I don’t know about your kids, but ours are absolutely ready to go back to school. They don’t think so, but I know so. Its getting really scrappy up in here, and its time for them to get a bit more space from one another. They do spread out around the house and do their own thing, but they tend to get possessive of that space, then, and SO much arguing stems from that.
Don’t watch me play lego.
Don’t read beside me.
I need to sit on both of these chairs.
🙄
It kind of just never ends. So sometimes, we ask them all to go outside! But it hasn’t been exactly balmy on those days, and they end in a TON of tears.
Aaaaanyway. Yesterday, I planned to stop by my moms briefly around supper time, and rather than waiting for Brady to get home and then run out, I made the kids walk with me! My mom is a little under the weather, so I gave the kids the heads up that they’d be playing in the backyard while I dropped in on grandma, and they accepted it pretty easily 🙂
The walk was really cute.
Dekker even got super silly! And super strong!!
It was all good until Solly walked straight into a car mirror. He was sad.
Its possible I laughed a little, but I hugged him and he rallied! Didn’t even leave a mark on either party!
The walk back was even smoother, though much colder.
It was really nice to be out and about. I wish Brady’s batec was better in snow, and we could more easily go for walks!
THIS!!! is the dream right here!! On sand or snow, Brady would be GOLDEN with this attachment!!!
Maybe someday! We are incredibly grateful for everything we have!
The work around here is still far from done, but I made a LOT of progress yesterday!
I didn’t have the nerve to take a before picture, but I can show you that this was ALL on the floor beside my bed 😳
I know. Impressive, right? And not in the way you want it to be. I had a lot of projects going on the last little while, and as soon as I have one project in a basket (or not in a basket) beside the bed, its hard to open up my cabinet doors to put things away properly. Most of the time, I have this space pretty under control, but it gets away from me at busy times like Christmas. Aaaaanyway. Order is restored. As restored as it ever is.
Had I told you guys I got a third yarn cabinet in fall? Part of me felt guilty about it, but the other part of me was happy to also store some books and other things in there. Plus – bonus! These are SO beautiful, and if I ever don’t use them for yarn, they will fit beautifully just about anywhere in our home! They are not oversized or bulky, and they don’t take up crazy amounts of space. They’re beautiful, and I am SO fortunate to have them!
Still work to do, but the big stuff is done, and I am giving myself some grace today 🙂 I still have hopes and intentions, but they are lower pressure and can be done anytime. I’ve been SO spent at the end of these last few days, I hope today I can do a little bit more resting.
Yesterday was a really full day of getting things done! You may remember my frustration about the SaskTel guy coming “sometime today” and the not knowing when or what he needed. We wanted a wifi extender put in on the upper level of the house so we’d get better wifi in our living room as well as in our room above the garage. As I was madly cleaning our room in case the repairman needed to come into our room to hardwire it into our jack upstairs. I tidied all around that area first, and I took out all the garbage before Brady let me know he had called SaskTel and confirmed it didn’t need to be hardwired. What a relief! I abandoned our room at that point, because we had a different ideal area to plug it in, and I I wanted to do a bit more tidying in the main area of the house. I didn’t get deep into that before it was time to lunch the kids.
About halfway through the kids lunch, the repair guy showed up. And lo and behold, he did need to hardwire it in. So I had the pleasure of traipsing him into our very messy bedroom that definitely looks like it was hit by a hurricane Christmas. And trust me, I know he has mostly likely seen MUCH worse, but I was bummed that I hadn’t tidied a bit more in there :/
I chatted with him about where we want our wifi better, and he made himself comfortable with all the spaces. Then he got to it, and he moved quickly. He was actually super polite and very comfortable to have around. The kids finished lunch up pretty quick, and I put the nappers down for quiet time. Thats usually my time, then, to have a bit of a rest myself, but I didn’t feel especially inclined to tuck into bed while he was in and out of our room, haha! So instead, I food prepped like a boss for school next week!
Two batches of granola bars…
And three batches of pizza/cheese buns.
I admit, I felt pretty accomplished, but I did entirely forget to eat lunch because I was so preoccupied. So I most definitely sampled the cheese buns and can confirm that they did indeed turn out. Yum!
Dekker was very invested in the pizza buns as I was making them, so he drew it. But it most definitely looked a little murdery, and we both had a good giggle over it, lol!
A little arm sever-y, don’t you think?
The day felt really full, not because it actually was, but because I’m out of practice, and I did a lot more than usual. I was absolutely spent long before it was suppertime, but we got through the day, and I actually slept through the night, which says a LOT.
