I drove to Saskatoon with the toddlers this morning to bring one to see their mom. I have grown a nice relationship with this particular mom. Its always very comfortable to drop off and pick up.
I was ten minutes early or so, and decided to wait inside instead of in the van. Munchie Mix hung back home with my mom, so I just lugged the two toddlers inside to play a little bit.
When our mom arrived for her visit, she greeted everyone so warmly and we chatted a little bit on the floor. She was so smitten with our other little one, who she has interacted with before but only from the door of the van. This particular kid is truly the definition of charming, and today was no different. In no time, shopping bags were dug into, and the mom of one of my toddlers was giving gifts to my other toddler. Things she brought for her own children were going to my other little one. She insisted there was extra, and this sweet kid could simply not be left out.
I drove home with one toddler and a stack of presents – a toy, a stuffed penguin, new mittens, and a fistful of popcorn twists. It was SUCH an warm little visit, and an unexpected show of generosity from a mom who just wants to shower all the babies with love, even if they’re not of her own womb.
Most of my kids like summer or fall. Rowan doesn’t like the heat in summer, but he likes the free time. Dekker prefers fall to summer as well, but the others would choose summer, I believe. Some of us LOVE being warm. While I usually get some pretty beautiful “first good snowfall” pictures of them, winter is still not my favorite season.
While walking past the whiteboard on the fridge today, I had to giggle a little.
My kids are such dorks 🤣
But also – pick a side!!! Are you team winter or nah??? You can’t have snow and a bathing suit at the same time. Unless you’re in a hot tub. But then Olaf would die…
In summer, we make a lot of salads for supper. When the sun is HOT, something cold and crunchy is just the ticket! Today did not feel like summer, per se, but it felt like a good day for something fresh. The pepper disagrees. But it also died so.
Dekker helped me chop veggies. Lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, and celery. We refilled some of our topping shakers, threw a big pan of chicken in the oven, and made a batch of dairy-free ranch. Once the nuggets were done, the garlic bread went in and we set up our little buffet.
It was yummy and fresh and it really hit the spot! I miss salads around the campfire. But I’m grateful for salads around our big table, Christmas lights twinkling through the house.
I really had no idea how today would play out. I had a few things locked down that needed doing, but no specific timeline for any of these things. So I made a list of those items, and as tends to happen, it grew longer and longer. However, it wasn’t a list of things that had to get done today. It was a list of things to not forget in the near future. Less pressure.
I am SO grateful for how the day ended up going. Every “need to do” was done.
Winter tires were installed on the bus ✅
Prescriptions were picked up ✅
A local Christmas gift was picked up ✅
A marketplace pickup was done by Brady after work ✅
And then other things that needed to happen happened! Or at least got scheduled to happen 😅
A loving man in town got in touch about getting our ramp railing installed ✅
A friend who is also our accessibility expert got in touch about coming to look at our garage lift and hopefully see what is and is not working ✅
I got to see my best friend for an afternoon java and chat ✅
I did not get done any of the work I’m trying to help Brady with. But there is no time crunch on that.
I did not get a nice supper going ahead of time. But everyone still ate.
I did not book Rowan’s eye appointment. But there is time, and we can usually get in within a reasonably short timeframe.
I did not get into the city for the random batch of errands I need to run. But I knew I wouldn’t, so that remains on my list for another day, guilt free.
All through the day, I continued to keep my babies alive, planned and researched some things for Christmas, and fielded a couple of calls from the school. The day was good, but goodness it went and went and went! 😅
Last week at church, I spoke to a friend, and we commiserated on church mornings being hard sometimes. And its very true. Sometimes, the day starts SO hard, or the sleep was SO rough, or the kids are NOT doing well, or the babies are NOT having it, or I have NOT washed my hair in weeks 😬 All hypothetical, of course… And sometimes, we still make it there! We really love going to church!!
But some days, all I want to do it stay home.
Its been a fighty, struggly time in our home. All normal stuff. Not all scary cancer stuff. Just, life stuff. But its hard. So getting everyone out the door when kids are less cooperative or thoughtful is just a huge challenge. And then the babies, who obviously need help getting themselves dressed and fed and ready 🤣 So when no one will help, it all falls to me. (NOT because Brady is unwilling! He just can only do so much on that home front without abs to hold him up) Its all doable, but by the end of getting everyone ready to go, and likely doing some arguing and refereeing along the way, I am finished and all I want to do is stay home. Not every Sunday. But some.
However! If I don’t go, no one goes. The kids can’t all fit in the minivan with Brady and his chair. And Brady can’t get into the bus himself.
And if we DO all get to church, I am oftentimes in the back, walking/rocking a baby that will not stay in the nursery without me. Not always. But sometimes.
