It was a really full day over here! A good one, but a FULL one!

Cher came in the morning and we had a coffee before we got into the workday. Cher cleaned in the house, but more importantly today, she helped a lot with the babies so I could work on a project that I was in a real time crunch to finish. That was a HUGE help to me. I feel kind of self conscious doing things I really enjoy when others are working for me 🤣 But I decided that was my own personal complex and the only thing getting in my way was me! So while she played with babies, fed them, and diapered them, I kept my head down and crocheted a gift for one of my children that needs to be done before the end of the week. And thanks to that time, all I have left to do is tuck in ends! Which is AMAZING!!!

At the same time, a lovely man from our church was quietly working away on a job he offered to do for us, just to be helpful. Maybe you remember, but when we officially take ownership of this house, the first order of business was taking out a big wall. The ceiling has been unfinished and open with tuck tape sticking out for over a year. Its definitely an eyesore that you see the moment you walk in, but it hasn’t been a priority for obvious reasons. This man took it upon himself to offer his time and effort, and today, he has it beautifully closed up, exactly how we wanted it, with slim pine boards across the ceiling and down the walls. Not only does it tuck away the tape and tarp and messy mess, but it also brightens the room WAY up!! Its SO lovely! He is determined to come back and mud and tape the portions of the wall that are still beat up, and I won’t turn him down. Our house works pretty well, but there is no shortage of projects to do, and most of them are a lot harder for us to do now :/ So the offers for handyman services are not being turned away! Lol!

Yet still simultaneously, we had plumbers in the garage, redoing a vent that a very sticky inspector wouldn’t pass.

Another supportive friend dropped by bearing farm fresh eggs, and warm hugs filled with love.

Lastly for the morning here at home, another lovely friend drove by and deemed our yard ready for change!! Weather permitting, we might have a fresh ramp before the weekend!!!

So tools whirred and babies played and I crocheted like a crazy lady, and stuff got done!!

Away from the house, the day was busy also. Brady had a home care nurse visit him at work, which is honestly SO handy! Radiation later in the afternoon. And supper came, also. A delicious feed of spaghetti and meat sauce, with veggies, ranch, and cupcakes.

It is overwhelming to type this all out and see just how good we have it. We continue to be absolutely showered with support and love and help and care. I don’t know how we will ever thank all of the people who are putting into us these days, but I trust they will reap rewards in Heaven someday, which will be way better than anything I could say or make to express my thanks.

We’re humbled. Blessed. So so grateful.

*wrapping up bedtime prayers*

Me: Lord, be close to Dekker and give him a restful sleep tonight, even if he is a turd burglar. Amen.

Dekker: Um. Mom. What’s a turd burglar?

Me: It’s exactly what it sounds like. Someone who steals poops.

Dekker: And. Why would someone do that?

Me: You tell me, turd burglar.

Dekker: *hysterical laughter as I leave the room*

💩🥷

Goodnight, all you turd burglars out there.

The day began with a coffee with Cher where we made plans for the upcoming couple of weeks. It goes without saying that our life has picked up speed a bit recently, and being that summer is coming up, Cher has plans to increase her hours here as hired domestic help 💜 What a huge help she is! Plans were made, hugs were shared (Cher-ed) and forward we went with our days!

I spent the day with the babies, who alternated their naps, which, while I really love when they nap together and I get baby-free time, is also nice because I can do some things either way. If the littlest Peanut is napping, the others can play together somewhat. If the two older babies are down, Peanut and I can snuggle or chat and nothing else in the house gets ripped to shreds. So, both are wins.

Highlights for the day were as follows.

Eating chicken lemon rice soup out of a large ghost mug.

Brady sending a happy selfie from the lunch he grabbed on his way to radiation.

And no photo proof, but an unexpected gift being delivered to our house this evening. Completely unexpected, and SO appreciated. You know who you are. Thank you.

Tomorrow hooooooolds… ready?…

A community occupational therapist appointment.

A home care nurse appointment.

Radiation.

An oncologist appointment.

A social worker visit.

A handyman consult. (which means a really lovely man from our church coming by to see what help he can offer us in our home 💜)

And a foster visit.

Those are just the scheduled appointments. There is still regular life stuff on top. However, not all days are like this, and for that I am SO grateful!! 😅 I’m not sure days can be much fuller than tomorrow will be! But it will be a day full of needs being met, from every angle, for all of us here 💜

Goodness, Lord, I am just SO grateful for all you’ve given us. Overwhelmed, and grateful. Both. Equally.

I tend to pray for similar things each evening as I tuck the kids into bed. Not on purpose, but the prayers have evolved over the last few years, and many of their details have remained the same.

When Brady went in for his spine surgery, I began to pray actively for God to protect our children. From what, I really couldn’t tell you, but I felt strongly that they needed God’s strong hand over their hearts, brains, and bodies. I prayed against anything that was NOT from God, and that it could not come anywhere near my children or our home. In Jesus’ name, we ONLY want Jesus in our home!

In the last while, I’ve felt compelled to specifically pray that our family draws nearer and nearer still to God, and I’ve prayed for guidance in helping the kids find their faith and build their relationships with the Lord, based on what they believe, not just what I believe. I want them to love the Lord. And I want them to know the Lord themselves. So I’ve been praying for that.

As I’ve been praying that we draw closer to God, I’ve also prayed that we draw close to one another as a family. It is hard times. That goes without saying. And its been a pretty indoorsy time of life, being that its been winter. But the kids are butting heads ALL over the place, and I just ache for them to be close. I literally pray that my kids can be friends with each other.

