being back in the minivan has brought a somewhat hilarious perspective. It is TIGHT in there! Hahaha! Yet four children in a minivan shouldn’t be a difficult thing. Heck, you should be able to squeeze a fifth in there! But the Transit is much more roomy. We miss it already.

Anyone care to help us name our beloved bus?

Before I begin to tell you guys why we’re so lucky on this particular day, I want to thank you all for the HUGE outpouring of support on yesterdays post! I was unbelievably scared to take the class, completely elated that I passed, and then weirdly nervous to tell you all about it. You made it really easy 🙂 I’m very thankful for the lack of judgement, and instead, the encouragement! It was really, really awesome. A confidence booster, for sure. So thanks 💜

We are SO happy to have Brady home for a few days! However, I’m not surprised that we’re already booking up our days with things that need doing while he’s home. Poor Brady never gets much of a break, but he’s very reassuring along the way, so I’m trusting him that he’s happy and not overdone.

In the next couple of days, we have some shopping to take care of, some Christmas shopping to take care of, some Christmas to set up around here, potentially some fixing on the work van, and we need to bring our big van in to get a few things checked. Its not in any kind of trouble, but after driving it for a couple of weeks, we’re hearing a few sounds that we’re looking forward to having reassessed and fixed up. So its going to be not only a busy week, but likely a few days back in the minivan that we’re hoping to sell. *cough* buy it *cough*

We were going to wait and do all of the grocery shopping tomorrow but I think we’ll head out mid-afternoon today for some of it instead. Dekker is so sad when he doesn’t get to grocery shop with us if we go on a school day, so we’ll see what all we can fit in today! That, and then some music practicing with a friend this evening! Should be a nice way to wrap up the day.

I graduated high school in 2006, and I went to bible school the year after. Since then, I haven’t been back to school. No classroom, no hands-on learning, no training for a job, nothing like that. I hadn’t been “tested” since Spring of 2007. Its been a gooood long while.

About a month or so ago, I stepped out of my comfort zone and signed up to take a short, week long course. Its a good thing that the deposit was non-refundable, because I psyched myself up about it sooo much that I was fairly sick about it, and ready to back out. Not because I was sure I’d fail or anything, but because it had just been so long.

Three weeks ago, I took my course. Very few people knew. VERY. So if you weren’t one of them, don’t be offended. I was SO nervous.

Its been a couple of weeks since it all ended, and I finally have the hardware I wanted to show you guys!!

I PASSED!!! I am a certified professional makeup artist!!!

I took my course through Lia Reese Academy, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It was a nice small group of us, and I think its fair to say I was the least qualified person there. A couple of the other girls had worked in the beauty industry for years, and others were just far more professional than I was. I just liked makeup! That was it! Thankfully, in my head and heart, I was pretty confident in my skill, but was really nervous to actually practice and apply product on other people’s faces. That was the scary part for me. It still is, to be honest.

We learned theory, background, science, and everything else about makeup “basics,” and to close the course, we did both a written and a practical exam. I just wanted to pass. That was literally the only goal there. And I did! With a surprisingly good grade!!!

If I can be honest with you guys, I’m not 100% sure what my goal is with all of this. I don’t desire to work at a salon, I know that. Whatever I do will be freelance. But I’m not thinking too big just yet. I want a LOT more practice. I have the tools, both literal and practical, but I want to put them to use and get more comfortable before I even try to market myself in any way. But this course was a great confidence booster for me, and opens the doors to all kinds of things. I’m SO excited to have done something hard, and finished it well.

So that is my news! Thanks for listening! And if you ever need makeup done for anything, you know where to come! 💄

Its very easy for us to ignore our yard work, since our “yard” is merely dirt and weeds at this point. We plan to save landscaping until next year, since we just got here, and even if we wanted to do it this year, it wouldn’t be wise. Because of that, we’ve barely looked at the ground around our house all autumn. And now, as snow comes and goes and threatens its return, I see juuust how bad our yard looks!

Our front yard is just weeds. Tall, crispy, ugly weeds. But honestly, thats the least of the problem.

