Thank you for the warmth surrounding yesterdays post. Brady and I marked our anniversary with a delicious supper after the kids went to bed. Today we have the chance to go out on a date, so we have a plan to go out somewhere we have a gift card for this evening, and kill some time around that. We aren’t exactly swimming in recreational money but we don’t need much to spend time together 💜 We’re looking forward to getting some time away from the house, just the two of us.

I won’t lie and tell you my mind is fully at rest, though. With the last year being so full, its hard to picture how it all came together SO fast. So reliving it in real time is pretty eye opening.

Today is February 8th. Last year, on February 8th, Brady had already had his MRI, around 7:30am. We had this entire day to wait for results of the MRI, knowing full well that Dr. Guselle was refreshing Bradys file constantly, looking for those results just about as eagerly as we were. And we did receive them. Today. Last year. February 9th.

Brady had a mass. Most likely cancerous. And it needed to come out. Brady would meet a neurosurgeon the very next day.

That was a lot of information.

You know those things that you process and prepare for that still end up kicking you in the gut and knocking the wind from your lungs?

Me too. 🤮

This day marked a gigantic time of uncertainty. But we didn’t even know it yet. At this point, we knew Brady would need surgery to take out a tumour. That was scary enough on its own. We had NO idea what was coming.

Oh, past Hailey and Brady, what I wish I could tell you. How I wish I could have prepared you better or stolen all that fear from your hearts. But if I could’ve helped you with all of those things, none of us would need faith. And we do. Now more than ever.

Lord, you brought us through this year. Please carry me through this week of memories and sorrow.

Today marks thirteen years since Brady and I were married and pledged ourselves to one another.

Thirteen years.

Good thing we’re not superstitious.

I don’t really have to tell you all how much has changed in this last year.

A lot. A lot has changed.

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What I will say is that we have gained FAR more than we have lost.

This has been a year of opportunity. Of adventure. Of fun! We’ve been together at home and at the lake more than ever before, and it has only solidified in our hearts how much we LOVE to be together 💜

Together, we’re trying new things, setting new goals, and being braver than we’ve ever had to be.

I see why these big times in our lives tear people apart. I give God ALL the glory that it simply never even crossed our minds. Me and you, honey. We have a really beautiful thing going, and I pray and trust that God will use it for good. If we help others, or if we simply are good examples for our children, I know God has us in the palm of His holy hand.

From day one…

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…to thirteen years later…

I choose you 💜

Thirteen years is just the beginning. I foresee big things in our future.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow.

Yesterday was a really, really hard day. I tried all day to be even just be a little better, and all day, I failed. I ate food. I drank water. I put on real clothes. It just wasn’t working. I was in a funkity funk and couldn’t shake it.

Brady gave me every option to have a break, and I took them. I hid upstairs from everyone most of the day, yet I felt totally unproductive. When I did surface, I just felt ready to explode at every little detail.

We had some errands to run that we considered to be fun errands, but I was worried I’d wreck the tone and the fun. Also, we try to be really responsible, and at that time of day, it would leave us eating out for supper. However, the day was swirling the drain, and Brady made the executive decision that one supper out would not leave us high and dry. So we packed the kids up and headed to Saskatoon.

Can we just take a moment of silence to grieve the loss of affordable fuel for our vehicles?

*silently barfs*

Anyway…

We got supper first, since the kids would mostly just be sitting in the van, so they could eat as slowly as they wanted, haha! We put on good music and felt really relaxed.

Brady hit Home Depot first. He needed some lumber, which unfortunately, isn’t as easy for him to do on his own anymore. I am so grateful for our beautiful eldest son 💜 Dekker went in with Brady and pushed the cart with the lumber on it so Brady could more easily get around. He can push a standard grocery cart, but it has to be light, and if it at all pulls funny, its just SO much more difficult.

Then it was my turn. I chose Walmart over Michaels because I knew they’d have more of what I needed in bigger skeins. I foolishly motored over to the yarn without a basket, and quickly saw the error of my ways. I grabbed the nearest laundry hamper, determined to get in and out as fast as possible. I purchased a mountain more grey, a bit more yellow, and a whole schwack of BLUES for all you BLUE people!!! Almost everyone who ordered from me ordered blue tones! Which is lovely! There is a great variety of blue yarn out there, and I have some, but I used up pretty much all of my little variegated blues and greens recently, so there were definite holes to fill in my stash. Are all you blue loving people happy with these?

I sure am! Plus my other random ends, and of course some navy in the mix.

I wanted to hit Michaels, too, but I knew me, and I knew I was finished for the day. Maybe another day 🙂 Soon, probably!

Too many creative ideas brewing in this noggin these days. For that reason, I REALLY appreciate those of you who shared, inquired, and/or ultimately ordered from me. It frees me up to be able to work and make a little money doing something I really, really love. Thank you, friends.

So yesterday evening was FUN! I shared some pictures on Facebook of a basket I made, and you guys ordered!!! Those couple of hours were SO exciting for me!

Can anyone guess my favorite colour? 😂💜

This isn’t actually the first one of these that I’ve made! I thought I posted them but the last month has been absolutely upside down, so clearly they got lost in the mix.

First, another round one. Its a little shorter than the one I posted earlier, but the same width.

And then a rectangular one!

I already feel like they’re getting better, so thank you to my close people who tend to be my guinea pigs on these things!

Everyone’s support surrounding my work goes further than you know. From being the person who was labelled “the one who always just crochets something” to being excited and proud of what I make has been a leap, but its happening, and I have many of you to thank for it!

The little details:

Large Basket
14″ diameter
13″ (ish) height.
Colours may vary
$60

Thinking we might start adding light wooden bases for an added amount. Would that be worth the value to you?

Business page coming soon!

