Bestie Edmonton road trip 2017 has begun!!! Jerilee was at my door shortly after 7:00am with coffee. I kissed my husband and off we went. It was a grey day of travel, and also great. We chatted and caught up like it had been years, but to be fair its been two whole weeks! Haha! That’s a long time for us 🙂 I’d say the first leg of the trip was the longest, and it was probably due to the fact that we were driving to Radisson! It felt so strange to be driving in that direction after so long. We reminisced about how often she would make the trek out to our place for a day of visiting or an evening of supper and the Bachelor. I always appreciated that she was willing to drive out, but I do NOT miss that setting at all. We joked about driving into town and creepily driving past our old house, and then we promptly kept driving. 

After a quick stop in Lloydminster, we were in Alberta and well on our way! We made it to the mall right around lunch, but not before we missed a turn and ended up a weird industrial area of Edmonton. Actually, come to think of it, we ended up in Strathcona. It was entertaining at least. But we were both SO hungry! Subway satisfied our hunger, and we were good to go!

Five. Hours. Of shopping. Solid. Jerilee and I usually mosey through the mall, but today, we were weirdly motivated and focused. We didn’t stop for Starbucks once, we didn’t get a soft pretzel, nothing. We just booked it and SHOPPED. It was pretty great, actually. Jerilee and I did really well! We didn’t get too terribly much, but we are both totally happy with all of our purchases. And guys, I got some REALLY fun makeup! I’ll show you more about it when I’m home 😉 Very exciting! 

We hit the Spaghetti Factory for supper, and honestly, we had easily the crappiest experience either of us have ever had there :/ We tried to speak to our server about it and she was completely defensive and wouldn’t give an inch. It was weird and off-putting. There have been talks of calling a manager, but at this point, what would they do? We don’t haver a Spaghetti Factory, so some future coupon/discount wouldn’t benefit it. And we knew our server was new. But there were some silly issues that would have been easily cleared up. Not good, guys. Not good. So I’ll admit, Jerilee and I were grumpy. Our food wasn’t even yummy.

We hit one or two more places in the mall and then drove to our hotel. At least that was the goal. Don’t you love when you haul everything into the lobby  of the hotel that isn’t the one you made a reservation at? Lol! That was TOTALLY my fault, but we had a laugh and backtracked to our actual hotel. Felt pretty silly 😉 But we did make it! We’re here now. The beds are comfy, the room is close to the pool/hot tub, and there is the promise of continental breakfast tomorrow. Things are looking good!!

Outlets tomorrow!!! Have a great weekend, friends! <3 

I hope I’m not the only parent that has trouble deciding when and when not to intervene when my children disagree. By disagree, I mean argue, fight, scream, stomp, etc. Every level of “disagreement.” To be honest, I very likely intervene more than most. Sometimes too much. I don’t want to get in the middle of every argument, but I do want to pump into my kids the proper way to deal with other people, in good and bad.

This morning, the kids went downstairs to play. Our basement isn’t finished, so they have a lot of room to rip around with their ride-on toys, make a lot of noise, etc. I was upstairs doing some dishes and I heard the arguing begin downstairs. This time, I decided to let them figure it out among themselves, at least as long as it seemed like a good idea 😉 You know what I mean. So I worked on dishes, but my ears were open.

When the fighting became screaming, I dried my hands and started towards the stairs, but I heard stomping. I waited, and Laela made her way upstairs. She was pissed. I asked what happened and she said she had wanted one of the toys that Dekker and Rowan had. This is a daily struggle. Everyone wants what they don’t have. Its natural. So I pep talked her a bit, but instead of sending her downstairs again on her own, I went down with her. It kind of went against what I was hoping to do, but I figured I could do it well, and without pinpointing anyone or anything specific.

So Laela and I walked down the stairs, and she apologized to the boys for screaming at them. Then, we all chatted a bit about how the big toys were super fun, and everyone wants turns. A brief overview of how we politely ask for our turn, and how we patiently wait for the person to finish their turn before expecting our turn to start. Simple enough, but definitely not always simple for kids. As I was talking, Rowan began unloading his toys from the shopping cart he had been racing around with. With his arms filled with those toys, he nudged the cart and said “Here go, Laela.” She thanked him, and everything seemed to have diffused. I high fived Rowan for his mad sharing skills, and started heading back up the stairs. As I walked away, I heard Rowan say “I walk wiff you, Laela.” She said “Aw, thats nice, Rowan,” and that was just it. Crisis averted, everyone is happy.

