Today was loaded down, but I have no regrets! Laela played her first ever volleyball tournament!!! 🤯 they haven’t even played a single game, but it was tournament time!! We got up balls a.m. so we would all be ready to go at a good time. Auntie even came over, also at balls a.m. to do her hair! 

Goodness she is SO beautiful. 

Brady took her early for warmups and the rest of us came a half hour behind. We spent the day, cheering and killing time in between, running around the building that used to be part of the bible school at which brady and I met. It was fun to tell the kids some of our stories and memories. 

By more importantly, volleyball! 🏐 Laelas serves brought in a handful of points, and they had GREAT support for each other!! I recognize that their team is made up of newbies, but they held their own, and got better and better with each game they played! Their final game, they played against our school A team – their peers in the two grades over them – and they lost by one point. Isn’t that amazing?? 

The moment her team was done playing, we loaded into the van and headed to the lake. I thought we’d have a really quiet drive, considering how tired the kids were by that point, but alas, sooooo many tears 😂😭 we made it, though! It is always SO nice to be back!! This camping trip is made possible by the lovely camp staff who are letting us use the otherwise closed main bathrooms, without which we couldn’t come. 

Thank yooooou!! 

I am BEAT. But it’s been a good day 💜

It was a full day, but a gooder. Our elementary school has an annual soccer tournament for the grades five and six students. Many other schools from other towns come our way, and they play all day. Rowan was in it this year! I decided to go for the morning, which was two games. The afternoon is nap time over here. But two games is better than none! So I packed a diaper bags FILLED with snacks, and off we went!

Did you spot the tiny pill? I even remembered lacteeze for my super lactose intolerant one! Lol!

Rowan played awesome. Out of the games I saw, his team lost one and won one. They went on to win the rest of their games that day!

Once I got home and put the babes down for naps, I cooked up a couple of pumpkins, c/o of my delightful egg lady who shared her fresh things with me.

The kids got home and got into the swing of our plan for the rest of the day – piano practicing for all three, plus packing for camp. ALL the packing. Its a different kind of weekend, so we decided to blitz packing after school nice and quickly. Solly was stumped one an instruction in his book, and I couldn’t quite figure it out either, but a quick text to our loving piano teacher cleared it up! Wavy came and taught Solly how she had just learned the same skill. It was super cute.

Once all the packing was done, Brady got home from chemo, and we set up for a movie night. Its been a long time!!! We cranked out Monsters Inc, which is truly one of my favorite pixar films. The kids also loved it. Every last one. It was a total success.

Now, the day is done. Kids have wound down. One baby is still whining, but I can hack it.

Tomorrow morning early, we’ll throw things into the van, and go about our busy day before heading to the lake. It is coming to the end of our season there 💜 That is always a strange in-betweener (wiener) time where we MISS camping, but also, things are simpler in a lot of ways once that season is done. Bittersweet for sure.

But! Its not over yet! We’ll go tomorrow. Later tomorrow. Still, a night and a day is still better than none at all!

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a beautiful day here at home, fun plans tomorrow, and a beautiful place to go every weekend for so many months. We are truly so grateful.

We all know foster care is not gentle. Its hard and sad and filled with desperation. I feel like the majority of the time, when people hear that we are a foster family, they say something about the system being broken. They’re not wrong, it absolutely is, but the kids are frightfully innocent in it. THEY are not broken.

As “broken” as everything is (and believe me, the break doesn’t start in the foster care system) I can honestly say I LOVE fostering. Sure, the red tape is annoying. There is a lot of waiting. A lot of unknowns. A lot of injustice. But I would not trade my job for just about anything. I LOVE it. Today, it was SO FUN.

I’m sorry to say I have to be a little cagey about the details in this next story, but bear with me.

I had an idea a while back. One of those “Oh man I could never get away with that” ideas. Something fun I only dreamed of doing with one of the kids in my care. It was a total extra. Unimportant. Maybe even a tad controversial. But FUN, and something I would totally consider if this kid was indeed mine by birth. But, since they are not, I wrote it off.