🤮 Forgive me, I dry heave when I get nervous.

Yesterday’s blog ended with the sickening issue of water damage on our ceiling. While we have no concrete answers at this very moment, we have hope, information, and some local people who are willing to get up there and help us. What a relief. Once again, our community swoops in to help 💜 We are so fortunate.

it was a very full day yesterday, which was welcomed. There has been a LOT of reminiscing recently, so thats a lot of what you’ll be reading on here in the days to come. Yesterday marks a year since Brady finally got his MRI. It turned out to be the first of many, but we were so ready to finally have gotten the attention Brady so desperately needed! Little did we know, the MRI would leave us with more questions than what we started with. We were told of a foggy, undefined area of the thoracic spine, which could mean a mass, but could also mean something as simple as an issue of blood flow. We still had hope, but goodness, just remembering how those days felt gives me the full-body shivers.

My body was aching to be prepared. Maybe you remember, maybe not. I was meal prepping. I would have a weeks worth of cheese rolls and pre-chopped veggies ready for the kids lunches at all times. I was pre-writing blogs. I had a bag packed for Brady and a list of last minute things to grab in case we ever had to move fast. I had childcare lined up for just about everything.

All that preparing, and we still had no idea what was coming. As in ZERO.

My body feels that same fear these days – the desperate need to prepare for the worst. I cannot shake it, but I think its something it just has to get through, so I continue to coast as smoothly as I can. Which is not very smooth.

Some memories can be really good, though. Lots of good memories made, and MANY more to make 💜

One day, some of these February days won’t feel as heavy. Please, Lord, protect us.

Its been a while, but it was time to take Rowan in to be seen to be fully cleared to go back to regular life. He’s had a few lingering things since his bout of covid, so I wanted to have him checked fully over to make absolutely sure he isn’t fighting any additional infection/sickness. So Brady, Rowan, Wavy, and I went into the city together once the others had gone to school.

Guys, it is just frigid these days! Yikes!!

Before Rowan’s appointment, we ran a couple of errands. Nothing major. A stop for coffees, which we haven’t done in forever! A stop at Dollarama to buy them out of certain supplies for Brady’s projects. A stop at Michaels for yarn that they didn’t have, but also for yarn that they did have! 😍 Stay tuned for some new little projects I have on the go.

Then the four of us went to Walmart together, like I said before, for the first time in a LONG time!!! When I went to get Brady’s wheelchair out of our van, the one wheel wasn’t locked, making it a lot harder to take out. But once I got it out, the brake was just hanging by a thread, completely broken. Of all things. So we added that to our list of things to do and carried on.

After Walmart, we headed to the doctors office and Rowan and I waited only a few minutes before it was time. This kid is SO handsome.

He had a VERY long appointment, where we went far beyond covid talk and got into sleep, behavior, mental health, and directions to move in. I feel armed with support, ideas, and information now! And an even bigger win – Rowan says he really likes going to the doctor! Woot!

When all was said and done, we were at the doctors WAY longer than anticipated, and needed to get the kids lunch. And a donut for being SO patient and cooperative.

And one for Wavy too, because it was necessary.

Aaaaand coffee, again, for Brady and I. Because it was that kind of day.

We still hit another couple of stores, because at this point, we decided to just lurk a little longer and then pick the kids up all together. We got the mail, and took our time. It was a really full, really nice day.

And we came home to water damage on our ceiling.

I could scream.

But I won’t.

We have GOT to get out of the house.

*sigh*

I LOVE my plants.

They thrive in the warm months, but with winter and with my capacity being lower than I wish it was, my succulents are dyyyyying.

When I took Christmas stuff down, I could move my succulents out from their little shelves and into more central, sunny spots in the house. Here is what I’m currently dealing with.

I LOVE the long viney ones, and while they can absolutely be propagated and saved, they are really really overgrown and sad right now :/

The ones in the sink are doing ok. One has reeeaaally stretched though. They could both use some help.

The ones on the windowsill are grossly stretched and pretty deadish. They need love. But really who doesn’t?

I really really love these guys, and they’re not SO dead but also not SO alive. They just need some more water and sun, so they’re on the piano now.

This one still looks pretty good but it shouldn’t be flat. So we’ll work on that. It had a bit of dead stuff on one side but I pulled it off.

And this guy I really don’t know about. He used to be SO much smaller. Now he’s like a tree!! But he doesn’t look bad. So maybe he’s fine. No dead stuff. He’s stretched but he’s full.

I need to hang some of these suckers in front of my windows like the cool pinterest people…

It finally happened. I know February is going to be a challenging month. As if January wasn’t 😅 Let’s share a little laugh about that one.

Oooookay, so that didn’t last long!

I plan to still love my life in February, but I want to get some of the big stuff out of the way before it comes. So on the last day of January, as a big storm brews outside, we decided to take down Christmas.

Fun fact. If the kids helped up up Christmas, they can help take down Christmas! Its also significantly easier than putting it up.

Usually we do the big tree and most of the little stuff, and then we do the trees above the cabinets at the end of winter. Because we love them. They are easily my favorite decor in our whole house. But this year, we decided to do it all in one shot. Just get it done so I can be on a ladder one less time this season, lol!

Dekker took on the job of removing the lights from the tree and coiling them back up. Brady announced that he was “the Christmas genius” and took the tree apart in an effort to make it easier for him. He felt VERY good about himself hahaha!

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Its all done now!

And by “done” I mean its all in boxes up in the garage. Putting the boxes back up there is SO hard for me, so if weather permits in any way, any time, we will be asking for help to get the boxes back up in garage storage.

What does a person do with this space now? Every spring, I look up above my cabinets and wish there was something pretty up there. But what? Any and all ideas welcome! My cabinets are naked and they need your help!