It was a tough one for the kids this morning. They were TIRED.
Note the blanket lines, lol!
Wavy didn’t even wake up when everyone got up and went to breakfast. Laela tried to lull her a little but she was out cold. They all ate super quietly, and once everyone was done, Dekker went and woke her for me. She was SO groggy. I told her not to rush, but just to get ready and she could grab a granola bar on her way out. She was happy with that.
They headed out, and the day began here. I had so many lovely people come through my home today, ALL motivated by their desire to help our family in different ways. It was incredible. I also spoke to social workers a handful of times, and texted back and forth with Brady a little about some things I need him to check at work in regards to camp, home, spring, etc. I made some lists for camp and made notes of things I have to figure out before we go. I ordered a couple of things from Amazon and I’m currently printing off about a million expense forms. Ok not actually, but I am indeed desperately behind 😅
Ah well. Onto the next. It was a good day. A full one, but not a chaotic one. The school day is done. Most kids are home. Some are heading out to do other things. Some are crying, others are not. We are a tired bunch, lol!
Once this printer finally stops, I need to get the babies up! Will have to work on the actual expenses another day.
The backyard is a looming detail for us. Its not too terribly large when you look at it, but its looooong, and mature, and filled with flowers, which the previous owners had a LOT more time for than we do 😬 Sorry, guys. It’s just not going to stay quite so nice.
My mom is a great motivator, and she offered herself to us to help get some of the wood sorted out in the backyard. The wood pile was really messy in the backyard, which was a necessity at the time. It was moved from the old place to here in a rush between Brady’s seizure and the new owners taking possession. Wasn’t our best time, lol! So the wood pile is a scary place for things to live, and it was in need of a tidy.
I know. Gorgeous, right? Brady and I had bought a firewood rack before we even moved here, and then never got to stacking it up for obvious reasons. So today, we did that! I got the rack finger tightened, and Dekker finished it off.
And we got it in place and weighed it down nicely with our stash of firewood.
Looks great, hey?? SO much nicer!!!
There is still much to do back there.
Without sounding too brutal, we have to till out some of the flowers 😬 They are EVERYWHERE and last year they all came up with enormous weeds, and looked awful. I felt awful every time I saw them. It just isn’t something I can keep up with. So we need to find a little tiller and take as many out as possible. I’d love to keep the peonies. And the raspberries. I’d love MORE berries! But I don’t want the flowers. Sorry, guys. Not for me. But if you have raspberry canes taking over your property, I would happily come take some off your hands! Please and thank you!!
There is a whole big section that was a garden once. I want to garden. I really do. But again – time. I just don’t have it. I’d love to seed in that empty section and make it soft and grassy as well.
We have at least one big branch to hack off one of our backyard trees.
We need to build our swing set and move our picnic table.
And we have a nice big stack of wood that we can burn, but that is full of nails and screws and whatnot that I might rather have hauled away. So I’m still thinking on that. We’ll see. Its usable, but its a mess.
I think thats the bulk of the work. Most of it is doable. The biggest part of the work that NEEDED doing has been done. The flowers will feel daunting again soon, but so far everything is still pretty dead and thats ok with me, hahaha!
Thats it for me today. School starts tomorrow, and there is much on the books already for the week. Time to let down a little bit.
Here’s a weird one for you. Consider yourself warned, as there is talk of wound care ahead. I’m not offended if you stop reading here, I promise. You can catch the next one. No hard feelings.
So. Brady has two wounds on his back, right? A pressure sore in the centre, and cellulitis ulcer off to the left side. With the IV antibiotic treatment, the infection started to lift on the third day, and once his body wasn’t producing any more pus (I warned you!) it became clear that his ulcer had tunnelled under the skin. Our doctor asked for a picture and immediately knew we would need help. It needed packing, which means home care visits every single day, including weekends, until it was healed.
