The main bummer of fostering is that I can’t show you half as many pictures anymore! Specifically of today, because Cher and I took both babes out for a bit this afternoon for an appointment. So I had three babes 😏 See what I did there? Ya you did.
So I can’t prove to you that it was cute, but you’ll have to take my word for it.
While we were out, we ran into a couple of friends and had some shorty visits. One of them even fixed an issue we were having with the stroller, which was pretty awesome. That was a three person job, but she had friends along, so they did it for me, hahaha! Thanks, ladies!
We got home shortly before 4pm, and were greeted by a peaceful house. Mom and Solly were reading together, and everyone else was playing peacefully. My mom, Cher, and I visited in the living room for a bit before we parted ways 💜 I SO appreciated both of their help and company today 💜
Brady came home, kids ate grilled cheese, and the dishes got done. Now, big kids are out on a walk, young ones are tucked (except the babes) and Bradys and my supper are in the oven. Feels like an “eating after the kids go to bed” kind of day.
Around 4pm, I would’ve said tomorrow is a completely free day, but instead, it is completely full as of 4:30, hahaha! So here’s hoping for sleep and renewed energy in the morning 💜
Its funny how airing out mistakes to your friends can bring so much encouragement. After I shared my baking fails with you yesterday, I had some fresh ambition and got back into it today. I made another big batch of banana bread batter. For reference, this is the wet ingredients only.
Aaaaand then I needed to refill my flour and was almost successful 😅
Goodness lol! If I didn’t already dream of having my own grain mill, this just adds to that, hahaha!
I mixed up the super batch and got things into the oven!
And guys 🙌 They turned out WAY better!!!!!
So the changes I made this time around was that I filled the pans more evenly, and I baked them all on one rack. I flipped them all around halfway through. And towards the end, I covered them with foil.
So I got a bit gutsy and wrote this post before I even cut into these 😅 BUT!!! THEY WORKED!
WHEW!!! 😅
This is the part where I hack these all up, cool them completely, wrap them individually, and then throw them in the freezer for lunches/breakfasts!!
Thank you, friends, for all your encouragement and for not straight up heckling me for failing. It helps add to the success 💜
Remember a few years ago when I was SO shaky and insecure in the kitchen? I’m still not 100% by any means, but my confidence has grown in some ways, and I’ve actually really been enjoying baking as of late. Just in time for Christmas baking, I guess!!
Back in the day, if I made a recipe that didn’t work out that first time, I never revisited it. Or it took a LOT of encouragement if I did. And thats mostly what this post it about, because after this weekend and a couple of kitchen flops, I can see I have developed the ability to learn from this particular breed of mistake and try again! Woot! So let’s openly discuss my failures, hahaha! 😅
First one was a new granola recipe I’ve been wanting to make. It makes a HUGE batch, so I cut it down to try it the first time, and it came together pretty well! The flavor was good, and it wasn’t loaded with a bunch of junk. But when I baked it for the suggested time, it was still SO fall-aparty. I kept giving it more time until finally, one pan burned, and I took it all out, discouraged.
What I didn’t know about this recipe was that it SETS!!! When the pans had cooled, the granola broke apart in chunks like it was supposed to!!! Except they are VERY dry, crunchy chunks. So. Live and learn, now I know, and I WILL make this again!
I think busted up with homemade yogurt on it would be SO good! Hello breakfast parfait!!
So I made that on Friday morning, and in the afternoon, I tried a new banana bread recipe. Again, I really like aspects of this recipe, and I felt really hopeful. Its a nice big recipe, which was the draw. It used a lot of bananas and a lot of eggs, and made four loaves. It all looked great going in, and coming out!
BUT! Two of the loaves were SO gunky and undercooked inside that I gave them up to Cher’s dogs :/ This one I haven’t entirely nailed down yet. It might’ve just not liked my convection oven. Or maybe the loaf pans were just filled unevenly, which I can definitely vouch happened. Regardless, I think I’ll make this recipe again but I’ll cook them all on one level. Or maybe two at a time? I’m not sure. But I will absolutely try again!
Thankfully, two of the loafs cooked through, and ended up being a quick supper when we found out we were receiving a second babe that evening! So there was no big loss 🙂 Still worth the effort!
Today, I made a gigantic batch of muffins for the next couple weeks of breakfasts.
I think tomorrow I will attempt the banana bread again, though 🙂 Its so nice for the kids to have something yummy and baked for breakfast and for lunch if I can swing it!
Oh and granola bars. Coming to the end of those too.
Like I said, lol! I’m really enjoying baking, flops and all 💜
We had some pretty important plans for today. Things were scheduled. My mom was booked to have the five kids for the entire day. Stuff was in place!
