When I got up this morning to get the day going, I had a little private chuckle. This is what Christmas tends to look like over here 😅

Half the island is covered. A large chunk of the counter is also covered with what I’ve just decided to call treats-to-be, containers, and everything else. Basically, the whole house is a mess of anticipation!

But! Its good that its out, because then I DO it!!! While the kids ate breakfast, I put together a large batch of party mix! I’m sure missing bugles, though :/ Ah well. I replaced them with Crispers so we’ll see how that goes! I also tested out a new recipe and made cinnamon bread. Seems like a good thing to try for Christmas? Also, banana bread happened, and I started making more filling for my homemade oreos. Those aren’t done yet, but things are going strong.

Oh and laundry is almost done!

So this obviously didn’t all happen while the kids ate breakfast. Nope.

Our plan was that Brady would bring the five kids to church and I’d stay home with the babies. The kids had a Christmas thing at the church and we wanted to be there for it! Unfortunately, Brady has been dizzy for a while now and today, he just could not kick it :/ So I drove the kids to church for the earlier fun, and told them I would likely be back to pick them up before the service. Not only did I need that extra hour or two to work on things, but Brady needed to have no pressure on him and I didn’t want to leave him home with the babies.

But then, plans changed in a really nice way! A friend texted from church and asked if she could keep the kids for the service, which I absolutely consented to! And then they kept the girlies for lunch!! So our numbers are down but, as you can imagine, the house is still full and active!

So. My house is a mess, and thats ok. Because thats part of it. I think. And if it isn’t, don’t tell me 🙅‍♀️

Brady is at work today, which pretty much always makes for a challenging kind of day. Not to be a downer! Just to be honest. Its hard to not have him here on a Saturday. This one really caught me off guard because Brady forgot to put it on the calendar. Total accident! And we’ll survive. But its a merp, for sure.

However, if he has to work a Saturday near the Christmas season, this is the one to work! Its not actually too close to the holidays, and he doesn’t have to think about another Saturday until the new year! Heyooo!

While Brady works today, I’m pre-writing a bit for the blog, doing laundry, icing some cookies, making sure everyone takes a bath, and doing a bit of work on Christmas cards becauuuuuse they came yesterday! YES!!!

There are definitely still things to do but I think thats a decent list for a Saturday 🙂 I hope you’re having a happy, productive, peaceful Saturday!

Whew! After a CRAZY full week, today I will be at HOME. I do have a few things I could duck out for, and probably should duck out for, but the babies slept so poorly and are feeling crappy and overdone. So that calls for a home day 💜 Conveniently, there is no shortage of things to do here at home, so assuming I have some sleepy babies on my hands, I will hopefully get laundry going, cookies iced, a couple more presents wrapped, and even finishing up some crochet orders for Christmas. You know life is back to being busy when a third of the island is just covered with random stuff 😅

While its been a big week, its been a good one. A VERY cute one! Yesterday was our long awaited ballet performance!! 😍 Goodness it was just SO sweet!!!

I was SO proud of my little ladies and all the work they put into this adorable performance of the Nutcracker 💜 It was a late, rowdy evening, and the girls are feeling it this morning! Whew!

Oof. They are SO beautiful 💜

Off the school the kidlets go! And off to the grind for me! Except I get to get to things with sweatpants on my butt and some true crime playing on the laptop. I feel so grateful 💜

The other day I said to someone “I hope we always have two babies,” because I REALLY meant it. I LOVE having two babies! But WOW! That full moon was not gentle on my babies. Nope nope nope. Anyone else really feel that one??

It wasn’t only our babies. Yesterday held one of the toughest evenings I’ve experienced in a while. It was terribly disappointing in a lot of ways, and I had a big cry. I haven’t had a good big cry in a while, and it felt pretty cleansing. There was a rally involved, and some mac and cheese to soften the blow of disappointment and FOMO.

After a very broken night, the next day has begun, and I believe almost every moment of today is accounted for! 😅 I think tomorrow is a much more open day, so while today will be a really nice day, I’ll be glad when its over.

Whew! Kids are almost out the door!! Let the games begin!

The kids and I had to be out of the house before 9:00 this morning, so I packed up a bunch of baby stuff, snacks, and stroller, and a Waverly as soon as everyone else had left for the day. Wavy LOVES to shop, and I had a bit of a list, so we drove to the south end of Saskatoon to hit our less travelled Value Village, as well as Walmart. We really took our time at both places, and got as much as we could off of our list. Plus, a watermelon tshirt for Wavy, because she fell hard for it.

We grabbed some bagels from Tims and headed to Warman to drop in on Brady. He received us so warmly, as always, and we shared a quick ten minute lunch together. We didn’t linger long, but went our separate ways right around 1:00pm.

Wave helped me unload the van upon arriving home. She is SUCH a good helper! 💜 Then I unloaded the babies, fed them both, and put them down for naps. Hopefully they do actually get some good sleep because the evening continues to rumble! Brady is working a short day today so we can get some stuff done, and we will be out and about again!! Ack! Things are not going to slow down this week! 😅 But thats why I’m trying to use my time super wisely and get all the things done. ALL the things!

This girl has been a rockstar today.

And I imagine she will continue to be 💜 Thanks for all your help, Wavy girl. You have strong arms and such a willing spirit. I love you!

I took the babies to the city first thing this morning for an important appointment. I won’t lie. I LOVE having two babies. Its just such a riot. They’re so fun. I wish you all could get to know them.

