We officially have our second set of hand controls installed!! ✅ We picked up the minivan yesterday as a family. I could’ve organized picking up the van myself but Brady really wanted to be there in person to make sure it all fit nicely and worked well for him. And it was a success!!

He was also super handsome yesterday 😍

The hand controls fit this van a little differently, and after driving it home, Brady is thinking he may call about some small adjustments. It does still work, though, and he still LOVES the minivan.

It was pretty disappointing that we couldn’t get funding for them, but we are very grateful for our complete sets of hand controls in both vehicles 💜 Its just another way that Brady can feel normal and not as restricted in comparison to how things used to be.

This a little bit of a fail on my part, lol! But I am SO grateful that my kids are such good sports!!

Dekker and Laela each needed to bring a pumpkin to school this week. And I didn’t get into the city until Wednesday night, but I was able to get a couple. Then, I forgot to get them to school with them on Thursday, because they were still in the garage. My mistake, totally. Anyway, today was the cut off. They had to bring them today.

And today happens to be the ONE day in the recent past where I am without a vehicle 😅 I cannot drive them and their pumpkins to school. Walking with them, pulling a wagon would’ve been another option, except I have one little sickie that spent the early morning crying. So that was a no-go.

My last ditch effort could’ve been asking someone to drive them, or to borrow a vehicle. I know my mom or Cher would’ve happily jumped in to help! But when I talked to the kids about it, we reached the decision that they could totally pull it off. It helped that today is hot lunch! No one needed a lunch kit! Each kid grabbed a granola bar and a cheese string and was totally set up! So Dekker and Laela managed to fit their pumpkins in their backpacks, and I tightened up the straps good and proper, so as to save their shoulders. Their backpacks were WAY heavier on the first day of school.

On top of ALL the pumpkin stuff, Rowan’s class has a movie/pj/cozy/stuffie/snacky class party today, and the kid opted to bring the BIGGEST blanket he could find, hahahaha!

To his credit, he insisted on bringing this giant king sized throw just in case his friends didn’t bring a blanket and wanted to share 💜 I LOVE this kids heart SO much!

So I had three kids carting MONSTER backpacks to school today, but as you can see, no one was too terribly upset about it! And I’ve received no calls from the school so I assume they all lived, lol!

The day is not done, there is still more to do, but first – a nap for both Wavy and I! She isn’t feeling well, as I mentioned, and I was up for a few hours in the night with heartburn that refused to quit, despite all my best efforts. So we both need rest, and we’re going to get it!

Have a great afternoon, friends! And if you see my children struggling underneath a pumpkin or a backpack bigger than their entire person, please take a picture! 📸💜

This week has been gigantic. Bigger than last week even. You guys don’t know the half of it, but I’ll fill you in shortly on ALL the things we’ve been busy with!

Today, I was the helper at preschool. Twas dress-up day, since their next day is aft Halloween already. They could either dress up in jammies or a costume. Wavy opted for both, lol!

Princess Pajamas.

Post-preschool, she went down for naps, and I’m taking that precious time to a) eat a sandwich lovingly left in my fridge by the every-loving sweet Cherice, and b) crocheting in bed. I’ve been working on some really cool new blankets, and I took a break to do a super mindless, super festive Christmas blanket! So stay tuned for those! And if you’re in the market for a blanket, I’m your girl!

The afternoon holds homework and lego, and then driving to the city, becauuuuuse…

Today is the day we drop off the minivan for hand controls!!! 💜 Brady is SO excited to get to take the new van to work every day, and I’m really excited for him to have full use of both vehicles. The days I’ve needed to take the bus, he’s driven the minivan with the portable controls we use on the golf cart. They are legal, but a lot less stable, aaaaand I hate them. So this is WAY better, and we’re both ready to be able to use both vehicles equally between us.

Its is another full today, but I am grateful for this reprieve to crochet and put my feet up 💜

So. My bookends. My oldest and youngest. They are an absolutely incredible pair.

They have such a love and affection for one another. And it is SO crazy, because at the same time, they both are still so small, and also both growing like weeds. My heart is pulled in a lot of directions, haha! Oof. I love them.

Yesterday was a terribly cute reminder of how little Waverly still is 💜

Positively drowning in one of Brady’s work shirts. The tshirt sleeves went all the way down past her wrists. She is so young still. So small. But so much bigger than where she started. Man. She is SO lovely.

And then there’s Dekker, looking like a teenager. Half asleep. Wearing his backpack. In the pantry.

He is so physically strong all of a sudden, and completely capable of bigger things. He gives me piggyback rides, and we share socks. He can roll more off his back and comprehend more information. Meanwhile, he is the second smallest boy in his class and still rocks adjustable waist pants. I am just smitten with this kid! Ack!

I love all of my children, don’t get me wrong. But the oldest and youngest have different emotions connected to them. All the firsts and all the lasts 💜 I am immensely proud of who all of these kids are becoming! But I’m not ready for age to move quite this quickly.

So.

Stop it.

Today was the first gigantic Costco shop I’ve done in a while. But let me tell you – we earned that shop. We were out of evvvvverything, it seemed. Just yesterday, Brady had hit Coop after work for the basics – fruit, veggies, milk, butter, bread, etc. We’ve been needing a Costco shop for a long time, and that day was going to be yesterday, finally, but I had a sick kid home from school yesterday so I couldn’t. Today, my counselling appointment was reschedule so time freed up, and it was spent at Costco!

Time, but also money. A lot of it.

We were out of everything. Big Ziploc bags. Sandwich bags. Toilet paper. Kleenex. Laundry soap. Dish soap. Dishwasher rinse aid. Shampoo and conditioner.

Giant bricks of cheese were on sale, so we got two. Also cheese strings. Also singles slices. All the cheese, lol!

Perogies. Taquitos. Pizza. Lasagna. Fish sticks. Fish filets. Chicken nuggets.

Three big boxes of cereal. Two big bags of trail mix. Two boxes of peach cups. Four boxes of granola bars.

Plus the huge bag of sugar. Plus a birthday present for a party Rowan is invited to. Plus pants for Brady that might be awesome.

And SO. MUCH. MORE.

I would be SO happy if I could go for a super haul like that once a month, and have Brady grab necessities here and there as needed! I am out of practice shopping for our family. My back hurts, haha! What a beautiful problem to have 💜

Thank you, Brady, for working so hard so we can feed our family, and for doing it with joy.

Thank you, mom, for being with me and pushing a second cart. Running back for prices. Asking employees where things were. Keeping tabs on Wavy when I was staring at shelves.

Thank you, Wavy, for being such a bright light. For staying by the cart. For smiling and waving at all the cute old people who could not get enough of you. For helping me load butter and cereal into the cart.

Thank you, Lord, for providing for us in this way. We are so grateful to be able to afford food for our family. Both healthy things and also convenient things. We are so fortunate.

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 💜