Its a whole thing.
Anyway. Last night, this friend texted me and offered to drive the kids to church. Which. Was. AMAZING. She picked them up early for Sunday school even! So Brady and I had some quiet time before he left for church. I spent the morning with the babies. And we RESTED.
When Munchie Mix went down for a nap, it was like LD and Spoons just knew the vibe was different. Spoons played SO well, quite independently, coming and going with books for me to read. LD was in rare form, a total squish, who just wanted to sit with me and kiss me and shower me with affection 💜 It was incredibly sweet and soft and I just soaked it up. I accomplished next to nothing and I LOVED it.
I was so grateful for this break. I don’t want to sound like I don’t love church, because I truly really, really do. I LOVE going and being part of our community. I love sitting and listening and singing and being fed a little. Its a treat to get to church!
But let me tell you. It was a treat to be home, quiet, sitting peacefully with my three little ones, doing nothing but spending time 💜 What a gift this morning was.
We’ll be away for the next two Sundays, but I have no regrets. This was lovely, and I feel more prepared for the week ahead. It is a beautiful thing not to feel dead exhausted today.
Thank you, Lord, for thoughtful people who care about our family.
I had a really yummy supper plan, and I even had it in the plan to make a version for the dairy-free kid. I signed up to make both options, even though I’ve never been one to elect to do that type of thing. But I was down, and I knew everyone would be stoked.
Today turned out to be a bit of a challenging one. They really are pretty common around here these days, unfortunately. I’m not sure how to pull my family out of the funk we’re in but WOW. Even I don’t like us right now. Its hard times. The petty side of me didn’t want to cook something yummy for anyone. I briefly wished to be a “screw it, you’re on your own” mom, but I decided to rise above it and go forward with my plan. Even if those around me were unappreciative, I could still show love and make something a little extra.
In the midst of cooking, I realized that the part I was willing to make twice to satisfy the dairy-free kid was not the only part that wouldn’t work. There was obvious dairy in the entire meal that, in my short time trying to feed my child this way, I hadn’t thought of or encountered.
So we switched gears. Brady suggested rice and curry. Super simple. Totally dairy-free. And nothing I had done already went to waste.
Dekker helped. I was really struggling, and he stepped in and stayed put with me in the kitchen. I imagine I wasn’t a bundle of fun to be around, but he took direction happily and easily managed at the stove.
Time to make up some powdered “cream of anything” soup base.
You know you’ve cancered too long when you don’t even know how long you’ve been in treatment. 🤔
*digs back in calendar*
We figured it out! Brady started cycle FIVE today! 🖐
Of his third batch of chemo, of course. 😅
You may already know this, but people pop in and out, so just for funsies, a refresh.
Brady’s cycle of chemo contains three treatments. Every other week. So the cycles are six weeks long. Each treatment is an IV infusion of an immunotherapy treatment. But the first treatment of each cycle starts with what we lovingly call the double whammy. Its the immunotherapy, which is pretty user friendly in terms of side effects, but we add a really angry, aggressive cytotoxic med at bedtime. That part is the actual chemo treatment, but its long to explain and simpler to just call it all chemo.
Anyway.
Today was double whammy day. The one that kind of seems to knock Brady over just a scooch. So its super helpful that his treatments fall on Fridays, and he can sleep through the weekend.
I just love now, treatment after treatment, I get a picture much like this one.
He just doesn’t let this whole mess ruin him, and I think that is absolutely amazing. Cancer is something that we deal with. My husband has it. My kids dad has it. Someone that so many of us love SO dearly has it. And that sucks. But really, it just doesn’t run the show and I think thats pretty fantastic.
Happy….. fifth (we think) 😬 cycle, honey 💜 I could not be prouder of the story you tell and the glory you give to God all along the way.
Brady has had SO many appointments this week, and he has some work building up and hanging over him a little. So this evening, now that all three babes are down for night, I am standing at the island, trying to take even just a teeny bit off of his plate. It is small. And it may not end up being worth the time. However, he is stressed to beat the band, and stress does not make our bodies healthier or happier! This week holds one of his big chemo treatments. We call it the double whammy. Anyway. It falls tomorrow. I won’t be able to resolve anything for him, but I’d love to at least show that I’m invested 💜
Also, I don’t hate this kind of work! Its the tedious work of combing through big annoying piles of paper in an effort to find small details. Needles in haystacks. And I’m game! I kind of secretly enjoy it.
So this post will be short, because I want to punch out a bit more before tucking in for bed early and getting some real rest on the clock for myself. I woke up for the day at 4:00 this morning for no good reason, and I do not care to repeat that.