Today holds more work, but again – deadline-free! I would like to work to tidy up a bit more. I’m feeling purgey. Also, there is yarn ALL over my floor that seems really daunting to me, but would be easily cleaned up in less than a half hour. I need to cut and bag the granola bars. I’d like to make more of those, actually, but I’m out of quick oats! Lol! And flaxseed. And bran. Those will have to wait. So will muffins or anything else I hoped to get in order for lunches. I have lunch goals, if you hadn’t noticed. I also want to make mini quiche in tart shells. Do any of you make those? Hit me with fun breakfast or lunch things that I can prep ahead of time! Fresh fruit is always on the list, and/or cold veggies that I can pre-chop at the beginning of the week.
This has taken a turn, so I’m going to sign off now and get to some of my work. I think a tidy room feels important today, so as long as I get to that, I’ll feel somewhat accomplished again today! That and organizing my kitchen freezer so all my lunch stuff can fit in there! Oh and cutting the bars up…
Yup. I made up a word. Unproductivity. It describes the scenario of needing to be productive when you feel so grossly unproductive. Or unmotivated, perhaps.
I have a pretty big daunting list of things I really want to get done. It will definitely take more than a day, and I’m ok with that. Yesterday, I did not get a single thing done from that list, and thats ok, because MUCH more important things came up! ZERO regrets. But today is the day to get into it!
However, we have a SaskTel guy coming at some point today. Between 8am-5pm, I’m told. In this past, that means he actually won’t come until tomorrow or the next day. But who actually knows. Having him here is our absolute last ditch effort to improve our internet before switching providers altogether. SaskTel offers higher speeds and such for comparable prices to Access, but the locals seem to like Access better, so we’ll have to see.
With the SaskTel guy hypothetically coming today, I feel a bit stagnant. Its like the stereotypical cable guy all tied up together with Murphys Law, where if I duck out at all or get into something bigger or busier, thats when the repair man shows up.
I also know that, if he comes, I need to have a couple of spaces tidied up so he can more easily move around. And both of those spaces are absolute disasters post-Christmas, one being the furnace room, where the breakers and modem are right by the mess of wrapping stuff. Also, he may have to hard wire something to a phone line, which means our bedroom, which is currently the WORST room in the house, and would be SO embarrassing to have a stranger trying to find his way around in there. I could go do a big tidy, which is the absolute top of my list, but its a bit of a situation where its going to get worse before it gets better, so if I start, and then he comes, it’ll be so much worse.
I should stop overthinking this and just get into it. The list is LONG and the days are not! 😅
Sound appealing, don’t they? 😆 I’m just kidding. They totally are.
I was very lovingly gifted a dehydrator in December! It was not part of Christmas gifts, but rather a neighbour who caught wind of my curiosity with them. She very lovingly dropped one off on my doorstep, freshly washed, with a little note and some silicone sheets she added to the bundle. What an incredible gift!!
I will admit the top reason for wanting one was to dehydrate marshmallows! Don’t ask me why. Fascination, perhaps. The upcoming hot chocolate season. Who knows. But I was so curious. So within a day or two, I was locked and loaded with a stack of mini marshmallows, and the process began.
Don’t judge me. Apparently people let their stuff touch in the dehydrator all the time, but I read not to, so I was persnickety about it this time. I kind of secretly enjoyed it, lol! Five trays later, I started the thing up!
As you can see, they didnt shrink up into lucky charm style mallows, but they puffed up even bigger and rounder!! It was an unexpected treat!
It was also a pleasant surprise that it was toasty warm when I was chilly.
I made two full batches of these things, and I can proudly say my children opted to bring these to school for their class movie parties rather than chips, hahaha! They are super delicious and really fun to eat too! The novelty definitely hasn’t worn off, and these will continue to exist in our home for a while, I’m sure!
If you like meringues but don’t care to make them, this is a solid second, according to the kids!
I am once again SO grateful for our people who want to put into our lives any way possible 💜
I don’t know what to tell you, but Dekker was SO snuggly yesterday! He loves to be hugged, but he’s gotten more forward about it and I really love that! I’ll be moving around the house, and he will stop me, and purposefully turn me to face him, and just borrow in for a hug. I will never ever turn that down!
After a very huggy day, the evening was much the same. It happened a handful of times where Dekker would forego whatever he was busy with and come ask for a hug. And the hug would linger into a nice long snuggle.
I will just never ever get tired of holding my children. Absolutely as long as they’ll let me!!
Once the kids were down for the night, Brady and I had the pleasure of taking in the new year with my mom and Cher 💜 We’ve built a bit of a tradition in the previous years, and while it may not always actually fall on new years eve, we spend an evening together, eating far too much really good food and enjoying each others company!
We had big plans for games and silliness but absolutely every single one of us was wiped. So we opted for good food and movies. We watched “Now You See Me” and “The Heat.”
Appies meant mushroom caps, mozza sticks, wings, chicken skewers, steak skewers, shrimp, and breadsticks. And dip. And sangria.
We were up WAY later than a person actually needs to be up, but it happens but once a year! Sometimes not even once 😅 But we made it!!! My mom went home, and Cher spent the night.