And then, we received an emergency placement call, and became the proud foster parents of a second babe!!! Wanna seeeeeee???
I’m just kidding, come on, you couldn’t have fallen for that. But Laela’s photobomb says it all. The family is STOKED to bring another little one on board!! The squeals that erupted from every child when they found out absolutely filled my heart, and my ears, because WOW they were happy!
All of our plans went out the window, and we prioritized helping our little spoonful of sunshine get acclimated. Which was much more fun, anyway.
We are officially a family of nine! For now 💜 We shall see what tomorrow brings. We trust you, Lord!
Thank you, everyone, for your care about our housing situation. I received some comments, a handful of private messages, and even a call or two after I posted the blog, and it really meant a lot to me 💜 It is undeniable that we have a beautiful crew of people in our corner, and for you all, I am SO grateful.
I do want to say something about my weird vague way of talking about this. On one hand, I don’t care to reveal TOO much about where we are aiming to move on the internet. Feels a bit tricky, and while the vast majority of my readers are people I am at least acquainted with, I can’t speak for the group in entirety. I don’t want absolutely EVERYONE to know where I live. I’m sure that makes sense.
Also, realistically, whoever does buy our house will indeed live in town, and I do NOT desire to say or suggest anything disrespectful! I have NO bad blood whatsoever! But, in the same breath, things are not going as I would prefer, and the door is not closed on selling our house to someone else.
As the clause states in our acceptance of the offer on our house, if anyone shows up who wants to buy it who does not have to sell their home first, we are able to accept their offer. That would absolutely be our ideal, for obvious reasons.
Anyway. Thats the end of my shorty rant. I mean no disrespect. But we continue to look for buyers. So. If you know anyone.
I’ve had a handful of questions recently regarding the sale of our house. You know how you don’t usually share stuff until its pretty confirmed? Thats why we haven’t talked much about it publicly – because we are still waiting. But! There is info I can share, so here we go with the little I have for you!
Firstly, in case you missed it earlier, we ARE staying in Dalmeny. Uprooting from Dalmeny is simply off the table. We love it here. Its home. Not just to me, but to Brady and our children. So, there’s that.
We learned of a house that would be going onto the market, and that the sellers were happy to let us look at it first. It is an amazing fit. We saw it on a Friday, asked to see it once more on the following Monday, and put in an offer that very evening. It was accepted, conditional on the sale of our house. Boom. We got this thing ready to list.
After a few showings, we got an offer. It wasn’t a perfect setup, but we accepted after laying down some good strong conditions that protect us well. Meanwhile, we waited for our buyer to sell their house!
It wasn’t long before they DID get an offer on their house that they accepted!!
But would you like to guess what happens now??
Now
We wait
for them
to sell their house!!!!
So. We wait. If that was unclear.
When I said the other day that we hope that November will see us with all of our moving plans organized, that is exactly what I meant. We HOPE it’ll all be worked out. That was the original goal, and it remains to be our goal. To take possession of the next place at the end of November.
In the meantime, I’m rocking the limbo, as I do, like a boss.
Ok so maybe more like a train wreck. I want to PACK!! But I can’t! Because what if it doesn’t actually come together and then I have to UNpack? Or what if it all falls through and we have other showings? I can’t have boxes all over the place. But, if I wait, and it all comes together in a couple of weeks, I’ll be scrambling! Ack!
Anyway. Waiting. You guys know, we do a lot of it. But it’ll come. Just keep praying 💜
Welp. We have a TIRED group of kidlets on our hands this morning!! 😅🥱 Anyone else??
Conveniently, our elementary school always follows Halloween up with a pj/movie day for the kids! Its like they know everyone is coming to school either completely exhausted, with a tummy ache, or both. We definitely have a whole crew of exhausted ones, and a couple of tummy aches. No one even overate really on candy at all, but they don’t usually have much candy, so I think it hit hard. But everyone survived. Even Rowan’s guyliner 😅
Don’t worry, I got him cleaner before he left for school, hahaha!
Today is deemed a cozy lazy recovery day. For me, I mean, hahaha! And Wavy. And the morsel. Everyone else has to go on with business as usual!! Wavy is feeling icky, but recently deemed the day “black and white stripes day,” so if you’re in to participate, I think that counts as getting yourself together for the day!
Happy no longer Halloween! Onto the next – the month where hopefully our moving stuff will all be worked out! 🤞
I planned to write a blog once the evening was done, and I could show everyone in costume, out in the cold, red cheeks, happy. But I full anticipate being exhausted after trick or treating, so instead, I’ll show you their costumes that they put on for school this morning! Its almost as good, haha!