After a handful of tricky moody days for myself, I felt really good to be able to go into a simple situation with a level head, and speak intentionally. No “Who has had their toy the longest? Share it.” Nothing like that. Just a reminder of how we like to handle situations and how we like to show love. And it worked!!

I’m not dumb. I don’t expect this will be the time that it all sinks in, and no one will ever fight over a toy again. But it felt good, and successful, and like it sunk in for now. So I’m calling it a success 🙂

Wish me luck for the rest of the day! Tomorrow the REAL fun begins!!! ROAD TRIP!!!!

Its been one of those days around here, and it’s still the early afternoon! It definitely feels like a day that we either NEED to get out and do something just to change our scenery, or we need to stay in with the curtains closed and just wait for it to be over. Since we were out and about yesterday, I think we’ll need to just hide. I’m SO thankful for my 100% supportive husband who is working hard to keep a positive attitude while the kids and I are crusty.

I should say, though, that I felt pretty fabulous upon waking up. Never before has my bed headed, first thing in the morning hair looked so fun! Haha! Its nice to magically feel put together straight out of the gate! So thats a small bonus, haha! Plus Brady gave me a break to go do my makeup free of children and scrapping, which was SUCH a gift.

And I’m going out tonight! I never really go to parties that people throw to promote certain brands and such, but I was invited to one where I know I actually want a couple of things from, so I guess I’m going! It’ll be good to go be social after everyone is in bed.

This is such a bad, weird post. I’m sorry, guys. Its just not our day around here. Yesterday was awesome, though, so its all balancing out 😉 They can’t ALL be perfect days, right?

Today was scheduled to be our errand day of the week, and it turned into so much more!! Like it probably couldn’t have gone better.

I spent more time on my makeup this morning, so I left my house feeling a tad more put together than usual. My hair lived in a bit of a messy bun rather than a tight practical “I can’t do my hair” ponytail, which felt just a little better than usual, too. That paired with my kids being happy about the outing ahead had me in a great mood. It was going to be a good day.

And then it turned GREAT when I spontaneously got purple hair. I went in for a hair tattoo, which I always have SO much fun with…

And I came out with purple hair! Like ALL the way purple.

I am SO thrilled with it! Fast and easy and attainable! It was a huge unexpected addition to my usual appointment, and it seemed to push me over the edge, haha! I really really don’t want to be annoying and self centred, but I’m pretty smitten with this new hair. Just let me be this way for ONE day and then I’ll come back down to earth. Promise.

A quick stop at Walmart got 3/4 kids and Brady some new shoes. Solly’s were my favorite.

From there, we grabbed some lunch and headed to take Brady to chiro. I waited in the van with the kids while Brady has his treatment. Surprise surprise, he’s a bit messed up and will need to go back in before the end of the week. Ugh. But hey, at least we have a WONDERFUL chiropractor who knows Brady’s history and treats him very well.

We next ducked into one of the wholesale cosmetics places and I set up an account while picking up a few things that I need for applying makeup on other people.

Then a run to Superstore, which was fairly uneventful, but all positives. The kids were cute and happy. They love grocery shopping. We got everything we needed.

I ducked into Tantrix downtown to get my conch earring replaced again. Its been a bit of a pain in the butt, but its all duked out now, and I have a really pretty new conch ring! Hopefully it lasts a long time!

Costco was last, and once again, successful. The kids were happy and entertained and didn’t complain for a second cookie or anything. They just shopped and helped. We even ran into my brother and his kids, so we had a quick visit with him before we both headed on our way to finish shopping. We paid and left. Laela slept the entire way home.

After a yummy supper of hot dogs and chips, Dekker volunteered to vacuum the floor 👀 So that was pretty awesome. He did a pretty great job, too! Now, the guitar is out, and the kids are singing along while Brady plays. A very special touch in the evening to end off such a fun, successful day!

Brady is home for a couple of days this week, and we’re hoping to successfully cross a few things off of our current running to-do list.