Unrelated. We had chicken alfredo for supper tonight. Noodles were safely dairy-free, and while I didn’t have my butt in gear to make up a safe alfredo, I cooked up a tin (I know) of diced tomatoes, and my dairy-free kid was totally happy that topping on their noodles. Win!
Quotation marks are important. They should not be used willy nilly.
People should really pay attention.
But when I say grilled “cheese,” you’ll have to take my word for it.
See, dairy-free eating is mostly ok, except for the cheese part. I got more acceptance on my margarine post than I expected, but I think we can ALL agree that a cheese-free life is a tough one. And that vegan cheese should really just give up.
But today, I wanted to make grilled cheese. Because its yummy, and easy, and when I’m nice enough to make it on raisin break, my kids (wait for it) eat it up!
Except now, that one kid is dairy free 🙄 and you’d better believe they require everything that everyone else gets. So. Grilled cheese.
The raisin bread was fine. Dairy free. No “may contains: milk” moments, either. But its the cheese part. Nothing else sticks the way cheese does! There is nothing else even close!! Unless you guys know something I don’t know.
So I bit the bullet and I bought dairy free cheese. Now, I talked to someone who cooks for events, and she tipped me off that some dairy free cheese is ok. Some can melt. Some can taste close to cheese. Not many do both. I did some googling and found one that people reviewed and specified that it works well for grilled cheese. So I bought it. Spent a fortune and got this 😳
NOTHING about this mess looked like cheese. However.
It smelled close to right.
And it melted mostly normal.
And the kid ate it like every other grilled cheese they’ve eaten. I never got over there for a bite, so I can’t tell you how it tasted to me, but honestly, if the dairy free one is happy with it, so am I!
But you’d better believe I’m parcelling this out, freezing it in two slice increments, and making it last as best as I can! No grilled cheese cheese should cost this much, but especially not “cheese.”
Today, Cher came over for a couple of hours this morning and helped us punch out some work in the garage!
If you’ve been over here, you know our garage is pretty much a mess :/ And it’s only gotten worse over the summer and since bringing the whole camping season home. Unfortunately, something that is also worse since last winter is Brady’s mobility 😅 So we NEED the garage to work. We NEED it.
We were able to procure a platform lift to get Brady in and out of the garage, but it needs some work, as well as the entry landing, as it is about a 6″ drop 😅 Not especially well planned out in there.
Brady, Cher, and I made decisions, hauled things to and from, threw things away and stacked more for removal, and cleaned and organized. Dekker came and joined us after his morning stuff was done, and he eagerly did much of the heavy lifting for us. He was eager to move the golf cart batteries, put a bunch of things up on high shelves, and help me get the one loose van seat back in place. He helped Cher lug things into the shop downstairs, and we all got things into the shed and the backyard. We moved some things around so the winter stuff was more accessible and the summer stuff was packed up further back.
In the midst of the garage work, home care came, so that was another thing 😅 But we were already in a great groove so he just ducked in, met with her, and came back out to join when they were done!
But guys. WOW. There is still LOTS to do in there.
We have to make the lift work. Meaning we have to remove one side, and try to move the ramp to the other side. We also have to get it off the beast pallet it is currently sitting on. Its a rust bucket but it’ll do the job!
We have the build up the landing so Brady can actually use that doorway. Ideally, we’d rebuild the whole thing and install a barrier-free door, but its just not in the cards or budget right now and thats ok. Maybe in time. For now, it just needs to work better than it works currently.
We need to install railings on our ramp, which will get those out of our garage. I think thats arranged for next weekend tho!! Thank you to our lovely willing neighbour!
We also need to switch over our tires. Which will briefly free up space, and hopefully when tires come back, we will have the tire racks installed. We’ll see if we get there.
We need a dump run – a bulky one – to get rid of some furniture and bigger garbage. I’d love to also offer some furniture out to people, but always teetering on the edge of winters snow and rain, I can’t just leave stuff out for free :/ So again. We’ll see.
I have chairs to get recovered. I could get those out of there if my upholstery lady is ready for them.
Once we get Dekker to SARCAN one of these days, that’ll free us up a HUGE amount of space!!! He’s saving for something exciting!!
I need to find a way to better store car seats because WOW I have SO MANY that no one is using anymore!!! Hahahaha! Man alive, SO MANY car seats!
There is no shortage of work to do, as always, but today, we got things open and ready enough that Brady could pull his minivan in for the night 💜 Which is HUGE considering he can’t even scrape his windshield anymore. Goodness what a change. It never even occurred to me before today.
Maybe we should just get into Christmas decorating. That’ll bring some things out of the garage! 😅 We did in fact get a couple of festive things going in here…
I’m not sure my Wavy girl could be much cuter 😍
Anyway. Wish us luck! There is never a shortage of work to do around here! 💪
