Everyone had baths yesterday. All the kids anyway. Its become a nice, independent process where most things are done by the kids themselves, except for the occasional head check, or help getting the water right. Wavy is really the only one who still needs hair help, and she’s so easy in the bath. She likes to play and isn’t afraid to get her face wet. She’s a peach 🍑

Yesterday, Wavy opted to play in the tub for a while after her bath. When she was done, she got out on her own, and called to us that she was finished. And it was within ten seconds I could hear her whimpering. I went to go check on her, and she was standing in the hallway, stark naked, dripping, her arms wrapped around herself, positively shivering. She saw me and shook out the words “Can you help me get a towel please?” Poor little sweetie couldn’t reach her towel! Hahaha!

So I had the pleasure of wrapping her up in a burrito and snuggling her to safety and warmth! I kept her until she was cozy and playful again!

I know my little pruney snuggles are likely numbered, but I sure enjoy them when given the opportunity 💜

Not too many days are both really busy and also really quiet. But thats how I’m feeling in this moment. On this Saturday.

Brady and I spent the morning on a Teams meeting online, which was good, and informative, and low pressure. Meanwhile, my mom watched the kids. They colored and read and played and chatted, and then she got them lunch. Thank you SO MUCH mom!! 💜 That was just an incredible help to us today!

And thank you, Tom, for clearing our snow! What a gift! That helps us SO much!!!

When the class was over, Brady and I found our own lunch, and then I took Wavy to a birthday party that she was invited to! She was so so excited!

We’ve enjoyed a little quiet time, but things will get rolling again here soon. Nothing super taxing needs to be done, per se, but there are still things to do. Everyone needs a bath. I need to finish up some scheduling that I need to dig for. I need to find a little more childcare for the next week-ish. There is homework to do from the meeting. Supper to prepare. Some of these things will be able to wait for another day if need be, but they’re at the top of the to-do list!

I also haven’t crocheted a stitch all day or ALL DAY YESTERDAY!!! What will become of me?! Lol! I have to make room for that!

Also, I’m an ice cube. I cannot shake it. I may or may not try and sneak in my own bath before the day is done.

Oh and I need to go pick Wavy up in a little bit.

I’m very grateful for all of these little things keeping us busy. My body may not be feeling 100%, nor my emotions, but I am thankful for all I have, even busy seasons.

I was up most of the night with a pounding headache. I did everything I could for it before I had to get up and do the morning. It lifted a little, and now it is just so so grossly worse. So, no real blog for today.

There could be worse things than spending lazy time with this little cute thing.

Our Rowan Toby has managed a full week as a contact wearer! Every morning, he brings out his case and the saline solution, just in case. He calls it rescue juice 🙂 Cute, hey? He brings it to the island and waits patiently for me to come help him. It still takes until the second or third try sometimes, but he is SO patient and seems so comfortable. He tries SO hard to be so still, and giggles when it makes the gross squirty sound. Then he blinks it into place for a second or two, and the puts his stuff away. Patch goes onto the right eye, and off he goes! Patch comes off for school, and back on when he gets home. He really doesn’t care for the patch :/ Poor guy. He’s sure had a lot of change recently, and he handling it with very real strength from God! He goes about the rest of his day with a contact and a patch until shortly before bed, when I take his contact out and we switch to glasses and a patch, just to give everything some time to breathe. He is happy to have his contact taken out, even though he was very hesitant about it in the beginning. I often get that first try, and then he likes to fill the case with “rescue juice” and put it all away himself. Rowan taking his patch off is the highlight of his day. I can attest that he reacts the way you might if you were taking your bra off at the end of the day 😅 Complete relief, hahaha!

Rowan will have a follow-up appointment next week to see how his eyes are handling the change, and if his vision is changing at all. The whole point of this is to wake up the parts of his brain that aren’t really working to turn on his left eye, so his brain is working very hard. It always works extra very hard (yes, thats a thing) while he navigates his overstimulation and some symptoms of ADHD. That boy WORKS. And its HARD. Yet he is doing SO WELL!!!

