It was SO nice to spend some quality time with Jerilee again today. She leads one of the busiest lives I’ve seen, and I always feel special when she makes time to come spend a few hours with us.

After some good visiting with her, a few shows, and a delicious supper of perogies and bacon, she headed home. I hate this part of the year when it gets so dark and people have to leave early 🙁 I TOTALLY understand it, a thousand percent. No one wants to hit deer on the highway. But its sad to lose our company early. But I’m VERY thankful she came out and stayed as long as she did. All of us, the kids very much included, really love having her around.

I haven’t talked too much about it, but we’re sort of going through a rocky time with Rowan these days, and as a result of that, we are getting WAY less sleep than usual, leaving us both pretty exhausted and sick feeling. For that reason, the last week or two, I’ve been asleep before this time pretty much every day. So. Tired. So I am off to bed! Sleep well, all!

It was SUCH a lovely day, spending time with my mom. I feel like our visits in the last few months have been fewer, and shorter than we’d like, so it was really nice to see her from the late morning well into the afternoon. We shared a really yummy lunch, and the kids were super happy to have their grandma sharing her food with them, playing toys on the floor with them, laughing at their funny faces, and listening to their many stories. Lots to do, but with a bit of a longer visit, it didn’t feel as much like I was competing with them for time with her. We actually got some visiting in, which was the biggest treat for me. I miss her.

We had a very simple meal for supper – breakfast. Rowan ate SO much, which kind of blew me away. He’s not eating too much solid food yet. He’s only eight months yet, so I’m not in the least bit worried, but he’s still pretty gaggy. But he ate lots of eggs, and even did pretty great on toast! I SO much prefer this method of feeding solid foods over purees. But to each their own! No judgement here!

The kids are now tucked away, and Laela didn’t nap this afternoon so I’m thinking the big kids will be silent in just a few minutes. Rowan, on the other hand, has been giving us a run for our money these days. I’m not sure if the full moon was last night or tonight, but I really see a change in my kids sleep when it comes around, and last night SUCKED. Rowan was up more than usual, and Brady and I tossed and turned all night. Anyone else? Not great. But hopefully tonight will be better??

The highlight of my day today was supper. I was SO hungry, and as soon as I knew Brady was maybe a half hour away from leaving work, it suddenly came to me. Subway. Subway would be SO good today! So I texted Brady and he agreed that would be a delicious supper. Thankfully, a meal from Subway is about the same price for us as a meal from Wendys. Brady and I both get the subs we want, and then we get a full sized ham and cheese sub with honey mustard, and Dekker and Laela share it. And they love it!

We always eat supper upstairs with the kids. ALWAYS. But today, we laid out a blanket in the basement, picnic style, and gave them their sandwiches and water bottles on the floor. And weirdly enough, they were thrilled! They sat on the blanket and watched some tv while they ate, and didn’t once get up or try to get toys or really do anything that required correction. They loved the low key meal, as did I, and as did Brady. Even Rowan say quietly in his bumbo chair and observed everyone around him.

I love my family, and how easy everyone is to please. At least today, lol! We are so far from perfect, but I sure like them A LOT.

Laela’s party has come and gone, and while it was so sweet and low key and exactly what i wanted it to be, we’re all still pretty tired. Its nice to know we’ll have a quieter week with less to gear up for. That being said, I know Halloween is this coming weekend, and as per usual, we’ll be taking the kids trick or treating.

We’ve had the holiday in the back of our minds for a while now, so we have planned out the kids costumes pretty much down to the detail. Dekker’s is already totally assembled, Rowans is all put together out of stuff he already has, and Laelas is just missing one or two little details. I might quickly try and crochet Rowan a toque that matches, but we’ll see. There is very little left to do to have the kids totally ready for trick or treating Saturday!! Although, I suppose I’ll spend some time this week trying to teach Laela to say “trick or treat,” which I had put zero thought into until this very second. Hmmm. So thats a thing we need to do.

