I’ve written and deleted paragraphs about how exhausted and overdone I feel more than once this morning already.

As I resist the urge to just whine about my emotions and my busyness, I’ll show you some fun strides Sol has made!

My mom brought paints over yesterday. Dekker opted out, but the other kids were eagerly in there. I could show you what everyone painted but Solly’s stood out the most to me. Firstly, I think he is finally handed!

He hadn’t chosen a dominant side during kindergarten, and I was starting to carry some concern. He wasn’t ambidextrous. He wasn’t doing especially well with either side, and I didn’t want him to fall behind. Thankfully, he seems to have finally settled in to being right handed, and it was evident as he painted. This first picture is a slide. 👆 Can you see it?

And these are a rainbow and a house. With his name, written with the S facing the right way!! 🥳

I’ll miss the little backwards S but I’m sure it’ll still make some appearances here and there 💜 Its sad to see that cute little stuff go, but development and growth is always a positive thing!

Except if its a tumour… 😬 #whoops #cancerjoke

I’m very proud of this little guy. I have seen so much growth in him already this school year. He is more independent. He is more confident. He takes more time to work on things. Last year, if he had been chosen to throw a pie at someone at school, he would’ve curled up in a ball and cried. I kid you not. He crumbled under pressure. And while we all do that sometimes, it is clear that he is coming into his own, and it is really fun to watch.

I have to laugh. So often, when people pop in, they greet the kids and ask “Is it pajama day? Because my kids are virtually always in pajamas. Come on, people. Every day is pajama day over here. People who spend regular time here have come to know that, and their kids will come in jammies as well. I love that, lol! You can view it as lazy if you want, but we view it as comfy, and I view you as jealous, lol!

Anyway. Saturday at home still feels foreign. We’ve been home from the lake for a while now, obviously, but it was our usual for so long to wake up there rather than here. So Saturday jammie days are really fun 💜 A newfound novelty, I suppose.

This Saturday was full of onesies…

And one kid still missing his summer look 😆

It was a day of lego and music and crafts and costumes. And crocheting, of course.

Saturdays without Brady are something to adjust to after being so fortunate to have him home with us for so long 💜 But I know we have it much easier than many others in terms of schedule, so we are incredibly grateful.

Yesterday, the kids’ school reinstated family reading lunch! I am so happy its back – not because I necessarily love sitting in the hallway for a half hour, but because it is GOOD to have school activities back in action after the half of covid and sickness and all the fear surrounding those things.

We are SO grateful that Brady works nearby and could sneak away to join us for a half hour! Dekker may have been uninvested, but he was invested in the reading part 😆

It was really good to see the teachers, meet the kids friends, and put some more names to faces. Brady had to leave after a half hour or so, but the families were invited to join for the school assembly after recess. So Laela kidnapped Wavy for lunch recess, and they played hard! It was really nice to meet Laela’s usual recess buddy, too! He followed Laela’s every move. It was a very cute recess.

We settled in for the school assembly and Dekker, being in the oldest grade, sat furthest to the back. Right in front of us. Sooooo it wasn’t long before she joined him. It was a LOUD assembly!

I can’t post too much from the school, with there being other peoples kids in the backgrounds, but the assembly was a LOT of fun. Their earlier fundraiser earned the kids the opportunity to pie some teachers and students, as well as shaving a head and a beard. Solly was randomly chosen to throw a pie plate of whipped cream at Dekker’s closest friend, which was hilariously cute. Solly LOVED it.

Almost as much as I loved family reading lunch.

Thank you, Brady, for taking this 💜 Its a very special memory for me.

We not-to-delicately visited Brady at work yesterday. Zak’s had a cute fall setup just outside their building with a bale maze, a sand pit, and a big inflatable bouncy house with a slide. I keep forgetting about this setup and finally, its the end of the line and if we wanted to go, it needed to happen now. So I picked the kids up after school and we headed off to Brady’s work!

Bradys work is really beautiful. They love when the families come in. They love the kids. They treat their people really well. Brady knew we were coming so he was totally comfortable clocking out for fifteen to come play with us! After he wrapped up that one email, anyway 😆

Believe it or not, I did pep talk the kids before we went in, and they did good, but it was also like herding cats. Everyone was super lovely, though, chatting with us and making everyone feel welcome 💜

We finally made our way over to the fun, and the kids got right into it! They were wilder than I’ve seen in a good while, but they had the place to themselves so we just let them at it! It was really, really nice to see Brady mid-day, also 💜 I think I say to him every day that I really miss having him at home, but I am SO happy he loves his job so much. There probably couldn’t be a better fit for our family.

When we were done jumping/running/racing/digging/yelling, I made them take a picture. I promise they had fun, hahaha! They were exhausted and sweaty. It was awesome.

We had a LOT of fun! Once we finished outside, the kids discovered the structure inside, so they did that for a few minutes while I perused the housewares. Then we ran into an employee who we’ve met once or twice, and we chatted for probably ten minutes or so until an actual paying customer needed help, lol! At that point, Brady only had about ten minutes left of work, so we waited in the van a little longer for him. Aaaaand then we got McDonalds, which was a HUGE treat for ALL of us. Its nice to not cook sometimes, haha!