What I mean by tunnelling is that its not just the sore thats visible, but it has a whole pocked underneath the skin. It can’t just close up normally, and we don’t want to leave that open pocket in there to breed further infection and all that fun stuff. What I mean by packing is filling it with something safe that keeps it nice and clean, and slowly slowly, it will start to heal on the inside, and we will need less and less packing, until finally its only the visible opening left, and then it can close up properly. Its a lot of work to get it closed, but its working 💜 Thank you, Lord!
Fun fact! Or, possibly not fun, but, fact! If you’ve ever had dry socket in your gums after having teeth pulled, they pack it with the same stuff. It tastes awful, I can confirm 🤮 Horrible.
But!
It smells CLEAN!
These days, when we’re laying in bed, and Brady leans forward, I catch a whiff of the packing. Its coated in iodine, and its a pretty strong smell, but it smells SO clean. It smells like success! Lol! Its so odd, I know this, but when I smell that smell, I know he’s getting better, and it brings me so much comfort and relief!
Triggers are weird.
Anyway, for you nurses out there, Bradys packing has gone from 45 cm down to 20 cm!! That is HUGE victory!! Over halfway there!!
Cher came in the morning to help me clean up a GIANT mess that one of my kids had made that I really didn’t have time to fix myself :/ She comes and cleans regularly, but that huge job has been looming for a while now and I’m so relieved to have it done.
My mom also came this morning and helped by bathing the babies! Little known fact: I really really dislike bathing babies 😬 I know there are parts of it that are cute, but I really would just be SO happy to never have to ever bathe a baby again. Don’t worry, guys. I do it. I just don’t like it. And my mom has taken it upon herself to regularly bathe them for me! Heyooo!
She also did a really nice thing for me and she attended the VBS wind up lunch with the kids so I could stay home and get a few more things done.
In the afternoon, our dear Dahlsjos came over! Piper and Cher took off on a mission, and the rest of us stayed home and visited and planned for summer and other upcoming events. The younger kids played hard, and even made their way over to the neighbours all together, which was super cute. It was a short but really welcomed visit.
Once they headed back on the road, my mom came with a pizza, and loaded the kids up and took them to her house. They had a pizza movie night, and we had one ourselves. With the babies, of course. It was a pretty cute setup. We loved it. Movie was meh at best, but we finally got to watch one thats been on our list for months. It was such a nice surprise 💜
We were short Tom and Rae, but otherwise, the gang was all here today 💜 How blessed are we?!
Tomorrow will likely be a little more worky, but hopefully the work will be in the morning, and the play can be out in full force all afternoon. Thats our best way!
As of yesterday, Laela has completed her babysitting course and is READY for jobs!!
Miss Laela is 11, in grade six, and lives in town. She likes acting, crocheting, doing ballet, going camping, and hanging with the babies.
She has seven siblings, six of which are younger than her. She has an awesome balance between responsible and silly, making her a perfectly playful babysitter. She knows the ropes, let me tell you.
Whether it be playing cards, reading stories, building forts, or whatever else, she’s your girl, and she is stoked!
So please get in touch with me! I can’t put my info on here but most of you are on Facebook or know my number. Either way, if you need a babysitter for a kid or two here in town, hit me up!
A lot of moving parts later, I was able to sneak away with just Dekker for a couple of hours!
Of course, it was for an appointment, because why wouldn’t it be? 😅 But save for all the fussy worky stuff, we had a nice time together!
Fun fact. When I pulled up my phone camera, we both defaulted to this face 😛
Post appointment, I offered Dekker a treat, and he selected a boston cream donut, and I added an iced tea to the mix. He was a happy man, and I was a happy lady. It was a nice time out in the sun together 💜
I was not as organized today as I hoped to be, but alas, the day went forward anyway. It was FILLED with GOOD things, and I am SO grateful for every bit of it! But goodness I am WIPED! 😅
I spent the afternoon with LDs siblings, and a loving friend who brought them over. It was a really, really nice time!
