Today is so reminiscent of last year, for some reason, but in a nice way. I’m so grateful there are some positive body memories from then 💜

The kids are in jammies.
The Hamilton soundtrack is playing.
Everyone is playing together at the table or island, be it lego, playmobile, or crafts.
Occasionally, someone throws a brief line of a Christmas song in between the Hamilton songs.
Everyone is quick to laugh.
Everyone is comfortable.
Supper is started in the crock pot.
I have coffee.
I’m crocheting.

I am overwhelmingly grateful for a smooth morning so far. Today is Brady’s first Saturday at Zak’s, acting as something of a store manager. This will happen occasionally, as he is in a Saturday rotation now. Saturday’s with him away at work have always been a challenge, but we’ve adapted to a lot, so whats one more thing? I am very, very proud of him 💜

Happy weekend, friends. I hope your day is as peaceful as mine.

It was a very cute morning. Apparently, pre-covid, there used to be an all-day soccer tournament for grades five and six. When it was happening, none of my kids were that age, and then it stopped for a couple of years. Now, suddenly, Dekker has an all-day soccer tournament! Lol! News to me, but that was today!

I will admit that I completely missed the memo that it was an event to go watch! I was tipped off late yesterday evening, and I confirmed with Dekker this morning that, yes, people were welcome to attend. See, Dekker doesn’t care for sports. Its just not his jam. So he was not at all looking forward to the day, and therefore didn’t react in a “Hey, its going to be so much fun! You should come watch!” kind of way. And thats ok. He was happy about it when I told him Wavy and I would be coming, and bringing grandma. The $5 for the concession stand gained a bigger smile, though, lol!

So with all of that being said, Dekker is amazing. He found this beautiful balance where he would run off the field to sub, and he would come and snuggle Wavy, chat for a sec, and then rejoin his friends, and then go back to the game. He hit every mark every time. I was SO impressed. He loves Wavy so much and it really showed. And she loves his too! She waved and yelled for him multiple times! “Dekker I yike your shirt!”

He is NOT ashamed to love his little sister. I love that so much.

The unprompted smooch that absolutely MELTED my heart 💜

She tried to bite his nose, lol!

I was also incredibly proud of his determination and drive. As I said, he doesn’t care for sports. But he knew where to be and how to play, and he ran and ran and ran. He played defence, and he did really, really well! He wasn’t afraid to get in the way of the other player running, or to follow the gang up the field. One particular game, he only got called out to sub once, and within ten seconds, someone got hurt and he had to go back out. He was beat, but he ran and played and did his absolute best. I am SO proud of how hard he works, even when he truly isn’t invested.

Three games later, Dekker took off with his buddies for cheeseburgers, and mom took Wavy and I home for lunch. Wavy napped, and I had a bath to try to warm up, because brrrrr!

I am not firing on all cylinders at the moment so I think I’m going to push homework off until tomorrow and soak up some lego and music time this afternoon. Kids will be home soon 💜

🌲☕️🦌

We could all use a little letdown after a long week.

It has turned out to be a fairly full day so far, and its just barely into the afternoon! Ack! Lucky for me, my things have been fun, for the most part 🙂

I got the big kids off to school, and Wavy off to preschool.

In between there, I texted Dr. Guselle about some sketchy red spots on Brady’s bad leg. His particularly useless leg – the right side – showed up with bright red spots yesterday evening, only right beside where he gets swelling at the end of the day. We both had some blood clot concerns, so I sent a message this morning.

Cher found out her morning class got cancelled, so while Waverly was at school, she and I ducked into Saskatoon for a super speedy Value Village run. She had earned that two hour break in the midst of an incredibly busy time of studying! Plus, she wanted to help me. Remember that time I gained 40-ish pounds on my medication, and then switched back and started losing some of that weight again? Well, it keeps dropping and I keep not having clothes that fit. I also don’t have anything that would qualify as “nice.” I did manage to buy some tank tops for the summer, which is why you probably saw me in the same four shirts all season. But we went in today and I successfully found a pair of jeans, a cute soft plaid shirt, and a tshirt that I really like!