Our run to Zak’s was a great success. The kids got picked up from school. They got out of homework. They got to play. We all got to see Brady sooner than usual. We got to chat with new people. We got to play and jump and run somewhere new. We got to eat treat food, and no one had to cook. And we still got home with time to play.

I am so grateful 💜

As you guys know, we bought a minivan recently for Brady to use as a commuter to work. However, he can’t drive it yet, because *ding ding ding* it doesn’t have hand controls in it yet.

Immediately upon buying the van, Brady began the application process to Kinsmen to request funding for a second set of hand controls. He filled in the form, “plead our case” so to speak, got the two quotes required, as well as the recommendation letter from an OT, and got it all in by the required date! Kinsmen assesses their applications once a month, so the deadline is solid. And we met it! Heyooo!

A short time later, a Kinsmen rep called to speak to Brady about the application. He asked if we could simply move the hand controls to the minivan from the bus. Brady said ideally no, as the bus is the vehicle that actually fits the whole family, and it will be our main vehicle. The rep agreed that it made sense that Brady should be able to drive his work vehicle and his family vehicle. He confirmed that we weren’t asking for a vehicle, just the controls, and Brady agreed. It all looked good.

When the day came, we were actually denied funding :/ This was a pretty big bummer because it was a misunderstanding. While the rep told Brady he really went to bat for us, and gave all the correct information, the therapist who wrote the recommendation letter made an error and stated that I would now be the sole driver of the bus, which isn’t correct. The rep refuted this on our behalf, but because it was written word, they took it as truth, and they said to just move the controls from one vehicle to the next.

We were advised we could appeal, but that it would only be reconsidered at the next months meeting. And as it gets colder, the pressure is on to get Brady into the right, safest vehicle. Plus, when we got hand controls on the bus, it took weeks. So we decided not to appeal and just pay out of pocket. We do have the funds, thank the Lord, but we are being very careful financially as we navigate the new job that doesn’t quite cover things just yet. Our savings are important, but this is a very important thing, and I’m incredibly grateful we have the resources to make it happen!

Brady put the call in to Golden Mobility as soon as we were denied, and lo and behold, they have a set of hand controls for our bus in stock. They will be installed next week!!! Brady is SO excited to be able to take his vehicle to work and have the setup we’ve been waiting for 🙂

Praise God for always taking care of our needs and never leaving us without 💜

This is Solly’s first year in full time school! Kindergarten was every other day, which was good, but had its challenges. Solomon is always and bright, but he doesn’t always want to be. He’s content, and not always the most driven little guy there is. Yet he is an absolute delight to be around!

Yesterday was the first day I really saw him sound a word out when reading. Without hints or prompting, he sounded out the word “cat.” I know this may seem small, but its a big deal for us, and I celebrated like crazy. And he felt sooooo good about it! It was AWESOME!

Solly is an epic doddler, and he doesn’t like to be rushed, but every morning he comes upstairs fully dressed, with his backpack and all his loose hangers in hand. Don’t ask me why. I really only ask the kids for their hangers on a day where I’m doing laundry. Which isn’t every day. But hey, its a cute thing he thinks of and does to help!

He’s also starting to do more dishes. Again, he is old enough to do some of that stuff, but he’s snuck under the radar but having three older siblings. However, Waverly wants to do dishes, too, and its really shed light on how capable Solly must be, haha! So one of the big kids will volunteer to work as a team with Solly each day, and Wavy always wants to help Laela. We have a good system, and Solly is a willing part of it!

Solly is getting braver in his language, saying things like “I understand why” and “I can explain that.” His “did you know” is “have you known?” Its so much funnier, lol! He also says bizarre things like “welcome tooooo making supper.” He still makes his observations. They’re just fancier, hahaha!

Don’t get me wrong. He’s not all the way grown up. He still does weird things. Like running into the wall and blaming the wall for “hitting” him. Or like wearing his jeans backwards.

Don’t worry, I definitely helped him after I snapped a picture! 💜 I’m not a monster!

At the (literal) end of the day, Solly is the softest, gentlest, most content little thing to tuck into bed. He is always happy to be put down for bed, and he snuggles up with his little blankie that he named Gary, lol, and his blanket that I made him last Christmas. Yes, he sleeps with that thing every single day. No more duvets for him! He squishes down all cozy into his space, with one arm out, and calls “Give me my mommy!” until I come to his side. Its really, really nice.

Its sweet to be loved by Solly, and its sweet to love him, too. I LOVE loving you, Solomon. I’m really enjoying watching you grow! I am SO proud of you! 💜

As I sit in my living room, listening to the Encanto soundtrack with Waverly, I’m reminded of Laela’s depiction of the characters that she drew the other day, and I thought I’d share them!

In no particular order, here you have them! First is Abuela and Maribel’s mom, with her healing bread. Abuela is Wavy’s favorite character.

Then we have the dad who is deeply allergic to bees, and Maribel. I love the commentary Laela added, lol!

Then we have Maribel’s sisters. My absolutely favorite is Luisa with her big muscles and even bigger feelings.