When the house next door was at the framing stage, the framer had a zoom boom on site, and he left deep ruts right beside our driveway. The driveway area is still in tact, but still very much on our property, there were big ruts. We aren’t nitpicking, but in thinking about landscaping next year, we considered calling the home builder from next door and asking them to come even things out. But we didn’t, and not too long after, someone came out with a skid steer, and we figured they’d take care of their mess.

Aaaaand they didn’t. So Brady called and spoke to someone who was in charge of at least part of the build process. He was really understanding and said he’d arrange to have someone come and smooth the area out a bit. Before hanging up, he asked Brady “Anything else I can do for you?” Brady mentioned to him that he’s seen a lot of people drive across our backyard. They kind of agreed not a whole lot could be done about it, since we have no fence or barrier, and its very wide open, job site ish. But he said he’d mention it anyway, and the conversation ended.

Within the hour, a bobcat was next door, filling in the space beside our driveway. They even went above and beyond, and smoothed out our entire backyard! It was sooo even and uniform. They took a lot of time on it. It was pretty awesome.

Now I don’t remember if it was that day, or the next day, but when Brady arrived home from work in the afternoon, there were ruts beside our driveway, again. He went into the garage and grabbed a chunk of wood to throw on our property line to at least try to send a message to the trades. While he was doing this, he actually ran into a guy on site, and he happened to be the guy Brady has spoken to on the phone. He was apologetic and they had a short discussion. A very successful discussion! We agreed to look past the ruts and people in our backyard until all of the exterior and foundational stuff was done, and then someone would come out, fill in our ruts, smooth out our backyard, and even level our front yard and clear away all of our weeds! Hahaha! So our slacking off saved us from having to pull an entire front yard worth of weeds!

As I stand in my kitchen and look out my back window only to see a concrete truck drive across my backyard, then back up and readjust a couple hundred times, I’m SO relieved we made this deal! You’d better believe that, when their build is all over and our property is level once more, we’ll be putting up some kind of post and rope system at least so this doesn’t happen again (or at least to this extent) when people build on the other side of us.

Thats all I have for today! As I’m sure you know, it was a full moon last night. Plus all four of my kids are n the beginning stages of colds. And Solly cut his second tooth last night. So my hands are FULL this morning, and the laptop no longer fits !

We keep meaning to start Solly on solid foods, and we keep forgetting, or just haven’t prioritized it, I suppose. Today, Rowan headed for a nap while the rest of us (our family, and my parents) were still eating lunch. We plopped Solly into Rowan’s high chair in an effort to entertain him a bit better, and he seemed really comfortable up there! Without much forethought, I stabbed a chunk of cantaloupe with my fork and offered it to Solly to taste. Turns out, he’s a fan!

He was very happy with his new tasty treat, which I found really exciting! All of our children have broken into the solid food game differently. Dekker was an enormous barfer, and we were very gun shy to feed him solids, so he ate jarred baby food for many months. We did baby led weening with Laela from nine-ish months on, and fed her whatever we were eating right off the hop. Rowan had his reflux, and about eight months in, we fed him tons of oatmeal, and he very quickly picked up on everything else. He was exclusively eating solids and off the bottle already right after he turned one. With all of these experiences, we have no idea how it’ll go with Solly.

When he liked the melon so much, I broke the cardinal rule about introducing new foods, and opted to introduce another, right after the first one!

Turn out, he likes waffles too! Hahaha! Don’t judge! There was no syrup or butter or anything on this. Just waffle. He liked it more than the melon even. Just went to town on it, hahaha! He giggled and smiled at me while he chomped on it.

Today proved to me that Solly is nice and ready to get started eating table food. I’m so excited! This will not only be nice because he’ll join us at the table for meals, but it’ll likely help immensely with his reflux!!! Hopefully we’re not too far away from oatmeal breakfasts!

We didn’t have too much to do today, but we did our first mini-errand day in our not-so-mini bus! And I have to say, we vastly prefer travelling in our bus.