But otherwise, its a nice low key week, which is much needed. We’ve spent today catching up on laundry and doing a bit of final tidying around what was Laela’s party, so there won’t be much to do around here work wise this week. I’m looking forward to having less demands and more time to hang with the kiddos, all of whom I am quite fond of. I feel like my mood is rubbing off on them, and its time to come out of my glass case of emotion and be more available and happy again. It can be done. I don’t want my kids to think they have to take care of me, though its lovely that they try. They’re kids. I’m their mom. Proudly. I’m on top of it <3

I don’t have as many pictures from today as I had hoped to take, but it was a lovely, full, bustling day of celebration of our beautiful little lady, Laela Hazel.

We worked like crazy the night before…

And got up early this morning to make a plan and carry out the rest of what needed doing. I was SO looking forward to making pretzel bites, and they flopped last night. We had left the option open about whether or not to try and make them again this morning, but I just made the decision that it would be too much. Looking back, we had so much to do, it really would have been MUCH too much, and I’m ok with the fact that we didn’t make them. Next time, maybe 🙂

We had a fabulous turnout of 16 people in total. Laela loved being the centre of attention in her little black dress and string of pearls. The kids were rowdy and ran circles around the house. They played hard! Finally, people moseyed over to the food, and while I had been so worried we wouldn’t have enough, we had a great variety and didn’t run out of anything. We had pink popcorn, as well as the plain boom chicka pop from Costco. We had pink jello, little cupcakes, brownies, turnovers, carrot muffins, chocolate dipped strawberries, cheese rolls, and crackers with cream cheese and cucumbers. For drinks, we served Shirley Temples, which I thought was really cute, if I can be honest. Very sweet and girly, like Laela.

As per our usual kid birthday party, it was a lovely free for all where the kids played and the adults visited and had a lovely time doing it. I love seeing all of my friends get along so very well after really not knowing each other at all. Some have crossed paths, but only ever through Brady and I. My parents know everyone to some capacity, and the rest are from all different places! We don’t know any two of our friends from the same place. Its fun to see everyone come together.

While I’m always pretty wiped out at the end of things like this, I feel like I’m up for throwing more parties in my future. Since it appears that we’ll be living here longer than expected, maybe my big butt kicking Christmas party will just have to be here 🙂 I think we can handle that. If we have to, lol!

My pride and joy <3

Laela turned two last month, and her party is FINALLY here! Tomorrow, we’re having a tea party for her. Somehow, in the midst of all of the crazy thats been going on around here, her little birthday party has grown in my mind into some enormous task. Which is silly. Because we want to celebrate beautiful Laela, not judge whether or not I can make good food, or how nice the house is, or who has the cutest party clothes. It’ll be a great time to hanging out with some of our closest friends, eating snacks, and making Laela feel like the very big deal that she is.

So today, Kim came by for the morning, bearing some treats she had baked for the party. While she was over, she secretly snuck away and managed to unpack and reload my dishwasher, AND wash Rowans bottles! Thank you, Kim!! We enjoyed her company, and her boys’, of course, for the morning, but they left shortly after lunch, and I had some nice quiet cuddly time with the kids. It wasn’t too long before Brady was off work and running some last minute errands, and Jerilee was on her way out. Once we were all assembled, we ate quickly, and it was pretty much the kids bedtime. Brady took them downstairs to begin our nightly routine of the kids tidying up their toys, and Jerilee jumped on the kitchen. We quickly wiped everything up, and she swept the dining room while I got the dishwasher unpacked and reloaded again. My biggest struggle in the kitchen these days is motivation, and she was great it amping mine up! She took initiative and wasn’t afraid to just pick a job and dig in. SHe’s even staying overnight so she can help in the morning 🙂 Thank you, Jerilee!!! We had a few wins and unfortunately, a big bummer 🙁 I decided to give that up for the day and we’ll either just not do it, or we’ll try again in the morning. It’ll be fine, tho. We have lots of treats and a very low pressure crowd. Its going to be great, regardless.