Anyway. I loaded up our bags and had my own little giggle while I packed. We carry two bags now. One for diapers, wipes, blankets, soothers, etc. And one for feeding. Because that is a whole separate operation and I don’t want to carry the feed stuff in if I’m not going to need it. But I still always chuckle to myself as I pack it. What? Doesn’t everyone’s diaper bag look like this?!

No? Just me? Cool cool cool cool cool…

I actually really don’t mind 🙂 We have a good groove going with tube feeding. I’m not mad at it at all.

We hit up the appointment and then hit Value Village for a few things, which turned out to be a very productive, successful shop! Our last stop was going to be a grocery store, so I parked us at Coop and when I opened the door of the van, I was met by two completely zonked out, deep breathing babies. Nope. That was it for grocery shopping! I got right back into the van and drove home. No way was I waking those babies and dragging them into the cold wind for some baking ingredients and cucumbers. Who the heck cares at that point?!

We went home. Babies woke up a bit with the action of just getting into the house, but their energy was short lived, and naptime was closeby. Babies napped, and I baked a bit. More muffins. Lemon cookies. Just a bit.

Anyway. It was a really cute day. I’m very grateful for all we have, and who we have 💜 Tomorrow is another rowdy out and about kind of day! I’ll have Wavy with me as well. Should be a fun group!

This morning was busy straight out of the gate! Before 9am, I had made two batches of granola bars! I had help, of course.

Then, I took a load off and had coffee with Cher before she got back to studying and I got back into the kitchen! Of course, by that time, the babies were up, so I was less efficient by far. It was still cute, and I have zero complaints!

Still in the morning, I made a batch of jam jams (my first ever batch) and in the afternoon, I made the cookies for some oreos that I will fill closer to the date! I think most of us over here prefer my lemon oreos, but the chocolate ones are also delicious, and some weirdos out there don’t like lemon as much. So we’ll leave room for those people. I guess.

I got the girls to ballet and whipped up a batch of pumpkin muffins. I usually do two batches in the same sitting but one will do for today. Tomorrow is another day! Though, that day holds more than this day did, so we’ll see how far I get! 😅 That preparation bug has bit hard, as it tends to do, so I’m trying to bake it away! Wish me luck!

What are your favorite Christmas treats that I haven’t made yet?

I love that my people aren’t full of pressure and judgement. I love being able to let down around my people 💜 I was reminded of this yet again today when lunch was served to the group, and lunch waaaaaaas…

Sandwiches and broccoli salad.

With meat out of the freezer. Buns also out of the freezer, with a bit of freezer burn on them. Broccoli that was juuust starting to get old. Nothing at all was perfect.

And everyone was happy just to share air. And also food.

Of course, I don’t have photographic evidence, but I made a HUGE batch of peppernuts/pfefferneusse/pappanate yesterday, so we finished our lunch off with those, and I felt like a bit of a mennonite rockstar. Though I’m certain those do not exist. Until now, heyooo! 😎

Tomorrow is not a crazy day on the calendar, so I will likely fill it with more prepping and fun worky stuff, looking towards Christmas and all the other busyness on the books 🙂

Enjoy the end of your weekend, friends 💜

A couple of days ago, Dekker got home pretty late, and I was whisper chatting with him in the chilly basement while he got ready for bed. The kid just kept on talking, oblivious to my visible shivering in my little jammie shorts. I finally reached into his pile of discarded clothing on the floor and put his pants on. And while they did not fit comfortably, they did fit 😳😅 We both laughed HARD, and Dekker asked for my phone to take a picture of me.

We commemorate weird things over here 🤷🏼‍♀️

Now to today, where the plan was to finally set up the house for Christmas. I bought Brady some funny Christmas tshirts to wear to work on the Fridays this month, and he wanted to wear today the one he wore to work yesterday. I decided to wear one of his other ones 🙂 Just for fun. So as we quietly snuck out of our room this morning, careful not to wake the babies, I reached down and grabbed his shirt from yesterday off the floor before closing the door behind us.

Except it wasn’t his shirt. It was mine.

Hey Brady. I can see your nipples. Uuuuunmistakably.

We laughed pretty hard, hahaha! Might’ve woken the kids. It was worth it. We took our selfie and then I immediately retrieved his shirt for him. But man. It was SO funny.

I wonder whose duds I’ll wear tomorrow 🤔 The morsel has style…

I had such lofty goals today, but as tends to happen, plans changed and it was seeming pretty darn impossible to get things done, or even started. I got going late, and of course, was immediately interrupted by the babies. So we stopped for a milk break, which was cute. Rae invited Wavy for the day, so while the babies played, I got to some of my baking.

I took out a carton of 18 eggs and I believe 3 lbs of butter to bring to room temperature.

I chiselled apart about half a large ziploc bag of frozen bananas and set them aside in a bowl to defrost.

I cooked up the first part of peppernut dough to give it time to cool.

I made another large batch of sugar cookie dough and baked some of the cookies.

The pot of peppernut stuff refused to cool so I put it out on the back deck and got into the banana bread.

I made four loaves of banana bread with a dark brown sugar crumble on top.

In the midst of all of this, babies went down for naps, napped, and woke up from naps.

Milk break!

Thankfully, the milk break took place while the banana bread was baking. Success!

Quickly before the kids got home, I grabbed my pot of syrupy goodness from the deck and got that dough made and into the fridge.

You’d better believe that after all of that, we had crummy easy supper 😅 Apparently I hit a wall, haha! But thats ok! Tomorrow is another day, full with lots of good things! 💜

Happy Friday!