But it stayed in the back of my mind. So one day, while I took this kid for a visit, I said to their mom (who I have a really warm relationship with, actually) how much I wish I could do something like that. I said it totally playfully, and said “DON’T worry, I would NEVER do such a thing with your kid!” And she lit up, appeared to consider my suggestion, and told me to go for it!!! She and I both went to the worker separately, and I got official permission to go forward with my plan!!

I held off for a little bit, though, because I actually had two kids I wanted to do this with. The other one, however, sees less of their parents, and I don’t have the same rapport built with them. I couldn’t shake it, though, that this could be a really fun milestone that these two kids could experience together. It felt siblingy, and I wanted that! So, at my next meeting with the second kids worker, I mentioned it to her. I said I knew it was silly and unimportant, but since I got consent for one kid, I wondered if it was feasible. She thought about it for a second and then grabbed her phone to text one of the parents. And within half an hour, she texted me back and said it was all a go!!! I confirmed with friends of mine who are well connected to the other parent, and they wholeheartedly supported this, knowing their friend would be happily on board.

So today, we hit that milestone. Me and the two of them. And auntie, who came and helped 💜 I WANT to share about it, so PLEASE if you have interest, message me so I can tell you and show you! It was SO fun and exciting. The kids clapped for each other and celebrated.

There is a griefy side to this. Their parents weren’t there. Its a special thing. At their age, they would only do this with their parent. And in this case, it was me instead 💜 Their caregiver. Which is an honour, by the way. But a sacrifice, in a way. Its not lost on me.

What a precious day today was. I’m so grateful to have these beautiful children in my care, supportive helping hands, a familiar face doing the dirty work, and parents who are willing to let me have a hand in their childrens special firsts.

My kids don’t care about spirit days, but when Dekker found his way over to high school, he fell hard for anything but a backpack day. So understandably, Laela was eagerly anticipating the day herself. Unfortunately, her master plan was dashed when she forgot to bring home the spare coffee carafe from camp in which she planned to pack her lunch. She rallied and stuck with her next best option, and Dekker’s initial choice in his grade seven year – the hand truck. Dekker used the grass seeder. They were both dorks.

I’m not sure I could love these two sweethearts any more than I already do, but I’ve said it before and they’ve foiled me over and over 💜 What an amazing problem to have!

How beautiful is it that they’re both at youth right now, also?? 🥰 I know I’m supposed to hate that they’re aging, but I’m really enjoying some pieces of it. They are such good kids.

If you haven’t read yesterdays post, thats ok 😂 You’re not missing much. It was just a short anecdote about getting burned by sparks and coffee simultaneously. I felt personally victimized that morning. I digress. That was yesterday’s post.

Except today could’ve totally been part of yesterdays post! I just didn’t know it yet.

I drove to Saskatoon today to take a baby to a visit. Ten ish minutes or so into the drive, I put my hand down on my leg and my hand got poked by something super sharp. Like, surprisingly sharp! I shook my hand, as you do, to free it of whatever pokey piece of vegetation I figured I had brought into the van on my pants somehow. I couldn’t find a thorny, thistley, burrish thing anywhere near me, and that is when I noticed the ENORMOUS hornet sitting casually against the window on the passenger side of the van.

Perfect.

Except it wasn’t perfect. The perfectest part of it was that no one was driving anywhere near me, so when I swerved and panicked like a crazy person, I didn’t run a single person off the road.

I opted to open the window calmly, and let the stupid dickfaced jerkwaffle out that way. And man did that guy hang on for dear life! He was DETERMINED to stay with me.

But no.

Conveniently, my mom and Dekker had gone on a bike ‘n’ hike just the other day, and the tire pump was still in the front seat. I took that thing and started whacking it in the direction of the bug. But every time I took a peek, it was still there!!! I finally gathered up the common sense to pull over onto the shoulder, and with one slightly more aimed blow, my yellow-bellied poopoo canoe was GONE.

I zipped that window up so fast and punched the gas to get back on the highway in an attempt to make myself believe this was super easy and not at all rattling or scary. But it wasn’t the truth. I knew it, as did Stupid McDumbbum over there.