It was a great shopping success, and the company was pretty excellent also! 💜

We got back in time to sip coffee for a bit before picking Wavy up and bringing her home. Meanwhile, Brady drove into Saskatoon and took his lunch early to go test drive yet another van. No dice :/ Aaaaany day now, guys! Anyone have any leads? Stow and go seats, and power sliding doors! Thats ALL we ask!

Eventually, we parted ways 💜 Cher went home to do schoolwork. I put Wavy down for a nap. I also called Brady and heard about the van. It could’ve been good, except the doors weren’t powered, which is an important part of him not having to step on the ice to retrieve his chair. Also, it was rusted through at points. So, nope. Onto the next.

We heard back from Dr. Guselle as well, and she was able to alleviate some of the anxiety surrounding Brady’s leg. She pointed out that, when Brady had his pulmonary embolism, he had a lot of factors against him, and he has WAY fewer now. She is not concerned about him having reoccurring blood clots, and says much more likely its just an odd rash or at worst, leaky blood vessels. But likely not in this case. Win! She is so reassuring.

Once some of that was over, Wavy was wrapping up her lunch, and I tried on my Value Village clothes. Wavy made fun of me for undressing in the kitchen, but then reacted very sweetly and told me I looked “sooooo cute!” Lol!

Beard man for the win! 💜

Waverly went down for her nap totally easily and happily, and now, I will crochet in my bed and rest up a little before everyone comes home and chaos ensues!

Happy first day of Fall, friends!

After her first day of preschool, I had the pleasure of hanging with Miss Waverly this morning. We needed to make a drop off, so we decided to head out for a walk as soon as the big kids were gone to school, where as we more often end up going for a walk before lunch. Not today!

Last night was the first frost warning, and it was the very low plus temperatures when we left, so we layered up! Wavy has a pretty fly style, leaving her in a strawberry toque overtop of her cool flat brim hat. If anyone can rock that kind of thing, its her. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of her.

You can just feel her swagger, am I right?

I gave her some gum, which was a pretty big treat, considering she isn’t especially reliable in terms of spitting it out at the end 😬 But she did succeed at that today! Heyooo!

She told me today “I love holding your little hand! I like just us.”

I feel the same, Waverly 💜 I love these times of just us. I will not forget them.

Today was a really big day for our household. The baby – Miss Waverly – started preschool.

She was SO excited to go. She got ready as soon as the big kids were off to school. She got dressed and brushed her teeth.

She packed her backpack. I tied her hair back.

She wandered the house aimlessly for a while with her backpack on until it was finally time to gooooo!

She was more shy than I anticipated, so I walked in with her and helped her settle in.

Good thing, since it turned out I was up to help in the class today! Whoops! Missed that memo! I guess my two hour bubble bath will have to be rescheduled for Wavy’s next day at school, lol!

The kids did crafts, and sang songs. They listened to a story and had a snack. They played and played and played. Until it was time to wrap it up!

Wavy was reserved for the first half of her day, but loosened up towards the end and played really well. She was a little out of her depth, being one of the only four year olds who hadn’t been in school as a three year old. But she was polite and obedient and did really well 💜 I asked what her favorite part of the day was, and she named her teacher. What a win 💜

We went home and ate toasted tomato sandwiches together.

It was a very cute morning, and we were both completely bushed by the end of it. Nap time held legitimate rest for both she and I!

Now excuse me while I enjoy the last two quiet moments before the rest of the kids show up! ☕️

Happy first day, sweet Wave. I cannot believe you are old enough to be in school 💜 But I am SO excited to watch you grow and thrive there. I love you!

You may have noticed that Rowan has developed a bit of a uniform this summer.

His Greenlee Construction hat with his green sunglasses. He bought the Affinity Credit Union promo shades at a garage sale for a quarter. His method that he would even tell you himself is that he never wears the sunglasses, but they decorate his hat. Lol! That isn’t entirely true, but he likes having access to his shades at all times, since we’ve learned he gets very grumpy if he’s too hot or its too bright. So they’re kind of a safety net.

