After a couple of chillier, windier days, we were able to enjoy the beach for the afternoon ☀️
The beach was full!! Kids paddle boarded, swam, kayaked, and played in the sand for a good while.
However, after not too long at all, we were four wasp stings in and decided to call it. The fire was a helpful deterrent in terms of the wasps specifically.
As the day cooled off a bit, we joined the Dahlsjos at the camps wing night, which we have eagerly anticipated all summer! It was delicious!!
I spent some really nice time with my sweet Sadie this evening, and then we called it a night!
Kids are being tucked away and no one is fighting. Time for a few snacks, maybe a chunk of an episode of Stranger Things, and then to bed we go!! Tomorrow will be a short day at camp before we take everyone home for baths, buzzes, and some quick double checking before the first day of school 💜
Sleep tight, all! We only had one wakeup last night! Let’s hope for a repeat! 🤞
It just feels more and more like fall, and I’m actually not mad at it.
Sadie bought me chai ice cream at the farmers market.
I ate it by the fire, dressed in leggings and a plaid jacket. The wind was too cold to be at the beach. I loom knitted. Babies napped and we did some sitting and visiting and just resting. It was lovely and peaceful. Supper was bonkers, as it almost always is when Stacy cooks 🤤
The day ended with the kids in the hot tub, making new friends while we listen to the big band play at the wedding up at the camp. And now, it’s time to wrap the day up.
After a fairly successful night, we’ve had a super extra beautiful day. We enjoyed the fire all morning, and split for lunch. The Dahlsjos went for their sandwiches, and we stayed for our sandwiches 😅 we are SUCH fancy people, hahahah!
After lunch, we got ready to go to the beach! It was grey out, but still pretty nice and warm and still. But that was all very deceiving because down by the water was COLD and WINDY and it even rained a little! Which normally I’m totally down for, except that wind was brutal and made it so so much colder! It was gorgeous tho, so, no regrets!
Supper was chunky chicken salad with our Dahlsjos 🥗 It had been a while, and we all LOVED it!
But alas, the day wrapped up not long after we ate. Our babies were so extra loud and it was just so clearly time. But that’s ok because it’s still later than we’re up at home, so it makes total sense!
Have good sleeps, guys 💜 happy long weekend! The LAST one before school kicks off next week!!
Welp. Today was absolutely gigantic. Going into the day, I felt confident that as long as I kept moving at a good clip, I’d get all the things done in a reasonable amount of time, and I’d feel that good rewarding fatigue that we all love to have at the end of the day.
Whew. The day, however, did not deliver. Unfortunately it was just a largely struggly day. I really love posting as positive as possible but yikes. Today was a tough one. But I really do think it’s a culmination of the amount of work I’ve put into the last two weeks. I’ve overdone it, without a doubt, lol! And while I really don’t regret it, because aaaaall that work was super worth it, I have hit a wall, and I feel quite finished.
Of course now that I’ve said that, God will press me further, so we’ll anticipate that 😂
Conveniently, we have taken any extra long long weekend, and are back at the lake tonight 💜 We may have gotten here hours later than planned or preferred, but we made it. And guess what. Tomorrow holds NO meetings. NO visits. NO shopping. NO business. Just hanging out around a fire or on a beach with our friends who are actually our family.
Tomorrow, anyway. First, we sleep 😴 At least I sure hope we do!! 🤞 cmon, Lemon Drop! I know you can do it!!
Brady and I use a list app between our phones called “To Do” where we can list about whatever we want. This is right up my alley considering the way my life is and how many things I simply cannot remember on my own. List are the name of the game!
There is one list simply called “Today.” It used to hold a list for a specific city trip, or perhaps a short list of errands for Brady to run after work. Things like that. But I believe it was coming into summer when I made that a list of things that needed doing in the house. As if by some miracle we would have all kinds of extra time, I figured I’d have a list of jobs or priorities to look at and be able to decide where to invest my time. 😂 Anyway, it didn’t take, and I completely forgot about that list of things that felt so so important.
Yesterday I went into that list to make a specific list for while we were in the city, and I was met with this long list of all these daunting tasks. And then I went through it and checked the bulk of them off!!
Finish garage outerwear ✔️ Baby proof kitchen ✔️ Small dresser for baby room ✔️ Move the Spoonful in with the Morsel ✔️ Mail Caitlin coffee (Ok, I didn’t mail it but I gave it to her this weekend so its still done!) ✔️ Buy buckets for cube shelves Went with different storage system ✔️ Order laundry machines (lol) ✔️ School supplies order ✔️ School supplies clean up ✔️ Hang mug shelf ✔️
ALL OF THOSE were done without me overthinking them, and it was absolutely such a relief! The list is not gone but it is much smaller. This was such a pleasant surprise to me, and while the last two weeks have been a total whirlwind, and the last couple of days carrying some downers, I welcomed the pick me up of being more productive than I thought I had been!