We got up around 9:00 to a beautiful sunrise and a quiet house.
Pictures really don’t do it justice. You’ll have to take my word for it. It was beautiful view on the first day of a fresh new year!
It has been a very big year for our family! I don’t think I can say it was bigger than 2021, because that was YUGE and life altering! Maybe 2021 changed our lives, and 2022 was our first year playing that out and finding out what it meant. So it felt absolutely just as huge. We were healthier, but busier!! Shall we discuss the highlights?
We shall.
January was VERY busy with SICKNESS. Man alive. The three little boys got covid, so with the quarantine rules, everyone had to stay home. For pretty much the entire month. It was unreal. Normally, we would’ve just all jumped in and got sick together, but with Brady still in the thick of chemo with next to no immune system, we worked hard to keep it contained! Masking in the house lost its charm really quickly, but we lived! January also kicked off advertising for Telemiracle, which was a completely hilarious whirlwind, as we had NO idea we would essentially be the face of the campaign this year. The highlight of the month was closing it off with a big winter fire in the backyard with mom and Cher. It was SUCH a beautiful event and really nice to finally see our people!
February held a lot in terms of emotion, but not a lot for events. I will admit most of that was on me. I struggled hard in February. ALL the memories of Brady going into MRIs, surgery and rehab. It was all back, and my body knew it. There is a lot of trauma there, so the month was hard. That being said, Brady and I got to go out for our 13th anniversary, which was a treat! I got to attend a physio appointment back at City Hospital. One of our last. Rowan had his blood drawn, which was a BIG first, and he was a total CHAMP! The bloodwork also marked the beginning of us getting him some medical attention in hopes of making his life a little easier 💜 Still on that train, but I’m glad it started. Brady cut off his beautiful long hair, and Rowan also celebrated his seventh birthday!! It was a really full month.
March had some fun in it 🙂 We joined the Telemiracle telethon via zoom, which was kind of exciting! The kids really enjoyed the hype of Telemiracle, and felt like celebrities, thanks to their teachers and friends at school. It was fun. We also had our one and only band gig in March, which was REALLY fun and REALLY well attended! It was a total win. Man I miss our band. Lastly, Spring started to show its face this month, and we started going for walks and dressing down a little. The Batec got a lot of good use starting in March!
April was a pretty significant month for a lot of reasons! I began seeing my counsellor. Rowan got a concussion. We marked the one year anniversary of Brady being home from the hospital. Another stretch of emotional whirlwinds, even though that was a good thing. Brady finished his YEAR of chemotherapy in April, and we celebrated by getting covid a second time! 🥳 The four of us who didn’t get it in January got it in March. So be it. Lol!
May is when it got exciting! Camp opened!!! Brady and I were gifted the first weekend up at the camper just for ourselves. We had such a nice time! The kids joined the week after, and got in some good outside time. We finished building the awning above our deck, which was absolutely the right choice! May was the month where Brady locked down his new job at Zaks, and he began part time work for the first time since his surgery. His schedule really couldn’t have been more perfect than it was this summer. We wrapped the month off by celebrating Solly’s sixth birthday!!!
June was the month where the kids were still in school but we all were really ready for summer. We got so much closer to the Dahlsjos already in June, and soaked in some lake time with our loved ones. Meanwhile, school activities continued, and the kids had the best track and field day ever! I spent the month fighting a malware attack on the blog, which sucked, but was eventually resolved, thanks to a helpful friend, and a tech savvy husband. And an expensive program that I bought to protect me every day, lol! Finally school was out, and summer could fully begin!!
Julyyyyy! July held sooooo many fun things! It kicked off with Wavy’s fourth birthday, teetered on Cher’s birthday, and wrapped up on mine! Brady was able to paddle board and get on the water for the first time since his injury! I was not the only person crying on the beach, believe you me! The kids also got braver in the water. Solomon was the biggest improvement in that area, getting on the kayaks and paddle boards! Dekker went to camp on his own, for a WEEK! That was a huge milestone for him, and he LOVED it! July was also when I discovered mosaic crochet, which has become a very real love of mine since. And speaking of love, we even got to see some family, who came from far and wide to spend lake time with us! It was an awesome month!
August was also a huge month! The three middles went to camp for three nights, which was REALLY fun for them, and REALLY fun for us! We soaked up those days with the Dahlsjos as a group of seven rather than our usual thirteen! It was so fun! Wavy had her first ever sleepover that week, with Sadie 💜 Rowan had his drowning scare in August, and unfortunately, was a bit afraid of the water after that point. Meanwhile, our littlest littles got SO BRAVE on the paddle boards! I never would’ve thought I’d see them stand on them so young! Especially Wavy! She paddled herself around like a boss! We celebrated both my moms birthday and Dekker’s eleventh birthday as well. And we spent goooood times with the Dahlsjos. Gaga ball was the name of the game the kids would ALL play together! Lastly, Brady had a beautifully clear MRI. Praise God!