This is not the most impressive picture, but Solly ran and dove into Rowan’s arms, uninvited, and Rowan embraced it and called to me to take a picture. Guys. That counts. I am SO thrilled with his beautiful progress. I appreciate that kids are resilient, but people who are resilient still need lots of care and acknowledgement. We are resilient because we have to be. Because we have struggled. Its not a casual “He can take it, he’s a kid” thing. Not to me.

Aaaaanyway. Brag alert. I am incredibly impressed with Rowan’s attitude towards all of these changes 💜 Beautiful job, Ro! I’m SO proud of your determination!! 💪

Can I be honest? Packing kids lunches is one of my least favorite things. Its just something I find challenging – to find things that everyone likes, or to make them all different to make each kids specifications. But I do it, of course! I do my best, and the kids sometimes do their best, too 😅 Depending on the day or the stage, sometimes most of the lunch comes home. And if I send less, that will be the day the kid eats everything and their teacher sends a message home that they had to give my kid extra food because they were SO hungry. Ugh. Balance is impossible lol! So these days, I lay out lunches while the kids eat breakfast, and I get the chance to say “Is this enough? Would anyone like anything else?” and we go from there.

I often feel like a total drag of a lunch-packing mom. We don’t have all the fun stuff that the kids say their friends get. All the squeezy things. Yogurt tubes. Chips. Juice boxes. I mean NO disrespect to parents who do pack that stuff!!! Truly! I’m just too cheap, hahaha!

Today felt like a win, though, and I just want to remember it.

I was setting out lunches on the island, and the kids were paying attention. They each got a big orange sliced up, some cheese and crackers, yogurt, and a homemade granola bar with a bunch of healthy stuff snuck in. Basic things. And Laela’s eyes grew, and she said

WOW! Our lunch is FULL of junk food!!!

And I laughed out loud, because part of me felt so crappy that she views such normal things as treats, but then I decided to be happy that she’s grateful and enjoys her lunch!

Simple pleasures for the win today 💜

Its a full moon tonight! Has anyone been feeling the lead up in their home or workplace? We sure have been! Though not as bad as the last one. *shivers* Last one was HARD. Aaaaanyway. Its been that standard full moon vibe for a couple of days, where everyone tends to be a bit more high strung.

Last night, for reasons unbeknownst to me, I did not sleep well at all. I’m blaming the moon. I wasn’t overly anxious, nothing was bothering me, but I was awake for a very large chunk of the night. I dozed in and out for hours and hours. And then when I did finally fall asleep, I must’ve slept hard, and weird, because this morning, everything hurt!

Such is life, though! Just an achy start to the day. The kids were in better shape than I was this morning, so that was a really nice pick me up 🙂 I got Rowan’s contact in without any fuss. Everyone ate, packed, brushed. Dishes got done. We even remembered that Laela needed to bring her skates. It was pretty successful.

Once the big kids left, Wavy got her stuff organized for preschool. Today that meant she wore fleece lined leggings and a tank top. Because, thats Wavy.

I dropped her off, and picked Cher up for coffee. We chatted and sipped until it was time to pick Wavy up, and then I dropped Cher at home. Kind of a convenient system! It was a nice way to spend the morning 💜

Wavy and I lunched together, and when she went down for naps, I went up for crocheting and Netflix. And smarties, because, I found some. There is a heating pad on my back, and some bright springy crocheting next to me, simply waiting for me to stop typing, sooooo I’m gonna.

Facebook showed me this picture today of Brady and I from nine years ago. We were 25.

I feel like, in this picture, we had really hit our stride. We had a lot of fun in our life!

For years, I would laugh at every one of my birthdays and say “I still feel like I”m 23.” I felt young forever. I don’t know what it was about 23, but it was as if I didn’t age for a while there, and that was always my number.

When Brady went to the hospital, and that whole new season of life came upon us, I aged so quickly. I was deflated beyond belief. Exhausted at every angle. It has always felt selfish to say it, but to be blunt, I was deeply suffering. And that first summer afterwards, when I turned 33, I remember saying “I feel like I’m 46.” I only realized way after that fact that I had subconsciously doubled the age I felt I was the year before. I can’t tell you what gave me those numbers, but they felt pretty significant to me.