But first, we had to actually write down the to-do list. And its kind of super long. But none of it is too complicated, so we’re working on it. Dekker and Rowan slept in really nicely, so they’re all doing great and feeling very well rested. With that, everyone is playing super nicely together and Brady and I are able to get a few things done.

We have a handful of calls to make, some of which we’ve made already and some that will wait. We have a few actual chores to do, so laundry is humming away and the boys room is completely rearranged. We also have made a reasonable plans for running errands tomorrow in the city. Lots to do!

The weirdest things that are on our list are making decisions. Do you guys ever have those kinds of things on your lists? “Make final decisions about…..” We have a number of those this time around. One of them is making final decisions about our deck plan. We need to to choose officially which treated boards, what width of stairs, how many stringers, how to do the posts, etc. We also really want to book our deck build weekend! But we’re waiting on our permit to go through still. Its been one week, and we were told two different things by one person. The first time, we heard two weeks. The second time, we heard that it could really be any length of time. Sooooo we don’t know what to expect. But we want to schedule the pile digging/pouring, and the actual build as soon after that as possible. So we have lots of things to plan and lots of decisions to settle on. We’re in full focus mode over here.

All together, there is a lot going on over here, and its just all happening slower than we had originally hoped :/ But we’re still clipping along. Our deck is priority one on our job list, though, so wish us luck! Solly turns one on May 31st, and we would LOVE to have our deck completed by then!! If our permit takes another month to come through, we’re going to be shouting for help 😜 Be ready!!

In an effort to follow our trend of the year, Solly was SO snotty and fevered that we decided against going to church. We knew he would sleep all morning, and while we could try to lay him down in one of the playpens our church has set up in a cozy little back room, even if he did sleep, he would snot on everything, and we knew it wasn’t a good idea. Sometimes I fear you guys must think we actually just don’t care to go to church. On the contrary. We miss church dreadfully. We desire to be there. When we do finally find our way there, we feel uplifted, fulfilled, and much more prepared for the week ahead. But we just haven’t been able to make it happen :/ And today was no exception.

However, I had picked out the kids clothes for church the evening before, and there was no reason to let the cute outfits go to waste! We were still going to my parents for the day 🙂

We went to my parents right around lunchtime and were greeted with an amazing smell and friendly faces. We ate a crazy amount of ham, mashed potatoes, and cooked carrots, all slathered in gravy. My mom has NEVER flopped gravy. Ever. Its a guaranteed win, and today was no different. It was such a yummy lunch!

After lunch, the kids searched for some Easter treats that my parents had hidden for them, and then Brady and I searched for ours, haha! Yes, we are still children. Don’t judge. It was another part of the “delicious day” factor.

After the chocolates were found and toys were played, the little boys went down for a nap and the rest of us visited and relaxed a bit. It was a lovely family day. Supper was a simple faspa of buns and cheese and things like that, which is pretty much our kids favorite kind of meal. Then, a little bit more playing, and transferring some pictures between the two families, and we headed home.

My favorite part of the day happened right as we arrived home.

I’ve mentioned recently that Dekker and Laela have been at each other a bit more than usual these days. Just scrapping non-stop. They learned in the last year that being mean can be fun, which has broken my heart. I knew it would come, but they were so innocent, and didn’t try to upset each other. But now they do, and it drives me up the wall. Like I said in another post, they struggle to breathe the same air.

But in our garage, right after we got home, they shared air. Happily. And it was awesome!

Dekker can let himself out of his booster seat, but everyone else needs a hand getting out of their car seats. Brady has reached behind his seat and freed Laela once the van was stopped, but Dekker is still always the first one out. Today, Laela stood at the door of the van in her long pink dress, regarded the running boards covered in dirt, and asked for help to get down from the van. “I don’t want to get muddy!” She had gotten SO muddy SO many times in winter, getting in and out of the van, so she usually asks for help. Brady and I had a small moment of hesitation, as he had a baby in his arms, and I had a diaper bag and two grocery bags in hand. In that moment we paused, Dekker said “I’ll help you, Laela.”

These two can barely sit next to each other right now. And I saw Laela step back when Dekker offered. But he smiled at her and lifted up his arms.

And she went for it!!

She trusted him, and reached down for his shoulders. He grabbed her in a big hug and helped her down onto the floor, safely.