He loves this setup so much, to the point of putting his sunglasses onto his hat the moment he gets in the door after school. He’s not supposed to have them at school, and I’m ok with that. But he wears the hat with the sunglasses in the house constantly. He is attached!

So, back to camp we went last weekend. It was very very quiet, and we loaded everyone onto the golf cart to go take a drive around the loops and see who was all around. We found a large gathering at the campground managers site, where he had invited seemingly everyone that was at the camp that day, for a wiener roast. He waved us over and invited us to join, refusing to take no for an answer. So we joined the party, became acquainted with some new people, and visited with some people we already knew. Friendly people interviewed our children about school, helped them with their food, and we all got to know each other.

We had a really, really nice time, but it got dark and late and the kids were starting to slip a little, so we decided to call it. We walked to the golf cart, and the kids all piled on. As we drove away from such a lovely evening, Rowan flew off the golf cart and ran to pick up his precious sunglasses off the ground.

They were absolutely destroyed. Both arms were ripped off, beyond repair. Now these were just little cheap shades, but they were a prized possession for him, and he was devastated. Rowan normally opts for anger, and he can get unreasonable pretty quickly, but he put his head against my chest and just cried and cried. He was SO sad.

He was able to recover before bed, and he found some little silver linings that helped encourage him. But we gave him lots of room to feel sad, and he took it.

The next morning, we were down by the water, just running around, skipping stones, etc. when a friend of ours popped by in his golf cart. We only know this guy from camp, and he’s slowly become invested in our family this summer, though we all pretend he hasn’t. Its all a lie. He inquired to Rowan where his sunglasses were, and Rowan didn’t answer. So I filled him in. And immediately, he told Rowan to climb onto his golf cart, and they took off together.

They were only gone for a minute or two.

Rowan had fresh sunglasses on top of his hat. He actually said the words to me “I don’t feel as sad at all anymore. I LOVE these sunglasses!”

As our friend from camp says, they’re just Mr. Lube sunglasses, and they had coffee on the arms, but Rowan was vastly unconcerned. And it was only made WAY better when we all learned that they glow in the dark!!

Rowan was back once he got some shades back atop that melon of his.

I was so proud of Rowan for handling his emotions SO well, addressing what he was actually feeling – sadness and disappointment. I was so proud of our other kids, who tried to comfort him and let him be sad. I was proud of our friend, who doesn’t care to connect with too many people, for connecting with a young kid he didn’t have to connect with. And I carry some bonus pride for Rowan, again, who threw away his old sunglasses all on his own at the end of the weekend.

These things may seem small, but for Rowan, they were huge. And he did really, really well 💜

Rowan can do hard things!

I don’t have too many pictures from this weekend at the lake, but I can tell you it was a pretty incredible stretch of time. It was the first weekend that truly felt like fall was upon us.

Not that its fall yet… Because it isn’t, according to the calendar. But it feels unusually late in the season for things to just be turning yellow! Weird!

Most people have already packed up their spots for the year. Not us, however. In our loop of the campground, there was one other person. Thats how quiet it was.

We spent a lot of time at the beach, throwing rocks and admiring the sky.

We explored a little.

We burned a fire constantly.

And we cashed in on potentially the best sunset of the summer on the calmest evening.

We hope to still be out one more time before the season is up, but if this had to be the last, it would’ve been a beautiful one.

Thank you, Lord, for the opportunity to still be at our camp spot! What a beautiful gift you’ve given our family 💜

Thats the dream, right? For Wavy it is, at least!

Waverly’s latest love is planning all the things that will bankrupt her in the future 😆 Anything cool that she sees – pretty cars, quads, animals, motorcycles, skid steers, you name it – she’s going to buy one when she grows up. Its endless, and its become a bit of a running joke around here.

The other day, I challenged her on it.

Where are you getting all your money, Wavy?
Ummm… my store.
What store are you working at?
…..Zakshomehardware.
Oh! And they’re paying you that much?
Yup.
So you’re going to just have unlimited funds, hey?
Yup!

I’m glad to hear that Zak’s will still be thriving in Waverly’s adult life!