I don’t know what happened. If it was the two year post-surgery mark, or just God’s perfect timing. Probably both. But we have once again seemed to have hit our stride. And its a gooder.

We both feel like our capacities have grown. We laugh more. We accomplish things easier. We have at least begun to hit a new normal, and it feels really good. Really hopeful. And thanks to that, we have some fun things we’re working towards this month! I don’t know how long its been since we’ve felt like we can actually add things, but its been a gradual climb, and its feeling good.

There is no one else I’d rather eat a casserole out of the dish at the island with.

If you are the praying type, and you think of us, please carry us with you! We are working hard to follow God’s leading! The future is bright 💜

It definitely is a different feeling over here today. Brady is at work. Weird, right? Its a whole long thing, I won’t even attempt to explain why. It won’t last forever, but for now, he will work the occasional Sunday.

And its weeeeeeeird. 😩

Last Sunday, we skipped church. Brady and I both really needed to. And the kids were so disappointed. I can’t tell you how many times this week the kids made mention of missing church and their hope to attend again soon.

So we decided to go today, even though Brady couldn’t join us. It was a busy morning, but we all got ready in time!

We got out the door in time to pick my mom up and bring her with us.

Church was smooth. The kids did really well, for which I was grateful and relieved. After church, we headed home, where Cher was working on her own stuff, and the eight of us settled in for a quick lunch before the little ones went down for rests.

The afternoon has held Skip-Bo, reading, drawing, and lego. There is still some crocheting to come, as always. And supper will be easy. Brady will be home in time to join us 💜 And tomorrow, he’s home! Woot!

I hope you have a beautiful end to your weekend, friends! Our week ahead is actually not bananas! Going to be a nice change of pace. *knocks on wood*

Our kids are homebodies, if you didn’t know. They like to be cozy and comfortable.

Which is great, but there is also definitely a time and a place to shake that up a bit. With the weather being so much milder than earlier this calendar year, we kicked them outside this morning. Waverly was stoked. The others were pretty meh about it. Dekker was devastated, as he is. But still, it was a good plan.

And being that its been a while since we enforced outside time, I ran out to take a couple of pictures.

*whispers* No one tell Rowan he doesn’t have to wear his patch outside. He forgot it was on!!!!

And this is not the best picture of these two, but I had just broken through the top layer of snow, filling my boots and freezing me to my core. And these suckers were into it! Hahaha!

We’re enjoying a little peace and quiet, though there are still things to be done! We need to do some laundry. Make sure everyone gets baths. Do a little light cleaning, and some online work during nap time.

Since I started typing this, three of the five kids have come in to see if they can come in sooooo I’m thinking my quiet time is almost over 😅 Was fun while it lasted haha!

I think I mentioned it a while back, but I was asked to test a couple of patterns for a crochet designer recently! I started one a while back now, but I ran out of one of the colors I need all throughout the pattern. Shoot! And then, because stocking shelves seems to be much harder these days, I could not locate this brand and color anywhere! Ack! So I ordered some online and while, I waited, I tested out a second, smaller pattern. I finished that smaller pattern yesterday afternoon, just in perfect timing for my yarn to be dropped at my door!! Woohoo!! Success all around!

So today, I will spend pumping out the first test pattern that’s been sitting for a week-ish. I’m very motivated to finish it because I’m participating in a fun local online art show this month, and I’ve purchased a pattern I’m really excited to get into! And I have a time crunch on it!! So, time to get working!

Plus the other two commissions I’m sitting on. Thankfully, I have a bit of time on those so they can wait a little. But not forever! I haven’t forgotten you, you know who you are!! 💜

I’d show you the pattern test I completed, but then I’d have to kill you. So. I won’t. But I will once the pattern it released later this month! I’ll leave you with this picture of Dekker and I wrapped in one of my blankets 🙂

Its really nice to have a couple in use in our living room 🙂 They just get softer and softer!

Happy Friday, friends!! 💜