Once they had gone, we had about a half hour before I packed up the kids to take the Spoonful to a visit.
On our drive to the city, I got a call from the visiting suites, saying that the Peanut had a visit and we were half an hour late to it. GAH!!! I had Peanuts visit noted for tomorrow, not today!!! Aaaaahhh!! It does NOT help that I had to cancel the visit for Peanut last week on account of Brady and I being at the hospital and not making it home in time to get to the visit.
So I got the Peanut dropped off an hour into the two hour visit, and then ran the Spoonful a few blocks over for that two hour visit. The staggered visits are such a pain because no one can really do anything in that time.
Drop off at 4. Drop off at 5. Pick up at 6. Pick up at 7.
Not my favorite evening, thats for sure.
However, I did find water bottles for the kids for summer! That is one luxury we indulge in. Each year, the kids get a new water bottle for camping. This year, I found cuuuuute ones at Michaels, that were neon and had fun little handles so the kids can hang them on stuff in the bush. They’re funny like that. When I said aloud the colors I had, each kid bellowed out their preference (as you’d expect) and they ALL chose a different one! It couldn’t have gone better. They were a happy crew.
And their mom will also be happy that they’re bright and obnoxious and not as easy to lose track of.
Ok. I’m positively exhausted. But today was a really beautiful day. As messy and mixed up as it got towards the end, I am grateful for the beautiful children I gave birth to, as well as those who have joined our family along the way. They are all absolute gems. And I am grateful for their birth families, too. Its not all perfect or easy, but I am glad to be connected to their parents, siblings, and friends.
Today is always a bit uncertain in the way that it is recognized as a holiday in some places but not others. Brady had last Friday off, and last week, I asked Brady if he would consider taking off the Monday. He totally happily asked for the day off, in anticipation of a four day weekend.
So as has been discussed, we spent Thursday trying to sort out Brady’s infection, antibiotics, home care, supplies, etc. It was a positively exhausting day, but it was also nice to spend it together.
We spent the weekend trying to take things easy in an effort to let Bradys body heal. We started to see some improvement slowly, most notably yesterday. Those side-by-sides are great! Even without showing the wounds themselves, it is clear that the redness and swelling are WAY down, and infection is settling down. Thank goodness! I don’t have to give all the gory details on here, but there is more work now to heal up what was done. So home care came this afternoon, and will come and see Brady every day for the next while until the bulk of the healing is done. Which will be challenging to manage so often, but is also a huge gift to us, because he needs it, and we don’t have to fight for it.
So Brady accidentally bought himself a five day weekend, Thursday through Monday, and we spent it focused on wound care and IV treatments, desperately trying to catch him up 😅 Now that Bradys current wound care is being managed and there is a plan in place, we can start trying to find ways to ease the issues coming up alongside radiation! That guy lives in such consistent discomfort these days, it is unbelievable. It takes a good amount to ruffle Brady’s feathers, but he is TIRED of this bizarre, challenging stretch of sickness and struggle.
Thank you for those of you who keeping showing up 💜 Who keep feeding us. Who give us double dessert! Who keep checking in on us. Who give us space to do what we can without asking more from us. Who offer to help us get places, maintain our house, renovate, watch our kids, and make exceptions to bring us ease where they can. We could not be managing the way we are without your help and care.
Time to wrap the day up. I cant stop biting my fingers and my feet are cold. Its time.
It was a really nice weekend. It was not full of all kinds of crazy and busy. We just didn’t have that in us, and no one expected such. We kept a pretty low profile, and our main plan for the weekend was to try to get to church today, and to spend the day with my mom, eating a yummy supper together. Though none of us had it in us to make a turkey, so we stuck with sausage, along with all the other delicious things that tend to go with an Easter meal. And no one was mad at that! YUM!