Anyway. Tomorrow we leave for camp. But first, a meeting with a social worker, two visits for the babies, and a school event! Whew! Somewhere in there, I’ll pack. Wish me luck!!! 🤞
Laela and Rowan are commonly referred to as the twins around here, because they have so many similarities! They used to be the same height and same weight, with similar hair color and expressions. Of course, they’re older, look different, act somewhat different, and Rowan has quickly surpassed her in size, haha! But they remain my twins, because it just works.
Today I had an opportunity to have one on one time with each of them! This week is nuts for appointments, meetings, responsibilities, and everything else, so I find myself in the city a lot. Today, we took a baby in for a visit, and Brady came to meet us in the Walmart parking lot after work. We got there around the same time. We tried to go in for a shop as a family but it was clear that one of the babies was not having it. So we decided to split up. Brady was going to take the group to pick up supper, and I would stay and do the shop. Laela asked to stay with me, so we did Walmart together. It was really really nice 💜 We got groceries for camp this weekend, and then worked hard to put together a present for someone we love! We finally found five nice items, a gift bag, and a card. We sat outside and put it all together while we waited for the gang to pick us up.
We ate our supper in the van, and went to pick up after the visit. At that point, we went to retrieve Brady’s minivan, and Rowan and I split off from the group to hit Costco quickly. Bradys idea, which was SO nice. Some one on one time with Rowan doesn’t happen too often, but it was a nice opportunity for it, and we also needed to get a few things there. Nothing big. Just a little. Just us. He was stoked to be singled out 💜 I get how that feels.
We shopped and got just about everything on our list! Though they haven’t had the good bacon bits in a while :/ Whats that all about?! Lame. Anyway. We did see…
A GHOST!!
We did pretty good and got through in what felt like decent time. But wow has the season changed! We got there in the sun and left in the dark.
We came home and I unloaded and put away our purchases, and Rowan settled in for a short 15 minutes of wind down before it was bedtime. I can’t believe its already after 10pm. I am positively dragging, and the next days have FOUR commitments EACH! 😵 Wish me luuuuuck!
Our morning plans were cancelled first thing, therefore we had no appointments to make it to!! So rather than getting up and active right away, and Brady missing work, I figured we could move a little slower.
Except I then fielded phone calls for at least a solid half hour and by then, the kids were done breakfast and I hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to everyone about the days plans! So I called everyone back the table and told them our change of plans. Everyone was happy for an unexpected home day!
Last week left absolutely NO time to catch up on basic life stuff, and we were completely out of baking. Like OUT out. No options. So I asked the kids for a bit of help with the babies and said I would bake. And I did! I made twelve dozen muffins!! Afterwards, I was feeling ambitious and went to retrieve some of my frozen bananas to see if I could whip out some banana bread as well! But alas, something was up with my bananas, and they are a total loss :/ Not too long ago, I had found my freezer was left cracked open. I had checked to make sure the meat was still frozen, which it was, so I closed it and moved forward. I’m thinking my bananas must’ve thawed out really badly because they are now very dark brown and incredibly sludgy in frozen brown liquid :/ That was disappointing. But it also forced me to sit for a bit, which is nice.
Of course, sitting was short lived because of my life being what it is, hahaha! But it was a solid idea at the time. But I’m getting another minute or two of sitting in here quickly before the Lemon Drop wakes up, which will be any minute now. Better let my legs hang limp off my recliner for just onnnnne more minute!
It was a huge relief to have a bigger house in this season. Our previous house was a modified bi-level, so while the square footage sounded ok, it was split between the main level and our bedroom, meaning our basement was about 1100 sqft. Which is fine, don’t get me wrong, but the new bungalow gives us a confident 1650 on the main level and the basement both, giving us so much more room to run and play!
Our group consisted of seven adults and fourteen children. I expected our house to feel positively bursting at the seams, but somehow it kind of wasn’t! Granted, we had lots of outings, at the church gym, and the backyard got some good use that first day. The spray park was fun. We’ve had lots of options. But it was REALLY nice to see how easily our house could be comfortable to such a large group 💜 Thank you, Lord, for always providing us with what we need! You NEVER disappoint us!
We all said our goodbyes in the street today, in front of our house. There were lots of hugs, some tears, and some mixed feelings about whether or not they’d ever see the babies again 💔 That was pretty gut wrenching. We waved everyone out, went back into our house, and a couple of kids had some good, big cries. We had some winding down before it was time to actually get kids into bed, and its all gotten quite a bit later than usual. Our Lemon Drop SUCKS at sleeping these days, so sleep cannot come soon enough! 😅
Goodnight, guys 💜 Tomorrow begins a VERY full week for us!! And then school is JUST around the corner! Ack!!! Time moves SO quickly!!!