Laela: Wow. Sanks, Dekker!
Dekker: Happy to help!

And off they went.

Sometimes I share stories like this, and I wonder if you all think they’re just small, insignificant stories. And frankly, you can think that 🙂 Its ok if you do, and its awesome if thats the norm in your home so it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary! It isn’t common here, though I want it to be, and I was SO thrilled to see it happen without any pushing from Brady or me. My two oldest, who don’t even want to hold hands or rub up against each other in a tight space, got up close and personal so Dekker could help Laela out of the van.

It was SUCH a big kid move!

Brady and I hung back in the garage for a minute, somewhat in awe. When I made it into the entrance with them, though, Laela told me right away how nice Dekker was, and Dekker offered to help Laela out of the van any time she asked.

My heart is warm. These moments give me hope through the stages like the one we’re going through right now, with those two arguing so often. They truly love each other, and care about each other’s well being.

This was the best way to wrap up our day, hands down. Couldn’t have been better. I’m SO smitten.

Brady had about a half day of work left for his week this morning. After a MUCH better nights sleep than my last few nights, I was feeling more optimistic going into today. Upon waking up feeling so good, I wondered if my struggles these days was really just me, and just fatigue. I kicked myself for making the days so hard when it was well within my control to change.

Turns out it wasn’t just me, haha! The kids were still scrappier than usual, and constantly at each other. But I took it upon myself to have a better attitude and turn it around. Not everyone was on board with the “better attitude” movement, but I kept it together and put on some music and took some pictures of them. It helped me physically see the positives, and the music relaxed everyone too.

I love when they come join me at the island!!

I will admit, though, that as Brady texted me that he was coming to the end of his work day, I was anticipating his arrival more and more. I am more than capable of caring for my children on my own, but its so much nicer to have my partner in crime around, especially during this particular new stage of fighting.

Shortly before Brady left work, he got hurt. Not like devastatingly hurt, and I’m not going to go into detail, just for the sake of himself and his builder, but it was a pretty sucky situation. I wanted him home more than ever, then, to be able to talk to him in person and make sure he was actually ok and not just “ok” over text. You know what I mean.

(Side note: He is ok. He’s achy, though, and strained a few things. Maybe I’ll talk more about it in an upcoming post.)

So, now, I have a baby who is pouring snot and fevering, a two year old who has things pretty together save for a bit of a snotty nose as well, a three year old and five year old who are struggling to breathe the same air, and a twenty-eight year old who is limping, concerned, and loaded up on DayQuil and denial. Lol!

This is the part where I selfishly ask that you pray for ME! I want to be nice and strong, and hold my family together when we need it. I need a bit of a longer fuse, a bit more compassion, and some added endurance. Also, I’m pretty sure everyone is going to eat popcorn for supper… Its just going to be one of those days!

We survived our day, with a big nod thrown towards my parents for taking us in! Brady worked today, and I got virtually no sleep last night. Again. Guys, its not been my smoothest season of sleep, but also not my worst, so I can’t really complain.

Three out of my four kids are back to runny noses, which is far from the end of the world, but it does add to their moods, obviously. Everyone’s fuses are shorter than usual. That paired with a new stage of Dekker and Laela having a standoff about virtually everything has me at the end of my rope. I think thats why I’ve had trouble being positive about this week. But guess what! Its Friday! Bradys long work week is almost over 🙂 Just tomorrow left. We can do tomorrow.

We brought our snotty, crabby selves over to my parents place in time for lunch. It was both delicious and wonderful to have the change of scenery. Solly went down right before lunch, and Rowan just after. The big kids played great in the afternoon, colouring and driving and making up games. No one even mentioned tv until around 4:00. When I said “Maybe not today,” everything kept on rolling. So it was nice.

Brady headed on over after he was done work for the day, and my parents invited us to stay for supper. It was SO helpful because the kids were still very much on edge, and it helped to have extra attention, different toys, etc. Even on edge, it was easier there than it would have been at home. So we enjoyed the end of our evening before tidying up all of the toys and heading home around 6:30. The kids were pretty sad to go home, but they went through bedtime like usual, and are now tucked away. Solly drank his milk better than he had all day, and we finally gave him some meds which seemed to kick in and lift him up pretty quickly. Yay for relief for the baby!!