I have to say, though, that the highlight of this weekend was seeing a friend from church who I have been aching to connect with. Brady and I have a friend who recently went through brain surgery (many of you probably know who I mean) and we had the pleasure of seeing her at church this morning! It was BRAVE of her to come into such a social setting so freshly out of her surgery. Brady knows all about the brain trying to reconnect its pathways, so sometimes sensory processing lags a little, but she was out there with everyone else, connecting with friends and visiting. It was a HUGE relief to see her and hug her. She is still totally herself. A real success story 💜 If you’re reading this, you are positively crushing it 💜
We ate delicious food for supper, and let the kids stay up a bit later. Once the first batch was down for night, the rest of us watched an old Mr. Bean episode and got in a good laugh before bed. It was a lovely letdown.
Its almost time for bed. I’m sleepy, and I also want to finish up a documentary, sooooo its time to wrap this up.
Happy Easter, friends 💜 Salvation is OURS because of Easter!
Did I ever tell you guys about the Instacart guy who stole our shovel?? I though for sure I had, but I cannot find the post about it, so here I am, telling you now. Because there is an ending to the story 🤣 Finally.
So you guys know that I’ve abused discovered grocery delivery this last year or so. Is has been a total game changer for our family. SO much time saved. I love it! But I did learn over winter that, once the evening came and things got darker, a lot more mistakes were made. However, sometimes they were unavoidable, and we ended up hunting down groceries on someone else’s front step. Not our favorite thing, but we managed.
However, a couple of poor saps started taking the alley, which seems like an obvious no-go in a small town during the winter, but in the dark, I suppose all bets are off. We have learned since then that Uber maps takes people down our alley to get to our house, which makes no sense, and I have added to my instructions on my account NOT to take the alley. They still do sometimes 😅 but I don’t feel bad.
Anyway. THIS guy. This one particular driver took the alley. He was late to arrive, and when we started to notice revving in the alley, we put it together. After a while, he texted Brady “I’m stuck in the alley, I need help.” Now. We’re not dicks. I promise you. But it was not a time for this. We were in the midst of feeding all the kids. It was a very loud, challenging scene at that particular time. There was no way I could just bail. And Brady, in case you hadn’t heard, is paralyzed and even if he could get all the way through the backyard full of snow to this guy, he couldn’t drive. So he texted him that he was paralyzed and couldn’t help. Keep in mind that it also isn’t our responsibility to bail him out. Like, we WOULD’VE if we could’ve! But we truly physically could not make it happen. After a bit, the guy came to our door and let us know he was snagging the shovel off of our front door step. Deal. No problem. After another few minutes, he texted again and said he’d do all the pushing if someone just came and drove. But again, Brady with the legs. No dice. Brady apologized and sent him the number for the local tow guy. Grocery guy did not respond. He worked and worked and worked and finally got his vehicle out. He came to our door with our groceries, told us he threw our shovel over the fence, and took off. Felt a little rude, but we understood why he was upset. No harm no foul. We got our groceries, and he got his car out. Though he did really want us to know he broke his bumper in the process. Noted.
Aaaaanyway, we spent the rest of the summer trying to find this stupid shovel 😅 It was not in our yard, nor the yard of our neighbours. We laughed uproariously at this guy who, in the process of delivering us groceries, got so angry that he stole our shovel in the middle of winter. Like. How petty are you?? Lol! What a weird flex! But we giggled about it, replaced our shovel, and moved on.
We joked later in the season, in the midst of a good solid snowfall, how much we wished we had the guys number so we could text him and tell him we wished we had our shovel, and were wondering where it had gone. We went waaaaay back to where he had texted Brady, but sadly, it just directed to uber.
So as of yesterday – mid April – Dekker goes out for a bike ride, but is quickly back in the house announcing his grand find!!
That ridiculous shovel lived in the alley aaaaall winter long!!
I’m not sure which story I like better.
Do you think he left it in the alley and just didn’t want to go back for it?
or
Do you think he tried to throw it over and missed, and then was too angry to go get it?