Our family of ten spent the day with my mom, my siblings, and their families! We have a group of 21 all in, and it is SUCH an amazing group! We have had an incredibly lovely time together today, and Friday supper as well. Some of us were together in May. Others we haven’t seen in person for five-ish years. And no one (besides my mom, of course) have had a chance to get to know our babies!! So this time together has been a total whirlwind of stories, jokes, pranks, food good, and really getting to know each other again. It has been an incredible blessing!
Of course, most of the pictures I have, I can’t show you :/ Man. That is really hard for me. It feels like I’m hiding things, and I’m NOT! But, rules are rules. So I’ll show you a snippet or two.
My mom had the forethought to rent the church gym out for the weekend so we could nap the babies and also have room to run simultaneously. Stefan arranged a whole bunch of games for the kids to play, and then just some free time to run. Many of the kids do well with a bit of a plan in place, so that was perfect. Then we hit the spray park and playground for a bit before we went back to the gym for more play, as well as some spread out coloring and drawing tables, and some snacks. Dekker surprised me by getting in on a game of floor hockey!! 😍 That never happens!! It was SO nice to see!
Once I got the all clear that the babies were all up at the house and it was time to get supper going a bit more in depth, it was time to tidy up the gym and head home.
It was just a really really cute scene 💜
We went back to our house and kids played downstairs or with the babies in the living room until suppertime, where we ate our body weight in kielke, sausage, schmaundt, and honey carrots. YUM!!! We wrapped the evening with a drumstick-esque cake, all peanut buttery and frozen. SO good! It was almost as good for my tummy as it was for my heart to see the Morsel practically launch out of my arms the moment Uncle Simon came into view 😍 It felt like worlds colliding in the best way!
We wound down the activities a bit earlier than the night before so we could all pack it in at a reasonable time. Over here, the Lemon Drop is not sleeping well, and we are feeling pretty wiped to say the least. Yet, winding down the group still took time, as it does, and only now, at 9:52pm can I say every child is tucked into bed.
Ok! Here is a brief rundown of yesterday’s workload! It was monumental!!!
Yesterday, day four, was the day of the big things. The moving of both stuff, and also furniture. I sat the kids down and pep talked them good and proper about how things were going to get really really messy before they actually got organized. That everyones stuff would be in everyones space. That people would touch other peoples things. That everyone would be expected to help others if their things were currently finished or on pause. And everyone was on board! Fully expecting them all to tap out after fifteen minutes, I got to work guiding each kid to know where they could possibly start, and just started working. I began moving all the girls stuff out of their room and dumping it into the middle of the basement. Their room would be the most challenging, and the last to put together, so all of their things just lived in the main area. Once their bedding was down, I started bringing Rowans stuff up and chucking it onto the bed. Just to get the right things into the right rooms. We’d set it up after. I worked to get the girls dresser downstairs and then helped Rowan get his dresser up. Solly was taking Rowan’s stuff out of his room and Dekker was dragging their things over into their new space/Rowan’s old space. It was chaos.
But the kids didn’t quit! They worked for a solid few hours and got the bulk of their things done!! I got Rowans new storage shelf in from the garage, as well as a dresser for our baby room. That sucker was heavy! But it got done!
So while Rowan worked on moving his things up and around, and the downstairs boys puttered in their room, the girls hung with the babies for a bit while I got to assembling their bed. We got them quite the new bed setup, secondhand, with no assembly instructions whatsoever. But I sat with it and worked slowly, looking at the diagram pictures off of the Wayfair link the previous owner had sent me. The babies went down for naps and Laela came to hang out with me while I worked. She brought lunch down for both of us, and insisted on helping screw the slats in place at the very end.
The next time the babies were up, I got into their room and made sense of all the boxes stacked up mindlessly in their room. Their closet is still pretty much just used for storage, which isn’t ideal, but it works for now. Lots of “for now” solutions going on over here, but I’m excited to gradually get our house to where I want it. Its ok if it takes time. I plan to be here until I’m an old, old lady.
We wrapped the day up with trash food for our kids who worked very, very hard. They were stoked.
This is Rowans new room…
Dekker and Solly’s new room…
Laela and Wavy’s new room…
and a fresh baby room.
Everyone slept in their new spaces last night 💜 It was a total win.
Today was about cleaning more so. Cher came and helped. Loose floating boxes that just needed putting away finally vanished. Floors were swept and mopped and vacuumed. Bathrooms got cleaned. Babies got bathed. Basement got tidied up. Extra dining chairs came out of the garage and covers were stretched in place. Kids continued to settle into their rooms. Babies stayed alive. A few groceries were picked up.
Aaaaand everything that didn’t get put away nicely now lives in tubs in my room 🤣 Just so the house is nice for the weekend!
Happy Friday, friends! Only so many summertime weekends left! Enjoy! Everyone slept in their new spaces last night 💜