Brady has been on top of everything today, picking up everything I needed from the city, and running up and down the stairs so many times, just for little mindless things that I forgot. He’s done any job I’ve handed his way with a willing and loving heart. And in between, he’s found time to hug me and encourage me. Thank you, Brady. You’re the best partner in life I could ask for.

I’m so blessed to have so many willing friends. Many other people have offered help and been willing, and that has also blessed me in such a big way. I love my friends and family so dearly. You all know who you are. Thank you all for trying so hard to hold me above water when I’m floundering. God has me, not to worry, but its so nice to have you beside me, hanging on to me at the same time <3

T-15 hours til tea time!

So I’ve been saying A LOT that this week has been a struggle. I can genuinely say that it is NOT just me. This was confirmed by a SIGNIFICANT regression in Dekker’s potty training. I think he had five accidents today, one of which was not a little one, but the whole shebang. Peed everywhere. Not my best day, and a really difficult way to start it out. But I tried hard to roll with it, and did some laundry and made it into a normal day.

After a rough start, it was a relief to have my mom drop by with some groceries to help assemble a few things for Laela’s party snacks. She let me take all the time I needed before helping me get my motivation up to get in the kitchen. We then worked together and baked up a nice batch of mini cupcakes for Laela’s party.

We got all of that done, and that was about where I capped for the day. Brady luckily made it home before mom left, which doesn’t always happen. They tend to just miss each other, so this was SO nice to all be together. However, when she left, Brady sent me away to rest and he got the kids some food and took care of a few things. I couldn’t be more thankful for him, really.

Another small but beautiful point of the day is that, among Dekker’s struggles and attitude today, he is trying to be so sensitive to me. He knows I’m struggling harder than usual right now, and he is very understanding. I surfaced from my room to use the washroom, and as soon as Dekker saw me, he said “Mommy, I’m so sorry that you’re so tired. You had a hard day. You ok?” I just love that sensitivity comes so naturally to him. I have beautiful children.

So really, in the midst of an incredibly hard time for us, there are little upsides to be found everywhere! These days, I feel like I have to look a bit harder for them, but then I do. I know they’re there. And likely, soon enough, they’ll be clearer to me. I just need to remember that they exist, whether I have to work to find them or not. Feel free to remind me if I’m a total downer for too much longer.

So as I said yesterday, it was a rough one. I wasn’t kidding even in the slightest, and I was asleep before 9:30. Though this much sleep was clearly desperately needed, I felt disgusting all night, and woke up unsettled a lot. However, it was great to have so much extra sleep. Rowan woke up much  much earlier than usual, but Brady was able to feed him and lay him back down before heading out for work. Yay! I managed to sleep until right around 8:00 🙂 I still dragged through the morning, but it was hard to come off of yesterday. Whew!

All of this considered, a change of scenery was necessary. After Rowans weirdly scheduled morning, he and Laela went down for naps at the same time, and even managed to wake up at the same time! I took that as my cue to get everyone dressed and go to the city. Brady has been working longer days, and his location has moved to waaay the heck across the city again, so his drive home is way longer than normal. Therefore, we just see him a lot less these days. Today, not only was he going to work later, but he needed to hit Costco on the way home. We decided to meet him at Costco, and maybe grab a quick supper on the way home.

I managed to get all of the kids into Costco on my own, which is NOT an easy thing to do when the baby is too fat for his bucket seat but too tippy to sit in the cart. I had the two big ones sitting in the cart seats, and Rowan in his umbrella stroller, HOOKED onto the carts handlebar. (Handlebar? Is that right? What would you call the pusher bar thing?) I know, not the safest option, but I was very careful and he loved it. We weren’t in Costco too long before Brady caught up. We grabbed our groceries, and didn’t go too overboard, but we did get a few things I’m excited about! Some yummy snacky things. I love new snacks.