September, the whole tone changed, but thats to be expected. School started. Playschool started. Full time work started. But fall camping remained! We went back to Kinasao, as well as hit up Tom and Rae’s camp spot! We managed to lock down a work vehicle for Brady this month, which felt like it took forever, and was such a relief! Cher and I went to see the Anne of Green Gables ballet for our friendaversary, which was a TOTAL treat!!! We wrapped the month up with Laela’s ninth birthday!
October began with our final days at camp! We were fortunate enough to spend that last stretch with our dear Dahlsjos 💜 The whole place was packed up in the beautiful fall weather, with a fire crackling the entire time. It was so beautiful. Once we were settled into the fall routine at home, we were able to get hand controls for the minivan! Brady was elated to finally have HIS van. We celebrated his birthday mid month, and celebrated Halloween at the end! It was pretty cute.
November unfortunately was another month of sickness for us. Not covid, thank goodness, but some fevers and colds that seemed to cycle more than they really needed to. We got through, however, and by the grace of God, both Brady and I stayed healthy!!! November held the first real snow, among a few other real tastes of winter. We decorated for Christmas, broke a bunch of glass on our vehicles (ugh) and got to see our dear Dahlsjos for an early Christmas/Jaxon’s birthday date. What I feel was the most significant thing about November, however, was Solomon’s newfound love for letters! All of a sudden, he really cares about letters, reading, writing, etc. Some may feel he’s late to the game, and thats ok 🙂 This month, Solly sounded out words successfully for the first time ever, and it was SO exciting!! He has since been writing out his alphabet, practicing letter sounds, and asking how to spell things. He copies the titles of books he likes, just to practice how to write the words. It is a wonderful sight to behold, and I am SO thrilled!
December was also really big. What month wasn’t crazy busy in its own way? We managed to get the side window repaired on the bus just in time for Christmas holidays! Brady and I got contacts. Dekker experienced being stage crew for the first time ever, and ran the spotlight for the school Christmas play. He was incredibly proud. Waverly also did her first Christmas play, which she rocked with a consistent foot stomp, singing the words, and doing the sign language. I loved it! The COOLEST thing about December was making some real headway in Rowan’s health, and he can FINALLY be his sweet, soft, squishy, loving, expressive, artistic, deep-thinking, charming, excellent little self. Thank you LORD!!! Christmas came and went beautifully, with Brady home for the entire week in between. What a blessing.
This year was not gentle, but I am incredibly grateful for every day of it that we had. I fell hard for this particular song by Kings Kaleidoscope called Joy. It says “Every moment I play back, You live in it. I can feel every way that You’ve been in it.” And that about sums it up. God’s hand has undeniably been in every piece of our life, every single day. It has been a year of hard work, overcoming, listening closely to God, and even making some unpopular choices. But we feel God’s hand in absolutely ALL of it, and we praise Him for keeping our heads above water.
We have high hopes for 2023. There is more beauty to come, and our faith has not been shaken. We trust you, Lord! Do Your thing! We’re here for it!! 💜
We had a big breakfast with my mom and my sisters family. The kids played hard all morning and the adults visited at the table until it was time to split for quiet time.
We rested. I got to lay eyes on Cher for a few minutes 💜 I crocheted.
I made broccoli salad, and recruited Dekker to make the dressing. He was actually happy to help me, and we had a nice time!
Once quiet time was over, we went to play at the park for a bit. It was finally nice enough out to spend some good time out there! Lovely!
We came home after a stretch and made a delicious supper of some good hot mennonite food. I should be straight up – I did not cook this one. Besides the broccoli salad, I did jack all. But it was absolutely delicious.
Speaking of delicious, so is the boozey egg nog from Costco. It is delicious.
The time came to wrap up the evening, and pots were washed up super fast as the kids tidied and the cousins got their jackets and boots on. Out the door they went, and to bed ours went very shortly thereafter.
And now, we rest. Last night was a total bust for me. I woke up shortly after midnight and that was it for me. So I’m very much hoping for a tad more sleep before we spend our last morning with my sisters family! Pancakes and bfast sausage are on the menuuuuu!!!
Merrrrry Christmas, friends!! We are fortunate enough to spend today and tomorrow with my mom, as well as my sister and her family! We congregated at my moms this morning for visiting, coffee, playing, and presents! After a rowd and loudy (you heard me) morning, we split for lunch and quiet time.
First, a bit of snow clearing…
Yes, she’s in a dress. There was also another shovel and snow blower going shortly thereafter.
The afternoon holds more hanging out with family aaaaand turkey dinner!!! I am SO looking forward to an evening with loved ones and food drowned in gravy!