Costco was the main place to hit, and we did it well. Not only did we find everything we were looking for, but we found the entire series “Mad About You” on dvd for only $30!!! I love that show so much, and in my efforts to find it on dvd, I haven’t managed to find more than a couple of the seasons on Amazon for hundreds of dollars. This is obviously WAY better, and I’m so thrilled to have them in my possession. Woot!

We did our laps around the store, and Dekker was insistent on buying me flowers, so he and Brady picked out a beautiful white and purple arrangement for me. I love it.

We were a bit of an eyesore, getting in and out of the parking lot, and people definitely stared at our vehicle, but I made the most of it and danced obnoxiously to the Christmas music blasting inside. Yes, folks, it is after Remembrance Day so no one can complain! Christmas is almost heeeeere!

Canadian Tire was the next and last place we went to. Brady is juuust about done putting lights up but we’re short about 20′. So I sat in the van with the kids while he ran in and grabbed the very end of what we needed. Just you wait, guys. They already look SO good, and soon they’re going to look even better!

When we made it back to town, Brady dropped me off at my moms, and she and I drove back to the city together and dd some shoe shopping, among other things. It was a lot of fun, and we even managed to stretch it into a supper date. We went to two malls, and then Tony Romas, and then ducked into a grocery store for milk and a few other things just before heading home.

I made it home in time to get some cuddles in with the littles, and now everyone is down and I’m ready for a soak. I swear, they had the AC on in a couple of those places!!! I know its unusually mild for this time of year, but come on now…

Jerilee gave us the gift of a date night last night! She came after work, and Brady made it home shortly before that, so we got ourselves ready and out the door around 4:30.

Now that we have this enormous bus, if felt pretty hilarious to take it out, just the two of us.

We planned this evening away a while ago, to go to a concert we were anticipating. Sadly, the concert was postponed until February, so we changed our plans and decided to go out for a yummy dinner, and Christmas shop.

Before we went to supper, we quickly hit the mall nearby and did our shopping there. We never get to that mall, so it was really convenient to get those few places taken care of! When I went to drool over the Mac counter, one of the girls working there told me she liked my lipstick, so I basically felt like I fit in 😉 It wasn’t even a Mac lipstick! We got everything we went for, and then headed to supper at the Cactus Club.

We’ve only been there once before (though Brady went a few times in Calgary when he was younger) and had really enjoyed it! We were seated right away, and our server came. Our servers, actually. One was training the other. They came and took our drink orders, but were out of the beer Brady ordered. The seasoned server of the two suggested Brady try this concoction on the condition that, if he didn’t like it, he could order something else, free of charge. Brady agreed to it, and we both got our drinks. Both were delicious. Then we ordered our meals. I ordered the Hunter Chicken, which I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone who isn’t afraid of a few mushrooms. It was super rich and flavorful. Brady ordered a burger, as he always does, and once again, the one server suggested for him to try the truffle fries and said he could ask for regular fries if he didn’t like the truffle fries. Once again, the server was correct, and the truffle fries were very good! At one point, our server came by to ask how everything was tasting, and I told him it was all so tasty, and such a nice atmosphere. That we were really really happy. And then he said he wanted to buy us dessert!

When he came by our table with the dessert menu, he lay it down, and then said “If I can make a recommendation…” We said “we’ll take it” and handed him the menu back, haha! He hadn’t steered us wrong yet! And he didn’t the third time around either. We had this delicious trio of caramel chocolate mousse. It was amazing. Chocolate mousse on the bottom, warm caramel foam on top, with some sponge toffee chunks in the middle. Ridiculous. I really, really loved that he treated us so well. We felt like the most important people in the restaurant, and even if we weren’t anything special, and he said the same stuff to everyone else, it felt great. He was great at his job.

We left the restaurant feeling really happy, and really full! But we were on a mission! We ran around and did some very successful Christmas shopping! We didn’t get everything, but we got lots from the places that we don’t usually take the kids, which was a huge accomplishment. We got almost everything we needed for the kids, so the rest of Christmas shopping will be much easier. We have so few things left to buy, and while we had a bunch that we needed to order online, we took care of almost all of that this morning already. So we were feeling really good about our shop last night.