We grabbed some Wendys on the way out and then headed home. Unfortunately, Dekker has been struggling HARD with complaining these days, and by the time we arrived home, he had enough second chances, and I had had ENOUGH, period. So the kids went inside, and were immediately sent downstairs to tidy toys. I have to give Dekker credit, tho. I heard him say form the basement that it was dark down there. In my angst, I said “Well, grab a footstool then, and turn the lights on.” I didn’t think about having to go find the footstool in the dark bathroom through the dark basement. But he did it! Went all the way down the dark hall, and dragged his stool out to turn on all of the lights. So they tidied while I got pjs out for everyone and got Rowan changed. He proceeded to wail while I made his bottle, and then dressed Laela once she had brushed her teeth. Dekker came in and got his jammies on as well, and finally it was time for everyone to go down. So much crying and complaining has just about done me in for the day.

Sorry I’m such a downer, guys. I’m trying. There are just lots of adjustments to going back to normal after Brady has had a break from work and has been home. Its a lot all at once when I’ve had backup for two weeks. Deep breaths, deep breaths. I have to stop procrastinating for Laela’s party. No excused, Laela’s mini cupcakes HAVE to happen tomorrow!!!

Today was an incredibly low day for me, from spilling water all over the kitchen floor to things big enough that I’m not sharing them on here. And guys, I share A LOT on here. So it was a big one. All of that paired with aaaaall of the drama that came with the election, my heart feels heavy.

I will give you an incredibly minimal amount of information on how I’m feeling about it, and that will be that for tonight. Because enough is enough, and I have had more than my share today.

I voted conservative. I am scared of what the Liberal leader will bring. Conservative was so very family friendly, and if you haven’t noticed, I’m kind of in that group. I liked it. However, we no longer have a Conservative government. Please don’t tell me all of the details about why it will be better or worse now. Trust me, I know them. But these are my thoughts. Its done. For now, at least, we are under a new leader, and part of a new ball game. Its done. I had a friend write on Facebook today that she still loves her friends who voted Liberal. I know she was making a friendly joke, but I LOVED that. For my friends who voted differently than I did, I love you just as much as I did before. We can want different things and still be friends. Its ok to have different opinions on things. If we didn’t, life would be boring. Another thing I want to say is that, instead of being ticked, and wasting time fuming and judging and dreading what is to come (because its truly hard not to) I’ve decided to pray very hard for Mr. Trudeau, and the decisions he makes for our country. I genuinely hope he succeeds, because I live here!! I feel the same as a lot of people do, in the way that I don’t trust him and I don’t like a lot of his promises. I also believe its much easier to make good on a promise to take something away than it is to implement something. I’m nervous too. But I’m not going to sit, cynically, and wait for him to fail and screw everything up. I WANT him to do well!!! I encourage the rest of you Conservative-minded folks to think the same way. Let’s root for him, whether he was our first choice or our fifth. He has a lot of power, and I want him to use it for good. Anyone else?

I’ve been procrastinating a bit on Laela’s bday party (surprise, surprise) so today, the kids and I came into the city to get a few things started at least. We met Brady and picked up a few key items that I know I’ll need, and a couple of other little essentials that were just on our grocery list like always. I wish I had made a good solid list of everything I need for every recipe, but I didn’t, so I just tried to think of my list at home. It forced me to actually make legitimate plans of the treats I want to serve. It made me more excited.

The kids asked super politely for their cookies at the bakery, and then we headed off. We picked up Brady’s saw blades from the sharpening place, and grabbed some quick supper that we just ate in the van before we rushed home to vote in time! We made it less than an hour before the polls closed, so it was quite a bit closer than we try to cut anything ever, but we made it 🙂 Got our votes in. VOTED!! In case anyone on Facebook reeeaaally wants to push anyone else about it, WE VOTED. I think the thing I’m anticipating the most about the election is Facebook getting over it. I work pretty hard to stay positive in my day, but it seems that right now, at election time, everyone is putting everyone down! Everyone hates everyone! For the record, I don’t. I really like just about everybody.

Anyway, it doesn’t sound like a busy evening, but it was. So its time for a soak in the tub and to bed for me! Tomorrow, baking begins.