Then we have some more secondary characters, some of whose names have escaped Laela and also me. The shapeshifter. The storm girl. Antonio. And the guy who married storm girl.

Lastly, we have Casita, and Bruno! Our kids loved speculating how Brady would fare in Casita in his wheelchair, whether or not he’d even use it, would the floors bumping around really hurt his butt, etc. Never a dull moment over here!

Laela loves to draw, and I love to celebrate it. If you’ve seen this movie and take the time to really look, she did really, really well on the details 💜 I’m proud of her for being so attentive and artsy. Well done, sweet Laela!

I won’t lie. Brady’s birthday was a bit all over the place. In the end, I’d call it a success 💜

It began with Brady opening a card from Cher and a gift from me. I gave him gitch with pineapples on them. He giggled like a little boy while he put them on. Lol! He is easy to please. Then he had some coffee and went to work.

The first chunk of his workday was pretty rough. As in, a total bust. But everyone rallied and Cher, Wavy, and I got to visit him at work and bring him a treat and a snuggle 💜

After work, my mom came over with supper for the kids, and Brady and I left for a date night out! We don’t get too many date nights, as many couples don’t, so we really really appreciated the willingness of my mom and the opportunity to be out together!

We hit Montanas for some of our favorite food.

I won.

Post-supper, we went to Old Navy to buy Brady some new jeans. Jeans are not as easy to buy as they used to be. Its hard to know if they fit nicely or are “comfortable” when you can’t feel your butt. Yet the stakes are higher, because sitting in bad, ill-fitting pants for an extended period of time when, unable to feel that they’re not right, will result in pressure sores. And that is a scary thing, as small as it sounds. It isn’t. Thankfully, Old Navy had nice fitting, soft, stretchy jeans that worked really well for Brady! At one point, from inside the change room, he realized he hadn’t been locking his door. He remarked “Oh well. Worst case scenario, someone sees my pineapples.” And we laughed like the tools we are.

We drove the fancy neighbourhoods in the city like we used to, and picked up some ice cream 💜 It was a very chill date, which we really needed after such a struggle in the morning. Its not fair to give over the power to ruin his day so easily. So we didn’t. And we really enjoyed it.

I’ll admit that we were EXTRA tired at the end of the day. But it was a success to end up beside each other, content, in love, and continuing to grow and change together.

I hope your birthday was happy, my love 💜 I loved being with you, and I look forward to MANY more birthdays together. As many as we can possible get.

We wanted to be productive today, but also not to spend the day working ourselves into the ground. We struck a beautiful happy medium by having a fire in the backyard – something we haven’t done since January – and burned a whole schwack of cardboard.

This summer, we hauled stuff to and from the lake in the flat, open boxes from Costco. They were easier for the kids to carry stuff around in, so we had a LOT of them. We also recently received a few boxes out of Ikea (I still haven’t posted about that! Ack! Sorry, folks! I will so soon!) that needed to be disposed of. Believe it or not, our family produces a decent amount of garbage and recycling, so our bins don’t have a ton of extra room in them at the end of their two week cycle. It would take forever to get rid of this stuff through those pickups. So today was the day to get rid of it!!

Also, our back yard is incredibly neglected, and full of tumbleweeds, haha! Sooooo we burned a bunch of that too. I’m embarrassed of our backyard. Be nice. We had quite a mess on our hands.

Its not over, so there is no big glorious “after” picture. But it was still a very cute morning 💜

Dekker was the first out to join me while I got things started and organized. He ran around and found me some gloves, tools, and a fresh lighter.

Eventually everyone joined! Even Cher came for a little!

We worked/burned/played until shortly after noon, and then we packed up the backyard. There will still be some work to do back there – blowing out the lines, covering up the AC, etc – but it was a really nice morning 💜 I’m so glad we got things done that definitely needed doing, but wasn’t back breaking. Now, with all the boxes gone, it’ll be easier to get the garage tidied up for the winter! We need to get a vehicle in there soon, and its been left to its own devices for months. Lots to catch up on 💜

Enjoy your Sunday, friends! We don’t know how many snow-free weekends we have left!

We got everyone out of bed nice and late this morning. When they were up and dressed and ready, we headed to one of local centres for the fire departments annual pancake breakfast fundraiser!

Maybe you remember, and maybe not, but a few years back, we had to call the fire department when our CO detectors went off and would not stop screaming. It was scary, and they were SO good to us. We are incredibly grateful for our fire fighters!

Specifically, we really love Tom. You may have picked up on that over time. Tom is an incredible grandpa to our children, and also a father figure. On top of that, he is one of our local fire fighters!

Rae came and met us at the door when we arrived. She helped everyone get their food cut up. She refilled cups and poured syrup and fulfilled every need she found.

Aaaaand then she got the kids out to play in the fire trucks! Thats such a cool touch – to let the kids check out the vehicles! It was cold out, too, so the warmth of the trucks was well received.

You know breakfast has been a success when everyone is sticky and smiling. Even Brady’s push rims are covered in syrup. It was a yummy, loud, friendly, loving morning 💜

Wavy and Sparky forever 💜💜💜

Thank you for breakfast, Dalmeny Fire Rescue!