We had originally figured we’d go grab dessert after our shop, but thanks to our awesome server, we were full to the brim with food 🙂 Instead, we grabbed coffees and headed home, where Jerilee was holding down the fort. Thank you thank you thank you Jerilee!!!!!

So date night was a great success! It doesn’t even need to be said, really. I super duper like my husband…

My two middle kids have a great dynamic. I love their relationship. I don’t know if they just click really well, or because they’re alone together more when Dekker’s at school, or what exactly, but they play SO well with one another. Maybe it’ll just be for a stage of life, or maybe forever. I don’t know. I keep waiting for their ages to interfere. Laela is three, and apparently three is a terribly age (Its not) and Rowan is 20 months ish, which is often when kids start to hit the “terrible twos.” So wouldn’t they either hate each other, or at least wreak havoc on everything when they’re together? Well, they don’t, so I’m just enjoying how well they play together. Its so sweet.

The two of them will often disappear in the day, into one of their rooms, with the door closed. When I go investigate the situation, they’ve usually spread the blankets out on the floor. A small pile of smaller toys (links, Hot Wheels, etc.) is in the centre of the room, and they’re just sitting beside it. “We havin’ a fire!” Laela explains. Always. Always having a fire. Its awesome, and no one is getting into mischief or anything, so I really can’t complain.

This morning, I’m sitting in our living room, sipping a latte while the baby sleeps and Ro and Laela play downstairs. They’re well within earshot, I promise. And I’m hearing some lovely, lovely things. Amidst Rowan crying, anyway, haha!

Rowan: Waaaaah!
Laela: Whats wrong, Rowan? You hurt your feet? I can kiss them.

Rowan: Waaaaah!
Laela: Whats wrong, Rowan? Oh, I’ll help you!

Laela: *heads upstairs*
Rowan: Waaaaah!
Laela: Whats wrong, Rowan? You want to stay downstairs?
Rowan: Yaaaaa…
Laela: Oh, haha! Ok, Rowan! Not Worry. *stays down*

Laela: Rowan Rowan Rowan! Watch this!! *does something amazing*
Rowan: WOWWWW! *claps*

Laela: *comes upstairs, pauses* I miss Rowan. *goes back downstairs*

These tiny interactions just warm my heart, and I am thrilled to say that they happen so often. They have their moments where they butt heads or disagree, but I love my siblings and we still disagree on stuff sometimes. Its just life.

I know we all feel that our kids are the best, and we should all believe the best in our kids.

But mine are the best. 😏

 

The American election went down yesterday, and I mean that in both senses of the world. It “went down” as in it happened, and also as in it went down. My heart breaks for so many people groups, and it cries out to God to protect them. I also pray that God will change the heart of the new president, and holder of so much power.

But I really, really don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to be ignorant, but I also don’t want to dwell on something that I see as very negative. So today, I’m not choosing to keep my head in the sand, but I’ll raise it up to the sun instead.

My kids have been beautiful rays of sunshine today. They are innocent and oblivious to whats going on in the world right now, and I’m comfortable with that. They have spent their morning being surprisingly sweet to each other, with very few “hiccups.” I’ve overheard Dekker telling all three other kids how much he loves them. I’ve seen Laela tuck Rowan into a big ball of blankets. I’ve seen Rowan gather up the kids water bottles and bring them to the table when he saw I was preparing lunch. I’ve felt Solly’s big wet kisses, when I go for his cheek and he flails around until he gets my mouth. I’ve had a good solid snuggle with all four of the kids. Its been a soft, loving, innocent morning. I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the amazing children I’ve been blessed with.

Look at those faces. They make my day SO much better SO often!

Whether its your family, your friends, your job, a hobby, a passion, silence, whatever it is or wherever you find it, choose sunshine! Chaos will still be here tomorrow, and tomorrow can worry about itself. Worry will gain you nothing. So just choose sunshine. CHOOSE IT! ☀️