Please keep rooting for us, though! Brady is starting to feel sick, and while I’m still currently in the clear, I am not sleeping well these days, and definitely not at my strongest. Not to mention I have exciting weekend plans next weekend and I would love to not be sick for them!

Wish us luck! One more Brady-free day!

I’m sure you’ve heard there a snow storm on its way. Well, “snow storm.” Any snow at this point in the year feels a bit dramatic, even if its just a sprinkling. It won’t stay. Its too springish for snow to stay. But this is Saskatchewan, so we all know its not impossible to get snow after spring has clearly begun. Same goes for the other prairie provinces. I know Calgary is in the midst of their unexpected snow, we’re next, and Winnipeg is due for it early next week. So we all have that to look forward to…

What do you guys do to bring spring in? I feel like we need to do something intentionally on the subject this weekend as we anticipate the snow, so we don’t get too discouraged. Or so I don’t get too discouraged, haha! Maybe you guys are better at this than I am, but I like to have an intentional plan to get me through these kinds of things. So I’m curious what you guys do 🙂

We haven’t done anything too exciting in the way of welcoming spring, but we’ve done a few small things. We’ve pull out all of our spring jackets, shoes, rubber boots, and even sandals. We’ve cracked our windows often, even if it means turning the inside temperature up a bit. (Ok, its possible thats just me who does that.) I’ve ordered some tshirts and tank tops for the kids, and some new shorts for Brady. I’ve pulled our my stretchy capri pants, and I’ve rocked bright coral eyeshadow more than once. Welcome, spring! We’ve been eating hot dogs like crazy, haha, which maybe doesn’t feel as “spring” to everyone, but every time we eat hot dogs, the kids talk about their excitement to eat them out on the deck.

The deck. I think I’ve talked about our deck plans on here. There has been a HUGE back and forth on what to do about the hypothetical deck. Piles, no piles, 21′ piles, 10′ piles, footings, sidewalk blocks, deck savers, no deck savers, and everything else. Below frost lines, above frost lines, what if the deck pitches, what if the house pitches?! SO MANY THINGS to think about!! However, I think decisions are made, as much as they can be. The current plan is to wait for our permits to go through (hopefully not too much longer than another week or so) and then choose a pile digging/pouring weekend, and build our deck the weekend immediately after. When I know where these dates fall, I’ll be posting it here, and anticipating a TON of eager helpers 😉 I tease. But seriously, I’ll bribe with a delicious lunch of pulled pork on a bun and all the fixings!

The deck will be our big welcome to spring, even if spring has already come and we’re a touch behind. The deck will give the kids more room to run and sun. It’ll be a nice place to unwind at the end of the day. It’ll be a lovely place to begin the morning. It’ll be a refreshing opportunity when I’m feeling ill and needing fresh air. It’ll provide good pictures and build good memories. I am SO anticipating this all happening.

Until then, I’m not wishing time away 🙂 I’m enjoying my days, taking other pictures, making other memories. But the kids cannot stop talking about our upcoming project!

Excitement is in the air!, that is coming in through the kitchen window, that is fighting against our furnace…

After having an exciting, beautiful, vivid dream about having a baby just a couple of nights ago, I was bombarded with nightmares last night. Some about being alone in general, some about being in dangerous, threatening situations, some awful, bloody, CSI-type dreams. Needless to say, it was a pretty huge challenge to get out of bed with a positive attitude, but I did some intentional praying and just kept on trucking. And they shook off pretty quickly, thank goodness.

Thank goodness, the kids have been sweet today. They’ve been asking to listen to music, talking about spring and summer, and making plans with me. Its been fun. We’re currently in the midst of our quiet afternoon time. The lego is out, Netflix is on, and the little boys are napping. I’m excitedly anticipating a date with my mom this evening, as well. A little bit of fun shopping, supper, and Costco. I love getting some girl time away with her. We have an extra special relationship that I’ve talked about on here before. She is definitely my mom, and will ALWAYS be, but we have such a solid friendship as well. Its healthy and wonderful and makes me happy about the stages of life that we find ourselves in. I love her. (Psst! Mom! I love you!)

I’m going to sign off of here now, and enjoy myself some leftover perogies for lunch. I know, you’re all jealous. I would be too.