It had stung, of all things, the underside of my ring finger, right where my knuckle bends!!! Owwwww!!!

So. Anyway. Another harrowing tale. Bedtime.

This last weekend, I found myself in an odd situation where the campfire popped really big while I was sitting nearby with a fresh hot coffee in my hand. So naturally, I was burned well by both, catching the ember on my bare feet, and pouring hot coffee all down my body in response.

Don’t worry. We can laugh about it. Not then. But now.

I proudly wore my coffee clothes through the entire day, even when the dried blotches on my shorts still resembled pee stains. I still wore sandals by the fire, even though the wood was wet and poppy, because no little burn is going to steal the fact that we are FINALLY having warm weather in September, of all things.

I did pout a little, though, if we’re being honest.

‘Twas not my finest morning at camp 😅 But worth a laugh. Later.

It was a really, really lovely weekend 💜 REALLY. We found a really lovely balance of rest and work. Refreshment and productivity. The best kinds of balance. But truly 95% or more of the pictures I took, I can’t share. Which is frustrating because I have so few pictures to choose from, but also because the faces I can’t show are gorgeous and its very sad not to be able to show them. But. I get it.

Today, we started prepping for the Christmas event at the camp. Lights were strung, characters were painted, docks went in, and many people packed up their sites for the year. Those who were left after all the work were invited to a delicious poutine supper in the gazebo. It was truly the BEST group. All people we dearly love. It was amazing. LD and Spoons sat at the picnic table like big kids and were positively covered in gravy by the end of it. LD for sure. That is the messiest kid I’ve ever known.

We drove home later, in the dark, positively BLASTING the Wicked soundtrack. It was perfect. And now, we’re pooped.

Behold. A mushroom that looks like – a ghost!

Goodnight, all. Tomorrow holds a home day with the kids, a social worker meeting, and some catching up after the weekend. Sleep well 💜

It was such a beautiful day at Kinasao. Many people have come up to winterize, so we’ve had a chance to say some goodbyes and connect with a few we don’t always get to see. We sat by the fire and enjoyed the heat coming off of it, though it was not at all uncomfortably cold out today. Just, beautiful. 

We ate big salads and garlic toast for lunch…

and then we were finally reunited with our dear Dahlsjos 💜 we spent the afternoon chatting by the fire, catching up on all the comings and goings of the last week or two. I crocheted. So did Avery. Brady played guitar. Some of the kids played board games. Some played at the park. It was  really happy time. 

We cooked up a delicious supper of a plethora of yummy things we had laying around. Ham. Sausage. Gnocchi. Potatoes. Carrots. It was SO delicious 🤤 

After supper came more campfire chatting, baby feeding, crocheting, and even a rousing game of John Deere – opoly for the kids who were into that. 

I am positively exhausted, but today was so lovely. My heart is full. Unfortunately, so is my face. Time to take pain killers and fall asleep with a Kleenex shoved up my nose. 

🤧 

If you’re looking for me, I’ll be here 

All. Weekend. Because it is SO beautiful. The weather is beautiful. The light (and dark) is beautiful. The company is beautiful. The smell is beautiful. The sounds are beautiful. 

It’s perfect. I’m so grateful for Kinasao. 

Do you guys remember back in the day when Brian Regan was the height of clean comedy that us impressionable youths were allowed to enjoy? He had this particular bit about saying good luck and take care at once, accidentally saying “take luck.” It was one of my favorite laughs from his jokes. But he also had a whole thing about saying “you too” to people like servers when they offer their obligatory “enjoy your meal.”

Wavy left for her first piano lesson today right around 3:30. She was SO excited!! I was saying goodbye to her, but she was positively buzzing and just pulling to get out the door. I called after her “Don’t forget your manners!” to which she replied “YOU TOOOOO!”

And I loved it. It was SUCH a good giggle. She didn’t notice. She was already out the door. But Laela and I belly laughed 🤣

And she loved piano. Obviously 💜