First off, we have BRADY! Apparently there was a costume contest at work today. He went in early and stole the name take of one of his colleagues, haha! So Brady was Lauren for Halloween 😆
But that worked out because Dekker is trick or treating as Brady! 😂 If I had to guess, I’m thinking the crutch won’t last long, but this is the goal anyway! 🩼
Ok, so, Laela wanted to be a witch. But then he was gifted a beard, and she couldn’t resist wearing it on Halloween! So this wizard was born! 🧙♂️
Rowans look is my favorite. He wanted to be a skeleton, and I am no face painter. But he was VERY happy with the way his face was done up, and he thought he looked AWESOME. Which he does 💜 ☠️
Solly is a tiger. Again. Forever. I don’t know what he’s going to do next year when he can’t get that costume on, but he LOVES being a tiger. So enjoy him while this costume lasts! 🐯
Waverly is an unnamed witch/princess 🤷🏼♀️ You’ve got me. But she is insisting on going in her “bat dress.” So if you ask her what she’s dressed up as, the answer may change, haha! 🦇
The kids came home from school with a rush of emotions, so it may be a looooong evening!! 😅 But I’m here for it!! Rowan managed to bring his very heavy pumpkin home, and I thought it was very fitting with his costume!
See all you other chilly locals out there!! 🥶 Happy Halloween!
I got an email from our girls ballet teacher today, reminding me that it was “fancy dress” day. It said to wear your favorite dress or costume. Now, two things.
One. I had NO idea it was fancy dress day. Where did we see that?? Ack! Nooooo clue. So good thing I caught it in time.
Two. Neither of my girls chose a dress they actually wear or love. They both went to costumes, and I love that!
They’re total hams, and not especially polished, but goodness they are CUTE!
Good thing for these pictures, because my evening pictures were not so clear, hahaha! But the kids clearly had a lot of fun!
Like last fall, Zak’s brought in some bouncy houses for the kids to play on! We almost missed them, as tomorrow is the last day! These pictures don’t capture much, but I see them capture the speed at which they were racing back into the fun. They had a blast! But then it was positively freezing and Dekker and I took the morsel inside for some warmth. It was fun, and quiet, and relaxed. I got to chat with one of Brady’s colleagues that I’ve never really connected with before, and to catch back up in depth with another employee who rocks a hard exterior but has SUCH a soft spot for children 💜 It was nice.
Finally, we left, got supper, and I ran into a couple more stores for a couple more things. We got home late and everyone was grumpy and went straight to bed. Whew!
A bath is running for me, and I am so looking forward to finally warming up. I am cold through and through!
Sleep deep, all 💜 I say it now, because I imagine I’ll beat you to dreamland 😴
Today was particularly delicious, so I feel inclined to share the yummy things I made with you. If you’ve followed long enough, you know I haven’t always felt especially confident (or at all confident) in the kitchen, and I’m truly enjoying celebrating some successes, as well as building some skills in the meantime. Anyway. Todays food.
I ended up staying back from church. One of our kids wasn’t going to make it, unfortunately, so me, plus aforementioned child, and the morsel made three! We stayed home and I realized I hadn’t planned lunch. In an effort to use up things that I forget about, I pulled out my tart shells and decided to make mini quiche for lunch. I realized a bit too far into the game that I was out of milk, but there was cream I could defrost out of the fridge, so it still worked out. I skipped frying bacon and chopped up leftover sausage instead. And I have to say – they came together pretty nicely!!
I made WAY too many in hopes of having leftovers to try out as breakfasts or lunch things to grab and run with. So we’ll see how those go over in the days to come.
In the afternoon, Brady finished up the yogurt he had started yesterday. It needed to sit for 24 hours, and it alarmed once that wait was over. It turned out beautifully!!! Almost no whey to scoop out! He just stirred in some vanilla and honey, and it went to the fridge! Boom! Four litres of yogurt! We do really need to get a thermometer. Thanks, Moodys, for letting us borrow yours!!
For supper, I had it in my head to make something with ham. I found ham on a good sale so I bought a few and I was quite determined to use one. I found a pretty basic meal on Pinterest that claimed to be “an easy Easter meal” but I’m pretty sure I can eat ham, potatoes, and green veggies the rest of the year as well, so I did. And it turned out!
It was supposed to all fit on one pan, but perhaps the person making the recipe for their blog didn’t cook for nine people. Even with this, almost every bite was gone. Two tiny ham pieces survived to see another day.
It was a positively delicious day, and I feel pretty happy about it. I am definitely ready for a good nights sleep, though. Someone tell the morsel. 🥱