And today was such a great showing of how great that could be!! The kids played outside, mostly together apart from a few breaks here and there, ALL afternoon. It was AMAZING. Ever Dekker went out there to join them, and that’s really saying something! They had their moments, of course, of coming inside with tears, or chilly fingers, or to sit on the couch for five before it seemed the game beckoned them back outside. It actually came to a point where I had to call them all back in for supper, which honestly never happens. Especially not in the cold, mucky weather. That has never been their jam, but today, it was a win.

Macaroni and chicken fingers for supper, because keep the good times rolling!

It was a REALLY beautiful way to wrap up the weekend. Our smoothest, most restful day in a long, long time. Thank you Lord for ALL you do for us, and all the ways You look after my family 💜 We are SO blessed!

We had this great idea. Dekker isn’t into it, but I sure am. Get ready.

We learned the other day that the high school in Warman offers commercial cooking. Commercial!! Isn’t that awesome?? I would’ve been ALL over that as a kid! As we talked about this, Dekker said he thought maaaybe his high school offers the same thing. He’s not completely sure. He says he’s read it on a calendar, but its not been offered to him yet, so he can’t say for sure. I got super excited and was about ready to bully him into taking it when he’s older, until I realized it would very likely be offered at the same time as Industrial Arts, which is WAY higher on his list. SUCH a bummer.

Brady had a genius idea in the moment, and suggested that Dekker become a fancy pants baker, and that he learn to construct vastly complex cakes, where he can both bake commercially as well as build the structures to support the large cake on top.

Dekker politely declined.

But!! If he did become a grand cake baker – he should name his business…

*drumroll*

Dekker Ate Cakes.

You’re welcome.

🎂

I know how to spell it. You guys know I love a good play on words.

My two smallest big kids tend to butt heads quite a bit from time to time. You guys know how it goes. There are stages of who clicks with who at whatever point, and it shifts from day to day. Everyones loves each other, but some don’t show it quite as well as often 😅 You get it.

Today, Wavy and Solly struggled this morning. Pestering and kicking and fighting and finally, taking time apart on purpose. Now, we’ve moved into intentional together time, and its working!!!

I bought this cute National Geographic puzzle from VV a while ago that was very Nemo-esque. Today, the two youngest are working on it together!

They both have their own ideas, but they’re managing their differences surprisingly well and smoothing things out as they go! Its cute. They’re both attempting to teach one another how to best do puzzles 😂 Meanwhile, the hum of a bobcat whirs nearby as a loving man from the community clears our yard of snow. Once the ground dries out, he will re-pour our front ramp to make it easier for Brady to use. Longer, with a gentler slope. As a gift to us.

So there is blessing to my left, of my children working to be friends, and to my right, with an incredibly generous friend helping our family in a large, practical way.

It doesn’t need to be said that our life is incredibly challenging right now. Yet in moments like this, it is plain to see we have it SO unbelievably good. Praise You, Lord, for all you give us, teach us, and prepare us for. We love you, no matter the circumstance.

Today, I didn’t pick up a call that was an obvious scam. I laughed the moment I saw it and took a screenshot.

Right?? Like. It doesn’t feel like a familiar number… 🤔 I’m not sure I know them.

So since I screened, it showed up as a missed call. And then this message had me folded over, belly laughing 😂

“You got cry I will go back to talking.”

Someone must’ve been VERY sad I didn’t answer their call!

Anyway. I enjoyed the laugh. We could all use those from time to time. Especially during these kinds of times 😅😓

Brady came home after radiation today so I could let LD and Spoons nap. I packed up the Peanut (Ha! Packing peanut) and hit the road with Rowan to go back to the eye doctor! Of all the kids, he has definitely spent the most time there, with his initial vision score of 20/200 😳 At his most recent appointment a few weeks back, our eye doctor had decided to try a little tweak in his contact, and it had arrived, so today we went to go try it out and see if it made things better or worse. Conveniently, today was a glasses day for him, so we got to see that cute look for a little first before it was contact time.

He’s such a sweetie 😍

As it turns out, his previous contact was better, so this was something, but not the winner, and thats ok. Its always worth a try to have his vision the best it can be! With his contact in, his vision is up to 20/30! This is ENORMOUS progress from where we began 💜 I am SO thrilled. Another appointment in six months. We cross our fingers and toes that it can be the end of patching at that point!

We headed home in good time, but not early enough that I felt like sending him back to school. So as soon as we got home, he took off on his scooter and ran an errand downtown for me. Then he waited for the kids to get home, and once jobs were done, they ran outside to have a snowball fight, which they started doing when their cousins were over, and were SO enjoying. Then, Rowan asked permission to go delivery papers with his friend from school, and he had SO much fun!!

Ro was happy today, and we had a lot of fun together 💜 I love that boy.

Another day of work getting done around here. Some furniture was lovingly hauled up our treacherous stairwell. Babies were fed and dressed and played with. I sat and took breathers. I crocheted in the afternoon. It was a genuinely beautiful day filled with help and love and softness.

My mom brought supper, and we shared supper with the group. The kids played a rousing game of telephone as they ate, and the rest of us sat in the living room and tried to have a conversation over top of the loud bellows of laughter. It was honestly just so awesome.

Today was radiation fraction #5. 5/25. 1/5. 20%. However you want to look at it. It’s a chunk anyway, and I’m glad its behind us. Only one more month to go 💜

I am more than ready to tuck in for the night, though. Its time. It was a really lovely soft day with family, and now I’m ready for some comfort and rest with Brady. We are both so tired, but SO happy to be together with everyone. No regrets whatsoever.

Sleep well, all 💜 Be well and warm.