Its frustrating how much it costs to be a grown up. Especially nowadays. We are still actively in search of a second vehicle for Brady to take to work so I’m not completely stranded.

We are looking for a minivan with dual sliding doors and stow and go seats, so Brady is able to keep his chair fully assembled, and get it out of the van from right behind him, saving him from walking on the ice in winter.

At the same time, we are still actively hunting for the next possibility of a home that suits our life better. It helps a TON that the kids are aging and can do more around here, but we know this home is temporary, and the longer we wait, the harder moving will be. But God knows that even better than we do 💜

We are looking for a lot that is a little larger than any of the new ones currently developed on our side of town. Yet, we don’t want to leave our neighbourhood if we could at all help it 💜 If we did have to, our ideal would be moving just slightly out of town, where we could build a large bungalow without worrying about tight property restrictions. So if you know of anyone thinking about subdividing small parcels of land, please be in touch with me!

God knows what we need. He knows we do not have unlimited funds like Waverly 😉 He knows where we will land. And for now, we have everything we need. And for that, we are incredibly grateful. Thank you, Lord.

The Welcome Back Pancake Breakfast has been resurrected at school, and I am SO happy!! I really, really missed it through those crappy covid stretches, and now its baaaaack!!

Brady was able to go into work a little late today so we could all go together as a family 💜

We were among the first families to arrive, which is ideal for the sake of seating. It is waaay easier to get the end of a table for the sake of Brady’s chair, and we got it!

The kids ate pancakes and ham and drank their school tang until they were all grossly overfull…

…and then we took a lap of the school to snoop into each kids classroom! It was actually clearly stated that families were encouraged to go see their kids classrooms, which seems small, but feels monumental after not being allowed in the school previously. So we took full advantage!

Dekker’s class has tables rather than desks, and their tables were being used in the gym for the breakfast, hahaha! So his classroom made less sense, but we all knew why, lol!

He had no “spot” to show us like the other kids, but he did have a locker.

So that got a little silly. He’s frustratingly stoic some times, but he’s definitely still a weirdo.

We eventually made our way out of the school and dropped the kids at their playgrounds before we made our way home, grabbed Brady’s backpack and coffee, and drove him to work!

Becaaaaause its lake day!! Heyooo! Wavy and I dropped Brady off and took the van back home so we could tie up all the loose ends and load up the van for the weekend!! 😅 It is a BUSY life these days but I’m very very grateful 💜

I’m not afraid to admit that I have not struck a beautiful balance between school and work and the lake. Lol! Not. At. All.

During the summer, I had a system where I knew what needed doing every day to get us back to the lake the following weekend. I have lost that completely. Though, to be fair, we go for much shorter stretches now, so packing and preparing is a quicker, shorter process. So I’ve made it work.

Add to all of those things I’m already juggling a handful of sick kids at home! Ack! It has not been our smoothest week! Thankfully, whatever strain of cold we caught this time was a nice quick one! That never happens!! 😅 So, today, all the full-timers are back in action, and I’m back to hanging with this little weirdo.

She rolls between playing Star Wars lego and dancing around the island to the Encanto soundtrack.

Aaaaand sipping her “sickness tea” like a lady.

(Today’s “sickness tea” is brought to you by Nestle iced tea mix in hot tap water)

The moment the big kids were out the door, Wavy settled into her aforementioned activities and I got to lake stuff! I picked and folded clothes for the kids, planned meals and made a food list. I made a list of things the kids are in charge of picking out. Stuffed toys. Books. Hats. Stuff like that flexes from week to week, so thats on them.

I still need to put clothes actually into hampers and suitcases. I have to pack my own clothing. Food I’ll pack tomorrow once I have it all on hand.

Now, I’m blogging. Big duh. And hopefully I’ll have a bit of time still this morning to crochet because oh my goodness its possible I’m crocheting the most beautiful thing I’ve ever made 😳 Sooooo be ready for that! Turns out, if there is a market for luxury crochet, I want to tap it! Ack!

Ok. Back to it! I’ve got to get as much done this morning as possible so I can actually see my Cherice this afternoon for a shorty little window of time! Life gets busy but we’re making it work!! See you soup, Cher!